Jyllie

I was born on a gold mine which is where I get my golden hair and my golden heart. My father was a mining engineer and was responsible for the gold mine. I’m not sure whether I was literally born on the gold mine as my parents have passed away and I can’t check. We went back to England and when I was 8 years old I was shuffled off to boarding school. It was pretty traumatic but I made the best of it because that is my nature. I organised escapes with my fellow children. It was not long after the war and my friend Patricia and I still had fantasies about being in the French Resistance. I was organising people even back then.

I spent my childhood blissfully in the English countryside. I have only amazing, fond memories of cowslips, bluebells and fairies. I learnt a lot from little old ladies who made potions. I loved the alternate even back then. It was the same when I was in Africa. My earliest memories were playing with my best friends who were all little black kids. All the white women had nannies back then so my nanny was incredibly important to me.

After returning to the English Countryside I had 2 more sisters and I was very creative. I was always in trouble and got expelled from the same school a number of times. I was trouble. I thought I was fine but I didn’t quite fit into the system very well which has probably been the story of my life.

I went to art school in Yorkshire and from there I went to art school in London and again I got involved in trouble. We didn’t approve of what the government was doing so we had a sit in which lasted months. We took over and ran the college and I was expelled again. I was actually a good student so they ended up taking me back.

I then trained as a Fashion Designer. I did some work for people like Mary Quant and I hung out with interesting people like Twiggy. This was in the 60’s and people were really accessible then. It was amazing and I travelled all around the world. I scored a job in Hong Kong and was lead designer for the biggest knitting mill. I had the best time. The regime changed there and I was still a bit of a trouble maker as I didn’t like the conditions for the workers so when the ownership changed I left.

I went home via Nepal and Whoops! There again I got into trouble. There was a guy called Tom Tent. Nobody had their real names. There was 8 fingered Eddie and I was Jolly Jyllie. I was also known as Jyllie Boobs because I was rather buxom. That translated to Jyllie B and all over the world people know me as Jyllie B. Tom was the most amazing guy and set up a space for Tibetan refugees. He was giving them work. It was early Fair Trade. He was American and he was draft dodger and they tried to extradite him back. We had a protest and they took him down to the border and Oops-a-daisy they left him unattended in the truck. Whoops, he escaped!

I used to get my visa extended and I used to have afternoon tea with the visa guy, Tiffin. He used to rub his leg up and down my leg and then he would stamp my passport. Probably not proper PC but in those days a girl did what a girl had to do. (laughs) Anyway, I love that part of the world.

I ended up coming home to England. I’d had a boyfriend in Hong Kong who was an Australian. He rang and asked me to come to Australia, sent me a ticket and I came here. I arrived, got through customs and met him and we didn’t like each other anymore. I was already here so I paid him back for the ticket.

I came to Nimbin for the first Tuntable tribal meeting, bought a share and met some people including a nice man who said I could stay. We got on, hung out and eventually we had 3 children together. We married. We didn’t last as a married couple but we did last and stay together as friends. We still are. I’m proud of the way we managed that process and our kids within that time. We have 3 very awesome children and 3 very awesome grandchildren.

I made clothes here and did bits and pieces and eventually I joined the CES which is now defunct but had a lovely career there and what do you know? I got into trouble. Once I wore one blue, one red sock because they matched my scarf. I was counselled for that. Ros Irwin was an incredibly patient boss. The regime changed again and they started privatising the public service. Suffice to say I stopped working there.

I got involved in setting up the Lismore Folk Festival with Peter Monley who became and still is my partner. He ran the Blues Club in Lismore and on the radio. He now works and lives in Woodford. He’s the site manager and designer for the Woodford Folk Festival. We live in different states because he’s a busy man and Im a busy girl but when we come together it’s really nice.

I eventually started working on the Lismore Lantern Parade with Graeme Dunstan. I stepped back and Graeme stopped doing it so I started running it which has now been 21 years. I couldn’t think of anything better to do. It’s become huge but in saying that very few people do it.

One of the things I’m really proud of is, when you look at Lismore Helping Hands and you look at Bentley and the Lantern Parade, all those people honed their craft and their skills and the management of chaos at The Lantern Parade. They probably had lots of skills before that but there is a direct link and I think that is wonderful. We certainly work a lot on chaos here.

To have this up and running again this year after the flood says a lot. We had a flood plan but we had gaps in it because we never had a flood with the levee wall in place. A lot of our volunteers were stuck because their homes were in the line of the flood. It was very small group of committed people left. We triaged. We saved a lot of paperwork , etc. Vanessa is still ironing and drying paperwork. We took a lot of electrical stuff out and the rest we put up high. We had just bought our new building but hadn’t officially moved in and thats the worst bit as it was here and empty. I thought if the lanterns get wet which they have in the past we will just wash them down. What I hadn’t counted on was that they had to sit in that disgusting soup for 2 days because the levee kept the water in. In the past it goes up and down quickly. This time we had to replace all the electricals. I hadn’t counted on the tsunami effect either which picked everything up and threw it down. I thought we would have a few hours in the morning but the undertow was huge and the last thing we took out were the unicorns. They were sitting up on a bench and I wanted to take them. They drowned last time and I couldn’t let them drown again. We have about 200 lanterns and about 150 were damaged. Some irreparable, not many but again we are stubborn. I think I’ve lost our beautiful Mr Leunig. The upside of it, there is a lot of hoarders in our organisation. We had a lot of rubbish and that got blissfully trashed. That was a silver lining.

I came back after the flood on the Sunday morning with Anita Bellman who is a wonderful calming influence. I didn’t cry or freak out. I just said, We better start moving this stuff and that was my process through the whole thing. It was done so keep calm and carry on. We had a few helpers. People came from Mullumbimby and the shire. The students from Lismore Heights Public School have been wonderful helping clean up and mending lanterns. I really hope that we get some funding. The biggest turnout we had at The Lantern Parade is over 30,000. I actually need some donation collectors this time. Honest, reliable souls please and I also need people to buy tickets for the Fiery Finale this year as well. Michael Coleman from Eureka is the theatrical director for the finale and it’s all about the flood. It’s going to be cute, dramatic, funny and it’s going to be beautiful.

I love Lismore and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. It really disturbs me when people put it down because it’s the most amazing place. “