Ranger Peter (honorary)
In 1961, my parents bought a property in the bush somewhere between Epping, Beecroft and Carlingford. They were the third family in the area - the Johansen family were at the end of Merinda Place well before my parents built, and the Dawson's were up in Dawson St.
Plympton Road and Magnolia Avenue were dirt roads in my very early memories. My father was an avid gardener and was proactive when it came to looking after the bushland around his home. Somehow, he was made an honorary ranger in the Hornsby Shire and I grew up with the idea that he was the ranger of Ray Park. I don’t know the facts…I was a little boy who loved his Dad and Ray Park was the place we went to fly kites and balsa planes, play on the swings, have cracker night bonfires, kick footballs and generally run amok. I still have his ranger badge, so I guess he really was a ranger.
19 Plympton Road was my home from birth in 1964 until I left home at the age of 22. Ray Park is one of the strongest memories I have of my childhood and this cache celebrates the man who was half of the team who raised me. My parents separated in 1972 and Dad moved to Glebe, where he continued his passion for looking after his local area.
My mother was the local physiotherapist and chiropractor in that house for many years, until she moved up to the Central Coast. There is a cache for her in Baulkham Hills, where she now resides with Alzheimer’s, (Nonna’s Cache).
I have come to understand that geocachers are a special kind of people who understand things ordinary people do not quite get. This place is sacred for this one cacher and I want these memories to carry on for a little longer. I could go on and on about things that happened in this park…playing all kinds of sport with my best friend Peter, (another one), and those two cars that would meet here almost every morning – I was sure those two were having an affair!
Ranger Peter passed away in 1979, at the age of 51. Way too early, but his asthma was almost a trademark, and it eventually got the better of him.
Peter Marrett Nicolle 1928 -1979.