“ I came here when I was 19 and I’ve never really left. I was born in the very south of England. When I was 2 my father decided to rejoin the industrial revolution so we moved to the North. My dad was an incredibly strong, determined, Lancashire man, born in the slums of the slums of the slums of Liverpool. I spent my lifetime hearing all about that and his life mission was to make something of himself so for years my whole family went on that journey. He joined what was called L & B ( Leyland and Birmingham Rubber Co). It was under Thatchers Britain. Dad was a devotee of Margaret Thatcher and he was a manufacturing whizz. When I was 10 he was offered a job here in Australia running a company called BTR (British Tyre Company). BTR was a large multi national company that brought us to Australia.
We arrived in Melbourne where Dad was positioned in 1980. I had an older brother and sister. I was the baby and our childhood was pretty rough. We had a brutally determined father and when I was born I had quite a sick mother. Mum was one of those women in the early 70’s who suffered from deep post-natal depression. All she was guilty of was being a beautiful woman who loved her children so deeply and couldn’t relate to being left at home. She would love to have run naked, picking daisies with the children. She was probably just a hippie at heart. We spent my first 7 years with my mum going in and out of, and I use this term pointedly, looney bins, cause that was what they were called. The stigma around mental illness and being unwell was so dramatic, particularly in England.
Coming to Australia for the whole family was this incredible opportunity. It was no joke in the sense of the land of opportunity. My Dad, from all of his brutal development and manufacturing focus, the contradiction was that he loved the natural world deeply. As children the caravan would go on the back of the car and we’d go around England. There is not one mountain or hill I haven’t climbed in the UK from the age of 18 months to 10 when I left.
When we first arrived in Melbourne the thing Dad was most excited about was to take us to The Dandenong’s and the first place he took us was the incredible Sherbrooke Forest. Beautiful, tall, old growth temperate forest with the beautiful tree fern under stories. I remember walking down the path and I honestly felt like I had just been born for the first time. I couldn’t believe that place. Crimson Rosellas flying through, I thought it was a joke. I was thinking who has done this! I think at that moment I realised I was somewhere magic and though my British Heritage was deeply ingrained in my blood, at the time I was so happy to leave it all behind.
I spent my adolescence in Melbourne and was very alert to politics. I arrived here when Malcom Frazer was ousted and Bob Hawke came in. That seemed like an exciting time politically. The next most memorable thing was watching the wars over the Franklin Dam and the Franklin River on TV. That had a massive impact on me at the time because it combined these aspects of society…this natural world that I was learning about and understanding how ancient Australias landscape is and how we still have these patches of virgin forest, coming from a landscape in England where every bit of it is modified by human hands. While Australias environment had been modified to the extent it had by first nations and Aboriginal people, clearly the history is of really caring for the environment, not exploiting it necessarily. These were things as a new settler that seemed like the most salient lessons in my mind.
When I was in Year 10 I discovered my Politics teacher had been at the Franklin River blockade. At the time my friends and I asked him to stay in at lunch time and tell us all about it. What really happened and what was it like being on the front line? It obviously had a big impact on me.
I did all sorts of jobs and got a one way ticket to Nepal to experience other cultures. I spent several months travelling around India and learnt deeply about poverty, disadvantage, what the depth spirituality looks like and how it feels. It was magical. I also found myself in a bizarre situation. I had my passport stolen on a bus trip. I stupidly fell asleep and my bag had slipped down to my feet. Someone took my passport. Here I am, 18 years of age, lost my passport, travelling alone in India. Oh dear! What have I done? I went back to Delhi, went on the process of getting my passport but it meant I was stuck somewhere for a while. I met some fabulous people who included a Cinematographer who worked for the Indian government. He was filming the 21st International population conference. He told me he needed a good English speaking interviewer and asked if I would be happy to do the job. I said, Absolutely! I found myself in a sari in a massive convention centre interviewing Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Ghandi. I was just a kid but it was such a remarkable experience. I made some good friends that I’ve kept for life.”