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Wally’s Balinese Garden

Members of AIAA -Australia Indonesia Arts Alliance recently visited Wally Halvorson and the following interview by Radha took place in his beautiful Balinese garden in Broken Head.

Walking in to Wally and Susan’s garden is a real treat. It is full of Balinese statutes, umbrellas and garden ornaments and alters. We were there to look at using some of these beautiful things to decorate the Indonesian Extravaganza which is being organised by the members of AIAA and is set to be in the middle of June 2004 at one of the local schools in Byron Bay.

Asked how he got into this project Wally went on to tell the story- ‘ My wife and I went to Bali nine years ago for a holiday and fell in love with the place. On returning five years ago Susan wanted to send some statues back for our garden, they looked so good and friends kept asking where to get them from so we decided to import more. The business just grew from there. On our travels we met a school teacher called Made Darsa Guru,[Guru means teacher] he was frustrated with the academia of the local schools so I asked him how I could help.

We started to sponsor the children at the cost of around $200.00 a Year. This keeps a child in school and helps with costs towards simple equipment and books. After the Bali bombing there was an economic downturn all the creative arts stopped like the carving, batik and painting etc as there were no tourists to buy them. The children left school and had to work on the roads or other hard labouring jobs. That really got to me so I took it on myself to sponsor more children with the help of Byron Loves Bali also. We now have 23 children that we sponsor and keep up regular communication with them all.

In response to the Echo article asking for computer donations we were inundated and soon had some of them up and running in Bali. At first we did not have the internet connections because of the cost factor but through the generosity of Byron Bay they are now on the net. We are hoping to raise money now for a web camera which will be linked up to St. Finbar’s school so that the children can have a direct link up and send photos to each other. St Finbar’s school is very interested in the culture of Indonesia and currently has it’s own gamelan orchestra.

The children mostly love soccer balls, shin pads, tennis balls, rackets, volley balls and pumps. Also they are so good at drawing and they love the coloured pencils, good sharpeners and rulers and geometric tools.’ Anyone can give their donations to Wally at the following phone number below.

We are always looking for new sponsors and anyone interested can call
Wally on 66859 756 or via email Ironbark53@hotmail.com.

Report by Radha Koch, Byron Bay.