My experience of village life is probably completely different to the majority on this list. This is Village life Oz style. When married I lived in Sydney. My husband Jeff was a Systems Programmer and I was working for an Insurance Company. Finally, when I fell pregnant with our first child Jeff wanted to get out of the pressure and move back to the family property (6,000 acres) and raise the kids in the bush. His dad had died a few years earlier and his brother with the aid of a co-worker and mum were living there. My only concern were snakes as I hate them. Jeff's comment "Don't worry, in all my years there I have only seen 2 in the yard. Unfortunately he had forgotten that his family had moved into the old house which hadn't been lived in for many years and had open drains - it was used to store this and that. The reason for this move was that mum's house had burnt to the ground - lost everything - the bank for an overdraft of a few thousand dollars would not release the insurance money to build a new house. This was in the 70's. Gulargmbone is 350m north west of Sydney - on the road to Lightning Ridge and in between Gilgandra and Coonamble. Population of 500 including the outlying properties. It comprised of 2 Stock and Station Agents, Milk Bar, Corner Shop, Garage x 3, small super market and Caps News agency where you could buy everything from newspapers to work clothes - all at fantastic prices according to Cap a Central School, 3 churches a pub, tennis, bowls and golf club and a hospital. Life was interesting in my first few years every where I went I seemed to attract a snake (Jeff could not believe it) we had a doctor on Monday morn and if you could get into see him you wold have to travel 50k's to get the script filled or ring the Chemist in Coonamble and have it delivered the next day. Dentist 50k's away. For major shopping and specialist testament you would drive to Dubbo 1 1/2 hours away. It was a small friendly community where you made your own fun. We used to have blackouts every time a cloud came over. When the kids were older we used to play a game called "This is how they lived in the Olden Days". The heat was a shocker, the house was brick - built in the early 1900's - the first in the area and after prolonged 40C was like an oven. All the bricks and tiles were made on the place. Unfortunately it was built on sandy soil - therefore shifted a lot which was obvious with the cracks in the walls and how the pillars moved to an awful angle. For interest I played sport and later involved with the school - Mum was heavily involved in Church groups, Red Cross and others in CWA (Country Women's Association) and Hospital Auxiliaries. There was a large Aboriginal community. It was quite interesting to talk to the older ones of their life growing up in what was called the "Old Mission". It was an area that was fenced off on the other side of the river. I remember one lady telling me how she was not allowed to venture outside the fence because they were scared of the Chinese. Anyway enough of my prattling. Probably more info than you wanted. ROS Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address. www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail