“I was born in Stockholm, Sweden. We always had summer houses. We lived in the middle of the city but Mum and Dad loved nature so every weekend we would go to a summer house, no electricity, no water. It was tough. When I was 7 we moved into one these summer houses permanently where we lived without water for 2 years. We would have to drive down to Dad’s best friend who was an inventor. We had a plastic thing in the bathroom which held about 50 litres and it was connected to a little pump. We had a composting toilet outside which I hated. In Winter we melted snow. I still today turn the water off as soon as you finish. No running or wasting water, not a drop.
It was a pretty wild upbringing, riding horses in nature, picking Blueberries which grew wild everywhere. We skied and played in the snow. I had the best childhood. I have a sister and there’s only a year and a half between us. I have an older brother and sister from Mum’s previous marriage. They had already left home but I adored them as well. My brother was a merchant seaman and would bring home expensive presents. My sister who is close in age to me is still in Sweden. She runs a farm.
I went a bit off the rails in my teens. I didn’t like school any longer so I skipped school quite a lot. I partied as you do in your teens. I went back to school, a pre university which is kind of like our year 11 and 12. You can choose either 3 or 4 years of a program. I chose 3 years but quit after 2. I didn’t want to be in economics. I moved to another city in Sweden with my boyfriend. We saved for a year and we came to Australia. It was 1980, I was 20 years old and no-one came to Australia then. People said..What are you going to do there? It’s just a desert. I stayed and had my 21st here. Turning 20 is big in Sweden but 21 is big here. I remember getting a key from good friends I had met. I cruised around for months, went to New Zealand and on to Tasmania. Everyone was on strike in Australia at the time. I ordered a flight, they cancelled, ordered a train..cancelled. It was crazy. We ended up getting around. We caught a freight train up to Cairns. We thought Australia was the funniest cowboy country ever where there are no rules and everything goes.
I went back to Sweden, got a job in a ski resort and spent a season there. I went to Stockholm and learned waitressing. My father was a Chef so as child I learnt Silver Service which came in useful for hospitality employment. I saved up and came back to Australia on my own. I hitched around the country, always with someone I had met on the road. I worked on a cattle station which was odd as is was off season so it was just the guy I hitched with, me and the old cattle ranch owners. I cooked and cleaned and learnt so much. It was right in the middle of Australia. A research team studying Goannas came in and one of the team got food poisoning. He was screaming in pain and the owner had to treat him with direction from the doctor over a two way radio. Their first aid kits had everything for injections and all types of treatment for emergencies. They had to as they were in the middle of nowhere. We flew all over the property and checked all the water holes. It was a great adventure. Off I went again and landed in Katherine for a while. I met a hairdresser and we travelled together. I worked everywhere I travelled as it was so easy to get a job.
I landed in Townsville, got a job on the prawn trawlers and I loved it. After a while when I knew all the Skippers, I found one I liked. I had to be careful as it was just me. The first big trip was 2 months. I would come back and then do 3 months. I was in Paradise. We worked at night and they gave me a paddle ski. During the day they all slept but I tried to get enough sleep during the night so I could explore during the day on my paddle ski. It was beautiful. You have a mother ship coming in to take your prawns but they also brought supplies. They treated me like the little princess. I got everything I wanted. At one stage I asked for a book about fish so I could learn about all the fish I was seeing. It took 10 days but they brought me the book and I learnt so much about fish in coral water.
When I returned to Townsville I got a job as a tourist operator on day cruises in a glass bottom boat around Magnetic Island. There was man who couldn’t swim but he really wanted to snorkel so we put him in a life jacket and tied a rope to him. I swam underneath and towed him. He was scared and excited and I remember looking up and seeing his face through the goggles. Such a good memory. I spent a long town in Townsville, made lot’s of friends who kept pointing out how creative I was. My father was an artist, most of my friends in Sweden were artists. I just thought it was such a common thing to do and I wanted to be a wild one.
I went to uni and I fell in love with sculpture. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I got really sick just before I started uni with a Hepatitis strain, not Hep C and it wasn’t Hep B. Whichever strain it was they decided that everyone who worked in hospitality had to have the vaccine. The whole crew was vaccinated twice. We were meant to get 3 but I think I might have died as I was allergic to it. It took me a long time to realise it was the vaccine. It was a delayed reaction and took nearly 4 months before it came out. I had Eczema so bad I had to be hospitalised. I thought I was going to die at one stage, alone, in the heat, high fever and the frozen chills. After 2 days I started taking off the layers of clothes and the last thing was a white t-shirt which was yellow from pus coming out of my back. I had to quit art because they thought it may have been an allergy to some material then they thought is might have been a food. It wasn’t until I arrived here a Naturopath did some tests and gave me medicine which only works on vaccine allergy. I thought back and remembered when I first came to Australia, I had my Hep B shot and the same thing happened but not nearly as severe. I still get a bit here and there. It took me 12 years to heal.”