The hills are alive, with the sound of…

“Ted Orme’s Scenic Hill Lookout (C8) reminds me of growing up in the Parramatta area in the 1960s and the lookouts at West Pennant Hills and Carlingford offered great views of the lights of western Sydney,” says Brian Kidd of Mount Waverley (Vic). “But parking was next to impossible with so many young adults admiring the view. Those were the days!”

“Mudgee, just down the road from Gulgong, also has a Flirtation Hill, formerly known as Mudgee Lookout and known locally as Flirty. Does a roaring trade on Saturday nights, I’m told, and probably makes up a large portion of Mudgee’s population,” notes Mudgee’s Jennifer Tidey. “As good as the drive-in cinema.”

We’ve been waiting for this for a long time: “Every time I walk up to the first floor of my medical center in Toormina, I think of Thomas Keneally,” says Garry Donnelly of Repton. “I use Schindler’s elevator.”

“Comments about the Berowra Waters Inn (C8) reminded me of the days when I lived in the area,” writes Mount Colah’s Colleen Starkey. “About once a month I would get a call on my landline number asking for a table. First I explained to them that they have the wrong number, then one day I broke down and replied: ‘Look, if you’ve ever tasted my cooking, you wouldn’t want to eat here!’ I would also like to add that about 25 years ago a select number of Berowra people paid to attend a kneeling at the inn on a Sunday night. Canapés and champagne flowed and everyone danced madly to a three piece band. We all managed not to fall overboard on the boat ride back to the public wharf.”

While David Baird of Burradoo assures us that ‘the claim that the motto of Queanbeyan High (C8),’Nil Labore Sine’, translated as ‘Don’t blow your nose too hard’”, says Peter Riley of Penrith: “School motto thinkers take themselves a bit too seriously. At an American liberal arts college founded in the 1960s that some of us still remember, the motto fits the cool but short-lived ethos of the time: ‘Omnia Extares’‘Turn up‘. Great motto for C8.”

“The reason most helicopters spotted in Coogee (C8) fly south is that sightseeing tours from Sydney Airport make a loop, starting with the harbour, then south along the coast before returning return to the airport,” advises Michael McFadyen of Kareela.

Column8@smh.com.au

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