The Chum Creek diaries
Principal Nick Evans’ (OW1985) visit to Chum Creek last month took on a particularly nostalgic flavour when Head of Outdoor Education, Kate Hogarth, showed him a diary entry he had written as a Year 9 student back in February 1982. 41 years momentarily dissolved for Nick as he reconnected with his Year 9 Chum Creek self.
It’s now 70 years since the regular camping program started at Chum Creek, and the camp diaries provide a precious link back to the lived experience - in all its colourful variety - for thousands of Wesley students across the decades. Program Leader at Chum Creek, Brad Hanrahan, is currently in the process of appropriately archiving these precious moments in time.
And what did Nick Evans of Form 9H write in the diary in 1982?
‘This is the best Chum Creek Camp I have been to. We were participating in many activities, the best being the canoeing and flying fox.’
A diary entry on the page adjacent to Nick’s, penned a week later by Nicholas Yates from 9G, is also positive about the Chum Creek experience. Clearly a glass-half-full sort of person, Nicholas shares with us that ‘Apart from general fatigue, lack of sleep, a few cuts and bruises and food poisoning, the camp was pretty good.'
