“That house broke up. No-one had any money so I moved back and forward and one day I went to a New Year’s Day party at Glebe. I was living in a condemned house at the time in Chippendale and we had just had Christmas Day. Back then you got 10c a bottle and I raised enough to buy a bottle of lemonade and some peanuts. That was our Christmas dinner. We used to cook on a fire in our back yard. It was next to Brett Whitely’s house. He set up mattresses on his sloped roof and he and I would lie up there and look at the stars.
I went to this party and there was this musician I’d heard of called George Lambert at the party. We met up and he asked me to hitch up to Tomewin which I did. I left the party and I never went back to get my clothes or anything. We hitched up to Tomewin behind Murwillumbah. We rented a banana farmers house which was sliding down the hill. It was there I got pregnant. We went to Tasmania to pick apples and I didn’t know I was pregnant at that stage. The first day I ate so many apples I felt sick and then I kept feeling sick so I realised it was because I was pregnant.
I had my baby in a house with no electricity, no running water at Midginbil, Perch Creek and I think now the risk I took. We’d read a book on birth. It said stuff like be like a tree in the wind, go with the flow… and that is how I gave birth. I would never advocate home birth after that. I lived opposite a dairy so I wasn’t so little, I was full of cream. I was a bit crazy though during my pregnancy. I climbed the Cougal Mountains at 7 months. It took 24 hours and I got lost but I did it.
I had my baby Sarah and I realise now I had post natal depression. Again it was ‘Wake up to yourself you stupid girl, what have you got to be unhappy about?’ We moved back to Sydney but I couldn’t cope. George was also a boat builder. The way we got out of Tassie was through George busking with his mandolin while I just sat there pregnant with morning sickness.
We ended up getting a house with a slipway at Redland Bay. He built a boat and sailed off to The Whitsundays. I couldn’t stand it. I hated being out on the water. Redland Bay when the tide was low was only knee high deep in parts so we’d have a huge fight, I’d get off and stand in the middle of the river saying..I’m not getting on that f#*king boat, you can’t make me, the baby, the baby, it’s all about the baby (laughs). He built the boat, off he went and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Anyway I lived there for a while..not in the lake. (laughs).
The house we had was huge, totally run down but we had a lot of Sunday traffic and in those days where was nothing there, no coffee, nothing. It was on a point next to the lighthouse. I started Miss Pen Bottles Devonshire Tea in Raby Bay. I had all mix matched wrought iron furniture. God knows what people thought. I had dreadlocks, a baby, Sarah didn’t have any clothes on till she was about 3. I wasn’t good at toilet training her. She was actually toilet trained by Shirley in Brunswick Heads who ran the general store. She said if you wear pants I’ll give you a lolly. Anyhow I opened on Saturdays and Sundays. I think I only made enough to buy my White Ox tobacco. I used to buy those huge tins of IXL jam, decant it and sell it as homemade jam. That was a big seller. I would order the scones and everyone thought I made them.
The house got sold, George was still away and I had to get out . Down the road was a used car lot and I bought a gorgeous old caravan that looked like a comma. I ended up in The Terrace Reserve Caravan Park which I still have a deep and abiding love for. It was my refuge. I’ve just come back from 2 weeks there.
Sarah’s birthday is Christmas Day. We only had a motor bike at that stage and we packed up every bit of junk in the house, wrapped it and did a $1 lucky dip in Nimbin to make some cash. I went into labour there and I was in too much pain to get back on the bike so a guy drove me home. Without a clock or electricity we are pretty sure she was born Christmas night.
George and I ended up breaking up. He came back and Sarah was turning 2. I asked George what he was giving her for her 2nd Birthday and he said ‘Nothing, I don’t believe in birthdays or Christmas.’ I realised I didn’t want to be with him any more. I hitched to Abracadabra in Mullum and I bought her a soapstone camel. He went away again and I met someone else. By the time he came back it was all over. It was quite an amicable ending.
