Krieg Terry
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1938 |
| Place of birth | Kapunda |
| Date of arrival | 1939 |
I was born at Kapunda in 1938 , just before the start of World War 2, to Walter, a baker and Grace, a nurse. Dad’s father, was the last of fifteen children of my great grandparents who settled in the Barossa Valley in 1847. They came from Posen in Germany. I was the last of three children, having an older sister and brother. We moved to Gawler in 1939 where my earliest memories were of living next door to an elderly couple who were retired farmers from Kimba. I completed most of my primary and secondary education in Gawler with my final secondary year being done in 1955 at Adelaide Boy’s High School. We lived in quite austere conditions in Gawler. It was a time of “no mod cons’ and as there was a war being fought, scratching a living for my parents was pretty tough. However, overall I enjoyed a happy childhood and had lots of fun with a very large extended family including three grandparents, fourteen aunts and uncles and twenty eight cousins. Living off the land was almost mandatory in those times and so, following tuition from my father, grandfather and a couple of uncles, I became a very competent hunter and gatherer. Rabbits and pigeons were the main meal targets. I trapped, ferreted, snared and shot thousands of them during those early years. By then, both of my siblings had become teachers. My sister was a brilliant classical pianist and taught music. My brother became a science teacher and much later a geologist with the Mines Department. We had no radio, TV had not been invented and so home entertainment came from my sister playing Beethoven [still my most loved composer], Grieg, Chopin, Schubert and others. Dad like several other older German blokes played a button accordion. We had several in the house and my brother picked one up at three years of age and played a tune. He trumped me. I was four before starting to play. I still play occasionally [very badly]. Ask Jack and Barb Davies.
I commenced primary teacher training in 1956 at Adelaide Teacher’s College and moved to Wattle Park in 1957. Teacher training was punctuated with three months National Service done at the Woodside Army Barracks. I completed three years teacher training and in 1959 was appointed to Millicent High School to teach secondary students. I was twenty years old. Apart from beginning my career, I became involved in community activities including sports, the church, which has always been an important part of my life and the theatre. I played football for Millicent in the strong South East and Border League, lots of tennis [not very well] and performed in many plays for the Millicent Company of Seven. I was a regular worshipper at St. Michael and All Angels ,I became a Lay Reader for the church, sang in the choir, organized a youth group and generally had a very busy time in my years in Millicent. At the end of my third year of teaching, I met my future wife Geraldine. She had been in year 10 when I started teaching. Friends jokingly accuse me of taking “a child bride.” I’m very glad that I did for we married on the hottest January day in 1965. By that time, I had moved to Heathfield High School. We set up house there, then in Stirling followed by a year in Bridgewater. While teaching full time I was studying part time at the University of Adelaide in an effort to finish my Bachelor of Arts degree. It was full on with little time for sport. I did however manage to help out with church services in the Crafers parish. I discovered Geology and studied it at the time. And so began a 45 year love affair with it.
In 1967, I was promoted to Senior Master in Geography at Port Lincoln High School where I had oversight of thirteen geography teachers and about 500 students who were studying it. I became a colleague of some notable characters [teachers] at the school including K.K.M. Smith [Rock Jaw], Nancy Collinson and part time bookie, John Pope. We had our first child [Matt] soon after our arrival and by 1974 had three more, Nick, Emma and Lucy. I organized a programme of camps and excursions for the students to all parts of SA,”walked the boards” in both the annual school production and for the Port Lincoln Players. My two most memorable roles were of playing Fagin in “Oliver” during a school production and playing Sweeny Todd in Dion Manthorpe’s production of that melodrama. In the early 70’s, Colin Brideson arrived as principal and it was he who gave the OK to introduce Geology to the year 12 curriculum. I was in teaching heaven and over the following 20 years taught it to many hundreds of students. And the required field work component in the course enabled me to include a school camp to the Flinders Ranges. Ian Abbott and I took the Geography and Geology students there every year for many subsequent years. The Flinders had become my second home [they still are]. They became even more so when I introduced bushwalking to the students. We did a Flinders walk every year. I was assisted by Geraldine, Kevin Vigar and Peter Clutterbuck. I had become interested in walking following meeting Warren Bonython and walking the Willouran Ranges with him in 1975 and later around Lake Eyre in 1982. I wrote a book “Walking on Eyre” in 2002 to celebrate that event. We launched it at Arkaroola in July 2002 as part of Arkaroola’s “Year of the Outback “ celebration.
