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+=====Australia My Studio.=====
-AUSTRALIA MY STUDIO
 - Ray Bean
-I Hear.theMallIna
-We stopped the truck in a dry creek bed somewhere near Broome..
+====I Hear The Whistling====
-I think by mutual accord all three otcupants welcomed the change from the everlasting travel over sand, the spinifex, the fantastic. shapes of termite mounds passing on either side, the dust and glare, and the
-curious Baobab tree (Adansonia Gregorii) - Pronounced Bo-ab in the
+We stopped the truck in a dry creek bed somewhere near Broome. I think by mutual accord all three occupants welcomed the change from the everlasting travel over sand, the spinifex, the fantastic shapes of termite mounds passing on either side, the dust and glare, and the curious Baobab tree (Adansonia Gregorii) - Pronounced Bo-ab in the north.
-north,
-In the creek beds (dry, of course; you don't travel this country in "the wet") things were different;, there were also gum trees,
+In the creek beds (dry, of course; you don't travel this country in "the wet") things were different; there were also gum trees.
-Being a bushwalker I shed the truck quickly and began to walk. It mattered not in which direction,.it'all looked the sane which ever way one turned, although I found myself headed for a group of Baobab trees where the water during the last vet had scoured out a shallow area leaving the roots of the trees exposed.
-The termite mounds stood mutely like misshapen gravestones in an overcrowded cemetery, and rising above them were two Baobabs, one a well proportioned bottle shape with bare wildly flung branches twisting upward like flames, and the other a simple massive cOlumn riven at the top into two great outstretched arms.
+Being a bushwalker I shed the truck quickly and began to walk. It mattered not in which direction, it all looked the same which ever way one turned, although I found myself headed for a group of Baobab trees where the water during the last wet had scoured out a shallow area leaving the roots of the trees exposed.
+The termite mounds stood mutely like misshapen gravestones in an overcrowded cemetery, and rising above them were two Baobabs, one a well proportioned bottle shape with bare wildly flung branches twisting upward like flames, and the other a simple massive column riven at the top into two great outstretched arms.
-.. PORTANT TRANSPORT NOTICE
+The glare on the white sand was blinding, and with my camera at the ready I began to circle the area looking for composition that would suit the stark dramatic beauty of the place. Taking some shots I then turned my attention to the third tree, a "young" one (giant examples are computed to be milleniums old!) gracefully rising from exposed roots into a symmetrical tapering column with slightly curved sides, the branches dividing and reaching gracefully upward to finish in long fine fingers from which all leaves had fallen. The nut or fruit still remained like Christmas tree decorations against the brilliant blue sky.
-LKERS REQUIRING TRANSPORT
-BUSHW
+The Baobab is the ogre of the arboreal world, there being no limit to which the old trees may go in ugly contortion and vulgar gracelessness. The young trees may grow with grace for a while but seem unable to resist a boisterous urge to clown.
-FROM BLACKHEATH .  ANY HOUR
-RING WRITE OR CALL
+I was struck with a feeling of awe in this place. Perhaps it was the presence of the termite mounds. You could see in them anything within the orbit of your imagination - animals of all sorts, groups of people, nuns everywhere, kings and queens in coronation robes and crowns tilted at unkingly angles. Those people who will persist in seeing kangaroos and things in the cliff faces at Katoomba would have a wonderful time here.
-SIEDLECKY1S TAXI AND TOURIST SERVICE,
+I walked away from the graceful Baobab, having photographed it, and some months later it confronted me from the front cover of a woman's weekly magazine being held by a fellow commuter on a city bound suburban train. What a contrast in location.
-STATION STREET BLACKHEATH.
-HOUR SERVICE.
+Back to the two trees I went in search of yet another photograph, but I seemed to have exhausted all possibilities and was enjoying the warmth of the sun when I became aware of the whistling. There was a high pitched continuous whistling. It hadn't just begun, or had it? It just seemed to infiltrate my awareness. It was all about me persistent. I began looking for its source, which was not difficult because it came from a nearby termite mound. I got within inches before I doubted that it was there, and then found it had gone somewhere else; not stopping, just a continuous single note that changed its position of origin.
-BUSHWALKERS arriving at Blackheath late at night without transport booking can ring for car, from Railway Station or call at above address -- IT'S NEVER TOO LLTEL
-'PHONE: BtHEATH 81 or 146 LOOK FOR CARS TC3210 or TV270 OR BOOK AT MIRK SALON RADIO SHOP - OPPOSITE STATION.
+Then I began to remember bits of stories told by drovers and bushmen of the inland about a mysterious whistling that is sometimes heard but never traced to any form of life. Naturalists, too, have heard it but have never been able to track down what makes the sound, although they no doubt have theories, and until they are sure will go on answering the questioner frankly, "I don't know."
-/
-The glare on the white sand was blinding, and with my camera at the ready I began to circle the area looking for composition that would suit the stark dramatic beauty of the place. Taking some shots I then turned my attention to the third tree, a"young" one (giant examples are computed to be milleniums old.!) gracefully rising from exposed roots into a symmetrical tapering column with slightly curd
+It occurred to me that I had in my grasp a rare opportunity to add to the knowledge of mankind, and so I set about methodically tracking down the cause of the sound, discounting as I went obvious possibilities like birds, crickets, and such things. Should there have been another to watch my crawling, running, creeping and frustration amongst those infernal termite mounds they must have thought me in the final stages of a perish. Many times I got, I thought, within an inch or two of the whistling, but as soon as I thought it was just a little to this side or that, it was coming from another place yards away, or from all places at once as though the air was saturated with it. As my frustration grew I rushed about more wildly from one place to another, and then with grim determination would check myself and begin again, listening, creepingl crawling....
-sides, the branches dividing and reaching gracefully upward to finish
-in long fine fingers from which all leaves had fallen. The nut or fruit still remained like Christmas tree decorations against the brilliant blue sky.
+One thing I did establish, in my own mind anyway; the whistling is there, but what causes it, "I don't know."
-The Baobab is the ogre of the arboreal world, there being no limit, to which the old trees may go in ugly contortion and vulgar
-gracelessness. The young trees may grow with grace for a while but seem unable to resist a boisterous urge to clown.
