Honorary Life Membership 1968
Obituary
A substantial obituary describing Harry’s long and eventful life appeared in The Canberra Times on 14 July and the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 July 2010. In preparing this tribute I acknowledge and am grateful for the information provided by former and current members of the Canberra Bushwalking Club.
Harry moved here in 1948 to head the Canberra YMCA. He established Camp Sturt, the YMCA Ski Club, and the YMCA Bushwalking Club, now Family Bushwalkers Inc. His 2nd Antarctic stint as 1960 Wilkes Station OIC led to follow-up work at ANARE Melbourne HQ then lecturing at Melbourne University for the rest of 1961. He knew the first CBC President, Jack Leslie, from his time with the YMCA. Interestingly, the CBC founding meeting resolved that cordial relations were to be maintained with Canberra Alpine Club and the YMCA, and by late 1962 Harry was an active CBC member, leading trips that included instructional ski touring and snow caving, combined with glaciological measurements.
He was CBC President in 1964-65. That year, the Corroboree Frog, drawn by Eleanor Stodart, was adopted as the Club emblem. Harry almost certainly suggested the frog emblem and invited an ANU Botanist to talk about it at the May 1965 meeting. He continued to be involved in CBC activities large and small. For example, the 1966-67 President’s (John Wanless) report acknowledgements include “… Harry Black for all his help and guidance in many matters…”
He became our second Honorary Life Member early in 1968. His wide-ranging interests included bush cooking (such as damper, in many forms) and singing. In 1971 he started a CBC Bush Songs group which gathered monthly and continued well into the 1980s, long after he’d left Canberra. He had an eye for the unusual, for example, organising a 1976 South Coast trip to get an optimal look at a total solar eclipse.
Among his other trips, his annual igloo and snow-caving trips were popular events well into the 1980s, but possibly his most significant and longest-lasting contribution was to help set up a S&R group and keep it active for many years. I well remember a massive S&R practice weekend at Dingo Dell in November 1975 with over 60 people involved including Police, St Johns, the Landrover Club, and Canberra Aero Club – all organised by CBC. Constitution Object 2.6 was taken seriously in those days.
I first met Harry when I, a raw novice, was bravely allowed on a six-day Bob Story Easter 1973 Budawangs trip. Harry, even more than others, was a major source of advice on tent site selection and erection, cooking, walking techniques and bushcraft.
It was also my first encounter with a Harry characteristic summarised in the Story trip report with ” … as it was Harry’s birthday, he was given a relatively free rein to make puns…”. In January 1982, I was working for ANARE and mentioned Harry and other people I knew who had also been to Antarctica. A long-term senior person immediately said he remembered Harry well, that he was one of the best OICs they’d ever had, and “he was always cracking puns” – remembered after 21 years!
A January 1975 trip, cross-country skiing in Kashmir and walking in Nepal, was suggested to Ausventure by Harry. He became the leader, main recruiting agent and trainer – eight of the nine participants were CBC members. Throughout 1974 he organised many Club and private walks and ski tours to prepare for the trip – very necessary for me as I’d never skied before!
In keeping with his training philosophy, many trips were nominally led by others. For example, the record shows I led a December acclimatisation trip camping on top of Kosciuszko, but in practice, the leader’s role was handed to Harry at the top of the chairlift.
As a CSIRO Press Officer, he always had an eye for promotion and marketing. The Canberra Times front page of 28 December 1974 described the trip we’d set out on that day and included a large photograph taken at a farewell party the day before. Four of the group were holding Sue in a reclining position while I poured her a glass of champagne. When I chided him that the article neglected to mention we’d married just 3 hours before, he said he did not want to embarrass us!
Harry was also a keen and competent photographer – so much so that on that trip we negotiated a deal whereby I carried a mountain of his photographic gear in exchange for him taking photographs for me! Harry continued to walk, lead and help train new leaders in summer and winter, mainly, but not exclusively, in his beloved Snowy Mountains. His 1982 retirement and move to Wallaga Lakes ended active CBC involvement, but he continued walking, leading about 14 Himalayan trips. His 75th birthday was celebrated at about 5600 m.
He actively followed CBC events after leaving Canberra, maintaining contact with many members. For example, he rang me on the day of CBC’s 40th-anniversary function to apologise for not attending – he’d intended to drive the 300 km to attend but was laid low by a virus! Similarly, he maintained a close interest in the Antarctic and the Himalayas. A 2006 website on the history of Wilkes Station includes Harry as one of a handful of contributors to it, and at the time of his death, a party of Nepali Sherpas were in Australia, planning to visit their old friend Harry.
Reference sites of further interest:
Obituaries Australia – Henry Preston (Harry) Black (1919–2010)
SMH – Leader and explorer never missed an adventure
The Age – Esteemed leader of men a lifelong achiever
Alan Vidler. Published in It, August 2010