In 1967 I played full back for Tasmans and enjoyed my first and only A Grade premiership. I was in the Mortlock Shield team as well for Lincoln City. We won that as well. I made a big mistake in playing again in 1968. It rained every Saturday during what turned out to be the wettest year on record. I played cricket for Tasmans as well for a few years and later captained them. I made a cricket comeback for Bostons in 1979 at the age of 41, bowling leg breaks and wrong’uns [eat your heart out Warnie]. I could turn the leggies a mile.[ask Ian Watherston]. It was fun. I coached Boston colts for three years and took them to a premiership as well.
From 1973-77, I spent 5 years as a Regional Advisory Teacher in Geography and with five other “experts” travelled the state helping teachers of Geography. My region was Eyre Peninsula and the Far North. I travelled a lot. In that role I used to organize various conferences for teachers and to bring them together to share ideas, and catch up with the latest developments in courses. In 1979, conservation had become the main game and Harry Butler came at my invitation to be leader for a state wide conference attended by 50 teachers. Harry has been back several times since as leader for other events I’ve organized. He’s a great teacher.
Music has been important in my life and I was delighted when Elaine Sleath introduced music into the curriculum in early 70’s. Music became very big over subsequent years and to help further development, I invited jazz great Don Burrows and his quartet to conduct workshops and play concerts for our kids. One such event saw 230 students from all over SA converge on Port Lincoln for a four day music event. Don’s been back on several occasions. I took him to Leigh Creek where he did workshops for all of the outback kids who were studying music. In 1991 he came with his quartet and played along with the Australian String Quartet and other music, theatre and performing groups at Eyre Fair, a two week Arts festival which I organized for Port Lincoln. During 1996 and having retired from teaching I co-ordinated EPIC, a major celebration of Eyre Peninsula and its people. All of the music, dance, paintings, stories were written and performed by EP people. We had 4000 people assembled at Tcharkulda Rock, dramatically floodlit by ETSA to enjoy the show. Robyn Archer came and loved it.
I retired in 1992 after 34 years teaching, having decided to try a new career. I established the world’s smallest business called TK Tours. The turnover was miniscule but I have had many years since of great enjoyment taking small groups, including some international tourists on journeys through the Flinders Ranges and the Outback. As part of that programme Geraldine and I have become co-ordinators of an ecospirituality programme which has been operating for the past 20 years under the auspices of the Anglican Diocese of Willochra. We’ve been conducting four programmes each year and about 1000 people in total have taken part. People from all denominations have attended and many of them come back every year. With Geraldine, I’ve been active, with Mrs Karen White of the Port Lincoln Health Services in conducting a programme for people going through the grieving process. That has been a most satisfying experience. Readers are probably aware that Geraldine is an artist and so in my spare time I try to become creative and help her with some of the menial tasks associated with her work. But on the creative side, I have tried writing some poetry of the geological kind. My poem Tcharkulda Rock was set to music and sung during Epic and the famous Brachina Gorge geological story has been celebrated with a CD featuring my verse and son Nick’s music. We launched the CD and Nick’s second CD at Parachilna as part of a family celebration mainly featuring Geraldine’s papier mache and silk art work.