+=====Federation Report - November.=====
-I was struck with a feeling of awe in this place. Perhaps it
-was the presence of the termite mounds. You' couldsee it:;them anything within the orbit of your imagination - animals of all sorts, groups of people, nuns everywhere, kings and queens in coronation
-robes and crowns tilted at unkingly angles. Those people who will persist in seeing kangaroos and things in the cliff faces at Katoomba
-would have a wonderful time here.
-I walked away from the graceful Baobab, having photographed it, and some months later it confronted me from the front cover of a woman's weekly magazine being held by a. fellow commuter on a city bound suburban train. What a contrast in location.
-Back to the two trees I went in search of yet another photograph, but I seemed to have exhausted all possibilities and was enjoying the warmth of the sun when I became aware of the whistling. There was a high pitched continuous whistling. It hadn't just begun, or had it?
-It just seemed to infiltrate my awareness. It was all about me persistent. I began looking for its source, which was not difficult
-because it came from a nearby termite mound. I got within inches before I doubted that it was there, and then found it had gone some-
-where else; not stopping, just a continuous singl.e note that changed its position of origin.
-Then I b,egan to remember bits of stories told by drovers and
-bushmen of the inland about a mysterious whistling that is sometimes heard but never traced to any form of life. Naturalists, too, have heard it but have never been able to track down what makes the sound, although they no doubt have theories, and until they are sure will go on answering the questioner frankly, "I don't know."
-It occurred to me that I had in my grasp a rare opportunity to add to the knowledge of mankind, and so I set about methodically tracking down the cause of the sound, discounting as I went obvious possibilities like birds, crickets, and such things. Should there
-have been another to watch my crawling, running, creeping and frustration amongst those infernal termite mounds they must have thought me in the final stages of a perish. Many times I got, I thought, within an inch or two of the whistling, but as soon as I
-.
-thought it was just a little to this side or that, it was coming from another Place yards away, or from all places at once as though the air was saturated with it. As my frustration grew I rushed about more wildly from one place to another, and then withgrim determinatiolI would check myself and begin again, listening, creepinglcrawling...,,
-One thing I did establish, in my own mind anyway; the whistling is there, but what causes it, "I donft know."
-FEDERATION REPORT - NOVEMBER
 - Allen Strom.
-A letter was received from the FEDERATION OF MOUNTAIN CLUBS OF N.Z. relative to visitors from Australia using Huts in Alpine Areas without prior permission or payment of the proscribed fee. The letter asked that the practice be discontinued and that in future, all intending visitors should contact the Secretary of the Federation at P.O. Box 16040 Wellington, N.Z.
-The.C.S.I,2.00 is seeking a BOTANICAL ASSISTANT for collecting in Papua-New Guinea, and handling botanical collections at headquarters at Canberra.
+A letter was received from the __Federation Of Mountain Clubs Of N.Z.__ relative to visitors from Australia using Huts in Alpine Areas without prior permission or payment of the proscribed fee. The letter asked that the practice be discontinued and that in future, all intending visitors should contact the Secretary of the Federation at P.O. Box 1604, Wellington, N.Z.
-RIFLE RANGE NEAR PATONGA: Members of Clubs are asked to continue
-KEEP UP YOUR VITALITY
+The C.S.I,R.O. is seeking a __Botanical Assistant__ for collecting in Papua-New Guinea, and handling botanical collections at headquarters at Canberra.
-ON WALKS WITH
-VEGETARIAN FOODS
+__Rifle Range Near Patonga__: Members of Clubs are asked to continue to protest to the Department of Lands against the establishment of the Rifle Range on the Waratah Patch near Warrah Sanctuary and within the proposed area for the Kariong National Park. Mrs. P. Goulding (W.E.A. Ramblers) collected 122 signatures to a petition against the proposal. These were from Patonga residents to the Department of Lands.
-CENOVIS YEAST (CONTAINS WHOLE VITAMIN B COMPLEX, ALSO D,E,F AND H.)
-LIGHT THIN RY-KING CRISP BREAD (100% WHOLE RYE FLOUR) WELL
+__Search And Rescue Section__: Clubs are requested to speed up the supply of names on revised Contact Lists. Practice Search will be held over the week-end March 9/10/11th, 1956 in The Oaks-Warragamba Area. It is hoped to organise another practice search shortly, in co-ordination with the Police Rescue Section.
-WRAPPED IN HANDY 8 OZ. PACKET..
-BASE YOUR HOLIDAY FOOD LISTS ON WHOrliESDME FOODS
+__Bushfire Fighting Organisation__: The organisers have been very disappointed with the response and make an urgent plea for more names. At the Practice and Demonstration of Firefighting held at Heathcote on November 6th only fourteen bushwalkers were present.
-WIDE RANGE OF DRIED FRUITS, NUTS, BISCUITS AND DRIED FRUIT
-SWEETS.
+An interview held with Mr. H. Messer, Chairman, The Bushfire Committee, had revealed that when the Board of Fire Commissioners take charge of an area, the __Volunteer Bushfire Fighting Brigades__ can only operate with the permission of the Board. This explains the situation on the Blue Mts.
-FROM
-THE SANITARIUM HEALTH FOOD SHOP, 13 HUNTER STREET.,  SYDNEY.
+Following a discussion upon the success of a __Wild Life Show__ in Western Australia, it was decided to seek an interview with the Chief Guardian of Fauna with a hope that a similar show might be arranged in Sydney.
-.
-to protest to the Department of Lands against the establishment of the Rifle Range on the Waratah Patch near Warrah Sanctuary and
+__Barren Grounds__: The Minister for Lands has agreed to the dedication of about 4,000 acres on the Barren Grounds as a Faunal Reserve. This is the culmination of a lengthy campaign. Now that the neighbouring Budderoo Peninsula has been largely reserved for the Preservation of Flora and Fauna, it is planned to work for the addition of the Budderoo Lands to the Barren Grounds as a larger Faunal Reserve. A Faunal Reserve is the most secure and satisfactory type of reserve that we possess at present.
-within the proposed area for the Kariong National Park, Mrs. P. Goulding (w.E.a. Ramblers) collected 122 signatures to a petition against the proposal. These were from Patonga residents to the
-Department of Lands.
+The lease to mine marble at __Wombeyan Caves__ has been granted. A number of bodies were called together by the National Trust to discuss ways and means of improving the methods of operation adopted by the Dept. of Mines when issuing licenses for __Mining And Prospecting In Sanctuaries And Reserves__. A committee has been appointed to undertake suitable action.
