“My wife and daughter in-law started doing research when my birth certificate came back. They felt like Perry Mason. The search found a Bill (now deceased) and Gladys Grainger in South Lismore. My heart was racing, so close to home. My birth mother lived at Green Forest which is between here and Coraki. This info is in the book I wrote (available at Lismore Regional Gallery. I was too scared to call Bill so Rhonda did it. We went to their house, I bought a cake for afternoon tea and I was pretty anxious. We were sitting on the lounge and I had a lump in my throat. I said Bill! YES!! he said loudly…he’s a bit deaf. I said I’ve come to ask you about Margaret Rennie Quickshank Stuart, well… she’s my birth mother. Deafening silence followed. Oh well… he said eventually. Do you know you have 2 brothers? I’ll be damned! He said. He phoned my brother Rennie and we met. I was hiding when Reynold came to meet me. I was so nervous. I found out there was 10 of us. Actually there’s 15 with both sides.
I was awarded the Churchill Fellowship in 1980 and I went to London and Paris. I didn’t want to do any hands on work there, I wanted to be able to take the drawers out of Louis XV’s desk or Marie Antoinette’s cabinet. I wanted to open it and look at it. That was my request and it was granted to me. I would go into The Louvre after hours when that floor was shut and I had such wonderful privileges. I couldn’t speak a bloody word of French but I made an effort. The only word that stuck in my mind was when it was 6pm we’d say Bonsoir and people would say…oh you speak French? (laughs).
I returned to Australia and part of The Churchill Fellowship is you have to share your knowledge which I’ve been doing since 1980. I haven’t stopped teaching from that time.
I started working on the Hannah Cabinet in 2001. That was the 4th cabinet. The first one I made was when I came back from overseas and that was the Bicentennial Cabinet. The next one was Dad’s Cabinet and is referred to as The Yarralumla Cabinet which is in Government House. That financed the Australian Cabinet which went to Belgium which helped finance The Hannah Cabinet. After the Hannah Cabinet I made The Chinoiserie Cabinet which will be back here in Lismore Regional Gallery in February. I started Jubilee House 3 years ago. I have worked on it day and night and Jubilee House is on display in the gallery.
The exhibition is on display now at the Lismore Regional Gallery until the 1st December. Its called Chesta Drawz and The Lowboys which is made up of my students work. Some of my students have been with me for 18 years. This is the last one I’m going to commit to though. I want to slow down. I’m 71 and I need to bloody slow down. I’m here doing presentations at the gallery, I do some with school kids and I have so many things I need to do.
I married in 1969. I met Rhonda when she was 13 and I was 16 when she visited my neighbour. We just had our 50th wedding anniversary. We have a daughter Amorette who is married to Bryce. They have Hannah May and Adam. Our son is Stewart James and he married Stephanie Basso Cooper. They have Daisy Louise and Sonny James. That’s my family. I grew up here on a flood plain. When it floods we have to move. It’s what we deal with and I have a flood plan. We’ve managed to live here in Lismore, raise our family here. They went through Public School, got jobs locally and we all survived here in Lismore without having to go anywhere else. We’ve made a living and we love our community here.”