I recently took a walk along Maroochy River, reliving my childhood from the 60s and I uncovered some great memories.
I had such a good time, I decided to do it again, but this time it was Eudlo where my family originally moved to in 1918 and then my Dad started his own place in 1949 at what is now Robinson Road.
On impulse, I drove out and parked at the Eudlo shop where I was a star customer from 1961–1971 because we had an account and I was partial to Samboy barbecue chips and Coke.
Dad had told me it was exactly one mile from our home to school, so I thought I would test that out on my steps through the past.
As soon as I started, memories came flooding back. I remember getting a packet of chips and whingeing to Mum that there weren’t many chips in the packet, just air. So dear old Edna wrote a letter to Samboy.
As I turned the corner into Robinson Road, I remembered being eight and seeing a station wagon leaving our road. I got home and there was Edna with a massive carton of barbecue chips. Woo-hoo, one happy little fat kid.
Like stories about Sunshine Coast people doing great things? Help us deliver more by registering for our free daily news feed. All it requires is your name and email. See SUBSCRIBE at the top of this articleÂ
As I walked up what we used to call red hill (as it was red dirt back in the day) I also remembered it wasn’t unusual to get picked up by a passing farmer’s truck and thrown up on the back, bike and all, and dropped off at the front gate.
As I got to our former house, I looked at my GPS and realised Dad had got me — it was actually 1.2 miles. So every day for 10 years I had been walking or riding nearly half a mile extra.
I remembered at about age 10, I buried a time capsule at the bottom of the hill, but I couldn’t remember what was in it; probably empty Coke bottles, chip packets, model planes, plastic soldiers and marbles.
Then there was the hill on Ilkley Road that the neighbour’s kids used to push Dad’s old truck up when it was fully loaded with pines, until he saved enough to buy a nearly new Bedford that could get over the hill unaided.
Probably the best part of my 2021 walk was remembering when they put bitumen on Robinson Road and Clive Plater made my Mum feel so special when they had a ribbon-cutting ceremony nearly 50 years after my late Dad cut a track in there. That was even better than the Samboy chips.
Ashley Robinson is a columnist with Sunshine Coast News and My Weekly Preview. His views are his own.
