“I didn’t expect that I would stay that long when I came here in 1995. I lived in Bangalow to start with, Rosebank and then I moved to Koonorigan so I kept getting further west. By that stage I had children so it was a perfect place to raise my kids. I also had a fabulous job. I started at Southern Cross Uni in 1996 as a casual and I’ve been pretty much working there ever since. Because it was a small university I think I had so much more opportunity than people I did PhD’s with in Sydney who went on into research positions and other things. I had such a range of things to do and I think it’s also that I really liked the Uni and what it is that we do.
My parents both left school when they were 14 so going to Uni for me was really transformational and a lot of our students similarly are the first in their family to go to University. We had a student a couple of years ago who was the oldest student to complete a degree. I think now they are over 100. They were well into their 90’s when they did the course. We have a lot of older students which is great. I think I was a part of that generation of people who were able to go to Uni for free.
One of the things I find interesting about the uni and it’s probably one of the things we all deal with, is the proximity of being in a small town. I see my students in the streets, I see them go on to have children and go into careers which is really nice. I know that can get tricky in a small town. In lots of ways our lives are under a bit more scrutiny perhaps, I think there is something about that burden of responsibility as well that you then have to your community. You have to be accountable. You have to live your life in a way that if it’s going to be public you don’t have any regrets. I think it keeps us on our toes to some extent. I know the things that I am doing are also everyday. There’s more intimacy, there’s relationships with all of those people.
I’m an Associate Professor, I teach History and we have a Masters in Gastronomic Tourism so I teach Gastronomy and Communication as well. My research is in food history. If you are interested in family and community, food is the way that we relate most directly to nature. It’s the way that we initiate and maintain relationships. For me it’s really important. It symbolises so many things about our culture and heritage.
I’ve actually only been in Lismore for the last 12 months. I came back just after the flood. I was in India when the flood happened. It was strange being in Delhi during the day and here at home it was the night everyone was still awake, wondering whether to evacuate and if the levee was going to hold.
It’s amazing, the resilience of this place. The lessons everyone learned from that which was taking care and looking out for each other. The water had receded by the time I got back but the rubbish and peoples belongings were piling up on the streets. I went to Augustines that Friday night and everyone was out in borrowed clothes, dressed up after cleaning up all day.
I think it’s taken me a really long time to get to Lismore. As much as I knew it, I worked here and my social life was all here and strangely it’s happened at the time my three closest friends have all left. It’s been an interesting transition! Something I felt that I knew but I really didn’t at all. You can kind of scratch the surface of Lismore and not really understand what it’s like to live here. It feels to me that we are getting much better at living our lives publicly, in the quadrangle, at the gallery, out in the streets and the cafes. It does really feel that we have this incredible sense of community but for a small place I guess it’s the diversity and the resilience of it. It is just so caring. We can’t hide here.
I’m in the process of reclaiming the happy, carefree spinster role because bachelors always appear to be swinging and having a fantastic time. Spinster gets cast with all these negative connotations like..old spinster, nasty spinster, cranky spinster, lonely spinster or whatever. I think I’ve reached a period in my life where I am enjoying my independence. There are so many fantastic single women in Lismore and it’s not that there’s a man shortage and it’s not that we are waiting to meet Mr Right. I think a lot of us are actually quite happy. I get these words of reassurance from people like ‘You’ll meet somebody one day.’ (laughs) Really? I meet plenty of people.
Lastly, I love being somewhere where I can go to the markets, know the farmers and we are so lucky to have such great produce.”