Tying things together

It’s funny how some totally disparate things in life can suddenly be brought together at the most unexpected of times.

What does primary school history, learning to fly and Jimbour Station on the Darling Downs have in common? In short, me. As a young lad when history was part of the primary school curriculum (as distinct from NAPLAN, but don’t get me started) I did a project on explorer Ludwig Leichhardt (see, I can still spell it!). In true lack of perspective style typical of a pre-teen, I was curious to learn that his jumping-off point for his exploration was a station on the Darling Downs. The question that leapt to mind was why didn’t he pick something further out. Of course the answer is simple. At the time Jimbour Station was the northern-most outpost of the European frontier. Even though I was doing a project on exploration I failed to realise that you explore because you don’t know what is further out!

Now what about learning to fly. This was totally unexpected. My Sis-in-law spent some time around 10 years ago learning to fly. Early in this process she considered learning from Hempel’s Aviation and may have taken a trial flight with them. Subsequently Barry Hempel was killed in an aerobatics accident and there remained questions as to whether he was a fit-and-proper person to hold a pilots licence. Anyway, Jimbour station has a private airstrip (bitumen no less) and hangar right in front of the house. Jimbour served a prominent role in the early development of aviation in the country. Barry Hempel and Nancy Bird Walton were both mentioned in interpretive signage around the property.

So not only did our casual decision to visit Jimbour Station result in a totally unexpected discovery of a stately country home, we actually had rather more of a link to it than we may have imagined.