The Marbuck Dive

The Marbuck was a swimming hole about 600 metres up the river from the Mt Beauty Rock Pool. The Marbuck's attraction was the 20 metre cliffs on both sides from which to jump from. The cliff on the east side was the most popular as it was a direct drop into a deep hole. We learnt very early on, that terylene togs or ‘budgie smugglers’ were not the go when jumping off the cliff. Some one pointed out that we should name the cliff ‘ballcrusher.’  We used to wear our footy shorts over our togs to prevent the ball crusher syndrome when we hit the water after the first lot of jumps and  there were guys whose voices went up an octave or more post that.

It was too high to dive from and too dangerous, except one guy did, but not voluntarily.  One day, when the gang and a few others were up at the jumping point, Robbie Chrystal yelled, “hell, look at the size of that bloody fish down there.”  Ryan Mendez was the first to look down from the edge, whereupon Robbie Chrystal gave big Ryan a push in the backside with his foot.  Despite Ryan flailing his arms for some 10 seconds, he eventually went over the edge with an “aaaaeeeee” hitting the water prostrate in a kneeling praying position.  I said, “I reckon that counts as a dive.”  Robbie Chrystal responded, “shit dive.” 

We waited for about a minute and Ryan had not surfaced, we were getting a bit panicky.  Aiden Horse had just lamented, “I think you killed him,” when all of a sudden this body came to the surface like a breaching whale sucking in a great gulp of air so powerful, it nearly sucked us off the edge of the cliff.  “ You bastard Wyatt,” Ryan screamed.  Kenny Wyatt responded, “it wasn’t me.”

“ You bastard Button,” he screamed again.  “Wasn’t me,” I retorted.  Now I could not believe to this day why Ryan Menzel accused myself and Kenny Wyatt in the first instance.  Sort of lost faith in Ryan after that.
But it wasn’t over, Ryan wanted revenge and he began climbing up the cliff to get at us.  As he climbed up one side, we all climbed down the other.  When we reached the bottom, Ryan was at the top. “Don’t worry,” said Robbie Chrystal, ‘It’ll take him a while to get down from there.”  But the bugger did not climb down, he jumped and his landing point was not far from where we were standing.  Panic ensued and we all took off across the slippery rocks with Ryan in pursuit.  When we got to the rock pool , we hid in the bushes. When Ryan arrived he asked a local mother, Mrs Norman, if she had seen Button and Wyatt. “Yes!” she said, ‘they took off with another bunch of kids on their bikes that way.”  What a lovely smart lady, we went the other way.

We all got home without meeting Ryan. However, the next day at school he confronted me. He stated, “the guys reckon you pushed me off the cliff,” whereupon he gave me a left hook to the jaw and walked off.  When I saw the guys, I told them I got a whack in the jaw because they told Ryan that I pushed him off the cliff.  “Well he thinks you did,” retorted Robbie Chrystal. Everyone pissed themselves laughing.
This story was written and submitted by Willy Button. Editing and pseudonyms by Kenny Wyatt.