-SEARCH AND RESCUE SECTION: Clubs are requested to speed up the supp:'
-of names on revised Contact Lists, Practice Search will be held over the week-end March 9/10/11th, 1956 in The Oaks-Warragamba Area. It is hoped to organise another practice search shortly, in
+----
-co-ordination with the Police Rescue Section.
-BUSHFIRE FIGHTING ORGANIS.C..TION: The organisers have been very
+Congratulations to Ruth and Dick Pier on the birth of a daughter.
-disT5Traed wit1T-FhTh-Fp7F.TF and make an urgent plea for more nameF, At the Practice and Demonstration of Fl,efighting held at Heathcote on November 6th only fourteen bushwalkers were present.
-An interview held with Mr. H. Messer, Chairman, The Bushfire
+----
-Committee, had revealed that when the Board of Fire Commissioners take
-charge of an area, the VOLUNTEER BUSHFIRE FIGHTING BRIGADES can only
+=====I'm The King Of The Castle.....=====
-operate with the permission of the Board. This explains the situatic on the Blue Mts.
-Following a discussion upon the success of a WILD LIFE SHOW in
+-Geof Wagg.
-Western Australia, it was decided to seek an interview with the Clief Guardian of Fauna with a hope that a similar show might be
-arranged in Sydney.
+......and my, what a vast selection of dirty rascals.
-BARREN GROUNDS: The Minister for Lands has agreed to the dedication of about 4,000 acres on the Barren Grounds as a Faunal Reserve.
-This is the culmination of a lengthy canpaign. Now that the neighbouring Budderoo Peninsula has been 14rgely reserved for the Preservation of Flora and Fauna, it is planned to work for the addit:'.: of the Budderoo Lands to the Barren Grounds as a larger Faunal Reser-,'
+Transport was the big question. The main piece of bod-moving equipment was to be the Puttmobile making its maiden voyage, and at one stage I distinctly remember we had exactly the right number to fill it. Then we had it packed tight with one roosting on the stove (the hot seat) and another perched like a parrot in the spare tyre. We had resigned ourselves to this when the transport suddenly increased until we had only one passenger to the square acre of upholstery. As the day grew closer, though, the panic subsided until we had a neat convoy of 2 bikes, 2 cars and one (the one and only) Puttmobile. All of these were to make their way more or less independently to Drury's Farm. Some started early and some started late, but miraculous as it may seem when one regards Garth's motor bike with Stitt's critical eye, we all arrived on or before 7.30 Saturday morn. We thought we'd meet up at Tomerong with Don and Tina who were honeymooning in that vicinity, but we didn't. We also thought we might meet Pat and Ian up from Canberra, but at the last minute Pat sent a letter beautifully illustrated with a diagram showing how many pieces the bike was in, so we didn't meet them either.
-A Faunal Reserve is the most secure and satisfactory type of reserve that we possess at present.
-The lease to mine marble at WOMBEYAN CAVES has been granted. A nUmber of bodies were called together by the National Trust to discuss wayt and means of improving the methods of operation adopted by the Dept, of Mines when issuing licenses for MINING AND PROSPECTI7' IN SANCTUARIES AND RESERVES. A committee has been appointed to undertake suitable acEion.
+Seven-thirty at Drury's Farm was a murky morning. The Drurys were putting a bullock team through its paces while Hoop hovered at a safe distance climbing trees and balancing on fence posts angling for a cine shot. It was about this time we became aware of a Presence in our midst, wearing an indescribable hat conjured out of yak pelt - blessing money - proclaiming holy days - and asking people could they please tell him which way is east. It was none other than the Dalai Lama who has an answer to every question and never uses a word under five syllables.
-Congratulations to Ruth and Dick Pier on the birth of a daughter,
-I'M THE KING OF THE CASTLE, ..... -Geof Wagg. 0       .and my, what a vast selection of dirty rascals.
+The day still lowered at us and Pigeon House was a dim blue silhouette in a dull grey sky as the Puttmobile and Rigby Renault travellers set out in serried ranks like straying sheep towards the farther clearing where the bike travellers and those in the Doctor's Dodge had hid themselves. We found them in fine spirits and half full of breakfast sausage, so while they ate Pete regaled us with how the corrugated road had reduced Garth's bike almost to a palpitating heap, and Garth wandered round with pieces of bike denying everything.
-Transport was the big question. The main piece of bad-moving equipment was to be the Puttmobile making its maiden voyage, and at one stage I distinctly remember we had exactly the right number to fill it. Then we had it packed tight with one roosting on the stove (the hot seat) and another perched like a parrot in the spare tyre.
-We had resigned ourselves to this when the transport suddenly increased until we had only one passenger to the square acre of upholstery. As the day grew closer, though, the panic subsided until we had a neat convoy of 2 bikes, 2 cars and one (the one and only) Puttmobile. All of these were to make their way more or less independently to Drury's Farm. Some started early and some started late, but miraculous as it may seem when one regards Garth's /totor bike with Stitt's critical eye, we all arrived on or before 7.30 Saturday morn, We thought we'd meet up at Tomerong with Don and Tina who were honeymooning in that vicinity, but we didn't. We also thought we might meet Pat and Ian up from Canberra, but at the last minute Pat sent a letter beautifully illustrated with a diagram showing how many pieces the bike was in, so we didn't meet them either.
+The vanguard, that is every one except Dot, Stitt and Garth, moved away about ninish along the timber road towards our climbing ridge. My directions for this tricky piece of navigation had been multitudinous. Paddy said "First go west with a bit or north in it, then north with a bit of west in it, and described to me in detail every bridge and crossing. So propelled by the confidence all this advice bestowed we strode onward. Soon it was time to take stock. Here was the river - here was the bridge; Hmm... "now Doctor's Creek must be just around this bend. I'll have a look." I had a look and concluded that our ridge was just across the creek, but when I returned Stitt and Co. had showed up and were claiming that our ridge lay on this side of the creek. Hmm! "Most destroying to the confidence," I thought, "However one must stick up for one's rights however wrong they are" - and I led off towards my ridge while the insurgents followed up their own.
-FOR ALL_ YOUR TRANSPORT PROBLEMS CONTACT
-HATTSWELL'S TAXI & TOURIST SERVICE
+We crossed the creek on a nice greasy steep-sloping log - or most of us crossed I should say, because as I was mounting the opposite slope I heard a tremendous splash!!.... and turned just in time to see a plume of water rising eight feet into the air. Colin it was. Hobnails for ever and other New Zealand curses I'm sure.
