Hockley Dental: Fill & Download for Free

I was only about six years old when I got Novacane poisoning. I had a couple of bad baby teeth, so my parents took me to the dentist in a northern New South Wales (Australian) town. This was 1950, so the dental facilities were not numerous, and this man - Dr McBean - was a rough old sod.He decided to take six of my teeth out and gave me two needles for each one - 12 needles! I was deathly ill, but he apparently persuaded my parents not to take me to the hospital. Of course, he would have been “done” for it, if they had. Just as well for him that I actually survived.I heard when I grew up, that he was eventually “done” for performing abortions in the back room of his dental clinic and was struck off.To this day I will NOT have an injection for pain when I have a filling or other issue, but I am not stupid! I DO have an injection for an extraction, but my toes curl up, I cling grimly to the arms of the dental chair and I hiss a little… :(

Unfortunately, the lowest wages are quite often less than the welfare benefits, and it is understandable why some people wouldn't want to work. It's pure economics. Australia is in the same position where low pay is less than the benefits and they really have to do something about it. There was a woman on the TV just the other night who has kids and gets $1000 per fortnight on the parent benefits. She would get around $450 per week in a low paid full time job if she was lucky, and have to pay travel expenses, lose her medicare card, pharmacy discounts, car discounts for registration, rates and have to pay for dental and hospital bills. She just can't afford to go to work.

In 1995, my husband and I left an outer suburb of Brisbane - Wellington Point - to move to a small rural town, Boonah, an hour + a few minutes from Brisbane or an hour and a half slightly + if the traffic is busy.Our town is in the Valleys of the Scenic Rim, 46 kilometres southwest of Ipswich, an hour from the Gold Coast, an hour from a largish provincial town called Warwick, an hour and a half from a large provincial city called Toowoomba - in fact we are like a small switching station in the middle of a web of large towns!Our population is around 4000 and we have three satellite villages - Kalbar, Harrisville and Aratula, which is on the highway. The farms around here are mainly vegetables, but some have goats, Damara and Dorpa sheep, some cattle, a few poultry and egg farms and I believe there is a piggery somewhere out in the mountains.We are a great day tripper and weekend short-break venue, because we are so close to the main centres. A family can head out on Friday, drive around 1–2 hours, and head home in the afternoon on Sunday. It helps that you don’t have to drive 6 hours to get here! We have an airfield which is heavily patronised by private aircraft - pleasure flights, training and gliders. Also ultra-lights and army helicopters. Often Medivac helicopters come in to ferry out mad rock climbers who get over-excited on Frog Buttress on the side of Mount French :(We are a cultural town, many artists live and work here. We have a terrific hospital and ambulance service and unlike some towns, we have plenty of doctors - two surgeries and the doctor at the hospital! The Public Dental Clinic calls every week, there is a private dentist, podiatrist, 2 optometrists, a chiropractor and two chemists - + a gym and all other businesses. In other words, we lack for nothing!We have a registered regional art gallery, a large cultural centre which attracts local and overseas artists - a conference centre, a theatre and an auditorium which holds 400+ people.Our Cultural Foundation puts on and sponsors plays, musical theatre and we have our second Writer’s Festival set for May this year. We have a huge Arts Festival in September and in early November there is a massive bookfest - literally around 8 - 10 thousand books which are collected throughout the year which makes funds for the library to purchase more books. Our Cultural Foundation Committee also buys and distributes books to the pre-School students throughout the district. Our library, of course, is fantastic! We have several book clubs and a writer’s group.We have a community radio station which broadcasts 24 hours a day with the help of a “stacker” - I produce and present Thursday Night Concert, 7–9pm Brisbane time, live streamed on the net - classical music (in case someone on here is interested!) We also have good internet services.Employment is not too bad - there are frequently jobs advertised in the local weekly rag - but many people drive the 45 minutes to Ipswich or Beaudesert to work. It’s a straight run either way and no traffic lights so it’s less stressful than living and working in Brisbane!It’s only approx an hour and a half to the beach, so if one wants to even work there, they can, though it is a bit of a drive - through beautiful rolling hills and horse country!We have -right now - only two empty spaces on the High Street. The rest of the town is flat out and it’s very hard to find a park in the main street or nearby.We have a primary school and a high school and a private Catholic primary school. Our Community Centre conducts training sessions for young people looking for work and runs a driving mentor program for kids trying to get their 100 hours up to go for their licences. There are two vehicles for this purpose.We have national parks and two lakes nearby - Moogerah and Maroon. Every year a group puts on a Passion Play at Easter at Moogerah in the open air theatre there by the side of the lake.We have a lot of new people coming in and we hope that they will join in the sporting activities which are soccer, rugby, and of course, cricket. We have a dedicated mob who cycle in lycra (lol) and we have a swimming pool which is attached to the high school and open to the public.We also have a magnificent hydrotherapy pool which was built with money raised by a dedicated group of volunteers and which caters to everyone, especially physios and the disabled groups around the Shire (County) who are bussed in on certain days.Volunteers - as usual, this community is carried by the volunteers - Meals on Wheels, the Red Cross (the mobile blood collection van comes 3 monthly) and town Information Centre, Community Garden, Pony Club and the Show Society are all run by volunteers. Social groups abound - the quilters/bridge/choral society et al. So we are just like any other community in a rural Australian town.When Andrew and I came here we had a truckload of mice which became the mouse circus and the Shire welcomed us with open arms - when they realised what we used the mice for! Our circus operated for ten years in southeast Queensland and toured the whole of Queensland and some of New South Wales before we closed (Insurance costs killed it) in 2006. Here is the video: mouse circus Australia on You Tube. Every year at Christmas time we brought the circus down the street and performed for the town who just loved it!Also, to the amazement and confusion of our neighbours in a predominantly commercial beef cattle area where there are cattle that is, we had a Scottish Highland cattle stud (Fold) and when we arrived, a Clydesdale horse team which we used for weddings or anything really.There are many advantages to living in a small Australian town. We are probably the safest place in the country - we do have petty crime, but a very good police force of around 4 officers - Kalbar has 1 and Harrisville I think has 2 or 3 officers because they cover the highway and out the back of Aratula.If you are prepared to join in and volunteer for something, you can make friends very quickly in this town. People will take you at face value - until you do something treacherous! Fortunately, Andrew and I have not blotted our copybook and have received kindness and acceptance. There are people from other nationalities here and they have been accepted into the community without any problems :)We do have drugs in the town - what place doesn’t? - but it is still a good place to raise kids. I am sure that, sadly, domestic violence is lurking in our community, but I don’t know or suspect anyone of being a victim or a perpetrator.We wouldn’t move away from here for “quids.” You can google us under the Scenic Rim Shire Council :)PS:Since the Covid 19 crisis, our town has become a mecca for “tree changers” - people who drive out here on the weekend, some looking for a better lifestyle, others - unable to travel interstate - are searching for somewhere to go for the day to bring some excitement into their lives :) Our town is hopping on weekends, swarming with people dining out and exploring our mountains and lakes.