In October 2023, after the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, I made the decision finally to cut my ties with Mildura and my birth town of Robinvale and move back to Queanbeyan to be closer to my daughter and her husband who also live here.
It took a while and now it’s October 2025, almost November, and at last the shift has occurred.
After months of uncertainty and along with all the normal logistics of leaving a place, the additional difficulty of my Mildura housemate not facing up to the inevitable fact that I was leaving, it was finally achieved when the housemate agreed to let me find a replacement lease partner.
So, for those who may be concerned, here is an update.
I am now happily settled in my newest home! My fifteenth in thirty years. And it is perfect. Not too big and not too small. Great location. Very close to everything I need – family, shops, doctor – and solitude and society when I need them.
According to my sustainable living code, I have furnished it with virtually nothing new. Apart from a fold up table, I brought no furniture with me, just some clothes, photo books, a sewing machine, some kitchen tools and Petal (the cat) and her accoutrements. My daughter and son-in-law have been invaluable in giving their time in seeking out my new home for me and lending me a few items temporarily.
I purchased some pre-loved items such as a fridge, a bookshelf, floor rugs, a dining table, various kitchen items from op-shops and garage sales including a once incredibly expensive Danish-made frying pan once priced at $155 which I got for $8 (so exciting, I know!); and free items such as a perfectly acceptable desk found on the nature strip (left by a family moving out close by and obviously also overwhelmed by their ‘stuff’) and an almost new sofa on FB! I had to keep checking that the couch was free and almost felt guilty taking it! But really people have so much stuff, it is quite difficult to get rid of it and in the past, I have given a lot of stuff away – in the end it becomes a real burden!
I now still have a storage unit in Mildura full of bits and pieces – hardly any of which I miss! What I do miss is my collection of herbs and spices, and parts of my fabric stash. That is all. I still have to deal with this, but it’s on the back burner for now. It just goes to shore up my theory that we have way more stuff than we need, and our attachment to it just weighs us down.
About Queanbeyan Queanbeyan – Wikipedia