My Walkabout - The Way It Was

Pushing the boundaries of Glen's conservative upbringing in Melbourne, Australia, she and another high school teacher hitchhiked through 54 countries. Meeting her future husband on a ship, when she headed home to Australia, they returned to Zimbabwe, married, and cotton farmed there. Foreseeing a difficult political future they immigrated to Australia, and pioneered cotton growing in the isolated Australian Outback. Years later they started a church and school in this remote area, and when that was established moved, with their four children, to Yonkers, New York, where they commenced a church, school, and daycare in an inner city area. At present they reside in California.

In 1966, after working as a high school teacher for three years, Glen and another high school teacher set out to see the world. Not the well worn tourist track, but a hitchhiking adventure to 54 countries, lasting three years. Aboard ship, coming home, she met her future husband, Duncan. Later returning to Zimbabwe, Africa, where they married, he continued cotton farming, and their two oldest children were born. Foreseeing a politically unstable future, they immigrated to the Outback of Australia, where undeveloped land was cheap, and pioneered cotton growing in that isolated and inhospitable region. They survived floods, drought, wild pigs, primitive living conditions, and desert temperatures. Their two younger children were born there. Later they started a church and school in the small Outback town of Bourke. When these were established, Duncan felt they should relocate, with their four children, to New York City to start a church and school. Selling their home and most of their possessions, they moved to New York to adapt to apartment living, learning to be street wise, and driving on the other side of the road. All previous unknowns! The church was located in a downtown area of Yonkers, where anything and everything happened on the street. Duncan started a family business, which enabled the children to pay their way through college and develop a strong work ethic. They experienced the agony of 9/11 in a fear gripped city. When the four children were established in careers, Glen and Duncan did a transcontinental move to California, where they started a church, built a home, and are at present helping needy families.

Glen Filmer, the youngest of three children, was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1943. Growing up she had a fascination for people and places that were different from her own. After working for three years as a high school teacher Glen left Australia determined to see the world; not the popular tourist destinations, but corners of the globe that were not well-known in a pre-internet world. Traveling with another Australian girl, she embarked on a hitchhiking journey to 54 countries in an era when female adventuring was not common. A kaleidoscope of her childhood and marriage to Duncan Filmer, whose love of challenges led them to raise their family, Jodee, Justin, Rhys and Campbell, across three continents. During their 50 years of marriage they have lived in Zimbabwe, Africa; the Outback of Australia; Yonkers, New York; and now reside in California.