-RING, WRITE, WIRE OR GALL
-ANY HOUR, DAY OR NIGHT
+Our party of nineteen minus three straggled and struggled to the ridge top. No rest - we had a seance instead with Hoop and others incanting over the Holy Map (blessed by the Dalai Lama) and were amazed to find that the ridge ran in the correct direction. Could I have been right after all? Well, well. Press on. After we had been pressing on for a short while_Pidgeon House came into view straight ahead. This was fantastic. I must have been right. These things do happen I suppose. The feet and minutes slowly passed with a steady uphill grind until, Lo and Behold, as though the Lama had produced them out of his hat, the three truants appeared making our party sixteen plus three.
-Telephone: BIHEATH0128 or 249. Booking Office - 4 doors from Gardner's Inn Hotel (LOOK FOR THE NEON SIGN.)
-SPEEDY 5 OR 8 PASSENGER CARS AVAILABLE.
+Soon after this we stood all together under the frowning brow of the rocky face and thought "Lunch before or after?" We decided on a compromise with a snack first to give us strength to climb, but leaving enough appetite to call us back. A good theory anyway. We turned our faces to the slope and found it steep and getting steeper. The top was high and seemed to be getting higher, and the wind was blowing and definitely getting blowier. We thought it might storm or snow. Snow - we thought of him and our minds drifted away to where he was reclining on the sungold sands of Era. The next we knew we were almost bumping our noses on the rock face. Well, the present problem was to hand and we set to. Ross knew the conventional way up and led off to it, but Dot was determined to pioneer a route. She did too, proclaiming it all to be cat's meat as Col and I clung to slabs and scrabbled with hobnails, and Don end Digby doggedly followed foot and hand, and the wind bullied and buffeted us all. On top the gale unleashed its final fury so that we clung to rocks for support as we viewed the view. This was extensive but dimmed by the grey sky light, and diffused by the squalls of rain sweeping up the valley. Photography was virtually hopeless, so with little other temptation to linger we soon turned back to lunch.  Dot pioneered the route down too, but most of us felt it would be advantageous to know two routes and took the easy way down. By the time we had returned for lunch the wind had died and the clouds had all blown away - to Era I suppose.
-LARGE OR SMiLLL PARTIES CATERED FOR
-FARES: KANANGRA WALLS 30/. per head (minimum 5 passengers)
+The sun shone brightly all that afternoon as we wound down Longfella Ridge to the Clyde River. On the clean green clearing below we sat admiring this aspect of the Castle and gloating over the wonderful weather that seemed in store for the morrow while we waited for the stragglers. Soon it became evident that our party was minus three again, but Pete said he'd wait and put them on the track up Yadbora Creek, so as the hour grew late we moved off, minus four.
-PERRY '5 LOOKDOWN  U u
-JENOLAN STATE FOREST 20/- " u U t?
+Yadbora seemed a fairly open kind of creek, though fortunately with plenty of shrubbery at first as the fifteen odd bods snuk past the homestead where we feared we'd be not welcome. The big clearings on the banks gave good clear views of the Castle which now seemed to be very close. I'd just been retrieved from a side creek up which I'd seemed inclined to stray when we came upon a veritable village of tents, some Rucksack and some Ramblers I believe, and also our three strays who'd come down a different ridge and arrived before us.
-ARLON'S FARM 10/- " U It It
-WE WILL BE PLEASED TO QUOTE OTHER TRIPS OR SPECIAL PARTIES ON APPLICATION.
+We were now plus three minus one, for Pete was still waiting patiently (?) back on the Clyde. The plea of "Camp - Aw mighty campsite," had been arising now as we came to each fresh clearing, so here I not very reluctantly allowed myself to be won over about three quarter of a mile from our avowed objective, so long as we had a seven o'clock start next morning (what hope!) and we added our tents to the slum beneath the trees. Looking up between the trees we caught a glimpse of the reflected glory of the sunset and thought absently of the minus one sitting cold and getting colder at the foot of Longfella Ridge, waiting for those who would never come. The Dalai Lama must have thought so too, because as campfires flared in the dusk and some brave ones returned from an icy swim he was suddenly noticed to be missing, having transported himself back to the Clyde to save a soul. But to our consternation the first to appear was the minus one himself, who must have passed his rescuer somewhere en route and mistaken him for a straying yak, while the Holy One was probably so concerned with the Otherness of Things, or possibly with the tea Dot was preparing for him in the sacred vessel covered with charcoal and coated with yak grease, that he didn't notice a thing. Eventually, of course, Minus One No.2 returned and brought us greetings from the people at the homestead whom he described as peasants reeking with offal and offspring, so inbred that all they could say was "Dhaww."
-Seven-thirty at Drury's Farm was a murky morning. The Drurys were putting a bullock team through its paces while Hoop hovered at a
-safe distance climbing trees and balancing on fence posts angling for a eine shot, It tas about this time we became aware of a Presence in our midst, wearing an indescribable hat conjured out of yak pelt - blessing money - proclaiming holy days - and asking people could they please tell him which way is east. It was none other than the Dalai Lama who has an answer to every question and never uses a word under five syllables.
+Everyone was just relaxing after tea when it started to pour with rain which sent us scuttling to bed. What had happened to the beautiful weather we were expecting next day? "You never know your luck," I thought, and began counting starters for the morrow. Beryl was reluctantly retiring with a bad attack of gym boots; Doctor Bob was feeling slightly out of nick, and the Admiral was shipwrecked. The ship that was his undoing was a ladyship, Dawn, and according to the Doc, a destroyer.
-The day still lowered at us and Pigeon House was a dim blue
-silhouette in a dull grey sky as the Puttmobile and Rigby Renault
+The next day began at a bleary five-thirty with a semi-conscious peer at the weather. The evening's rain had cleaned the air and the chill wind was, at present anyway, blowing us no harm. I lit the fire and started waking the people who I thought wouldn't mind. First Grace, then Digby, then Brian. I could hear Ross talking so I knew his tent would soon be awake. Then I woke Grace again and saw Dot getting the breakfast for Garth and Pete and Putto. She apologised for this show of domesticity by explaining that she hadn't done anything towards getting meals on the previous day. Presently the Dalai Lama struggled out, and even Hoop was awake and giving moral support to Beryl who was cooking for him and Digby. I woke Grace up again and gave her some breakfast, then looked to see what progress. Joan was mumbling grumpily about people using all her water, while Jean wandered about with a mug hooked on one finger and a food bag on another trying to remember why she had given Grace nearly all her sugar.
