Acknowledgements

Making any book must always be a team effort; making this one has been an exceptional team effort. It was apparent from the start that a history of our Club could only be produced by a number of its members working together. This is what happened. Without payment, giving freely of their time, a large number of Club members have researched the archives, delved into memories and interviewed the `oldies', to produce a history of one of the oldest Melbourne bushwalking clubs. Although all the writers and `backstage' helpers are amateurs we have been greatly assisted by two professionals: Barbara Weiss, our editor, who gave up vast amounts of her free time to do more of what she does for a living, and Pauline McClenahan, a professional designer who was persuaded to get involved with a bunch of Bushies who wanted to write their history.

Fascinating details of the authors are included elsewhere in this book; I thank them all for their marvellous efforts. Some of them also contributed in other ways during the production process Athol Schafer, Sylvia Wilson, Barry Short, Liz Telford and Tracy Guest. Other bushies who must be thanked include: Fred Halls, for reading the manuscript and giving us the benefit of his long experience; Rob Ayre, for helping us make sense of many different computer-produced documents; Bill Metzenthen, for a magnificent job collecting, collating and sifting photo-graphs; Gina Hopkins, for much deft working on the keyboard; Jan Llewelyn, for her expert editing help; Doug Pocock for research and Trish Elmore for sales and general support. Many other Bushies helped by supplying treasured photographs and memorabilia thank you.

I hope that you will agree with me that this book makes fascinating reading. It has been a thrilling experience for me to work with such a great bunch of people and to find that the spirit and enthusiasm of the Bushies is as strong now as it was in the past. Thank you, all you Bushies past and present, for the privilege of helping to put together an account of the past fifty years.

Derrick Brown

Editorial and Production