Specifications

AUSOM & AUSOM News on the Internet34 v AUSOM News April 2009
Peter Hunter ([e-mail])
Karma
O
n Black Saturday, AUSOM
lost a member in the fires
at Kinglake. Her name was
Karma Hastwell and she deserves
to be remembered by the wider
community in the same way as she
was amongst her small group of
friends, some of whom died with her.
It is unlikely you would have heard of
Karma; I was lucky enough to make her
acquaintance because she had a problem with her
Mac and saw my name in the yellow pages of the
Magazine, and called me. As her problem was too
difficult to solve on the phone, she invited me up to
her single bedroom home which she had built, nestled
below the top of a ridge, on Bald Spur
Road inside the boundary of the
National Park.
She had somehow managed to trade
two blocks of land on the southern
boundary of the Kinglake National
Park for one inside the northern
boundary on the condition that her
property return to National Park
on her death and that her home be
bulldozed and allowed to return to
native bushland.
Her reason for this move was so that
she could be closer to her beloved
lyrebirds, which she knew by name.
Imagine my surprise when, sitting
at her Mac, I looked up to see a lyrebird meandering
quite at ease outside her home which was fitted with
floor to ceiling windows looking out down the heavily
wooded valley towards the east and Kinglake.
‘Karma! Is that a lyrebird?’
‘Well, let me look. If he has a russet mark on his chest,
it will be Wicked.’ And so it turned out to be. I didn’t
get a photo of Wicked, but Junior turned up later
and he allowed me to walk up close enough to take a
photo.
Every morning, the 87 year-old Karma,
severely restricted in movement by arthritis,
would make her way, shaky step by shaky
step, to the end of her house to make sure
that her birds had fresh water and, in the
drought, some food to supplement their
diet. She would weep when telling me of
the lack of food available for the wildlife.
Karma knew the risk she was taking by
living where and how she did. Only two
weeks before she died, we spoke on the phone about
my visiting her. She told me to wait until April
when the lyrebirds would be more active and the
countryside less dangerous. Her friendly neighbours
planned to pick her up and evacuate if there was
danger. They did manage to collect
her but, alas, the danger so rapidly
became an inferno and consumed
them all.
Karma had a difficult childhood,
and worked extremely hard over a
very long time to achieve her dream
and find the sense of peace and
belonging that I suspect we all seek
in life. In the four years I knew her,
it was clear that she was a deeply
caring, passionate, even fearsome,
defender of wild life, especially
the lyrebirds, but also any other
animals, birds or reptiles that sought
sanctuary in her small patch of land.
Nor was she restricted in her language in the way
most 87 year-olds might be. On one visit, I saw my
mother-in-law (a lady of similar age) lifted clean out
of her chair by the force of Karma’s invective against
something or someone who had displeased her. Karma
was a powerful force to be reckoned with.
She will be greatly missed by all those who knew and
admired her as well as those who subscribe to the
Scribbly Gum forum.
z
Editor’s Note: On this page I had planned to reproduce notes from
the last iWork Special Interest Group.
The above contribution conveys far more about the real AUSOM — the real AUSOM is, in
my mind at least, the Members.
The above is recognises and honours ALL who help others.
Please read the article on page 10 and look at the tribute on your cover this month.
Think about the real AUSOM. If you think you might be able to help to continue to
support people wanting to gain more from their use of Apple Products contact any of the
volunteers listed on page 2 of the yellow section.