I was born in 1938 in Sydney. My father was a hobo during the depression and never settled down. We lived all over NSW including one of the biggest sheep studs in Australia and The Entrance on the Central Coast. Consequently I never made a friend when I was young because we moved so often. I did love it when we lived on the land but when my mother got pregnant with my younger brother Wayne we were living with no electricity and no refrigeration. My mother said she would not have a baby under those conditions so we moved back to Sydney which was a great disappointment to me. I was 9 years old.
I was an intelligent child and I found out years later I had a very high IQ. I didn’t fit into school. I remember once asking a teacher to explain something a bit better to me and she lost the plot, threw a big wooden triangle at me with full force. Had it hit me it could have killed me. She obviously didn’t know the answer. I just gave up and went to what they called a dunce’s school. I loved it because the Librarian and I got on very well. My grandfather knew I was an avid reader so I’d read The Razors Edge by Somerset Maugham when I was 12. He used to leave really good books around for me to read. I was so glad I went to that school and it never stopped me getting good jobs.
At 15 I was working for United Artists Film Co. just in the office but we got free tickets to all the movies. An American man who was in charge came out and took me under his wing. It was 1954 and he got me a ticket to see Katherine Hepburn and Robert Helpmann live at the Tivoli theatre in Sydney in The Merchant of Venice. I was 16 and at that young age as I left the theatre I felt I understood the essence of Shakespeare. It was amazing.
As a toddler my mother’s 3 younger sisters lived at home so if they went out with a boyfriend to the movies they would take me with them, so I saw all these wonderful movies as a child. I saw Gone with the Wind when I was about 4. A guy called Johnny Love offered me a job with British Empire Films with double the pay…7 pounds and 5 shillings a week. That was a lot back then. I didn’t find it stimulating enough so I left that job too. I worked as a Telephonist in Wyong for a while.
As a toddler I used to dress in my grandmothers high heels. I would put my Aunties dresses on and my Mum would say…You can’t do that! You are a boy and my Grandmother would say… Leave him alone, he’ll grow out of it. I have always thought and felt feminine. I’m no different now at 81 than I was then. When I was 11 there was a 14 year old girl across the road called Monica. She said, I love the movie star John Derek, I think he’s beautiful, who do you love? I said..Oh I love Peter Lawford. She said, But you can’t, he’s a boy! I said I LOVE PETER LAWFORD. It got me into a lot of trouble.
I was called a poofter. I was pushed off a fast moving train as it was coming into Mortdale station. Luckily I was fit. I was a good swimmer, a runner, I played tennis and I was healthy. I don’t know how I didn’t break every bone in my body but I hit the station and I rolled. It was a terrifying experience. I think I was being watched over that day because the station master couldn’t believe I wasn’t killed. The bullying was horrendous. I was 14 and I left school after that.
My life was very hard until I was about 26. I was beaten up by Police, thrown into a men’s prison, had my hair all cut off. It was a very, very hard time. I suppose……I’m a Sagittarius Tiger so I’ve always been very courageous. I was the first person to live 24 hours a day as a woman. That was about 1955 but it was very hard and I don’t know how I came through it to be honest with you. I just did it, I had to.