Pittwater Life March 2017 Issue

ever since. As committee members for
many years they have grappled with the
issues of the management of the dirt
roads, drainage and storm water, as well as
the island’s lack of water and wastewater
and other infrastructure and services. On
Australia Day Cass received an award for
Outstanding Community Service.
“Cass has the ability to influence people
in a very collegial way,” Bill tells me, “and
I’ve been fairly good at marshalling people
together.”
“We’re a bit of a double act,” interjects
Cass. “Bill leads and I come from behind.”
But, she stresses, they are just two of the
many committee members and residents
who put numerous hours into supporting
the island community in a host of
different ways.
The kilometre-long Scotland Island
does not have its own water, so residents
rely on rainwater tanks and a water pipe
from the mainland. For over 20 years
until the end of 2016 Cass was one of
two water monitors, checking meters
and coordinating times for houses to
get access to the island’s emergency
water supply and keeping an eye on the
maintenance of the waterline. Having
done that job for so long means that she
knows most of the island’s approximately
715 inhabitants by name.
“In an Island Players review one year
there was a character called Queen
Cassaurina, who people had to bow to,
in order to get water. For a week after
everyone was bowing to Cass,” Bill
recounts.
An issue that has consumed Bill for
25 years has been the parking at Church
Point. The Point, he explains, is sheltered
from the wind, and is the closest landing
place for most of the Scotland Island’s
households, and also the 155 other
offshore households at McCarrs Creek,
Elvina and Towlers Bays on Pittwater’s
western shore. The car ownership average
for these communities is 1.23 cars per
household, and all those cars need to be
parked somewhere. Between 1992 and
now, Bill says, he has been to 250 meetings
regarding parking at Church Point.
“I have 10 cardboard boxes full of old
plans and minutes of the meetings, which
nobody wants,” he grins. A car park, with
spaces for 120 vehicles is currently being
built, which Bill says will help alleviate the
parking issue considerably.
Bill and Cass talk about the island’s
book clubs, music and theatre
performances, the monthly fire shed
dinners during winter, festivals and
fairs and the annual Scotland Island Dog
Race on Christmas Eve. The entry fee is
a longneck of cold beer and a can of dog
food for this 500-metre doggie paddle race
from Bell Wharf to Church Point.
“Sassy, the golden Labrador we’ve been
looking after for the last week, won the
Diesel Trophy, the award for the fastest
local dog, two years in a row,” Cass
recounts.
But despite the camaraderie, island
living isn’t for everyone.
“People come here with a romantic
idea of living on an island, but there are
challenges,” explains Bill, such as getting
over to the island in bad weather.
Families often move away when the
children are teenagers, because getting to
and from the mainland becomes too hard.
Tashi had a job at Terrey Hills Tavern as
a teenager, and Cass would get in their
tinnie at 1am to pick her up from the
wharf.
Bill and Cass make the 120-metre
climb from Bell Wharf to their house via
steps and dirt roads. They carry up small
amounts of shopping and otherwise
rely on the community vehicle funded
through a community transport scheme
and manned by volunteer drivers.
“There’s a lot of physicality involved
with living here,” Cass says, and now both
well into their 60s, they are thinking about
whether in 10 years’ time they’ll still be
able to climb up the steps, or need to have
a car on the island, or even move away.
“I don’t like the idea of leaving the
island or Pittwater,” says Cass. “It’s a very
vibrant community, very unique, and I
love being part of it.”
Life Stories
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Cass
and Bill with their island home
in the background; daughter
Tashi with childhood friends;
Cass and Bill dolled up for
the Scotland Island Fireman’s
Ball; mayhem and fun during
the Christmas Eve Dog Race;
accepting her Australia Day
Award; the old Pasadena site
at Church Point; an old land
release poster for Scotland
Island dating back 111 years.
MARCH 2017 29
PHOTOS: Supplied;