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As a boy of about thirteen I was taken out to a small Aboriginal encampment on a creek that flows into the Mitchell River. This was called "Denanogan". It was a special, magical place; the trees were actually trees that had been left behind by the fires, bush fires. The trees were actually almost tropical. There was a book there you could sign and I did but I heard later it had disappeared. There is another story about the Mitchell River, actually the Mitchell Dam. The dam wall was built out of bluestone blocks; don't ask me where the bluestone came from. The wall was built up to quite a height but disaster struck when the first heavy rains came and the middle of the wall blew out. I've got pictures of the debris somewhere. The centerpiece had been undermined when it blew out. The Mitchell River goes virtually underground when it comes onto the flat ground. The amount of water flowing upstream is significant; it could be used but it would be subject to building a proper dam suitable to the area. BOARDING SCHOOL Father ran the store in Walpa for awhile; I wasn't terribly helpful and he wasn't terribly encouraging, so things being the way they were, I was sent to boarding school in Gippsland. I finished my intermediate at tech school which was as far as you could go. Actually, then when I finished school, father picked me up and took me to his current shop at Kooweerup. He had a hairdressing shop there. He cleared me out straightaway into a 12' x 12' shed we had up at Ferntree Gully. I got to know the bloke next door who had worked at Commonwealth Aircraft Corp. at Fisherman Bend. I followed that line. This bloke encouraged me to go down there; he made a few calls and I went. I joined up as an apprentice.