A FAMILIAR sight on the streets on Mornington is Robert Klaas Kalma, who many will recognise as the friendly musician who for the past four years has been Main Street’s “humble busker”.
But what many who stop listen and drop a few coins in his bucket may not know is that Kalma’s efforts have raised hundreds of dollars for Red Cross and the Royal Children’s Hospital.
Even more remarkable is the fact that the almost 83-year-old didn’t take up music until he was 70, without ever having a lesson.
Kalma has had his fair share of personal tragedies and says that while he has “dodged several bullets,” he refuses to give up.
“There is always a new adventure or challenge there for the taking … it really is a matter of re-inventing who we are or want to be,” he said.
“Any obstacle can be turned into an achievement.”
When Kalma, or Robert as his students would have known him, retired from secondary teaching at schools on the Mornington Peninsula and a behavioural sport psychologist to elite athletes including the AFL, at the Saints with Stan Alves and Tim Watson during the 90s, he wanted to continue to find a way to inspire and remain close to the community.
Busking has become his cathartic journey in what he calls “this day and age of high anxiety and mental Illness”.
“What could be better than providing some country music and having a chat with the locals about anything they want to talk about while walking down Main Street, Mornington,” he said.
There is more to this Mornington musician, and you may find some books on art and song-writing, or his novels signed under his pseudonym of Klaas at Mornington libraries, Creeping Shadows and Distant Echoes.
His paintings are on show at Nissarana Galleries, Mornington.
Weather permitting, Kalma tries to do his busking twice weekly and invites listeners to stop and have a chat.
First published in the Mornington News – 12 July 2022
