“I was brought up around Malta and Gibraltar with a Spanish Nanny and went to Plymouth in Britain when I was 8. I remember looking at the dark sky and thinking I don’t think much of this. When I was 9 we went to Wales which is where my parents came from but we didn’t speak Welsh. There was a pocket of people in Wales who never spoke Welsh for a thousand years. I went to a Grammar School which was quite a big deal as I didn’t do Year 6 and I was only 10. My Mum didn’t go to high school because they couldn’t afford shoes so for me to go that school was a big deal.
I went to teacher’s college in Derby in the middle of England. Not sure why I chose somewhere 200 miles away but I guess I just wanted to get away. I had plenty of experience hitch-hiking back and forth. I finished college and taught Primary School for a few years. I was engaged to marry but that fell through luckily (laughs).
I went back to Wales and worked in a factory putting holes in bolts which was not fun. The guy next to me said, this is the best job I’ve ever had (laughs). My brother and I went and stayed at Nottingham and I found out Australia wanted teachers. I did the interview and flew out in the August. All of us Poms were in a hostel in Australia and they asked if we wanted to do Primary or High school. I said Primary because I didn’t know the high school curriculum.
They had a little map of NSW and all the Poms were used to double A maps which would make that map about 20 miles across. So they said…You’ve got Brewarrina and everyone’s clapping not knowing it was in the middle of nowhere. I actually got Gulgong. I had a sleeper on the train and it was cold. The guards on the train said, you haven’t seen anything yet mate. Gulgong in August was freezing. At dawn I heard a sound I’d only heard on Tarzan movies. I looked outside and all I can see is a homestead with a howling dog and thought where the hell am I going? All I’d seen of Australia on TV in England was a carnival at the beach and the flying doctor service. The Tarzan sound was a Kookaburra.
I get off the train and the new boss Neil Adamson was picking me up. Eventually he arrives and he say’s, Are you Robert Brace? Yes! Well you are the new English / History teacher. I said I just did a week’s orientation course for Primary. He said no mate, not now. I was actually astounded that he used his first name. I’d been in teaching and you’d never call the boss by his first name. My mate who went to college with me said he wanted to go to Gulgong. He was there from the August to Christmas and was going fruit picking. That’s where Marg saw our car with cartoons and that’s where we met. I was staying in the pub for a couple of weeks. The guys always wanted me to stay and have another beer because they loved my accent.
I moved into a house with another teacher and Marg was in a flat and they were building a house in between. I’d wake in the morning and leave the flat and all the young builders would be whistling. They all knew and we’re still close with a lot of them who are now in their 60’s. Recently we went back to Gulgong and it was like we never left.
During that time Jo Bjelke Peterson was in charge and they were targeting radical teachers. It spread down through the churches into the small rural towns into NSW. They targeted me because I taught rhyming slang. They called a meeting in town and took the homework sheet I’d sent home with things like rubbity dub for pub and things like that. The department and the Union were supportive but I didn’t want to stay there. I wanted a transfer but we didn’t know where we wanted to go. We asked at work and this guy called Kevin who actually taught at Kyogle said, the North Coast, it’s bloody paradise. So we put Ballina as no.1 and that’s where we ended up in 1980.
After 7 years we left which was the perfect time. The stories were starting to sound the same. We went to Ballina which was very different. We had loved the Gulgong community. We worked for 5 years in Ballina and had our son Dylan (Marg liked Bob Dylan and I liked Dylan Thomas) and we wanted to be in a more rural town.
Marg was working in the Library in Ballina with a lady who knew this guy who had died falling on a fence. He owned Teven Quarry. He had left his body and gone up. He said I want to go back and finish things so his spirit went back into his body. He went to Vietnam to talk to all the leaders to promote peace. He had written a book and bought us a computer so we worked to produce it again. It was a beautiful book and lots of people contributed to it. A friend Robin did all the artwork in it. It was before social media so we didn’t really get it out there.
In Ballina Primary I got onto a thing called Choice and Diversity and set up a school within a school which was on Australian Heritage. There were 4 of us working there. We ended up moving to Kyogle. Marg and I went for a picnic at Lynch’s Creek and loved Kyogle. I was then teaching at Lismore South and Marg was here at Kyogle High. I wrote a play there and played the piano for it. It included every kid in the school. It was great.
We felt like a change in ’88 and bought a cafe in Kyogle and called it Bobs. It was hard work and it was really popular but we weren’t really making money so I decided to go back to teaching. I went off to Cobar High and I took Dylan with me and Marg stayed in Kyogle with the girls. Eventually a job as Assistant Principal came up in Woodenbong and I put in for that and after some hassles I got the job. Eventually the AP job came up in Kyogle so I took that position.
After some time I got on the Behaviour team which travelled all over the North Coast, I loved it and being on that team enabled me to be in the department a bit longer. I enjoyed travelling around helping teachers.
Marg and I keep busy in our retirement. I love to cook so Marg has the shed and I have the kitchen, just the way we like it.”