With fourteen years of climbing in the South West of Western Australia under my belt, my family and I have made great friends through climbing. That is not to say we live in each other’s pockets, far from it. In fact I’m definitely not known for being a social butterfly, however when living in a regional location community is everything. Even if you like living as a hermit, which I do, when things get tough that is when real friends and the community spirit shines through.
While the names of these people should be familiar if you have been keeping up with my posts, I felt it was time I properly introduced some of them . And in view of what I was doing to them, I felt it was only fair to give them the chance to say what they thought of me. So in preparing for this I asked each of them to tell you about me. My idea was to have a short paragraph of their thoughts on me before I told you about them.
This idea backfired a bit and some wrote essays, so I had to rethink my strategy. As such below you’ll see a list of names and faces and a link to my post describing them. In each posts, and for those that took the challenge, you will find a link to what they said about me. I might add that there are plenty of other people who I’ve had great climbing experiences with here, but those listed are the ones that I’m still most in contact with.
Finally and before we get to that list, some people made reference to a couple of local places that probably will not make sense, so I’ll explain them now.
- Child Side Playgroup and School, which is the school where Lisa completed the final practical in her teaching degree. They liked her so much that she got a job there, and is still there now. It is also, and not surprisingly, the school where Elseya attended until year 10.
- The Bunbury PCYC, which stands for Police and Community Youth Centre, is a place that I think requires a little more explanation.
The PCYC used to be run by the police, but when I arrived it was under the different management. I heard there was a climbing wall that opened on a Tuesday and Thursday night. Being completely new to Bunbury and not knowing anyone I thought it would be a great place to meet people to get outdoors with. What I didn’t realise is how few of those people had actually climbed outdoors, no matter as that was easy to resolve as you will hear about if you read their stories about me.
The PCYC wall had ten top rope walls, including a tunnel and swing wall, a small boulder area, abseiling platform and prussic lines. In the old days they ran outdoor education programs and had all the outdoor equipment for kids to progress from the indoor wall to outdoor rock. This had ceased long before I arrived, and the management of the day paid no regard to, nor seemed to have any knowledge of or interest in the wall. They did however permit it to open up on those two night, as it needed no input from them and was run by volunteers of whom I soon became one.
Our primary role was to set up the wall, supervise who came in and then dismantle any of the non-permanent fixtures. We also held busy bees to clean up and set new routes. These would often take a full day and at times as many as twenty people would come to help. Occasionally we undertook fund raising for new equipment, and when approached assisted large groups who wanted to use the wall such as schools and youth groups. We built a strong cohort of regulars and had a great time, but at the same time we were not insular and welcomed all new comers. It was a very friendly and encouraging environment, with lots of banter and laughs.
A rumour began to surface that the PCYC organisation viewed the wall as a liability. So we pulled together and investigated the national requirements for indoor walls, and developed the required policies, operational procedures and record keeping. We also pooled our collective training certificates to prove up that we could mitigate the risk in accordance with the national requirements. This resulted in us keeping the wall going for a few more years, but finally the PCYC decided to cease its operations.
A year or two after that the PCYC, without consulting any of the volunteers or previous patrons, literally ripped the wall down and threw all the equipment in a skip. The real proof of this act of stupidity came to me many years later in April 2020 when I was sent an image of a portion of the old wall and familiar holds. It was set up at the house of a person who had just happened to walk past the skip, see it and decided to pull it all out. It was not even someone who used to climb there.
Unlike the PCYC wall, many of the people I met there are still here and continue to climb together, both outdoors and at the numerous indoor boulder walls they have built at their own places. We occasionally have social functions both climbing and non-climbing related, which I sometimes attend and at times Lisa and I host. More importantly that familiar good vibe, sense of community and welcoming attitude that started at the PCYC still exists within this group today.
Introducing some of the South West climbers
Names are provided alphabetical order, click on the links below to read about them and me.
In very timely fashion Wiggins has also just completed a video which includes a mishmash of footage from various crags and events, which I feel compliments this latest section of my Blog: The montage – a mixed bag of all sorts.
Sandbagged 
2 thoughts on “South West Climbers”