John Durack: Thank you, Brian. And now, Peggy Harpham.
Peggy Harpham:
Well Noni and I have known each other for a long time, really a long time. This talk will be a bit like one of those novels, the family saga, you know, but it's only a friend's saga, this one. Noni and I studied for an Arts degree at Sydney University, Sancta Sophia College. She was a sophomore and I was a humble fresher, rather a suspect one, I think, because I overheard two sophomores talking once, and one said to the other, 'What do you think of Peggy Alen’ Oh, I held my breath, and then the other said, 'Oh, she's quite nice you know', and I relaxed, but too soon. The other one said, 'She's a Queenslander you know'. But Noni was a nice sophomore, even though she was a cockroach.
So she and I used to walk along Parramatta Road to the lectures, talking deeply and meaningfully. Noni is very intelligent. We lived there just before the war, as Noni said, they were halcyon years, you know, we'll never see that kind of life again. After we were through, Noni went carving her literary career, writing plays and novels and articles for magazines, and reviewing books. Well as the war was looming, I thought 'I will go to Brisbane University and study physiotherapy; then I will enlist and join the Army and get a commission.' Well actually I married into the Army, but I never got a commission.
After the war was over, Bill, a very talented architect, as you've heard, he joined the Australian Estates Company and went up to civilise the station properties with houses and buildings. But when I heard some of the properties bordered on Cloncurry, I wondered how that genteel New South Wales girl would fit into the landscape. In the meanwhile, Dave and I bought a property outside Miles much to the consternation of some of my relatives. Miles was a very backward area, caused by the prickly pear, but luckily that had been overcome, and the war. Well David started civilising the property and John Robinson, who unfortunately isn't here because Wendy's not well, John Robinson and I started restructuring (that's an in word) the social scene. So we had to organise the first Benedict's Ball to the horror of the locals. Fancy having a ball to which people had to be invited! And of course there was a problem of that free bar.
In the meanwhile, in the fullness of time (I think that's a wonderful expression) the Duracks had five sons, and the Harphams had five sons. The parents' lives didn't cost much but the sons did, because they studied at St Leo's University College in Brisbane. One day David was asked to come down to his alma mater, Toowoomba Grammar, and play cricket, The Old Boys against the New Ones. Proudly I state that he was top scorer, retired 50 not out, and by convention he had to retire, much to his delight, because all that big total was achieved by single runs, pretty exhausting really.
Later on, he emerged, absolutely thrilled. There was a spanking new ablution block. We see the hand of Bill, the architect in that. And David said, 'And Peg, it's got hot water - hot water, even for the visitors!' He remembered five years of icing up under the showers.
Later on I was on a shopping spree from Miles, and I went into a shoeshop, and sitting opposite was Noni, so we started to natter, and we really haven't stopped nattering ever since, because when we retired to Toowoomba, I was inducted into the Tuesdays Ladies Tennis Group, and there ensconced forever was Noni.
One night I was driving down Margaret Street, and I looked down the slope, (I think it was called Frogs' Hollow in those days) and there was the grammar school, the old building, and the cleverly constructed new buildings, (Bill again) and all those lights twinkling; and I thought, it's like a fairy wonderland, and I still think it is.
This year, Noni said to me, was I going to the Parish Dinner, and I said, No. And she invited me to sit with them, so when I came to the door and gave my name, and that I was sitting with the Duracks, I was escorted to the top table, graced by Father Leonard, and then I realised the truth of the saying, 'It's not who you are that counts, but whom you know.'
Unfortunately I can’t find any photo of Peggy.
