‘Every turn of the wheel gets us that little bit closer’ my mother would say when my siblings and I asked yet again, just how much longer it would be until we reached our destination. A few hours in the car felt like forever when the anticipation to see our cousins, was filled with so much excitement. We grew up in the flat farming land of Numurkah, in Northern Victoria and we had cousins in the undulating landscape of the much bigger Albury Wodonga, which was, in comparison, such a mecca.
Mum would also always say, on our drives over, ‘when you can see the hills, we are getting very close.’ We would spend endless days exploring, enjoying each others company, playing shop in their bakery, watching the Australian Open in the summer and staying up late to catch Wimbledon in the winter, our mums would indulge in Beestings washed down with Cockatoo Ridge sparkling wine; I believe more than one empty bottle of Cockatoo Ridge and a half eaten Beesting was found under the couch, when they moved out of that house. But most of all the pinnacle of any trip to Albury Wodonga, for me, was a visit to Frog Hollow, the leisure park which had a maze, mini golf and a café for our mums to relax in while us kids took off. I never once completed that maze without cheating or that mini golf course without losing my cool, but gosh I loved it. To this day I am still obsessed with mini golf and mazes and am known for planning trips and holidays around whether or not there are mazes and mini golf to indulge in. Our family was devasted when the news of Frog Hollow’s closure was announced in the late 90’s and we all assumed or rather hoped that it would re-open.
Jump forward a couple of decades and as fate would have it, I find myself moving to Albury Wodonga for work and have now made this part of the world my home. When I moved here my little brother sat me down and said ‘Alyce, your first order of business has to be to re-open Frog Hollow’, I grinned and said ‘I would see what I could do.’ Upon moving to town, I conducted some investigations and discovered that the property had been sold, some of the parks infrastructure still existed but not a great deal was left behind to salvage. I often drive past the South Albury location, the familiar turn off to the park’s entrance still evokes so many memories, of the hours and hours of fun we had as kids. Oh, how I would love to re-open the park for a big weeklong party for us 80’s and 90’s kids, who loved this place so much. But perhaps it is better that Frog Hollow lives strong in our memories as a place of such joy.
As I now venture towards my next phase, bringing new life earth side, I reflect on my fond memories of long school holidays, filled with playing with cousins in the lush surrounds of Albury Wodonga and I really hope that I can help my little one create those memories of their very own.
