Open Writing

In September 1978 my parent's came to visit us in Australia.

Just before they arrived, our daughter Jennifer had entered a beauty competition and had been chosen as the local representative to go to Laureton to contest the Miss North Coast title. I went by train to Sydney to meet and pick up my mother and father and drove them in a rental car north to Laureton. Jan drove down from Woolgoolga with Jennifer and the boys. We left the boys at the motel while we attended the ball where the contest was to be judged. To our delight we saw Jennifer crowned Miss North Coast

My parent's visit was only partially successful as my mother found it very difficult coping with our living conditions. She missed her daughter and her family and her TV game shows. My father on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed his visit. The most important factor of their visit was that they now saw that we were managing quite well in Australia.

Now that my wife and children were happy and settled in Australia I too finally realized that Australia had become my home. I took out Australian citizenship for a combination of reasons and have not regretted doing so. I was born British-Indian, I had taken out Canadian citizenship and now I was officially an Australian. For the first time it was my own decision

Because of our continuing downturn in 1978 we made a business decision that had serious consequences for us and me in particular.

A new supermarket had opened in the Treasure Island complex in Coffs Harbour and because of construction delays and competition from a large independent store and the major chains it was forced to close down. A consortium of people invited me to join them in reopening the defunct business as the fixtures and fittings were going at a bargain rate. We each only needed to invest $10,000. Jan and I thought it over and discussed it with Grahame who once again advised us strongly against it. This time he was right. Our new company was grossly undercapitalized and our competitors crushed us in a few months.

I had a car accident on my way to the Treasure Island shopping complex one morning due purely to stress. Jan insisted that I resign as manager immediately. I had developed rheumatoid arthritis that affected me to such a degree that I could barely climb the three steps into my office. It was a very anxious time for us as we could have lost everything we owned. Fortunately this was avoided. My business partners valiantly tried to carry on but it was hopeless and although the store is still operating today, its supposed potential has never been realized.

As a therapeutic measure for my health problems after the Treasure Island debacle I joined the Prince James Singers, a classical choir, conducted by Mrs. Margaret England. I thoroughly enjoyed my eight years with the choir. One of the main highlights for me was to be part of the combined choirs of Bellingen, Kempsey and Coffs Harbour performing Handel's Messiah. A member of the audience approached me the next day at the warehouse where I worked. He told me that he was more moved by our production than by a professional performance he had seen in England. When the performance ended I could not speak for quite a few minutes as I too had been deeply moved by the experience.

In the mid-seventies Jan, the children and I joined Marion Strong's art classes. Marion had moved to Woolgoolga and set up a studio in the basement of her home. I had been drawing and painting ever since I was a boy. For the first time, I was being taught how. Marion introduced us to colours more appropriate to the Australian landscape. However I found that at that time I was more interested in portraiture than landscapes. Jan and the children loved dabbling in pottery.

Before the present Art gallery in Woolgoolga was built, we, the members of the newly formed Woolgoolga Art Group, used the empty shop that had once been our living room to exhibit and sell the artists and craft-peoples work.

Singing in the choir and my painting hobby helped me recover my sanity and health. My painting hobby was moderately successful as one of my paintings won an award at the Coffs Harbour Art exhibition and I sold most of the abstracts that I was now painting.

My interest in Abstract art came about with a workshop held in Coffs Harbour by Jon Winch an Australian professional artist. I found using fire, glue, cans of spray paint and many other mediums exciting and challenging. I was finally able to let my subconscious take over. It was a liberating experience.

At about that time Jan was a founding member of the Woolgoolga All Age Theatre, another successful organization that was very much a part of her life for the rest of our time in Woolgoolga.

© Clement 2006