Mountain View Veterans Retreat

Yep we are still around after a couple of months in Australia and about to crack on with work at the retreat! It’s Khmer New Year at the moment so watch this space in the coming week or two to see what’s cracking!

Happy New Year 🇰🇭

Just something to put at the start of our road.

Not a day goes by without missing u Lucas Tuckwell

10 things I (Bren) love most about Cambodia

1. Smiles. Even if someone looks grumpy as soon as u smile at them their face lights up.

2. Fresh fruit stalls! Cut, peeled and fresh!

3. Fresh coconuts! For some serious hydration after a big night or anytime really.

4. Lotus flowers! Ponds, streams and polluted waterways are full of these beauties.

5. Bikes! Get to ride a motorcycle or be on the back of a moto every day without the need of a licence, registration or even a road worthy bike.

6. Kids! The cutest, most beautiful little beings. 30 percent of the population of Cambodia is under 12. The children of this country are it's future.

7. Family! We are so blessed to have a khmer family that has adopted us as we have them. They provide us with love, support, friendship and fun, away from our own people at home.

8. Adventure! Everyday provides an opportunity to see, smell or taste something that you could never had imagined.

9. Cheap, cheap! The cost of living is so small. Your not paying any big bu****it taxes to the government for every day items.

10. Mountain View Veterans Retreat! We have been able to buy land and start a project that would have been impossible to do in Australia without a million bucks. It has mountains, a fresh water stream, a natural swimming pool, native wildlife and plants, the ocean close by and most importantly, no neighbors!

Been busy on the land two buildings are up and making foot paths and gardens and wet season has hit us big time

After one year being on the land yesterday we had the electricity connected a light in the toilet and one in the shed and one in the volunteers shed we got to charge our phones and play music though our speaker it was overwhelming to be able to have a little bit of modern technology thank you to our Khmer family for connecting it for us

Well its started got a roof up for our volunteers only took two days and our lounge room the power has been put in but have to wait another eight days to be connected

A day to remember, a day to never forget! Our forebears who made our country free. The soldiers past and present, our heroes! Having a beer and our boy Lucas Tuckwell has a spot at the bar with us. Lest we forget # # #

Mountain View Veterans Retreat updated their address.

Mountain View Veterans Retreat updated their phone number.

We want to get 100 likes to our page by the end of April. Please help us as the power is in your hands. All we want is for our project to get out there. Please make the effort to share our page with everyone, but especially past and present services of all kinds including military, nurses, paramedics, police, firefighters etc.

Back on the project after a long 7 months away! We are so happy to be home and can now begin building. We now have a road and electricity being installed within the week. Our new volunteers shelter will also be built soon. Speaking of volunteers this wonderful human - we will call her Hannah- returned to visit us. Hannah volunteered with us last year and was instrumental in planning our natural swimming pool. We were glad to swim with her and Will in the dam.

After a devastating loss of our friend Lucas last week, we are even more committed to getting this project into full swing. Our natural swimming pool will be in honor of Lucas as he loved to swim.

Back on to the project in April after 7 long months away. Keep watching our page! There will be lots happening in the coming months.

Marking 25th anniversary of Operation Solace in Somalia -

Operation Solace was a response to a call in late 1992 from the United Nations for assistance with its humanitarian operation in Somalia, where a humanitarian disaster was being compounded by a complete breakdown in civil order. Australia had already contributed a tri-service contingent to the UN Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) under Operation Iguana, but Operation Solace was of a very different magnitude.

The Australian contribution to peacekeeping in Somalia comprised more than 1,500 personnel. Australia sent personnel from each of the three services to UNOSOM between October 1992 and November 1994 and personnel to serve under the auspices of the Unified Task Force, with the main body arriving in Somalia in January 1993.

Four Australians were wounded or injured during operations and on 2 April 1993, Lance Corporal Shannon McAliney was accidentally killed.

For Mick personally the tour in Somalia was one of absolute death and destruction. The sad fact that often gets forgotten is the after effects from Somalia and the huge numbers of suicides as a result.

