A young couple, Nurse/Midwife and Marine Ecologist, leave cold, rainy Scotland for the sunny climes of sub-tropical Queensland, Australia.
He likes adventure, change, excitement, she prefers calm, order, peace and quiet.
Their bond, an overdeveloped care factor for all living things
One small block of land and many animals later, how does it all work out? What could possibly go wrong?
This will be the blurb if I ever write a book about our adventures!
Two of my favourites books as a girl were “It Shouldn’t Happen To A Vet” and “ If Only They Could Talk” by James Herriot and I LOVED the TV spin off All Creatures Great And Small.
I dreamt of living at Skeldale House, driving to farms on the Yorkshire moors with James, watching him rescue stuck calves, treat horses with colic, cows with mastitis.
The other TV person I loved was Barbara from The Goodlife, could easily see myself in wellies and dungarees, looking glamorous surrounded by home grown veggies and back yard animal chaos. I just needed to find my Tom?
I was born in the grey rainy west of Scotland near Glasgow, in a town as far from Darrowby as you can imagine.
My first ever job was school holiday ‘kennel maid’ at a boarding kennels on a farm. Surrounded by horses, chickens, cats and litters of kittens, I was in heaven.
Mornings I’d release the pack from doggie prison, pick up poop, hose runs, feed them mush from a bucket, then head off into the countryside with a pack on long, lead tangling walks.
This was the 70’s, a chilled time, perfectly acceptable for a school girl to take off into the middle of nowhere with a pack of other peoples precious dogs.
The horsey stuff was a learning curve, cleaning out stables , grooming, platting manes, tacking and riding. Trotting round fields, doing jumps, falling off , getting dragged along “get back on!” (I was 13, I did as I was told!) going to gymkanas , my strongest memory not of competing but galloping up and down on the horse between events.
Can’t believe I EVER galloped up and down on a horse. These days I love looking at them, patting them, watching other people ride but getting on one myself? Not a chance!
Zoom forward to my early 20’s when I finally met my own Tom Good.
The first time I clapped eyes on Rob was at a party, he was sitting at the top of a flight of stairs snogging another lass, me 16, tipsy, dressed in red rara skirt, white tights and head band, channeling The Human League or was it Bananarama?
A few years later arriving at another party , it was he who opened the door, we looked into each other’s eyes and I thought “ah, my Tom!” he thought “ah, here’s a woman will put up with all my animal owning shenanigans, might even move to the other side of the world with me!”
And so the adventures began.
Between us we’ve an overdeveloped care factor for all living things, me nurse/midwife , Rob marine ecologist fascinated by the natural world.
Spotting an African Gray parrot sitting on a perch in his family living room I should have known he wouldn’t be happy with the regular one dog, one cat owning scenario.
I also quickly learned that if I vaguely mentioned liking a particular animal, next thing , we’d own one. Sigh.
First pet Tommy the cat appeared thus “we can’t keep him” i said still living in a shared no- pets – allowed flat but he stayed, hidden away every time the rent collector came
Next in our first tiny home together, fierce little moggy Twiggy arrived, Tina the Italian Greyhound was next and a tank full of tropical fish soon followed.
Integrating parrot and Tommy into this mix was a disaster, Twigs terrified the crap out of Tom and a talking parrot wasn’t exactly popular with the neighbours so Robs long suffering parents adopted them both.
His dream of moving to the other side of the world was not in my plan, not at all so we tried settling in Scotland. Twiggy, Tommy and fish moved with us to to a family home with small garden and spare room but a year in we realised it was a mistake.
The idea of being able to own a block of land and have a few farm animals (out of financial reach in Scotland) finally persuaded me to leave family behind ☹️and move all the way to QLD Australia.
We arrived mid-summer Jan 1995, backpacks on, one suitcase each and within two weeks had rented a small western-facing unit “You’ll love the afternoon sun on the balcony” the chatty real estate woman blatantly taking advantage of our Scottish sun-deprived, naivety.
We first set eyes on our 1.25 acre block 26yrs ago on a random drive through the area, both loved and wanted it, penniless but with full time jobs the bank happily loaned us the grand sum of $75, 000 and just like that we were land owners!
My first priority was to remove all nasty weeds and lantana, Rob’s to build a vineyard 🤦🏼♀️
Rob likes abundance , stuff, more, excitement! I’m a minimalist preferring white walls, clean lines, peace and quiet.
I’m happiest creating order out of chaos , he’s happiest creating it. Opposites apparently do attract.
See why we’re together?
Our first Australian pet was a random homeless duck found wandering near our flat , Rob walked in with this big white bird casually tucked under his arm, filled the bath and popped it in. It proceeded to shit everywhere, as ducks do.
Next day we did the huuuuge long drive, (40mins, a stones throw in Oz) to our new place, built a shelter, settled duck in and enjoyed getting to know it over the coming weeks, then disaster. Duck found one morning strangled and half eaten by a resident carpet snake.
A right of passage for newbies moving to acreage in Australia, confronting the killing of pet livestock by snake or fox.
The most shocking, waking one morning to feathers and body parts of every chicken we owned, spread across the lawn. Couldn’t believe what we were seeing, carnage casually caused by a passing fox.
So we got our act together, built shelters with wire dug deep into the ground, now all small animals free range during the day then head home to their shelters at dusk, when we lock em in safe from predators
So many “aha, THATS what we should have done” moments and much more to tell … but first, the care factor part, let’s go back, where did it all begin?