YOUR SAYART LABI CAN only imaginehow pleased JuliaBaldock is to have foundan old family photoalbum belonging to heruncle.As a young and curiouswoman, I love nothingmore than lookingthrough mygrandparents’ old photosand seeing them in theirheyday.Even more, I lovehearing their stories —what they were doingwhen the photo wastaken, who their friendswere and what they aredoing now.My grandfather turned80 last month and aspart of the celebrations,my grandmother went tothe effort of displayingphotographs of mygrandfather’s life.There were photos ofhim in the navy, at homein Scotland and at hisgrand-daughter’swedding.There was even an oldschool photo — with hissisters pictured in thesame class.I was absolutelyfascinated, and uponfurther probing, I foundmy grandfather used tohunt rabbits for a livingand about the house heand my grandmotherlived in when they firstgot married.Family photographs arelike treasure chests —hidden stories loominside waiting to bediscovered.Stop waiting for thatrainy day and startlooking into your familyhistory now — younever know what youmight find.In the coming weeks nine highschool students will share theirunderstanding of art throughArt Lab — an innovative newprogram organised by the<strong>Devonport</strong> Regional Gallery toengage young people with art.By JOEY CLARKELatrobe High SchoolWHEN I first arrived at the<strong>Devonport</strong> Regional Gallery toview From An Island South itfelt as though I had steppedinto a library.The fact that the art gallerywas once a church didn’t help.No specific artwork jumpedout at me — at first.The work of DavidStephenson, Julie Gough, BeaMaddock, David Keeling,Philip Wolfhagen, JonathonKimberly, Richard Wostalland Jim Everett showed theArt Lab participant Joey Clarke.tranquil scenery in a beautifuland moody way.The pictures were completelydifferent in their own sense,but in a way if you spent thetime to look at them closeenough you could see and feelthe link between them.Even different pieces of arthad a sense that they werelinked.For example Hazards Forest 1PeterLyonsPeter’s Peopleby David Keeling was detailedand colourful. He used yellowsand reds on the trees to reflecta dying feel — quite aninteresting way to representTasmania.Leaving a Mountain by BeaMaddock however consisted ofno colours and very littledetail.It was a sketch of sorts butstill had extreme depth to itand made the mountain lookquite expressionless, yet youcould still feel a connectionbetween the two.The reason eluded me.After several minutes oflooking and discussing thework with some of the peoplewho worked at the art galleryit became more and moreobvious.Other than representingTasmania, each and everypicture represented some formof change.From the tranquilphotographs of Drowned thatshowed what was once athriving forest dead andflooded, to the trees of HazardsForest and everythingbetween, including pictures ofwindswept sand dunes thatshowed the change of thedeserts and beaches.Nothing could explain thisbetter to me then a small versefrom Bea Maddock’s journalwritten in the paintingLeaving a Mountain.‘‘To the radicals ofdestruction and tranquillitywhich even out over time.’’This verse explains thateverything changes andnothing can remain as it is,not even the mountains thathave lasted for millions ofyears.I admit that after spending afew hours at the art gallery thepictures had became moreintriguing, more alive and themessage had become clearerthan when I first arrived.Honouring our true heroes of warREGARDLESS of whatyou might have thoughtabout the treatmenthanded out in GuantanamoBay to David Hicks, it palesinto insignificance alongsidethat of our Prisoners of War inSingapore from, 1939 to 1945.But just as no-one wasprepared to spell out just whatform that treatment of Hickstook, it is virtually impossibleto find out what the boys inChangi had to contend with.The difference is that whileHicks, no doubt, would havebeen happy to tell us if hethought he was mistreated,our POWs will say nothing.So what brought up thisdiscussion, you might ask.Just that this week we buriedyet another one of those,whose lives were never thesame after they had suffered atthe hands of those from theLand of the Rising Sun.Edgar Baldock, naturallythey all called him Doc, passedaway after a life long battle tomaintain both reasonablephysical fitness and, moreimportantly, his sanity.He was captured a fit 50kgyoung man and came out of aPrisoner of War camp after thewar, a physical wreck, just22kg (about three and a halfstone) and legally blind.But Doc never complainedabout his captors, histreatment or anything else.He usually cracked a jokeabout his misfortunes andexplained that was his way ofretaining his sanity.For instance, he alwaysclaimed that when theJapanese arrived and he wastold by a superior officer thatit was ‘‘every man forhimself’’, he took off on hisown.‘‘And I would have been firsthome to Australia, only I ranout of land. You see, I neverlearned how to swim’’, wasDoc’s summing up of thesituation.After the war he conned hisway into becoming a chauffeurat the old Windsor Hotel inMelbourne and, despite hispoor eyesight, managed tokeep his job for 18 years,obviously without having toundergo an eye test.Doc and his mate Harold Cox,who also passed awayrecently, were institutions atthe <strong>Devonport</strong> RSL Club.They were both blind andjoked about it, referring to oneanother as the blind leadingthe blind.They witnessed first hand theheroic deeds of Sir WearyDunlop, whose humane effortson behalf of his fellowprisoners have now passedinto Australian history.But their courage wascomparable to that of Wearyand, unless you read about itin journals like the <strong>Devonport</strong><strong>Times</strong>, they are forgotten.Perhaps, their memory also,like that of the men andwomen who made <strong>Devonport</strong>,should be perpetualised insome ways.They are, after all, our trueheroes.And don’t ever let anyone tellyou that the David Hicks of theworld should be comparedwith our 1939-45 Prisoners ofWar.It would be a disgrace to theirmemory.Changes to our weekly television serviceIN RESPONSE to readerfeedback we have changed thedates on our weekly televisionguide to allow for variances inthe delivery times.With 15,000 copies todistribute we were informedsome readers were notreceiving their times untilMonday.This made our current TVguide, which started on aFriday, not as useful as it couldbe.We have now changed theguide to start on a Mondaywhich we hope will provide ourreaders with a much morecomprehensive weekly service.There may be slightinconveniences this week forthose used to receiving their<strong>Devonport</strong> <strong>Times</strong> weekly TVguide on a Friday or Saturdaybut once the new timetable isin place the Monday to Sundayguide should service readers’needs.This change was the result ofyour feedback, which wealways welcome.We may not be able to solvethe problem every time butwith your ideas we cancertainly try to reach betteroutcomes for our readers.Thanks again for yourcorrespondence and continuedsupport.KATE JOWETT,editorPage 6 <strong>Devonport</strong> <strong>Times</strong> <strong>April</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
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