“I wanted to bring the family back because PNG was getting very violent, for women in particularly, far more violent than we see in Australia. I had to be careful where I put the knives, things like that. My children all went to school there and they still think about it as just the best childhood.
We returned to Australia and moved to Repentance Creek on an old dairy farm owned by Doug’s family and I still live there now. We had no money, no hot water and 4 kids. I did my Bachelor of Science degree when I was in PNG so I came into the Department of Health in Molesworth St looking for work. I fell on my feet with an amazing regional job which ended up covering 60kms north of Newcastle along the coast to the QLD border. The job was establishing staff development programs for hospital staff in 30 hospitals. It was an amazing program to train core staff in every hospital for emergencies. It was recognised state wide for a decade and in fact some of it is still going.
A little later I applied for job in Cambodia and got it. I arrived at the end of the war there. I was teaching at a time when 98% of the population had no health care. Anybody who was at all intellectual had been shot so there was hardly any staff. It was scary and there were lots of challenges in terms of your own safety. I spent 20 years going in and out of Cambodia and only fairly recently stopped. I was in a paid position but went back as a volunteer mainly focusing on women, children and maternity. It still is a life threatening problem for a lot of people there. I came back and worked in Liverpool Hospital for a while working with many different cultures which was fantastic.
I’m retired now so what does a lady do? I’ve always done a lot of volunteer work but now I’m a bell ringer at the Anglican church here in Lismore. I do it because I’m interested. I’m not a member of the church. It’s a hobby but it’s a full mind, body experience. It’s actually quite dangerous. You have to learn the rope skills. If you don’t let the rope go at the precise time it will rip through your hands or if you hold it it will lift you off the ground. They are very strict about that in terms of being taught. Campanology is the technical term, study of bells. Bell towers are all different so in Lismore, we have people coming from all over the world to ring our tower. Most people here would have no idea. I ring twice a week here.
I also work for the Repair Cafe in Mullum which is an amazing space. The Repair Cafe started in the Netherlands and the idea is to keep stuff out of landfill. I do sewing and you never know what’s coming through the door. We repair everything.
I forgot to tell you, I was working in the little hospital in Coraki which is now pulled down and I won an amazing, wealthy scholarship to go to Manhattan in New York when my children were between 9 and 16. My kids had only ever lived in PNG or the farm so going to NY was amazing. The scholarship was $90,000 in 1980. I was there for 2 years and the kids all went to school there. I was going to teachers college getting my Masters. I had access to experimental schools which has now impacted on my grandchildren. I have 7 grandchildren.
Everyday I try and do something that makes my day a bit fun. I belong to a whole lot of different groups. Some of them are real movers and shakers and they’ve taught me so much about life. My daughter said, Mum the best thing about going to that woman’s group is the belly laughs. It’s the pleasure of each others company which we love. What wonderful friends to have!
I was thinking about what I was going to talk to you about and I think that the important thing for me is everybody has a responsibility for stewarding our society. The youngest person can volunteer. I think that the trend has been away from that except when we have floods or famine, then people do band together. Really we should all be thinking, What can we do for our community or your fellow man? We all have a contribution to make. Even if you’re chair bound, you can still make a phone call. It’s really important. We are all busy. I’ve been a mother of 4 little ones but we still contributed to society, shared the challenges and worked through ways to make it a better place. The wealth that people bring to my life are all through my efforts — the bell ringing group, the Repair Cafe group, the local hall exercise group, all these different groups. Not everybody is a group person but there are ways to make a difference.”