Locals would be aware that I have been active in politics for most of my time in Port Lincoln. I had a brief 2 year stint on city council and from 1977- 1992 offered myself as a candidate for the ALP in the state seat of Flinders. It was never really a winnable seat for the ALP and so I was really only flying the flag for the party. It was an interesting time to say the least. My greatest success was in 1977 when I came second to Peter Blacker with the Liberals languishing in third place. They’ve done much better since. However, like so many other people, I’ve become rather disillusioned, indeed quite angry at the behaviour of many of our politicians of all parties. I resigned my ALP membership 5 years ago but have nevertheless continued to write letters to them and others about issues which are important to us all and especially the issue of our future energy supply and climate change. Locals would also be aware that in 1998, I made the outrageous [to many] suggestion that Australia should develop nuclear power. I’m still promoting that line and over the past 12 years have been making lots of speeches and doing radio appearances about nuclear power. I’ve been trying to educate people about the truth concerning the nuclear industry. As Geraldine keeps reminding me “Once a teacher, always a teacher.” Stay tuned readers. I intend saying lots more. I became a convert to nuclear in 1981 while on teacher exchange in Toronto, Canada . That’s where I learnt the truth about it and came not to fear it. Canada was also my first ever overseas experience and it was certainly a great year of discovery for our four kids as well as for ourselves. We made many good friends while there some of whom have come to Australia to visit and we have been back on two occasions ourselves. We got to know some from the US as well some of whom I have subsequently taken to the Flinders. Our kids in 1981 ranged in age from 6 to 14 and were all old enough to really get a lot out of the year. We lived on a five acre lot with a pony, two enormous cats [Squidge and Dorcas] and a delightful dog called Frodo. The girls went to a local primary school at Ballantrae . The boys went to Stouffville High School. I travelled daily 40 Km south on the 402 with two blokes from a neighbouring school . Common road kill were skunks. The smell lingered in the car right through to Toronto. It was vile. I taught geography only at three different levels, basic, standard and advanced. There were 1700 students in the school and 110 teachers. Living near a big city [2.5 million then] was a real eye opener for us all and a very enriching time. Geraldine and I got to three concerts at Massey Hall where we heard three of the greats of classical music, Isaac Stern, [violinst] Ytzak Perlman who staggered onto the stage with two sticks, slumped into a chair and then played the violin like you’ve never heard it played and Vladimir Ashkenazy [pianist]. He gave Adelaide the full Beethoven cycle [5 piano concertos and 9 symphonies[he played and conducted the lot] during the 1984 Adelaide Festival of Arts which Geraldine and I attended. We go to the festival every two years. There are four distinct seasons in Canada., a warm, humid [wet]Summer, a mild and incredibly beautiful [autumn leaves] Fall, a very cold, snowy Winter [it was -33 degrees celcius at home on one sunny Sunday morning] and a quite warm and somewhat sloppy [melting snow] Spring. We got to enjoy some cross country skiing and some ice skating [not me] during winter. The boys got into ice hockey with the neighbours on the many local ponds. And on our return, they brought home with them a dozen hockey sticks and a few pucks. Ice hockey is clearly the roughest and fastest game on the planet with regular punch ups between players occuring .
At 73, I’m no spring chicken as they say, but I like to think that I’ve still got enough energy to continue doing more in the Flinders Ranges and the Outback with anyone interested. Two couples from the US will be on tour with me in March and April next year and five other tours will occur between May and October. Meanwhile, back here in Port Lincoln I shall try to be a good husband, continue to keep improving our native garden, try to become self sufficient in vegetables, give my rock and mineral collection plenty of TLC, answer geological questions for people who want to show me their rocks [ask Des Woolford] and keep an eye on our four kids and especially our 8 grand children[ I’m hoping for one geologist at least amongst them] who are a source of great joy . I hope also to be able to do more fishing than in the past and also to do a bit more world travelling.
I’ve had a pretty full and interesting life so far. I’m hoping to build on it over coming years.
Memories of Krieg Terry
[[Rememberer::Brian Thom ]] remembers: I can remember that in 1956 in Grade 7 at Gawler Primary School, Terry, in his role as a Wattle Park Teachers College trainee teacher, addressed the class on the benefits of learning Algebra. In 1959, Terry taught a number of us how to ring the unique octave of bells in Gawler's St Georges Anglican Church.
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