Friends of Yerranderie
I thought you might like an update on what is happening at Yerranderie.
After fifty or more years of love and care, old age has caught up with me. I am giving Private Town and Environs to the Minister for National Parks. It is to be designated a Regional Park and, after a long and involved process, the land and buildings will shortly be passed to him. It has been valued by the Parks own valuer at almost one million dollars, excluding the contents of the buildings, vehicles etc. As you know, I have always intended to donate Yerranderie to an Authority which would look after it when I pass on. My Company, Tonalli P/L is the owner of the property and is selling to the Minister, and I personally am donating the equivalent amount of money.
The contract between Tonalli and the Minister will have my vision for the future written into it. The lawyers have almost completed the manoeuvre. They even say it could be ready for handover before Christmas! However, I’m not holding my breath though realistically it might be wise to expect it in the New Year. Anyway, I would like to celebrate with you at Easter when there is also the possibility of marking the one hundred years since the consecration of the Catholic Church, and the Post Office will be 104 years old too. I hope you can all come to the party!
My next bit of news is that, in trying to clean out the buildings for the National Parks to move in, I have been looking at the Gun-dun-garra Gallery with new eyes. Not all of you will have visited the Aboriginal Gallery I created in the restored Bakehouse. Nor will you have realised that the contents of Art and Artefacts I have gathered from around Australia over the last sixty or so years are also now part of history. In documenting this Aboriginal picture of primitive art with my photos, I realise I have material for another book, more the coffee-table variety this time.
I know I’m nuts to contemplate such a venture at eighty-seven and a half, when I haven’t yet sold the entire last one. “Yerranderie is my Dreaming” is about our first explorer, Barrallier. But it is better to wear out than rust out! I thought I’d let you know that “Yerranderie is my Dreaming” is still available and, with a discount of say $10.00 would make a delightful present for someone you love. (See order form ). So far, in my eighty-eighth year I’m reasonably OK health-wise and hope you are the same. Not that I can get to Yerranderie much these days as age has certainly slowed down my old bones, but that does not stop the will and the spirit.
All the best for Christmas and the New Year.
From Val and Yerranderie, of course.