Pittwater Life March 2017 Issue

Life Stories
Great
Scots
Long-term residents Cass and
Bill Gye recount the decades of
change and challenges living
offshore on Scotland Island.
Story by Rosamund Burton
It’s Sunday afternoon and several
Scotland Island residents have gathered
at Church Point Wharf to enjoy a
few drinks and the live music at the
Waterfront Café. I am meeting Bill and
Cass Gye, who arrive a few minutes late
due to a problem with their outboard
motor.
Sitting on a bench looking across the
water to Scotland Island, Cass tells me
that she came here 40 years ago. Having
grown up on the Northern Beaches, she
was looking for somewhere to build.
“I found this wonderful block at the top
of the island, with a huge rock shelf and
cave.” She bought the land with her partner
at the time and started building. In 1980
she met Bill, when he came to visit some
friends, who had bought a house nearby.
In 1981 Bill and Cass travelled
together to India. Bill was attending a
Transpersonal Conference in Mumbai,
and Cass was keen to visit Mhow. Here,
aged 16, her Anglo-Indian mother had
married her English father, and three of
her five siblings were born.
Bill, it transpires, also has Asian roots.
His great-grandfather was Chinese and
came to Bendigo during the gold rush
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in the 1850s. However, that did not
precipitate Cass and Bill going to Canton.
Instead, they travelled through India,
Nepal and Ladakh for 18 months, then
finished building the house on Scotland
Island, before their daughter Tashi was
born in 1985.
When Cass first came here there were
only 200 houses on the island. Today
there are 360.
“I loved it when there weren’t many
people, but I also love the community
now.”
Scotland Island’s residents are a
diverse group including people working
in essential services, such as nurses and
teachers, others in IT and banking, as well
as many artists and musicians.
“There is a certain eccentricity of the
demographic, which unites people,”
reflects Bill. “You’ve got to be a little brave
to want to do that journey across the
water every night to get home.”
For a couple of years in the late ’80s
Bill and Cass didn’t own a boat. Bill was
doing his Masters in Cognitive Science
at the University of NSW. Cass used their
car, to drive from her administration
job in Pyrmont in time to collect Tashi
MARCH 2017
from family day care and catch the ferry
home each day. So, Bill used to travel via a
change of buses from Kensington to Mona
Vale and either catch a taxi or hitchhike
to Church Point, where he’d arrive at
11.30pm, and then wait at the wharf for a
lift to the island.
“I always got a lift – but once had to wait
until 1.30am,” he says.
Currently, Bill is a FIFO worker. He
is CEO of Ostara Australia, the largest
provider of employment services in
Australia for people living with mental
illness. “I fly to Melbourne on Monday
morning and come home on Thursday
night.” Prior to this he was General
Manager for the Schizophrenia Fellowship
of NSW Recovery Services, and used to
drive from Church Point to Gladesville
every day.
Bill was awarded a Medal of the Order
of Australia in 2014 for his work in social
community, particularly disadvantage
communities, as well as for his
community service on Scotland Island.
In 1992 he became President of the
Scotland Island Residents’ Association, a
year later Cass became the secretary, and
they have contributed to the community