-travellers set out in serried ranks like straying sheep towards the
-farther clearing where the bike travellers and those in the Doctor's
+Time was mooching on - it was a quarter past six. So I woke Grace up again and gave her the rest of her breakfast.....and emptied her out of her sleeping bag. Then I noticed three other offending forms still encased in superdown while Dot called vainly for them to come to breakfast. This clearly called for stern measures, but I doubted if I was equal to the task. First I seized on Putt, who fortunately happened to be ticklish, and once wrung from his sleeping bag decided he might as well stay up. Next was Stitt who was definitely ticklish but had to have his bag confiscated because of a distressing homing tendency. Last came Garth, who twice forewarned seemed to be about eight armed (twice four are eight), and put up a terrific battle, but being in a sleeping bag must be a great disadvantage because I even managed to get him out. With the time at a quarter to seven I emptied Grace out again and prepared to move off. At precisely seven o'clock the party of one minus eighteen moved off, followed by the ribald cheers of the peasantry.
-Dodge had hid themselves. We found them in fine spirits and half full of breakfast sausage, so while they ate Pete regaled us with
-how the corrugated road had reduced Garth's bike almost to a palpitating heap, and Garth wandered round with pieces of bike denying everything.
+The river shrubbery was still wet with the night's rain. The sky was once more overcast but didn't seem seriously threatening, and I trotted along whistling absently, engrossed with the map. Here is the bend, this is the clearing, then that must be the ridge. I climbed a little way and sat under a tree wringing out my socks and contemplating the Otherness of Things. One week you get a party without a leader....next you get a leader without a party....there's just no system in it. Presently I heard some "Coo's" from down the creek and replied vigorously, only to find when the coo-ers emerged that it was the Rucksack crowd.
-The vanguard, that is every one except Dot, Stitt and Garth,
-moved away about ninish along the timber road towards our climbing ridge. My directions for this tricky piece of navigation had been multitudinous. Paddy said "First go west with a bit or north in it,
+"Have you seen a party?" I asked, "...about fourteen of them?"
-then north with a bit of west in it, and described to me in detail every bridge and crossing. So propelled by the confidence all this advice bestowed we strode onward. Soon it was time to take stock. Here was the river - here was the bridge; Hmm... flnow Doctor's Creek must be just around this bend. I'll have a look." I had a
-look and concluded that our ridge was just across the creek, but when I returned Stitt and Co. had showed up and were claiming that our ridge lay on this side of the creek. Hmmi "Most destroying to the confidence," I thought, "However one must stick up for one's rights however wrong they are - and I led off towards my ridge while the
+"Oh, your crowd," replied Norm Allen, "I saw them going up a ridge about half a mile back."
-insurgents followed up their own.
-We crossed the creek on a nice greasy steep-sloping log - or most of us crossed I should say, because as I was mounting the
+"Ye Gods!" I thought, "The poor little lambs have gone astray." I turned to ask how long ago this was, but the others had gone and I looked like being one minus eighteen all day. For five minutes I waited in perplexity, then I heard Colin's voice rumbling in the distance, answered by Dot's growing nearer, till one by one my lambs filed into view. Now we were nineteen minus four, which was as it should be, and I was most relieved.
-opposite slope I heard a tremendous splashl. and turned just in time to see a plume of water rising eight feet into the air. Colin
-it was. Hobnails for ever and other New Zealand curses I'm sure.
+The ridge was open and climbed at a most reasonable angle to the southwest corner of the Castle's lower plateau, and here whom should we meet but the Rucksack mob taking a breather before skittering along under this first cliff face to a spot where an ancient landslide makes it possible to climb up to the tail. They didn't stop long however, and we set off after them because, after all, it is nice to have someone else to blame if you get a bit off the track. And for the most part it was almost a track while we followed along underneath the cliff line, but when we came to the last climb up to the tail we found we were wallowing waist deep in wiry boronia bushes. However, it's wonderful what a path twenty odd people can make, because we returned in our own tracks with much less trouble.
-Our party of nineteen minus three straggled and struggled to the
-ridge top. No rest - we had a seance instead with Hoop and others incanting over the Holy Map (blessed by the Dalai Lama) and were amazed to find that the ridge ran in the correct direction. Could I have been right after all? Well, well. Press on. After we had been
+Under the steep broken rock line of the tail Dot found she still had the urge to pioneer a route, so she and most of the party began scaling up a very promising piece of cliff, while some of us who felt less intrepid followed Norm Allen and his crew through a sort of squeeze hole to the other side of the narrow barrier, then up an easy sloping dirt-filled crevice to the top. When we had got about half way up we heard noises below and saw the rest of the party coming along. They had found their piece of cliff unsafe without a rope, and squoze through the squeeze shortly after us.
-pressing on for a short while_Pi?geon House came into view straight
-ahead. This was fantastic. I must have been right. These things do happen I suppose. The feet ad minutes slowly passed with a steady
+From the top of the tail we looked only slightly upward to the top of the Castle, but down a long, long way into Oakey Creek. Poor Jean, who was starting to feel the effort, thought she might sit here and wait for us to come back, but a bit of pulling from Stitt and pushing from me and we got our dear Great Auntie over the worst of it. Colin, too, got into a predicament rather like Jack Wren's story of Gram'pa with his foot caught in the bear trap, when his boot became wedged in a crack. He couldn't get it out either, so we unlaced his boot and set him free.
-uphill grind until, Lo and Behold, as though the Lama had produced
-them out of his hat, the three truants appeared making our party sixteen plus three.
+So one way or another, and with one thing and another, we found ourselves on top of the Castle. From the instant you set foot on the broad flat top the rocky eminence of the Pidgeon House draws your eye (and camera lense) like a magnet. Away and away across the low plateau of Byangee, across the valley of the Clyde with its clearings and homestead till you meet the ridge, then up to the cliff line, up the steep sloping sides to the crown of rock, and behind it the sea. Northward lay Pidgeon House Gorge, south and west were mountains, hazy blue and dimmed with cloud shadows - an immense vista, and
-Soon after this we stood all together under the frowning brow of
+yet too far away to hold the eye which slowly reverted to its resting place - Pidgeon House.
