Woodend’s beloved town crier, Barry McDonald, is a well-known face around the beautiful village. After moving from the city 30 years ago, he and his family have laid down their roots, and he works to make the lives of people in his community a little brighter where he can. Barry tells Elsie Lange about his love for the town and its landcsape, his favourite spots and his poetry.
Tell us a bit about you and what you do?
I’m a retired teacher and criminologist. I started and ran a school in the inner west of Melbourne for young people having trouble. Later I taught and worked as a counsellor in schools in this region. In retirement I’m involved in a number of community groups that aim to improve life in our community: Woodend Lions, Settle Woodend and the ALP. Other than that we have a reasonable sized garden and live the dream.
What’s your connection to Woodend?
When we were up to our neck with our city lives we sought sanctuary on weekends in a little spot near the Wombat Forest. As we began a family we decided that Woodend would be a good place to do it and found a great spot here where we’ve been for over 30 years. I’ve always thought that ‘it takes a village to raise children’ and that active contribution in village life is part of that. Now it’s just our home and our community.
What do you like about where you live?
Like many communities, this one contributes and looks after the people in it. There are a good number of contributors here. That adds to all the lives in it; I love that here. It’s good to be known and know my neighbours. There is fun to be had, help to offer and experiences to have. There are few anonymous walks down the street or around a market. I love all the seasons here and the dramatic changes that unfold. I have loved going for walks in the many beautiful places around.
What, if anything, would you change about where you live?
We got stuck in when the town plan was being redrafted and we now have a state legislated town boundary and that ensures that the town won’t just sprawl out in every direction. It looks like a new community centre is coming after some years of our work. The council has been good to work with. I hope over time we can improve pedestrian and cyclist access around the town for the whole community to use. Kids walk to their school buses, oldies on scooters come into town and people have to make their way with pushers and toddlers.
Where is your favourite local place to spend time?
There is no one place here for me. Sure, there’s the Thursday afternoon gatherings at the pub with many locals, the fun of market days and the buzz of Saturday mornings in the High Street, but there’s also meetings where we gather to solve problems, working bees on stuff that needs to be done and misty mornings walking with the dog around the race course.
Tell us something people would be surprised to know about you.
Most probably don’t know that I have been a poet most of my life with a past in the ‘scene’, which took many of us to hundreds of readings and the Melbourne Town Hall, published and all. Some Facebook folk have read my offerings through these Covid years.
