My Triangle, our long-lived and much-loved column, is a profile of a local person, or couple, or sometimes even a family. We’ve gone through the archives to present them all here – stories of our neighbours, friends, families, customers, storekeepers … we hope you enjoy them anew.
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Hope from The Crossing
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganSharyn Munro
This December was my first visit back to Bermagui and the south coast since last summer’s bushfires. My mid-north coast had suffered too, I knew the strain of daily fire alerts, evacuations, smoke instead of air, skies that were only shades of brown, and the sound of sirens and helicopters. But down here it seemed even more dramatic, with more villages severely impacted—nobody could ever forget those Mallacoota beach images—and the drive down the highway showed how vast … Read more »
Mary Williams: paying it forward
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganMy Triangle 2020.10
It was 1991 and Mary Williams was teaching HSC English at Mitchell High, in the western suburbs of Sydney. Choosing which texts she would assign that year, among them she picked Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
‘I knew they were up to it,’ she says. ‘And when Sydney University offered a Chaucer lecture for HSC students, I told them to get their questions ready.
‘It was held on a Saturday morning and it wasn’t compulsory … Read more »
Carolyn Killen draws the curtains on Ivy Hill
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganMy Triangle 2020.08
When Carolyn and Bill Killen decided to move to the south coast of NSW in 2001, they hardly knew anyone and had little knowledge of the area. They were drawn here by the proximity of farm land to the sea, and the tranquility.
Bill’s retirement plan was to farm and Carolyn, a self-confessed gallery ‘groupie’, wanted an outlet for her love of art. She quickly realised that they had relocated … Read more »
Malcolm Halliday: ‘It’s more about a moment.’
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganMy Triangle 2020.07
Malcolm Halliday’s first career was in insurance. When he decided to call it a day, he did the rounds of his clients to say farewell. ‘One of them said to me, “You never seemed like an insurance broker”,’ says Malcolm. ‘And I took that as a compliment.’
I agree. It’s hard to imagine Malcolm, in suit and tie, toting a briefcase, talking indemnities, assets and agreed values. Cooling-off period. Excess. Risk management. Grace period.
But that was his life … Read more »
Wendy Holmes – artist
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganMy Triangle 2019.11
The shores of Wallaga Lake, and the dominance of Gulaga, drew artist Wendy Holmes to make Bermagui her home fairly recently. Wendy said she just came under the spell of our beautiful coastal area and, within a few months of arriving, decided to stay.
Wendy grew up in Victoria, but a sense of adventure took her to Western Australia where she commenced training in the sciences, majoring in Zoology. However, in 1982 her … Read more »
The return of Maddison Barry
/in My Triangle /by Debbie WorganMy Triangle 2019.10
There’s much discussion about the problems facing rural communities as young people move away in search of work or different lifestyles. Much less is written about those who choose to return. Maddison Barry is one of the latter.
Maddy was born to Jo and Anthony O’Connor in Bermagui in 1992, followed two years later by her brother, Sam. Both went to local Bermagui childcare centres and to the Bermagui Primary School, where … Read more »