The Badgy Book / Diane West et al

The Badgy Book

category: collection, travel, author:

Diane West et al

original copyright 1998

Agamedes' opinion: valuable!

Not much that I can really say about this book... since I didn't read it.

We were driving north from Perth and stopped for a break at Badgingarra. Nothing much there but all we wanted was a break from driving. All I knew about Badgingarra was, that my brother lived and worked on a farm in the area, many years ago.

We stopped in the shop. Only one shop in town, as far as we could see. So we stopped there. Ordered coffees and cake...

... And saw, The Badgy Book.

That, I said, looks interesting... Well, interesting to my brother, anyway. The book is a collection of stories and anecdotes. Stories of the development and growth and people of the Badgingarra area. It's been perhaps thirty years since my brother lived here, he does keep in touch with friends from the area, he may know some of the people writing and being written about.

Diane West... the first of several authors... Surely my brother knows Diane West?! I'm sure I've heard the name.

Diane West? I say to the woman in the shop. I think that my brother knows her...

Diane died, a few years ago, replies the woman.

Oh.

We bought the book, we drank, snacked and relaxed. Walked through the nearby Vern Westbrook Walk -- very interesting -- and carried on driving.

This is the sort of book that every town, village, association, interest group... should write. It provides a history -- accurate or otherwise -- of their group. A record that is as (in)accurate as but more enduring than stories told by the old folk. Speaking of which:

Further north, we stayed on a working station. (A "station", here, is a large farm. For my overseas reader. If you exist.) We spent one evening sitting round the dinner table with our hosts and various of their friends.

The locals were going from well fed to relaxed to drunk... with a liberal exchange of anecdotes. This, I thought, is oral history.

A group of friends were exchanging stories of years gone by. Of friends and family and the scrapes and escapes, fights and fun of their past. Yes, they were drunk and speaking freely. Yet they also were politely listening.

One would tell a story of Cheque Book Charlie, or whichever character they remembered. Another would add a related anecdote, or add to the detail of the first. They were not trying to win points for their own stories -- they were exchanging, building on and strengthening memories of the past... Memories of the history of their area.

On one station, a group of friends were committing their history to collective memory. In Badgingarra, a group of friends -- or neighbours -- had committed their history to print.

Two different ways of preserving the stories and perhaps the lessons of the past. Two means of preserving the sense of community and of continuity.

I skimmed some parts of The Badgy Book, not enough to claim that I have read it. If you have an interest in small towns such as Badgingarra, this book is of interest to you.

I have sent this book on, to my brother. This book is not for me. I am glad, however, that the effort was made, to write The Badgy Book.

..o0o..

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