“ I was born and bred here in Lismore Base on January 5, 1993. We lived in Union St in the apartment above the bakery. If I walk out into the middle of the street from my house now I can see where I lived as a baby.
My legal name is Eli Currer but I prefer Roth. My biological father Victor Currer struggled with drugs and alcohol and he was domestically violent against me and my Mum. He got the kick when I was 3. My stepfather Andrew Carmichael came into my life when I was about 4 and he picked up the ball. He’s a Carpenter by trade and he taught me the value of money and hard work. He lives in Vietnam but I speak to him on a weekly basis. He’s lovely and I consider him my real father but I still wear Victor’s ashes around my neck in this little vial. He died when I was 17 from an overdose which sucked. I’ve got an addictive personality and pretty much done everything twice but I’ll never do heroin because I know I would probably enjoy it. I’ve already had my struggles with alcohol before and I’m struggling again at the moment due to the Lismore apocalypse. I need to go easy on myself. The first beer at 3pm is pretty good for me at the moment.
I went to South Lismore Primary school until year 5 and we’ve lived on nearly every street in South and some of North Lismore. The one I remember the most is Ostrom St overlooking the Duck Pond. I can see that house from my back yard at the moment. I’ve been going through floods and weather events since I was born. Normally we would just put the washing machine up high and stock up on food and alcohol but the February one……not so much.
I have a half sister Kylie who lives in Wollongong. She came to my 18th birthday party in Melbourne after my father died. I’d never met her but within 5 minutes of meeting it was like we’d known each other our whole lives. She gave me my Dad’s electric guitar and his ashes. Mum and I moved to Melbourne for High School until I finished Year 12.
I’d had the country upbringing where we’d put 50c pieces on the railway tracks and wait till the XPT cut them in half. We had the giant swing in Engine St where Two Mates Brewery is now. We’d swing out over the giant fence and back again. I first learnt to skate 25 years ago at the Lismore skate park which is a cheese grater of a skate park. My Mum petitioned for the shade that’s there at the moment and a bubbler for the kids which is lovely. Skating taught me resilience. You fall off 10,000 times and get back up again. You always get back up. I’ve watched my whole life get picked up by an excavator twice now. I’ve watched everything I’ve ever owned thrown away except a handful of things I was lucky enough to save. Anyway I’m getting off track… My Mum would take me to that skatepark all the time. We were on a sole parent pension so we went without a lot. Andrew had money but he was pretty frugal.
If we had pumpkins in the vegie garden, that’s what we ate. I was raised Vegetarian till I was about 13. I remember going to a McDonald’s birthday party as a kid. I was allowed a lemonade and Mum packed me celery and carrot sticks to take along. I hated her so much for it at the time but now I respect what she did. Our special treat for Mum and I on a sole parent pension was the Satay Hut where we would get 2 chicken satay sticks and rice. We would have a stick each and some rice in Heritage Park and then go to the skate park. This was after we started to eat some meat. We did that every 2 weeks. One of my goals when I was young was to work hard enough to buy as many chicken satay sticks and rice as me and Mum could ever want. That was my goal as a kid because sometimes we wanted more but we couldn’t afford it. Even though we weren’t well off there was always a lot of love. My stepdad Andrew would surprise me with a trip to Dreamworld or something like that every 6 months or so. When he did splash out it was awesome.
When I left school I went to Vietnam for 8 months. I have ‘Ðộc lập, Tự do, Hạnh phúc’ tattoo’d across my chest which is Independence, Freedom, Happiness in Vietnamese. My stepdad Andrew inherited some money so he did some travelling and landed in Vietnam. He’s still there 15 years later. I was only meant to stay 3 months but I stayed for 8. I loved it, taught some English, did some bar work, I got to know the community and it was awesome.
When life kicks the shit out of you, you learn to be resilient. When Dad died I was pretty upset. He was a troubled man but It was sad because I wanted to meet him when I was 18. He died a couple of weeks before my birthday. Mum didn’t want me to meet him which was fair enough because he was a violent man with alcohol and drug abuse issues, but I always had this plan to meet him when I was 18 because at the end of the day he was still my Dad. I wanted to know the man I kind of am. I know I’m Andrew’s son because he taught me work ethic, the ‘do unto others as you would want done to you’ the ‘take no shit but give no shit.’ I was working at Summerland Demolition for $5 a day moving timber. That f@#king taught me the value of money. I got a pair of pink rollerskates from the tip which barely fit me and they gave me tinea for 4 years. Another job I had in Melbourne was working for the Council and I was working for $5 an hour. At 15 years old I was literally shovelling dirt in the rain but at the end I loved that $75 pay cheque.
My current job is at Mr Minute at the Square. I’ve worked for this company since I was 18. I applied for it twice prior to leaving Vietnam and then again in person when I got back to Melbourne. I was the youngest person employed by them at the time. We do key cutting, watch repairs, engraving, shoe repairs and a lot of time management needed. I loved Melbourne so I got the city living side as well. I got my Diploma of Excellence with them and then went back to Vietnam for 3 months. I did that a few times. The last time I went Andrew and I did the whole stretch of Vietnam on motor bikes. It was brilliant.
Mum moved back to Lismore from Melbourne and at 20 I packed up my apartment into the back of my car and drove to Lismore. I met some cool friends, got my job back at Mr Minute and I’ve never left. The friends and family I’ve made here are incredible and even the lady who owns the bakery remembers me as a screaming child.
My Mum Melinda is also an epileptic. At one time she was one stripe off her black belt but she had an epileptic fall down the stairs, busted her shoulder and had to get a shoulder reconstruction. She lost both her cat Diamond and dog Rosie during the flood. Diamond was found days later floating on a mattress but sadly got bitten by a snake a few days later. She’d been through too much and was an old girl so the vet said it would be kind to put her to sleep and poor Rosie drowned. I couldn’t bury them because of the water-logged ground. You don’t forget carrying your dog out covered in blood and having to throw it in a wheelie bin. They were both about 10 years old.
I bought my house almost 3 years ago. It’s cool but it’s a trap at the moment. I’m dealing with Mum’s place as well after the flood.”