"As a kid there was always plenty to do. There was sport, picture shows, a cafe, a fish and chip shop. It was just the simple things of life. You packed your lunch on your back and went for a walk through the bush, and Mum and Dad really didn't worry too much. There was no pressure, there was no crime."

You don't have to sit with Roger Nutting for long before you realise his boyhood memories of Poatina relive what was obviously a significant period of his life.

“When you're a kid you didn't think about it much, it's just where you were, but when you're a bit older and look back on it, it's then you learn to appreciate it more.”

Arriving in Poatina in December 1958 as a six year old, Roger and his family, as did many after them, relocated from Bronte Park as construction of the Poatina Power Station and affiliated infrastructure got under way. Along with the Butler and Fox families, the Nuttings made up the first three families to move into the town, and Roger still remembers going on that first Christmas Eve to watch a movie at the makeshift picture theatre in the hall near the single men's quarters, long before movies were held in the Community Hall.

Roger's father worked in administration as the Industrial Officer at Poatina for just over six years, but it was the family's involvement with the Tigers football club which evokes many memories for Roger about both his parents.

Football was a big part of the town's life, and for Roger his Dad's association with the football club meant extra jobs for him as well. Though his Dad was the club treasurer for many years, he also took on the task of keeping the ground watered all year round to maintain the quality of the surface. While his mates would be heading off to have fun, especially on the weekends, Roger and his brothers would join their Dad down at the ground, moving the sprinklers around to get the job done.

“I can still see my Mum in her apron behind the counter of the kiosk at the footy.”

The gaps between the boards where you stood at the kiosk proved to be a source of unexpected pocket money for Roger and his mates. At the end of a football match they would scrounge around under the kiosk to retrieve coins inadvertently dropped during the day.

It seems everyone who was in town on the day of the “Big Wind” in June 1961 has their tale of the destruction it caused. Unlike every other Saturday during the football season, Roger was not at the game that day. At home with two of his sisters, they noticed the wind start up around lunchtime, increasing to such an extent that from their vantage point inside their house on the corner of Gordon St and Denison Ave, they saw bits and pieces of building materials flying off in all directions from the roof of the Chalet, which at that stage was not fully built.

The three of them moved strategically to a safer place in the house as the timber garages opposite their house were ripped from their foundations, then propelled by the sheer force of the wind towards them across the road. The light pole on the corner was sheared off its moorings as the garages proceeded to career down Denison Ave, just missing the corner of their house.

Miraculously, even with houses on both sides of the street, the garages missed everything, but the extensive damage around the town looked for all intents and purposes like a cyclone had hit, with the General Store, along with numerous houses and part of the Community Hall all losing their roofs. The whole town was out and about the next day, surveying the aftermath that would take months to repair.

When the Nuttings first arrived in Poatina the “bottom half” of town as it became known was only starting to develop. “The town itself was divided into the top half, where the brick houses were new, permanent, the roads were sealed, power was underground, and the bottom half, which was eventually far bigger in terms of the number of houses. The roads there though were gravel, dry and dusty in summer and muddy in winter, power was strung up on poles, and the houses were old wooden things, rough sawn weatherboard houses that had been shifted round four or five times prior to coming to Poatina. So it was like a town of two halves.”

For the kids in town Roger felt it was never an issue, with no distinction being made between the two, and has no recollection whether such distinctions were made by the adults. “It didn't seem to matter though, because the commercial heart of town was up the top end and everyone revolved around that anyway.”

Businesses within the town flourished as the population grew, and even the main store provided Roger with some fond memories.

“The two greatest smells I can remember come from the store. I used to have to go up and pick up the bread every day or so. They were big crusty high top loaves wrapped in white tissue with your name on it. The smell was just unbelievable. They were these big crusty things, and you used to shuffle through until you found the one with your name on it. There was also a coffee grinding machine in the store. I was never a coffee drinker, but as a kid I used to walk past and the smell was just sensational. I'll never forget it.”

One of the more memorable events for Roger was the visit in 1962 of Tania Verstak, crowned Miss Australia in 1961 and Miss International in 1962. The whole town was abuzz leading up to her visit, but Roger was in a quandary. Coinciding with the day of her visit he believed he was also due to receive an award at Cubs. All the work and testing had been done, so Roger concluded the Cub leader Mrs Ballantyne would be presenting the award that day. While everyone else was keying themselves up for Tania Verstak to arrive, Roger headed off to Cubs, knowing he would miss out on the excitement of her visit. Unfortunately for him, the award was not ready, and even now he can remember the disappointment he felt as a child at missing out both ways, and having nothing memorable to talk about with his mates the next day.

The old radio serials like Dad and Dave, Greenbottle and the like were always favourites, as television was unheard of for a number of years in Poatina. Even in the early 60's only a handful of people had a television, and Roger remembers gaining a lot more enjoyment out of his Dad's old valve radio down in the shed. Turning the dial and attempting to tune in to the latest Beatles song in between the crackling and whistling became a favourite pastime as the British group's popularity and fame spread worldwide. One of the town's teenagers, Janice Leary became the envy of all the town's young people, as she was the only Poatina resident to actually go to the Beatles concert in Melbourne in 1964.

The isolation of Poatina was nothing like that experienced on previous Hydro projects such as Tarraleah, Butler's Gorge or Bronte Park where Roger's father had worked. Whereas the others seemed to be part of a real pioneering era, the construction of Poatina marked the beginning of a new era. Because of the proximity of Cressy, Longford and Launceston, Poatina residents had stronger links with the wider community. Even though that was the case, the community was still a closeknit one, and Roger believes there is no comparison between the era he grew up in as a child, and that in which his own children grew up. The facilities and services we take for granted today were a big deal back then.

“Those of us who experienced places like Poatina were pretty lucky I reckon. I can't think of one word that would describe it. It was just a healthy environment, it was good, it was thoroughly enjoyable.”

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