I have never given any explanation for the name Dondingalong, and I am not sure whether this one is apocryphal or not .

When we were engaged in searching for our rural retreat , the estate agent who negotiated the sale of the block to us -- Guy , but whose surname never really registered with me , told us the following . I did go along to a drama festival in Kempsey after we were established there , and he took a leading role in one of the producions , so I am willing to accept after watching him act that he could tell a tale with at least the appearance of veracity .

In the early days of the district , he told us , the local church ( denomination not specified by him but the Uniting Church was established in Dondingalong in 1892) only had the services of a preacher at occasional times , probably about once a month . To ensure that the possible congregation could be assured of a pastor for that week , one man would travel the country roads round there and ring a bell as he rode ( could it have sounded like a celestial ice-cream cart , I wonder ?)

Anyway , since his name was Don , the district he encompassed -- his spiritual purlieu as it were -- became known as Dondingalong .

Well , it's an interesting story and typical of the kind of tale that goes round bush communities.

In the heady days during the time I was involved with the location , I did not own a computer .

But , thinking of the name while composing this vignette , I decided to Google up the name Dondingalong and found there are 24, 700 entries . Most of these deal with real estate agencies , or the Rural Fire Brigade and such like . I found reference to Piper's Creek Road , where we lived and which seems to have developed somewhat since my time , with organic bush tucker growers being prominent . There were also references ( via nascent's edgio site ) to some of my scribblings -- a surprise !

A final coincidence . When I was a member of Waverley Library in Sydney , I wandered in one day to do some borrowing . I handed over the borrower's card , and the young lady behind the desk pointed out that it was a Kempsey Library card. I fished out my Waverley one , and she asked did I have connections with Kempsey . When I told her that I had a place at Dondingalong , she joyously informed me that she had been born in Kempsey , and her father had been the teacher at the Dondingalong small school , which she attended until it had to close for lack of pupils , with most of the students transferred to South Kempsey Public School.

Cliche comment coming up -- It's a small world .