2009- THE YEAR PASSES.

	Rain clouds are a familiar sight this year. Here on the North Coast they are. Bilambil Valley, so I am told, has more species of snakes in one valley than anywhere else in the world.  I was told that by Don  down at the Bilambil Club one night.  Could be true.
	That’s the snake which  was ‘ just passing through’. We had a few funny encounters, that snake and me, whenever he passed through. Loved the palm tree outside the Cottage so he did.
	Bilambil was also home to CANE TOADS. So was the Starwagon on occasion. People used all manner of distressing means of destroying them. Over 4 years they just naturally dwindled away round the Cottage and at no time did I suffer from Cane Toad Madness or Delirium through touching or tasting anything they had been on. The local wildlife seemed to remain intact. I did on one occasion see a rhinoceros beetle and a cane toad fight one another to the death.  What I didn’t see were many other Frogs. Down here in Ulmarra ,  we have a good network of the Frog.
	I first went to the Tweed in 2001 on a Train. Trains run in my family. My grandmother’s father was a steam tram driver in the 1800s. My Grandfather, Mick Bell, was a tram man. My former husband was a fettler. I like trains. I like trams. I like them better than semi trailers and better than coaches. For many years , the Sydney Murwillumbah train had a carriage for cars so people could travel in the overnight sleeping car and offload at the Queensland border, into their cars and holidays – here we come ! Sometime in the early 2000s – the railway line was closed from Casino to Murwillumbah. Sheer lunacy then took over and coaches take weary train travellers from Casino Station , roar along the narrow country roads through the dark and drop them at all manner of small towns. The railway station  sits there alone. For a time, the Countrylink Coach didn’t even make use of its amenities and dropped passengers across the road in an unlit area without any facilities at all. Now it stops briefly before taking the Tweed Head Passengers  and depositing them outside the Pub – in the dark and again without Loos or any other amenities.  Holidays – here we come ! Welcome to the Gold Coast ! Murbah Railway station does operate the Countrylink Booking Office with an assistant who is just excellent. Helpful. Efficient. Knows his Job and does it well.
	Living on the Queensland Border, meant expeditions into this ‘other’ state. Out the back of the Gold Coast, is BEECHMONT. The HILLBILLY BLUES BANDITS were performing at the hall there and I met a dairy farmer who was no longer even trying to sell his milk due to the low prices. Generations on and he had a wee blackmarket at the dairy – but as for the rest of it – he had given up. Could see a long way up there back of Beechmont.
	Bilambil Cottage hung on the edge of a paddock on a hill. Down below was Bilambil Road, then a farm with 300 mango trees. Not that I ever saw a mango ripen on that farm. A herd of alpacas lived there as well and just round the corner, I once saw a camel. I don’t know what that was doing there. My own driveway was the one on the left here. The Charade was never troubled by it but the Starwagon could be a little flighty in the damp and once had to be towed out for $70 or more. I was also ‘ apprehended ‘ by the Ecilops earlier this year – out on Kennedy Drive. Charged with ‘flashing my headlights at oncoming traffic to warn them of police presence.’ I received quite a lecture from the young police officer and was videoed in the  act.
	April 2009, Izzy turned 60. That started 6 months of celebrations between his 60 and mine in October. Izzy’s we celebrated at Bilambil with family member coming and friends. The mother ship turned up on the morning of partying.
	Izzy has a newly acquired but long ago lost son and family.
	The Cottage was tiny and immaculate and we all fitted into it. One way and another. Reconciliation and Returns.
	Looking back over 2009 is leaving me a little flummoxed as to how to describe it. On the left is MARK QUINN, SMALL WINEMAKER, of ILNAM ESTATE WINERY up in Carool . Carool is up in the hills above Bilambil and not far inland from Tweed Heads.  We took lunch there frequently and some Sundays Izzy played to the guests. From Ilnam, there are views out to the Pacific Ocean.  Its a good place is Ilnam. Mark and Co are topiaring a wine bottle out the front from a lily pilly tree.
	Round about May,  we seriously began the relocation process. The house that had been advertised for rent in February remained vacant and the rent dropped by $65 per week. Simon and Robyn who had offered us accommodation in their bunkhouse kept that invite open while we looked about the Clarence and the South Grafton Emporium began its MUSIC CAFE NIGHTS. On our drives down from Tweed to Clarence, we stopped in at New Italy. My children are partially Italian and the museum at NEW ITALY is unlike any other I have seen. Good food. Good Coffee. http://www.new-italy.com/
	Leaving the Tweed meant leaving the Friday Night gig at Luffley Cafe. Izzy was fond of that one but I wasn’t. Music on the footpath in Murwillumbah. That’s Scrubby, Kel and Izzy as the Jazz Canaries.
	For Izzy, 60 marked his decision to stop dyeing his hair. The prospect was intimidating back then but as 2009 has gone on, the most popular hair styling of the year has become streaked with colours very similar to what is emerging on his head. I don’t know how he jagged that one.
	May 2009 saw the property at Bilambil go up for auction, just as we began the move to the house in Ulmarra. Those pine trees were planted by the Bulpitts back in 1987, just when I was getting clean and for 4 years they lined my drive up over our personal speed humps and Home.
	I trotted South in the Charade, fully laden and Iz took the Alpha Hire Truck, heavily laden and we both relocated ourselves. To ULMARRA. On the banks of the mighty Clarence. THE BIG RIVER.
	Before settling , I took  an Armidale Mob Trip for the Poppy’s 5th and on return to Ulmarra – the rains really kicked in.  The view from the office windows began to dampen. Klaxons sounded on the ABC radio and an unease slowly rose like the Clarence itself.
	The bins started to float. The locals began to look concerned.
	Floods ! It wasn’t an easy transition from the luxury and elegance of the Bilambil Cottage to the Inundation. The echoes of ‘ the Coldstream is flowing backwards’ haunt me till this very day.
	Two days into it, we seemed to have escaped lightly. Minor flooding. Letterbox blown off the fence post. Nothing too severe at all.
	Reality was slightly different as the waters began to come up behind us – in front of us  – sideways.  They came across the paddocks even with the skies turned blue.
	Next day, the street began to disappear and boats to appear.  Fortunately, on the advice of the neighbours we had re-located our vehicles to what we hoped were safer places. As indeed they were.
	I had wanted to live right on the River and this week in May, once the Panic had passed was eerily beautiful.
	Same view of the Tree over the way. One more day on.
	One of the things which came from the Flood , was getting to know people more quickly than might otherwise have happened. Helping hands were there and lots of laughs.
	That’s the high water mark on the fence.  By this time , the water was becoming a little unpleasant.
	Then round about Day 6-7, they seem to begin to recede.
	Day 7 and land begins to reappear along with children.
	Day 8 and there is a Way Out !
	Out the back, with all the water, the Brolgas came. I had never seen a Brolga live before and we had eight every day. Dancing  and calling.
	That’s two of the brolgas. Very poor shot with my little camera. Do look them up on BROLGA sites.  They deserve a good look.
	A week under inundation wasn’t a bad way to start in a new home. It drove me to unpacking and tidying which I very likely would have avoided if I had been able to leave the House.