George had naked drumming schools and he lived in a commune called Bundagen near Coffs which he started. We are all hippies inside but he never really moved on. He died only recently. He had a marvellous death at home. He refused all treatment other than morphine right at the end. He was in his own bed, surrounded by family and friends, still playing music. Sarah and George never had a great relationship but in his last days they sat together and the last words he said to her were….We got there in the end.
15 years ago George experienced a great loss. His daughter went missing hitch hiking at the Corner of Bellingen and Repton turn off. Her name was Rosie, she was in Bellingen making party invites for her 19th birthday and was on her way home to Repton. She has never been found.
Moving forward when Sarah was 13 I was working in the Heidelberg Inn in Brunswick Heads. It was about 1980. One day I ran into Danny from Ourimbah and he asked if I wanted to come and see what he had bought. I would have gone anywhere with the love of my life. He had just bought the old Piggery in Byron Bay. It still had the bloodstains running down the walls. He turned it into the Arts Factory because he missed the great Blues Bands from America. All the big bands would go there. Bo Diddley, BB King, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, all the big blues guys would go to The Piggery. It was the most amazing venue in those days. He started the Blues Fest.
I woke up one day, looked around Brunswick which in those days was the Ampol garage, the pub, the trawler fleet. It was the daggiest town and right on the highway. There was nothing and now you’d never want to leave Brunz. It’s so beautiful. At the time though thought if I don’t get Sarah out of here she is going to marry the local butchers son and that will be her life. She’d never been anywhere.
As a single mum, Iife was your holiday. We never went anywhere so when Sarah was 13 I got my life together. I put her into Dover Heights High which is in Bondi. She was pale skinned in a surf culture. She got bullied for a while but she was such a strong personality and ended up becoming very popular. She became Gothic and obviously wasn’t tolerated going to school with pink hair. She and 5 friends from up here found a school in Canberra where you could call the teachers by their first names, wear whatever you wanted to wear. It was Gough Whitlam’s Prototype for how high schools should be. It was a free school but you had to live in the area. So they moved down, rented a house, lived on 2 minute noodles and it was fantastic. You could learn what they were interested in. She would get up at 6am to do all her makeup. You’d never know to look at her now. She’s so beautiful and amazing. She is my lifeline and she is absolutely what grounds me. “
I went to this party and there was this musician I’d heard of called George Lambert at the party. We met up and he asked me to hitch up to Tomewin which I did. I left the party and I never went back to get my clothes or anything. We hitched up to Tomewin behind Murwillumbah. We rented a banana farmers house which was sliding down the hill. It was there I got pregnant. We went to Tasmania to pick apples and I didn’t know I was pregnant at that stage. The first day I ate so many apples I felt sick and then I kept feeling sick so I realised it was because I was pregnant.
I had my baby in a house with no electricity, no running water at Midginbil, Perch Creek and I think now the risk I took. We’d read a book on birth. It said stuff like be like a tree in the wind, go with the flow… and that is how I gave birth. I would never advocate home birth after that. I lived opposite a dairy so I wasn’t so little, I was full of cream. I was a bit crazy though during my pregnancy. I climbed the Cougal Mountains at 7 months. It took 24 hours and I got lost but I did it.
I had my baby Sarah and I realise now I had post natal depression. Again it was ‘Wake up to yourself you stupid girl, what have you got to be unhappy about?’ We moved back to Sydney but I couldn’t cope. George was also a boat builder. The way we got out of Tassie was through George busking with his mandolin while I just sat there pregnant with morning sickness.
We ended up getting a house with a slipway at Redland Bay. He built a boat and sailed off to The Whitsundays. I couldn’t stand it. I hated being out on the water. Redland Bay when the tide was low was only knee high deep in parts so we’d have a huge fight, I’d get off and stand in the middle of the river saying..I’m not getting on that f#*king boat, you can’t make me, the baby, the baby, it’s all about the baby (laughs). He built the boat, off he went and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Anyway I lived there for a while..not in the lake. (laughs).
