Clarence Valley move heals wounds from Bali bombing loss

Taking a lead role at the cutting edge of education in the Clarence Valley is a world away from the tragedy of the 2002 Bali bombings.

COUNTRY LIFE: Centre manager of Country Universities Centre Clarence Valley Melanie Lamb with one of her horses. Picture: Adam Hourigan

WHEN you meet someone who radiates a positive outlook, such as the new centre manager of Country Universities Centre Clarence Valley Melanie Lamb, it's a shock to learn they have dark corners in their lives.

In Mrs Lamb's case, the corner was one of the darkest chapters in Australia's history, the 2002 Bali bombings, when her first husband, Shane Walsh-Till, was one of 202 victims, including 88 Australians, killed when terrorists detonated a bomb in the crowded tourist venues Paddy's Pub and another outside the Sari Club.

The couple had been living the dream, working overseas in Europe and Asia and meeting up in Bali with family and friends they met in Munich, Germany.

On that day, October 12, Shane and an English friend, John Elwood, decided to head out for a beer at a night club.

"My sister had been stung on the finger by a bee," Mrs Lamb said.

"We went out looking for a chemist to buy anti-histamines.

"We went back to our hotel for an early night. The boys never came home."

The shock of the event began a profound change for Mrs Lamb, a teacher who up to that time had been following opportunities around the world.

She lived in Munich for three years and Hong Kong for two more.

"After 2002 I got a job in Somerset College and stayed there for 16 years as director of sport and PE teacher."

She met and married BMX coach Justin Lamb and together they have brought up her two daughters Alijana, 14, and Milla, 13, from a previous relationship.

In fact it was the daughters and their love of horses that inspired the couple to move from the Gold Coast to the Clarence Valley and their "patch of heaven" at Waterview Heights.

"It was in April last year," Mrs Lamb said. "We had come to Grafton for a BMX clinic and were really taken by the area.

"During the three-hour drive back home, Justin and I were discussing it and we both realised that we just had to do it and move here."

Once their minds were made up things moved swiftly.

By mid-July 2018 the couple were on their Waterview Heights property and Mrs Lamb had a job as a casual teacher at the Clarence Valley Anglican School.

"CVAS was a great place to work, but I was always looking for a full-time job," she said.

"When the job came up at the university centre, I applied for it, but I wasn't successful, so I kept looking.

"Then out of the blue I got this phone call asking if I was still interested in the position. So here I am."

Ms Lamb is ready to open the doors of the centre. Picture: Tim Howard

For a person with a working lifetime dedicated to education, the role of centre manager at Grafton CUC has no downside.

"This is pretty much the changing face of education," she said.

"The world is changing. When I was at uni you would turn up on Monday for a two-hour lecture and there would be 100 people there.

"The next day everyone would go to their tutorials.

"Now you would be lucky to have 25 at a lecture. The rest of them would catch up with the lecture later online."

She said the people had been studying remotely, but had felt themselves isolated, which was contributing to a massive drop out rate in universities.

"Country Universities Centres bring the campus element back to remote study," she said. "People are able to come in here to do their course and can meet other students, like they would on a university campus."

Mrs Lamb was also excited at the variety of opportunities Country Universities Centres create for students.

"You can study at just about any university in Australia, without leaving your home town," she said.

"You can look at courses at Deakin or Swinburne, for example if you're doing any range of courses from a Diploma to Masters and see which one suits you best.

"There's so many different and broader choices you can make."

With the Clarence Valley Campus in Grafton due to open on August 5, Mrs Lamb is excited about the future of tertiary education in Grafton.

"It's so exciting to be part of this and to work with such great people like (CUC board members) Michael Rowe and Fiona Leviny," she said.

She reserved special praise for CUC founder Duncan Taylor for his vision in founding the Country Universities Centre movement from his home at Cooma. Grafton's CUC Clarence Valley is the eighth to come on line.

Despite wearing some controversy because of articles linking the successful funding of his project to the his family's political links - Mr Taylor is the brother of Federal Liberal MP Angus Taylor and the husband of Nationals NSW Upper House MP Bronnie Taylor - the success of students from the initial CUCs was proof of their worth.

"Duncan is a such a special person," she said. "For a farmer and a businessman to come up with this vision and to achieve so much is really special.

She said Mr Taylor's background in rural areas may have been the secret of their success.

"His knowledge of what rural people are looking for shows in the structure of the centres and their locations," she said.

The uptake of students for the Grafton campus has also been impressive with 15 people signed up even before the campus headquarters in the old Red Cross Hall in Pound St was close to opening.

"We got a wide range of students, from a lady doing a Masters in Terrorism and Cyber Security to kids from high school enrolling for the first time," she said.

"The other day I had a really exciting thing happen. I was interviewing a student interested in studying here.

"While we were talking her phone rang and she learned she had just won a $18,000 scholarship to study.

"She had been having trouble studying at home. She found herself putting on a load of washing, instead of studying.

"Having a place to study away from home, but in her home town, will make sure she really gets her money's worth from that scholarship."

The Lambs believe they will be sticking around the Clarence Valley for a while.

"We are loving our new country life and can see ourselves here for the long haul.

"And with the university centre here for our children it makes it a great place for us to bring up our family."

Originally published as Clarence Valley move heals wounds from Bali bombing loss