-the rocky face and thought "Lunch before or after?" We decided on a
-.
+But enough of looking; we wanted lunch. Some hardy types found sufficient will power to consult the names in the cairn before they ate, and discovered that Jean and Dot, Joan and Grace, appeared to be, from the record, the first four females to set foot on the summit. Quite a distinction. Colin and helpers also built an enormous fire whose smoke was intended to prove to the yokels in the valley, who believed the Castle to be unscalable, that we really had done it. Unfortunately, though, the wind dispersed the smoke so quickly that we could scarcely see it from a few yards away. The same wind carried a rich smell of singed hair and eyebrows over to the others having their lunch.
-compromise with a snack first to give us strength to climb, but leaving enough appetite to call us back. A good theory anyway. We turned our faces to the slope and found it steep and getting steeper. The top was high and seemed to be getting higher, and the wind was blowing and definitely getting blowier. We thought it might storm or snow. Snow - we thought of him and our minds drifted away to where he was reclining on the sungold sands of Era. The next we knew we were almost bumping our noses on the rock face. Well, the present problem was to hand and we set to. Ross knew the conventionaway up and led off to it, but Dot was determined to pioneer a route. She did too, proclaiming it all to be cat's meat as Col and I clung to slabs and scrabbled'with hobnails, and Don end Digby doggedly
-followed foot and hand, and the wind bullied and buffeted us all. On top the gale unleashed its final fury so that we clung to rocks for support as we viewed the view. This was extensive but dimmed by
+We had taken four hours up from the creek to the summit, so, calculating our return journey, this didn't leave us much time for aesthetic reflection after lunch. However, returning in our tracks of the morning we found required much less effort, being gravity-assisted, but it took almost as long. When it came to sidling under the cliff we took the high road while the Rucksack mob took the one lower down, and we certainly came out on top by about ten minutes. So, carried away by the exhilaration of an energetic day with the people we like best, we were running and singing as loud as we had breath to, down the ridge to Yadbora Creek - we thought. Then our balloon was pricked. "We're on the wrong ridge," shouted Snow. Suddenly it seemed to grow dark as the glow faded from our enthusiasm. __More__ effort, we thought. The two New Zealanders and Pete were already at the foot of the spur when we told them, so they just kept crashing down the creek, but we crossed to the right route; even so we were a little behind them at the bottom. It was here the joyful thought cane to us - Let's get the Admiral, the piker; bet he's been up to mischief - tied our sleeping bags in knots or let down our tents - but whatever it is we'll revenge ourselves first and discover afterwards. With cat-like tread we snuk along, crossing crossings with a minimum of splash, stalking our prey. We were all together when the tents came in sight, and there the Admiral was relaxing on a log. As we roared down the slope he sprang up, (it must be dreadful to have a guilty conscience), but he was too late. Seize him! Tickle him! Take his shoes! Throw him in the creek! (Save his watch) Pour cold water on his manly chest!
-the grey sky light, and diffused by the squalls of rain sweeping up the valley. Photography was virtually hopeless, so with little other
-temptation to linger we soon turned back 'to lunch  Dot pioneered th.)
+"You fiends!" shouts the Admiral, "That's the very water I slaved to carry up from the river for you."
-route down too, but most of us felt it would be advantageous to know two routes and took the easy way down. By the time we had returned
-for lunch the wind had died and the clouds had all blown away - to Era I suppose.
+"Don't tell stories," we answered and continued the treatment. Of course the really funny part, as we discovered later, was that he probably had carried the water for us, although Dawn says he made her help him.
-The sun shone brightly all that afternoon as we wound down Longfella Ridge to the Clyde River. On the clean green clearing
-below we sat admiring this aspect of the Castle and gloating over the wonderful weather that seemed in store for the morrow while we
+That night while the little stars arced widely across the sky, the nineteen minus none slept the untroubled sleep of exhausted innocence, even the Sacred One foregoing for once his night-long vigil and meditation on the Otherness of Things.
-waited for the stragglers. Soon it became evident that OUT party was minus three again, but Pete said he'd wait and put them on the track up Yadbora Creek, so as the hour grew late we moved off, minus four.
-Yadbora seemed a fairly open kind of creek, though fortunately
-with plenty of shrubbery at first as the fifteen odd bods snuk past the homestead Where we feared we'd be not welcome. The big clearings on the banks gave good clear views of the Castle which now seemed to be very close I'd just been retrieved from a side creek up which I'd seemed inclined to stray when we came upon a veritable village of tents, some Rucksack and some Ramblers I believe, and also our three
-strays who'd come down a different ridge and arrived before us.
-We were now plus three minus one, for Pete was still waiting patientl:; (?) back on the Clyde. The plea of "Camp - Aw mighty campsite," had been arising now as we came to each fresh clearing, so here I not very reluctantly allowed myself to be won over about three quartc. of a mile from our avowed objective, so long as we had a seven o'clock start next morning (what hope!) and we added our tents to the slum beneath the trees, Looking up between the trees we caught a glimpse of the reflected glory of the sunset and thought absently of the minu2
-one sitting cold and getting colder at the foot of Longfella Ridge, waiting for those who would never come. The Dalai Lama must have thought so too, because as campfires flared in the dusk and some brav
-ones returned from an icy swim he was suddenly noticed to be missing,
-having transported himself back to the Clyde to save a soul. But to
-our consternation the first to appear was the minus one himself, who , must have passed his rescuer somewhere en route and mistaken him for
-a straying yak, 7:Jline the Holy One was probably so concerned with the
-Otherness of ThJngs, or possibly with the tea Dot was preparing for
-.
-him in the sacred vessel covered with charcoal and coated with yak grease, that he didn't notice a thing. Eventually, of course, Minu-
-One No.2 returned and brought us greetings from the people at the homestead whom he described as peasants reeking with offal and offspring, so inbred that all they could say was "Dhaww."
