“I was born in Campbelltown, Sydney. My Dad Stuart Heilbron was in the National Parks and Wildlife Service. He was actually the first National Park Ranger in the Northern NSW area so he had the area from Tweed to Grafton. This was before Friends of the Koala, Wires and groups like that. His job was to take care of all the injured and orphaned animals so our place was always full of animals. Our family home was a log cabin we built in Caniaba. It was not uncommon to see a row of baby birds on the back of the lounge. On each doorknob was a Joey hanging in a pillow case so I was brought up with that native Australia. Dad took me around a lot to the National Parks and that’s where I got my love of native flora and fauna. That came from my Dad. We were so passionate about it. Dad was actually the instigator for the Friends of the Koala. He would go out and rescue Koalas. Most of the time they would go off to another carer If they’d been injured but he’d release them in the wild. It was a fantastic way to grow up. I was right into horses as well so I was in Pony Club.
I’m the youngest of 6. My oldest sister is 17 years older than me so there’s quite a gap between myself and my next oldest brother. I had my first child Skye when I was 17 and she and I are close as well. She’s 39 now and is in Adelaide. I also have another daughter Rachel who is 26. Not long after Rachel was born their Dad and I went our separate ways. He’s a great Dad and good for the girls.
At 25 I went to Uni as a mature age student and got a degree in Exercise Science which is my background. I’ve been a Personal Trainer for 35 years working at a lot of gyms around the area teaching group fitness and working one on one with people. I was a part owner of a gym in Lismore for a while then I started working for myself a couple of years ago. I was working mainly with women and travelling to their own homes so they were comfortable, working with pelvic floor and menopause issues and things like that. It was really rewarding. I then worked for NSW Health as Co-ordinator of the CHEGs program where I stayed until I opened the shop pretty much.
I have identical twin girls, Lily and Sasha who are 20 next month. I met their Dad when I was working in a gym and that led towards a very dark part of my life. He had just left the RAAF as a physical training instructor and he was also mentally ill. He ended up taking his own life a few years ago when the girls were in Year 9 and it was really traumatic. About 3 years prior we got out of his life after a very traumatic event. The girls tried to connect with him, especially Sasha who put a lot of effort in but it was too hard. He wasn’t physically abusive but very emotionally controlling and abusive. I still have nightmares that I’m stuck back in that situation and I can’t escape because when I was in it I thought there was no escape. It was really awful. Exercise at that time was my release. I think his mental health issues went way back though. I’m still close to his parents who live in Evans Head. They are fantastic people. The twins felt it but Rachel was a teenager so she copped the full brunt of what was happening.
A lot of that trauma has led to mental health issues with my twins. Sasha is still really struggling with an eating disorder. She’s been in and out of hospital for the last 3 years with that. At the moment she’s in Sydney. She’s coping but it’s going to be a long road to recovery for her. (Sasha gave permission to share this information.) Lily lives on the Gold Coast and is studying on-line.
The last couple of years of my Dad’s life I got to care for him and I was so blessed to spend that time with him. I moved back into the family home in Caniaba with just my girls and him. He had Prostate cancer but he was 90. I’d lost my Mum a couple of years before. It was fantastic to be able to spend that time, reminiscing and just caring for him. The last couple of weeks before he passed he was in a nursing home in Lismore.
I met my current partner Paul who has a background growing flowers overseas. He’s a Horticulturist and a Landscape Gardener by trade and we also have the fitness connection. He’s a retired coach of the national Paralympic team. He got coach of the year a couple of times and his athletes have done really well.
We really wanted a property together so after looking around we found the property where we are living now at Wadeville, between Hanging Rock Hall and Hanging Rock Falls. It ticked all the boxes. We knew we wanted to grow native flowers so it had to have water, a house, land, the right growing conditions and we haven’t looked back. It’s an old beef cattle property and we are gradually turning it into a productive flower farm. It’s hard work but we love it. We started when we were still both working out other jobs and selling our flowers at the farmers market. We did a bit of wholesale but I missed the freedom of being my own boss. I just wanted a little shop so we opened in Star Court Arcade then Covid hit. The shop was so busy, we couldn’t do the markets as well.
Paul decided to go and have a heart attack 12 months ago. He was 57. He was looking grey and said he’d do a flower delivery up the stairs in the arcade. He said, I can’t walk up the stairs. He did it but he looked terrible. He went to hospital and virtually fell out of the car. An hour later he was told he had to have a triple by-pass. He’s still recovering from that but luckily his fitness kept him going. His work life was so crazy 7 days a week before that and it took its toll. Now he’s on the farm full time and his heart is working fine. It was so frightening and he felt so vulnerable. I do suffer from Fibromyalgia. I think my health background has really helped. I do a lot of research into strength training which really helps.
We had our little shop in the Star Court Arcade and I work with my daughter Rachel which is so awesome. We kept saying, we need a bigger shop as it was so small and we were flat out. November last year this shop came up and we haven’t looked back. I feel so blessed where we are and business is picking up so we’re busy. It’s such a beautiful building. The plaque outside on one wall say’s 1847 and another says 1816 so I’m not sure when it was built. Being able to work with Rachel is great and the smell of the native flowers and the natural bush essences every day is really therapeutic.”