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.


Lana Revill: born and bred in Bermagui

My Triangle 2018.07

What is it about Bermagui that keeps you coming back?

I was born and raised here and I just keep coming back. I have travelled during my high school years playing volleyball all over Australia and NZ. I went to Canberra for study and work. I even bought a little place up there but home was always here. My parents live here.

My brother, Brad, was the apprentice greenkeeper at the Bermagui Golf Club and now … Read more »

Debbie Osiecki: Quaama photographer extraordinaire

My Triangle 2018.06

Debbie Osiecki and her partner Sharon Bowen-Smith moved to Quaama from the Monaro nine years ago. Debbie remembers their list of requirements: a few acres, good neighbours, a friendly community and a local shop. They focused on the area between Narooma and Brogo, and fell in love with Quaama.

Debbie really enjoyed her work as a nurse caring for patients with brain injuries. Then she was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological disease … Read more »

Denise Bunnett: my year of volunteering in Bermagui

My Triangle 2018.05

First things first: How did you end up in Bermagui?

Rob and I came from Wollongong to Bermagui. We’d been in Wollongong where we had family including Rob’s elderly mum and our two adult children who’d settled there. After Rob’s mum passed away, we started to think about finding a place to retire to ourselves. Wollongong had started to become a little like a suburb of Sydney so we were after someplace a little … Read more »

Toppy Blacka, Christmas child

My Triangle 2017.12

Born on Christmas Day, 1936 in a milking shed out the back of Brogo, the sixth child out of 14, she was named Isabel Lucas but has been called Toppy her entire life. She never thought to ask her mother how that came about before she passed.

Toppy and her siblings would walk to and from the Brogo school every day with their shoes … Read more »

Hilary and John James: Passionate lives

To say that Hilary and John James have lived lives full of travel and adventure would certainly be true, but not the whole truth. While tales of their destinations and activities are enough to fill many books (and they’ve written quite a few!) it has been their inner, personal journeys that have been their focus for the last five or more decades.

John and Hilary met and married when they were … Read more »

Thoroughly modern Bronte!

My Triangle 2017.08

Raised by her mother before the term ‘single mum’ was even invented, Bronte Somerset learned resilience at a young age. Her father died when she was just two years old but passed on to her a technical mind with a love of detail. He owned Sherwood Radio, which made valve radios back in the days when they were a substantial piece of furniture in a family’s lounge room.

While … Read more »