-Everyone was just relaxing after tea when it started to pour with rain which sent us scuttling to bed, That had happened to the beauti-
-ful weather we were expecting next day? "You never know your luck," I thought, and began counting starters for the morrow. Beryl was
-reluctantly retiring with a bad attack of gym boots; Doctor Bob was feeling slightly out of nick, and the Admiral was shipwrecked. The ship that was his undoing was a ladyship, Dawn, and according to the Doc, a destroyer*
-The next day began at a bleary five-thirty with a semi-conscious peer at the weather. The evening's rain had cleaned the air and the chill wind was, at present anyway, blowing us no harm. I lit the fire and started waking the people who I thought wouldn't mind. First Grace, then Digby, then Brian. I could hear Ross talking so I knew his tent would soon be awake. Then I woke Grace again and saw Dot getting the breakfast for Garth and Pete and Putto. She apologised for this show of domesticity by explaining that she hadn't done any, thing towards getting meals on the previous day. Presently the Dalai Lama struggled out, and even Hoop was awake and giving moral support to Beryl who was cooking for him and Digby. I woke Grace up again and gave her some breakfast, then looked to see what progress. Joan was mumbling grumpily about people using all her water, while
-Jean wandered about with amug hooked on one finger and a food bag
-on another trying to remember whsr she had given Grace nearly all her sugar.
-Time was mooching on - it was a quarter past six. So I woke Grace up again and gave her the rest of her breakfast.....and emptied
-her out of her sleeping bag, Then I noticed three other offending forms still encased in superdown while Dot called vainly for them to come to breakfast. This clearly called for stern measures, but I doubted if I was equal to the task, First I seized on Putt, who fortunately happened to be ticklish, and once wrung from his sleeping bag decided he might as well stay up. Next was Stitt who was definitfzly ticklish but had to have his bag confiscated because of a distressl homing tendency. Last came Garth, who twice forewarned seemed to be about eight armed (twice four are eight), and put up a terrific battle, but being in a sleeping bag must be a great disadvantage
-because I even managed to get him out. With the time at a quarter to seven I emptied Grace out again and prepared to move off, At preciseTh
-seven o'clock the party of one minus eighteen moved off, followed by the ribald cheers of the peasantry.
-The river shrubbery was still wet with the night's rain. The
-sky was once more overcast but didn't seem seriously threatening, an I trotted along whistling absently, engrossed with the map. Here is
-the bend, this is the clearing, then that must be the ridge. I climbed a little way and sat under a tree wringing out my socks and
-contemplating the Otherness of Things. One week you get a party
-without a leader....next you get a leader without a party99..there's just no system in it. Presently I heard some "Q'5"from down tho
-,
-creek and replied vigorously, only to find when the coo-ers emerged that it was the Rucksack crowd.
-"Have you seen a party?" I asked, "..about fourteen of them?"
-"Oh, your crowd," veplied Norm Allen, I saw them going up a ridge about half a mile back."
-"Ye Gods" I thought, "The poor little lambs have gone astray."
-I turned to ask how long ago this was, but the others had gone and
-I looked like being one minus eighteen all day. For five minutes I waited in perplexity, then I heard Colin's voice rumbling in the distance, answered by Dot's growing nearer, till one by one my lambs Medi nto view, Now we were mineteen minus four, which was as it should be, and I was most relieved,
-The ridge was open and climbed at a most reasonable angle to the southwest corner of the Castle's lower plateau, and here whom should we meet but the Rucksack mob taking a breather before skittering along under this first cliff face to a spot where an ancient landslide makes it possible to climb up to the tail. They didn't
-stop long however, and we set off after them because, after all, it.
-is nice to have someone else to blame if you get a bit off the track. And for the most part it was almost a track while we followed along
-underneath the cliff line, but when we came to the last climb up to the tail we found we were wallowing waist deep in wiry boronia bushes However, it's wonderful what a path twenty odd people can make,
-because we returned in our own tracks with much less trouble.
-Under the steep broken rock line of the tail Dot found she still
-had the urge to pioneer a route, so she and most of the party began scaling up a very promising piece of cliff, while some of us who
-felt less intrepid followed Norm Allen and his crew through a sort of s4ieeze hole to the other side of the narrow barrier, then up an easy sloping dirt-filled crevice to the top. When we had got about half way up we heard noises below and saw the rest of the party coming along. They had found their piece of cliff unsafe without a rope, and squoze through the squeeze shortly after us.
-From the top of the tail we looked only slightly upward to the top of the Castle, but down a long, long way into Oakey Creek. Poor Jean, who was starting to feel the effort, thought she might sit here and wait for us to come back, but a bit of pulling from Stitt and pushing from me and we got our dear Great Auntie over the worst of it. Cdin, too, got into a predicament rather like Jack Wren's story of Gramlpa with his foot caught in the bear trap, when his boot became wedged in a crack. He couldn't get it out either, so we unlaced his boot and set him free.
-So one way or another, and with one thing and another, we found ourselves on top of the Castle. From the instant you set foot on the broad flat top the rocky eminence of the Pidgeon House draws your eye (and camera lense) like a magnet, Away and away across the low plateau of Byangee,across the valley ofthe Clyde with its clearings and homestead till you meet the ridge, then up to the cliff line,. up
-.
-the steep sloping sides to the crown of rock, and behind it the sea. Northward lay Rhgeon House Gorge, south and west were mountains, hazy blue and dimmed with cloud shadows - an immense vista, and
-yet too'far away to hold the eye which slowly reverted to its resting place - Pidgeon House. -
-But enough of looking; we wanted lunch. Some hardy types found sufficient will power to consult the names in the cairn before they ate, and discovered that Jean and Dot, Joan and Grace, appeared to be, from the record, the first four females to set foot on the summit Quite a distinction. Colin and helpers also built an enormous fire whose smoke was intended to prove to the yokels in the valley, who believed the Castle to be unscalable, that we really'had done it. Utnfortunately, though, the wind dispersed the smoke o quickly that we could scarcely see it from a few yards away. The same wind carried a rich smell of singed hair and eyebrows over to the others having their lunch.
-We had taken four hours up from the creek to the summit, so, calculating our return journey, this didn't leave us much time for aesthetic reflection after lunch. However, returning in our tracks Of the morning we found required much less effort, being gravity- assisted, but it took almost as long. When it came to sidling under the cliff we took the high road while the Rucksack mob took the one lower down, and we certainly came out on top by about ten minutes. So, carried away by the exhilaration of an energetic day with the
-people we like best, we were running and singing as loud as we had breath to, down the ridge to Yadbora Creek - we thought. Then our baloon was pricked. "We're on the wrong ridge," shouted Snow. Suddenly it seemed to grow dark as the glow faded from our anthusiasm, More effort, we thought. The two New Zealanders and Pete were alread: at the foot of the spur When we told them, so they just kept crashing down the creek, but we crossed to the right route; even so we were a little behind them at the bottom. It was here the joyful thought cane to us - Let's get the Admiral, the piker; bet he's been up to mischief - tied our sleeping bags in knots or let down our tents - but whatever it is we'll revenge ourselves first and discover afterwards. With cat-like tread we snuk along, crossing crossings with a minimum of splash, stalking our prey. We were all together when the
-tents came in sight, and there the Admiral was relaxing on a log.
