In a book of letters just out, Judith Wright, one of Braidwood's most famous residents, describes her pleasure in the "very crumbly though imposing building" in Wallace Street where she lived in 1976 - now the very smart and still imposing building that houses the Altenburg Gallery and Cafe. Here Judith lived for a year, while "Edge", her house at Half Moon, was built.
The "Old Bank Building", as it was then called, was semi-derelict, with a primitive old wood-fired stove in the vast kitchen that is now the cafe kitchen. "Plaster falls off the ceiling in chunks, the roof leaks, but I have five rooms intact and a warm stove, and nobody has yet broken an ankle through the veranda boards." The letters document her delight in Braidwood, in those days "a rather crumbly and historic town", and speak of the new surge of poetic energy the move gave her. The weather she describes is almost as unrecognizable to today's inhabitants as the description of the dilapidated old country town - "as usual, the mountains are blowing wind and rain at us," she complains, as she sets out to "paddle up to the Post Office".
Judith's Braidwood years, which lasted from 1976 until her move to Canberra in 1997 at the age of 82, are documented in detail in the new book, With Love and Fury, the Selected Letters of Judith Wright. The letters are lyrical about her delight in the local landscape at Half Moon, and also include those she wrote during the five years she spent back in Braidwood, this time living in what she called "The Stable" behind the Altenburg Gallery and Cafe, after loss of hearing forced her to move from her beloved property "Edge".
With Love and Fury will be launched at the National Library on the 3rd of March, and will have a special Braidwood launch at the Two Fires Festival that celebrates Judith Wright and her legacy, held in Braidwood from March 30 to April 1 this year.
Email a friend