The house we had was huge, totally run down but we had a lot of Sunday traffic and in those days where was nothing there, no coffee, nothing. It was on a point next to the lighthouse. I started Miss Pen Bottles Devonshire Tea in Raby Bay. I had all mix matched wrought iron furniture. God knows what people thought. I had dreadlocks, a baby, Sarah didn’t have any clothes on till she was about 3. I wasn’t good at toilet training her. She was actually toilet trained by Shirley in Brunswick Heads who ran the general store. She said if you wear pants I’ll give you a lolly. Anyhow I opened on Saturdays and Sundays. I think I only made enough to buy my White Ox tobacco. I used to buy those huge tins of IXL jam, decant it and sell it as homemade jam. That was a big seller. I would order the scones and everyone thought I made them.
The house got sold, George was still away and I had to get out . Down the road was a used car lot and I bought a gorgeous old caravan that looked like a comma. I ended up in The Terrace Reserve Caravan Park which I still have a deep and abiding love for. It was my refuge. I’ve just come back from 2 weeks there.
Sarah’s birthday is Christmas Day. We only had a motor bike at that stage and we packed up every bit of junk in the house, wrapped it and did a $1 lucky dip in Nimbin to make some cash. I went into labour there and I was in too much pain to get back on the bike so a guy drove me home. Without a clock or electricity we are pretty sure she was born Christmas night.
George and I ended up breaking up. He came back and Sarah was turning 2. I asked George what he was giving her for her 2nd Birthday and he said ‘Nothing, I don’t believe in birthdays or Christmas.’ I realised I didn’t want to be with him any more. I hitched to Abracadabra in Mullum and I bought her a soapstone camel. He went away again and I met someone else. By the time he came back it was all over. It was quite an amicable ending.
George had naked drumming schools and he lived in a commune called Bundagen near Coffs which he started. We are all hippies inside but he never really moved on. He died only recently. He had a marvellous death at home. He refused all treatment other than morphine right at the end. He was in his own bed, surrounded by family and friends, still playing music. Sarah and George never had a great relationship but in his last days they sat together and the last words he said to her were….We got there in the end.
15 years ago George experienced a great loss. His daughter went missing hitch hiking at the Corner of Bellingen and Repton turn off. Her name was Rosie, she was in Bellingen making party invites for her 19th birthday and was on her way home to Repton. She has never been found.
Moving forward when Sarah was 13 I was working in the Heidelberg Inn in Brunswick Heads. It was about 1980. One day I ran into Danny from Ourimbah and he asked if I wanted to come and see what he had bought. I would have gone anywhere with the love of my life. He had just bought the old Piggery in Byron Bay. It still had the bloodstains running down the walls. He turned it into the Arts Factory because he missed the great Blues Bands from America. All the big bands would go there. Bo Diddley, BB King, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, all the big blues guys would go to The Piggery. It was the most amazing venue in those days. He started the Blues Fest.
I woke up one day, looked around Brunswick which in those days was the Ampol garage, the pub, the trawler fleet. It was the daggiest town and right on the highway. There was nothing and now you’d never want to leave Brunz. It’s so beautiful. At the time though thought if I don’t get Sarah out of here she is going to marry the local butchers son and that will be her life. She’d never been anywhere.
As a single mum, Iife was your holiday. We never went anywhere so when Sarah was 13 I got my life together. I put her into Dover Heights High which is in Bondi. She was pale skinned in a surf culture. She got bullied for a while but she was such a strong personality and ended up becoming very popular. She became Gothic and obviously wasn’t tolerated going to school with pink hair. She and 5 friends from up here found a school in Canberra where you could call the teachers by their first names, wear whatever you wanted to wear. It was Gough Whitlam’s Prototype for how high schools should be. It was a free school but you had to live in the area. So they moved down, rented a house, lived on 2 minute noodles and it was fantastic. You could learn what they were interested in. She would get up at 6am to do all her makeup. You’d never know to look at her now. She’s so beautiful and amazing. She is my lifeline and she is absolutely what grounds me. “