“I was born at Runnymede Hospital in Grafton which doesn’t exist anymore, it’s now a beautiful old home. I had an idyllic, simple childhood. I consider myself to be part of the ‘unseen generation’ because we weren’t seen between 6am and 6pm. It was the best time. Mum and Dad would say, get on your bike and go and I don’t want to see you till dinner time. Because Grafton is really flat we were able to ride everywhere in amongst those glorious Jacaranda avenues which were just divine and the lovely celebrations of Jacaranda as well.
We grew up catching tadpoles, riding up to the back of Lawrence to stay at a girlfriends overnight and then eat your packed lunch on the side of the road on the way back. We never ever felt unsafe and that was absolutely glorious. It was such a gift.
I’m the eldest of three girls then there’s my sisters Melissa and Nadene. My sister Melissa has a disability. She’s Downs and she has taught me and my children empathy and patience. I think you see the world differently when you see difference and you need to make allowances for that in your family life, in your community and the beauty of diversity and what they teach us is such a gift. I feel privileged to have someone like that in my life. Melissa still lives in a Grafton in a share home.
Melissa wanted to get married when she turned 50 because she saw that my sister and I had been married. Mum rang one day and said Melissa wants to get married. I said, that’s ok! Mum said to Melissa, but you don’t have a boyfriend. Melissa said, I don’t need one of those. I said don’t worry, she just wants to have a beautiful dress and have a special day. I said, go and rent a private room in Vines so we had her favourite carers and people that were special in Melissa’s life that day just to celebrate her. Mum had her made a simple white skirt and a little lace top. Lovely Jo at the Enchanted Florist made her a little bouquet with pink roses and a little wreath for her hair. We had a cake and we all made our vows to her that we would love her forever. She just felt that she was a grown up woman. (See Melissa’s photo in comments)
Back to my youth, growing up a country girl I was lured to Sydney by the excitement so I boarded a train when I finished Year 12. I had no plans so I stayed with a friend and then found a place to live, firstly at Wollstonecraft, then Neutral Bay, Woolloomooloo and I ended up in Crown St, Surry Hills which I loved. This is before it was trendy, it was pretty grungy and I loved it. You could go to restaurants like ‘No Names’ and have a schnitzel and salad for $7. We went out every night and danced till 3am then got up and went to work the next day….until you ran out of clothes and realised you needed to do your washing.
I was working for a sportswear company in the mid 80s owned by some South African men. I had ideas as to what they should put in their stores like beautiful swimwear. I encouraged them and they opened three stores called Body Active. One was the Queen Victoria building, one in Darling Harbour and one in Pitt St. It was a boutique swim and leisure store. I then became a buyer because they could see I had the eye so they let me have free reign which was wonderful. I selected all the game and swimwear and we developed our own fashion line called Body Active. We were the first to bring in muscle shirts with the low cut sleeves and the logo on the front. We had cycling shorts and the gay boys would come and say they love them but without the padding in the middle. We were the first to make the lycra shorts without the saddle in the middle. I got to meet some amazing people like Micheal Hutchence, Richard Branson when he opened the Virgin store. Another time Billy Connelly came in looking very dishevelled. I had no idea who he was so I rang Amex to check if his card was legit (laughs).
After a failed relationship I moved back to Grafton with my daughter Ashlee so she could have an idyllic life like I had. I wanted her to have those beautiful moments surrounded by family. I got my first job in media when I went to work for 2GF and I actually thought to myself how do you sell air? I had that imposter syndrome but I worked really hard and I did well.”
I met Nick through my sister in 1990. He had come down to Grafton for a birthday party and I was introduced to him. There was immediate chemistry and he started writing me letters which was very romantic. He’s then come to visit and we would go and stay at his families beach house at Suffolk Park and then after 4 months we knew we wanted to get married. Ash and I moved to Alstonville and lived with Nick. I then worked for the Northern Star for a while but went on to work for 2LM.
Nick had half finished his Science degree and didn’t really know what he wanted to do so we decided that he would finish his degree. We moved to Armidale while he completed his degree. I worked at 2AD and we lived in a wing of this beautiful old home called Birida which was originally the old PLC boarding house. It had rambling gardens and we made a lot of great friends up there. There’s a distinct difference between people on the coast and people on the tablelands. Some of its as simple as on the coast we have black as our basic colour whereas on the tablelands they all wear navy as their basic colour. People will travel hours to go to a tennis lunch and then drive back. When they say, in 4 weeks time we are having drinks at the pub or a tennis party, that’s set in stone and it happens. On the coast it may or may not happen. It doesn’t mean that people aren’t as authentic, up there on farming communities, they rely on each other more.
We came back and William was born at Lismore Base. Nick decided he wanted to do Honours so back we went to Armidale for those two years. He then decided he wanted to do Veterinary Science which would mean we all move to Brisbane. I said to him, as long as you are happy doing that for the rest of your life, that’s another 5 years..Ok! Off we went to Brisbane with two children. I worked at Birch Caroll and Coyle with cinema advertising then worked for 4BC. We then had two more children Oscar and Hugo. There were times when we had absolutely no money ever but they were some of the best times of our lives. I learnt to drink beer rather than wine because we couldn’t afford it and it was so hot. I’ve never drunk it again.”