Copyright © 2018 Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs, All rights reserved.
Vetaffairs is published as a free newspaper for Australia's veteran community.

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We need someone to go and ‘project manage’ for a couple of months, which really means direct work for a day or two per week in Cambodia! U can live on-site, be provided camping accommodation, gorgeous doggies and a motorbike to use. It’s Kep, it’s amazing and an opportunity of a lifetime!
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Update on the Retreat - Hello everyone its Mick here Just wanted to update everyone as we have had some people ask how we are going?.
Well its been a tough few months with the retreat with everything coming to a complete stand still since my accident and with wet season hitting us big time.
We have a slab completed for our bungalow and half a pillar however due to the rain we could no longer get and supplies delivered. Our shelters took a hammering and could not handle this years wet season so we had to rebuild them which resulted in the family moving off the land as we were wet all the time.
We are now back in Australia with Brenda doing part time work to make some extra cash so we can continue our project once we return home/Cambodia.
Brenda,Indikah and myself would like to thank everyone who has supported us though the year. We hope everyone is well and that you all have a great Xmas and New Year thank you all so much and we will post more updates once we get back take care
cheers Mick
Soldier On👍

This song was shown to us a few days ago by a good friend of ours. It bought us both to tears and validates that this project is not only important but necessary. We are planning on ways on how we can host veterans that don't have the financial means to pay for a trip to our retreat.

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Today is such a happy day for us. We made final payment on our dream. Thank you to everyone that has encouraged, believed and helped. It's not only a victory for us but hopefully we can give back more than we have received # # #

Well it's been a bit of a tough time the last couple of months due to Micks injury but we are now back on the land and carrying on with the project.

Final payment for our land is coming up in a couple of months (that will be a happy day to have the title in our hands)

We have all of our bricks for the bungalow and the foundation is in progress. We have used all of the bottles we collected to make bricks and used them in the foundation as we can always collect more, seeing as bottles are not recycled in Cambodia.

Garden is growing nicely with some rain recently.

The dam has filled, emptied and partially refilled again. Our trench we dug to direct the water from the mountain into our creek is working perfectly.

Our tool/storage shed has been 90% completed which now means all of our belongings are now dry for the wet season. We lost our passports recently in an unexpected storm (they were not in proper storage in the shed.

The last of Lilly's puppies have gone, except fluffy who seems to be staying. We lost Duncan (aka dumb ass) when he got sick and passed away in early June.

Our first completed wall (refer to previous post/ wall dance) has had its final render with yellow pigment added which looks great.

Dead trees that did not survive our attempts at being repaired from ring barking were cut down. But we have planted nearly 20 fruit trees.

3 more likes to get to 300! Like and share!

More wonderful volunteers have passed through. The lovely Turkish family who made us wonderful Turkish food. Two girls from the US who's fathers are both veterans. We really appreciate you all and are so happy to be growing our 'family'

We said goodbye to the gorgeous volunteer Arthur today! He has been an absolute digging legend! He has promised to come back in 6 years! We will keep you to it mate!

March progress report!

- Almost completed two boundary walls with a little rendering to finish off.

- Plans for our natural swimming pool completed by some wonderful girls (you know who you are)

- Beginning to dig a small pond which our creek will run into before it gets to the big pool.

- Master Chef Yvonne keeping us all fed with her wonderful food.

- Dam (natural pool in waiting) is nearly empty.

- Tool shed is being constructed.

- Moved into our Oz tent that I bought back from Oz

- New shelter being built to house volunteers

This is our first 'wall dance' it's for the completion of wall number 1. Also excited to have had the toilet painted, compost made, dam being measured and planning in progress for the natural swimming pool and some arts and crafts. The first lot of clay bricks has arrived for our first bungalow. Loving all the efforts of our wonderful volunteers!

We had some wonderful photographers come out to the retreat on Thursday. A few of their beautiful shots. Thanks guys x

We are looking for someone kind enough and clever enough to create our logo for us. If you know of someone that would be willing to volunteer some time to work with us to make a logo please message us.