The work has been challenging, but the rewards great for Peter and Merry Jeffrey as they built up Snowy River Camp over four decades. But now the couple is content to strike camp
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The paddock had potential, but little else in 1973.
No useful water supply, no internal fences and only two and a half boundary ones, a bountiful crop of thistles and only a dozen trees across more than 70 hectares.
Fencing in the Tallangatta Valley property became an immediate priority for new owners Peter and Merry Jeffrey, who also installed 11 huts transferred from Bandiana and two more from Khancoban.
As they moved their horses and cattle on to the farm, they were already advertising children’s holidays for the next school break, six weeks after the purchase date.
From these beginnings, the Jeffreys developed a popular campsite where school, church, sporting and family groups could come and experience the countryside as well as activities like horse riding, rock climbing, abseiling and canoeing.
It took Mr and Mrs Jeffrey 30 years, however, to decide on a name they both liked for their venture; originally Tooma Pony Ranch when they bought the business, it later became Tooma Ranch, then Tooma Host Farm and finally, in 2006, Snowy River Camp, as it is today.
But a more significant change occurred in December when the Jeffreys left the parcel they have transformed over four and a half decades.
The physical demands of hosting camps, the biggest of which saw 340 scouts travel down Tallangatta Creek Valley Road to join them, encouraged Mr and Mrs Jeffrey, now 73 and 70 respectively, to move on without regret.
“Ten years ago we might have been a bit sad, but it’s time,” Mr Jeffrey said.
The pair will continue to live locally, which has allowed a transition period where they can assist new owners Brian and Tanya McErlain, a couple originally from Melbourne who had been looking for a change of lifestyle and a business to match.
“We didn’t even know where Tallangatta was, initially,” Mr McErlain said.
With backgrounds in teaching and banking, the McErlains have enjoyed settling into country life with their children Sean, 8, and Layla, 6.
“It’s good to find something where you can get hands-on, it’s a challenge but it beats sitting at a desk all day long,” Mr McErlain said.
“Our first group over Christmas was 100 people, so we certainly learnt a lot that week.”
A similar baptism of fire occurred 45 years earlier as Mr and Mrs Jeffrey took over from Louise and Lloyd Turner, who had started the camp in 1960 at Tooma.
Mrs Jeffrey said the business began at its new site with facilities somewhat basic.
Just use your imagination, dear, this will be your dining room in two weeks. I'm sure it will have a roof by then
- An understanding parent early on
“An understanding parent conducting an inspection was overheard saying to her daughter prior to camp, ‘Just use your imagination, dear, this will be your dining room in two weeks. I am sure it will have a roof by then’,” she recalled.
Children’s holiday programs, army and university groups provided most guests in the early days as the accommodation grew from four to 21 bedrooms able to sleep 86 people, plus two campsites for tents, a sports stadium and dining areas indoors and out.
Mr and Mrs Jeffrey found themselves being mum and dad to 25 children at a time, with a stock whip used – for dramatic effect only – to keep order when needed at lights out.
Over the years more families came to stay, one of which included a school teacher who thought his class would enjoy a trip to the country.
This launched Snowy River Camp as a school camp destination, a focus that continues although all holiday makers and travellers can be accommodated.
Tallangatta Valley supplied many staff members in the early years but, as the Jeffreys and nearby residents aged, more overseas staff joined them.
Being horse people, Mr and Mrs Jeffrey took naturally to overseeing riding activities with the camp’s horses, 60 of them at its peak. Horseback safaris involved five days of fully catered riding through the mountains.
Mr Jeffrey, driving the back-up vehicle, sometimes had to negotiate 100 kilometres of rough bush tracks with the supplies and tents when the horses only did 26km a day.
“On one safari he ended up down a gully upside down in the land rover and the horses had to pull him out,” Mrs Jeffrey said.
With the change of owners, Snowy River Camp has moved away from horse activities, which the Jeffreys described as “a great leveller”.
For example, children perhaps inclined to bully could be put on a similarly challenging horse and more timid riders placed on well-behaved animals.
“The bully would be shaking like a leaf and the kid that’s normally scared and no good at sport would be out the front saying ‘Hey, look at me!’,” Mrs Jeffrey said.
A friend involved with Lions Club led the Jeffreys to provide some free camps for disadvantaged children while other outings involved people with physical or intellectual disabilities.
“They get so much out of it,” Mrs Jeffrey said. “Having kids that have never touched an animal before is just fantastic.”
Of course, that alpaca did not always co-operate when children wanted a pat.
“We used to have to grab him and hold him and threaten him and say ‘Be good!’,” Mrs Jeffrey laughed.
A present Snowy River Camp fixture is Bambi the fallow deer, found by a staff member when only one day old sleeping in the middle of the road next to his slain mother.
Five years later, Bambi has been raised around dogs and treats them like family.
“He grooms the dogs, he expects the dogs to groom him, but they don’t,” Mrs Jeffrey said.
“He’s just very affectionate and he loves kids, loves having kids here to play with.”
Sometimes though, Bambi finds the campers’ meals a little too appealing and has to be banished to the sheep paddock, where he might try to round up the occupants.
The resident wombats, mostly nocturnal, also make their presence felt; Mrs McErlain is engaged in a daily stand-off with one inhabitant.
“Each night she just pulls out all the red clay on to the footpath, and I sweep it back, and she brings it all out again,” Mrs McErlain said wryly.
Mr and Mrs Jeffrey appreciate the McErlains being willing and able to handle the animals along with every other aspect of the multifaceted property.
Although ready to step back now, the Jeffreys enjoyed all those years of sharing Snowy River Camp with the wider community.
Mr Jeffrey said he never grew tired of watching the children master challenges like the camp's long flying fox.
“They come in, they’re dead scared, they’re shaking,” he said.
“Once they get going it’s good; as they have three or four or five goes, you can see their confidence building, it’s very rewarding.”