-As we roared down the slope he sprang up, (it must be dreadful to havo a guilty conscience), but he was too late. , Seize him; Tickle him/ Take his shoes/ Throw him in the creek; (Save his watch), Pour
-cold water on his manly chest;
-"You fiends:" shouts the Admiral, "That's the very. water I
-slaved to carry up from the river for you."
-"Don't tell stories," we answered and continued the treatment.
-Of course the really funny part, ,as we discovered later, was that
-he probably had carried the water for us, although Dawn says he made her help him.
-That night while the little stars arced widely across the sky,
-the nineteen minus none slept the untroubled sleep of exhausted
-innocence, even the Sacred One foregoing for once his night-long
-,
-vigil and meditation on the Otherness of Things.
 And the next day we returned, all the way to Drury's while the sun shone. The oldest Drury was out to meet us and was inclined to be a little sceptical of our having climbed his mountain.
-"Hew lit a fire on top, didchew?" he roared, "Well, Hi dtdn't see no fire," (The Castle isn't visible from Drury's). Then he exploded to the half-startled Beryl, "Hew didn't climb thet mountain,
-didchew?" Beryl, who was nearly bursting with stifled laughter,
+"Hew lit a fire on top, didchew?" he roared, "Well, Hi didn't see no fire," (The Castle isn't visible from Drury's). Then he exploded to the half-startled Beryl, "Hew didn't climb thet mountain, didchew?" Beryl, who was nearly bursting with stifled laughter, shook her head, "Hi didn't think hew would!" he shouted triumphantly, then waving a hand towards Grace who was some distance ahead he said in a confidential bellow, "She's a fine tall girl. Wen Hi saw 'er walking so straight an' tall Hi thought it were Joe's girl Clarissa. Y'know Joe, 'oo lives hup the back?" gesturing with thumb over his shoulder. We said we didn't know Joe, but showed him Jean who'd been chortling in the background, and told him this was Grace's sister.
-shook her head, "Hi didn't think hew would!" he shouted triumphantly,
-then waving a hand towards Grace who was some distance ahead he said
+"Haw" he roared and thumped me on the shoulder, "Jist uz well Hi never said nothin' wrong about 'er!" Then we all laughed, I picked myself up off the ground, and we went off still chuckling amongst ourselves, a happy party of nineteen minus none.
-in a confidential bellow, "She's a fine tall girl, Wen Hi saw ler
-walking so straight a. Hi thought it were Joe's girl Clarissa.
+Well, that should rightly be the end of this story, and so it shall be, but one can't help mentioning how the gallant Puttmobile, which had pulled it's load so well all this way, collapsed near the top of an enormous hill just out of Milton, and how the Dalai Lama declared that we had angered the Gods who dwell on the Mountain Top and that the situation obviously called for a human sacrifice; and how we decided that the Admiral would do anyway and sacrificed him by the roadside, tying him to a post of the safety fence with a blood-red cross emblazoned on his forehead and a minus sign on his chin, (It should have been the other way round); and how he stopped three cars with his piteous crys of "Help!!" until Colin told us that seeing the sacrifice hadn't worked he was going to send for the N.R.M.A., and how all except Ross and Colin left the happy communal atmosphere of the truck to hitch home in lonely twos end threes.
-Ylknow Joe, loo lives hup thcl back?" gesturing with thumb over his shoulder. We said we didn't know Joe, but showed him Jean who'd been
-chortling in the background, and told him this was Grace's sister.
+And just as the very last word we must admit that Garth's machine rattled precariously on, through mist and moonbeams, through blinding rain and fog, all the way back to Sydney, while Doctor Bob's car had two, or was it three, blowouts, and young Donnie who was with him along with four others, got home to Blacktown just as his father was sitting down to breakfast.
-'Haw" he roared and thumped me on the shoulder, "Jist uz well
-Hi never said nothin' wrong about fer;" Then we all laughed, I picked myself up off the ground, and we went off still chuckling amongst ourselves, a happy party of nineteen minus none,
+----
-Well, that should rightly be the end of this story, and so it
-shall be, but one can't help mentioning how the gallant Puttmobile, which had pulled it's load so well all this way, collapsed near the
+__Tasmanian Holiday__: Anyone wishing to go to Tasmania for the period Dec. 28th to Jan. 31, please contact Dr. Livingstone (LX5142). One member of his party of four has dropped out and he will be pleased to take someone else. His car is being taken over, and a sight-seeing and walking tour is contemplated. All expenses will be shared.
-top of an enormous hill just out of Milton, and how the Dalai Lama
-declared that we had angered the Gods who dwell on the Mountain Top and that the situation obviously called for a human sacrifice; and how we decided that the Admiral would do anyway and sacrificed him by the roadside, tying him to a post of the safety fence with a blood-red cross emblazoned on his forehead and a minus sign on his chin, (It should have been the other way round); and how he stopped three cars with his piteous crys of"Helpl!" until Colin told us that seeing the sacrifice hadn't worked he was going to send for the N,R.M.A., and how all except Ross and Colin left the happy communal atmosphere of the truck to hitch home in lonely twos end threes,
+----
-And just as the very last word we must admit that Garth's machine rattled precariously on, through mist and moonbeams, through blinding rain and fog, all the way back to Sydney, while Doctor Bob's car had two, or was it three, blowouts, end young Donnie who was with him along with four others, got home to Blacktown just as his father was sitting down to breakfast.
-TASMNILN HOLIDAY: Anyone wishing to go to Tasmania for the period Dec. 28th to "Jan, 31, please contact Dr. Livingstone (1115142), One member of his party of four has dropped out and he will be pleased to take :someone else, His car is being taken over, and a sight-seeing and walking tour is contemplated, All expanses will be shared,
+A DAY
-.
-DAY
 - Dot Butler
 "Once, once only, never again, never, The idle curve my hand traces in air,