This account is as much about my family, without whom I may have made decisions other than those made and which, I feel sure, would not have yielded the interest and lifestyle we have come to share together.
My earlier activities saw me ‘married’ to military mapping, with a lifestyle, mostly deployed out in the rural and the bush areas of Australia. Star observations for positional fixes (Latitude and Longitude) and other survey activities necessary for the accomplishment of mapping control, although demanding, was both interesting and pleasurable. Meeting people, particularly outback people, as well as the travel associated with this vocation gave an encouragement for one so interested to continue in this line indefinitely. Young and naïve perhaps, however my ambitions came to an irreversible halt, when I met a stunning blonde from a little remote town in North Queensland. The town was Ravenswood and her name Judith. Suddenly the travel was old hat and the prolonged stay out in the bush (generally nine months, then home for the wet season) was for somebody else.
Mt Isa Mines offered a position (home every night) in underground surveying. We both enjoyed Mt Isa and its people, and I enjoyed the third dimensional aspect of surveying and underground detail planning. However, with our first born registered in Mt Isa, we asked, what of the future for him and reluctantly said goodbye to a town that we had grown to like, but which had nevertheless become at the time, split under the controversies of strike activity.
Our next position saw us move to Kingscliff. Once again a lovely area and at the other end of the scenic spectrum. We enjoyed its idyllic surrounds.
A further offer saw us move to Brisbane to join Consolidated Rutile. One day I was approached by the Directors to take a drink with them in the boardroom and I soon got the feeling that it was not for the want of conversation or that they had too much scotch on their inventory. So the Lambert family now numbering 4 (only just) moved to North Stradbroke Island, under the Directors kind offer, (just to get some matters sorted was the stated reason) which would entail a stay of six months to a year. Eighteen years later and the addition of three more children, we often harked back on that expectation, but not once did we regret the fact that it did not eventuate.
I had forgotten to mention that Judith’s parents owned one of the two historical hotels in the heritage mining town of Ravenswood. (More recent mining started some 20 years ago and is still proceeding). We had of course visited on holidays and helped out in the hotel which was becoming more onerous as Judith’s parents became older. My sojourns up there however were increasingly taken up in prospecting for gold and minerals. The bug had caught (well and truly) and we began to make plans to build at Ravenswood, with Judith helping with the hotel and yours truly, wielding a pick and panning dish. The prospecting becoming more and more involved in acquiring tenements and after a lot of research, feasibility studies, and evaluations, Ravenswood Mining Pty Ltd was born.
A NSW mining company took up tribute mining on one lease which was to become the first carbon in pulp operation in the area.
Ravenswood Mining Pty Ltd led to a public company Ravenswood Resources Ltd with full intentions of being listed on the stock exchange at the beginning of November 1987. A fortnight before the proposed entry onto the exchange, the October ‘87 stock exchange crash put paid to any listing plans. Nobody was then interested in junior explorers, or for that matter junior miners.
With our youngest due to attend secondary school and the rest of our family in the south east we made the move south to Traveston and ventured into hydroponics. Suitable level space was at a premium for conventional crops as we live on steep hilly terrain. Even so the criteria for hydroponics drainage and working heights presented a great deal of planning on such terrain. Our interest in producing lasted some 8 or 9 years however it was dampened to the extent of continued pressure, from a leading supermarket, who wished to divest themselves of all responsibility and lump it onto the primary producers. It was then goodbye to 4am rising and wondering why we worked our butts off to satisfy a market extensively controlled and dominated by retail interests. But we enjoyed the experience.
Collectively, as Jeff and Judith, we happened to join other concerned residents at the events emanating from Council in approving what was to be urban development in the rural zone. It was an uplifting experience to meet so many genuine people who, were it not for the proposed developments, we would probably not have met.
The protests at Traveston is another story as is our fight against the Meadvale Land Fill, however suffice to say these conflicts led to many hours of studying the Council planning scheme and the relevant acts. The changes and modifications by the Traveston Developer from time to time also led us to attend constantly at the public gallery at Council Meetings and the ramifications of that has led me to determine that this council (with the exception of a few) is overdue for change. I therefore intend to run for Council and earnestly solicit your support. For abbreviated CV Jeff Lambert click here.
