Elland and Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. Halifax's Wainhouse Tower in right background is always a navigation aid.
John B Ogden, a geographer who lived in Elmfield Terrace, Savile Park, Halifax and taught at the Halifax polytech, Percival Whitley College, introduced us to this Yorkshire town through colour slides and casette recordings sent in the mail. He was an author of several books including books on the geography, history and contemporary life in the Calder Valley. And we reciprocated sharing widely on the geography, history and life in Australia, focussing on our local area in Brisbane and South East Queensland.
This exchange came about through a newly immigrant family to Brisbane, who, as they left Halifax received a brief letter from John to pass on to someone in Australia who might become John's "penfriend" providing information and images on Australia that would enrich his teaching of Australian geography to his A-level students at Percival Whitley College. (This college was rebranded as Calderdale College in 1988.)
We responded to that letter, and subsequently a tape and slides were exchanged monthly for the next 5 years. Then Ian was seconded to the British Foreign Office and appointed to the Commonwealth Institute in London. There our task was to seek to satisfy the demand for education about Australia through the Institute's "Talks to Schools" program.
On arrival at the Commonwealth Institute one very cold day in January 1978, I familiarised myself with the campervan that I bought, and then resolved to drive to Halifax to meet John Ogden and spend the weekend with him and his wife and family. The staff at the Institute were stunned: no one drives from London to Halifax for a weekend, and certainly not a newly arrived man from the colonies!
I drove north out of London early that Friday afternoon onto the M1, eventually swung west onto the M62, onto the slip road at Junction 24 and arrived at John's front gate in Savile Park at 10:45pm.
"Gidday mate" he said as I opened my car door, He had seen my campervan with a small kangaroo decal on its side (the previous owner had added that touch) driving into Halifax and heading straight to his address. John had just been down to pick up his daughter from youth group, when he spotted me. As he followed he was impressed that I took the right turns to arrive in his terrace and stop at his gate! After all, for 5 years I had been receiving maps of Halifax, photos galore and recorded detailed descriptions of Halifax. I knew the place as if I had lived there for 5 years.
And what a joy it was to unite with each other! And yes I did arrive back in London late on Sunday night, and so began my "Talks to Schools" assignments that took me all of the UK, a week or a fortnight at a time in a different Local Education Authority. Then in 2nd term one of those assignments was to Halifax. And one day in my schedule was spent at Percival Whitley College with the A-level Geography class for, needless to say, they were studying Australia as their special focus for the final exams.
Elland and Calder Valley, West Yorkshire. Halifax's Wainhouse Tower in right background is always a navigation aid.
John B Ogden, a geographer who lived in Elmfield Terrace, Savile Park, Halifax and taught at the Halifax polytech, Percival Whitley College, introduced us to this Yorkshire town through colour slides and casette recordings sent in the mail. He was an author of several books including books on the geography, history and contemporary life in the Calder Valley. And we reciprocated sharing widely on the geography, history and life in Australia, focussing on our local area in Brisbane and South East Queensland.
This exchange came about through a newly immigrant family to Brisbane, who, as they left Halifax received a brief letter from John to pass on to someone in Australia who might become John's "penfriend" providing information and images on Australia that would enrich his teaching of Australian geography to his A-level students at Percival Whitley College. (This college was rebranded as Calderdale College in 1988.)
We responded to that letter, and subsequently a tape and slides were exchanged monthly for the next 5 years. Then Ian was seconded to the British Foreign Office and appointed to the Commonwealth Institute in London. There our task was to seek to satisfy the demand for education about Australia through the Institute's "Talks to Schools" program.
On arrival at the Commonwealth Institute one very cold day in January 1978, I familiarised myself with the campervan that I bought, and then resolved to drive to Halifax to meet John Ogden and spend the weekend with him and his wife and family. The staff at the Institute were stunned: no one drives from London to Halifax for a weekend, and certainly not a newly arrived man from the colonies!
I drove north out of London early that Friday afternoon onto the M1, eventually swung west onto the M62, onto the slip road at Junction 24 and arrived at John's front gate in Savile Park at 10:45pm.
"Gidday mate" he said as I opened my car door, He had seen my campervan with a small kangaroo decal on its side (the previous owner had added that touch) driving into Halifax and heading straight to his address. John had just been down to pick up his daughter from youth group, when he spotted me. As he followed he was impressed that I took the right turns to arrive in his terrace and stop at his gate! After all, for 5 years I had been receiving maps of Halifax, photos galore and recorded detailed descriptions of Halifax. I knew the place as if I had lived there for 5 years.
And what a joy it was to unite with each other! And yes I did arrive back in London late on Sunday night, and so began my "Talks to Schools" assignments that took me all of the UK, a week or a fortnight at a time in a different Local Education Authority. Then in 2nd term one of those assignments was to Halifax. And one day in my schedule was spent at Percival Whitley College with the A-level Geography class for, needless to say, they were studying Australia as their special focus for the final exams.