north east regional extra | August 26 - September 1, 2020
nemedia.com.au
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August 26 - September 1, 2020 ◆ HISTORIC FRIENDS: Royce Sample with John and Kaye Bradford from the Burgoigee Creek Landcare Group. PHOTO: Ashleigh Piles
By BELINDA HARRISON
Living in the past, for future generations
ROYCE Sample may have been considered an ‘outsider’ when he first arrived in Gapsted with his delightfully prominent Oklahoman twang but it wasn’t long before he proved himself a dedicated advocate for the area and its history, and is now claimed by the locals as ‘one of their own’. Royce was born and bred in North East Oklahoma, USA and migrated to Australia, specifically Melbourne, in 1975 as a ‘political refugee’ from Nixon’s America. Originally a geography and history teacher, Royce’s main motivation in coming to Australia was to be a farmer, so when the family grew tired of Melbourne in 1985 they found their way to Gapsted. “We liked that particular property better than any others we looked at and it reminded me a lot of where I grew up,” he said. In 1988, Royce’s teaching background and strong interest in environmental issues led him to join the newly-formed Burgoigee Creek Landcare Group in the next valley over at Bowmans Forest/Murmungee. “I was fortunate to be selected by the group as the part-time coordinator and a sequence of environmental and agricultural consulting jobs in North East Victoria followed in the ensuing years,” he recalled. Those opportunities led to Charles Sturt University (CSU) Professor, Alan Curtis, asking Royce to join his social studies team which mostly investigated landholder experiences with various governmental environmental programs. “After several years talking to landholders in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania, I ‘retired’ to farm once again,” Royce said. But it wasn’t long before he was drawn back to his historical roots and, with Landcare bounding forward in the early 1990s, Royce found himself becoming ‘almost a local’ in Bowmans Forest/Murmungee.
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ANIMAL CARE
WINE TALK
YOUR HEALTH
TECH & SCIENCE
with ROSIE
with ANITA
with SOPHIE & BELINDA
with CHRIS
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