Written by Louise Cranny, longtime resident of Kalang Valley. I arrived in the Bellingen area on the back of a 750cc Honda in 1975 at the tender age of 18. This was the Shire. I had just read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and, just like Lord of the Rings, it was green, it was fertile, and it was beautiful. I had come up for the weekend to visit a friend. He said I could stay. So I did. I left my depression, my honour’s stream university course, my worried family, and stayed. I