When I began my search for that special place in the country, Nelligen was a place forgotten even by real estate agents and nothing was for sale except a few empty building blocks. One such block overlooked the Clyde River from its location in Nelligen Place. I could imagine sitting there on the verandah and taking in the views, which is what a chap was doing two blocks away. I walked up and asked if I could join him.
Soon we were not only sharing the same views but also memories of people and places we both had known, as "Sandy" and his wife Betty had also lived and worked in Rabaul in New Guinea and on Thursday Island - in fact, their daughter was born there! I felt at home at once! A few weeks later I was the proud owner of a block of land in Nelligen Place!
That block of land is on top of the still vacant block of land outlined in yellow in the above photograph. I wanted to build a beautiful little Classic Country Cottage on it; however, a retired public servant who occupied the small log cabin to the left of it did what public servants do: be a pain in the coccyx ! He objected to my building plans - TWICE! - on some obscure grounds. This delayed me long enough to find "Riverbend" across the river and to sell the vacant block for the same $40,000 I had bought it for just a year earlier. That was in 1993! Today the much inferior block outlined in yellow, with no riverviews, and steep enough to challenge even a mountain goat, is on sale for $399,000!
Thirty-two years later, "Sandy" and his wife Betty and the retired public servant are dead and "my" old block of land has been built on, but I'm still at "Riverbend". Who would've thought I'd stay in one place for that long! And who would've thought that land prices would go that high!
