“ My parents were quite adventurous. They met in Morwell, Victoria which is a mining town. My father was a Surveyor and Mum was a teacher. They went to New Guinea to work in Madang. They loved the outdoor lifestyle. When the family came along they moved to Townsville in a place called Palmarenda which had the beach on one side and on the other was the Commons which had Brolgas, wetlands and Kangaroos hopping down the street. We’d spend all our time on the beach and it was a wonderful childhood. My father worked away out west on contracts so my mum had 3 children under 3 pretty much on her own. I’m the eldest with 2 younger brothers. It was really hard for her. Mum’s mother died and she couldn’t afford to go to the funeral which was in Melbourne because she had us 3 on her own, Dad was away and she had no-one to look after the children so she couldn’t get there. She regretted that her whole life.
The ocean has always been a big part of my life, that’s why I love living here. It’s a little trip to Ballina, Evans or Byron. After Cyclone Tracey which devastated Townsville we moved to Brisbane for a few years where I went to an independent school just outside Brisbane which is still going now. They had acreage and we knew our teachers by first name. I’m still Facebook friends with my teacher Margaret. I remember we had animals at school and once we went to Uki on a school camp and bought some Clydesdale horses. We also had really scary goats called Nibbles and Squashy and they terrified us kids. The curriculum was fantastic because someone’s mum would come and teach us things like bread-making. Film making was really big for a long time. We also made a shingle hut ourselves. It was so creative and relaxed. It was a really good way to engage in learning. I think I was in Year 5 before I’d actually read anything and my teacher sent me down to the library. He found War of the Worlds and started reading it to me. He would leave to go back to another class and I would have to know what happens next so I learned how to read through wanting to know the rest of the story.
My father got a contract in Fiji so we lived there for 4 years which was wonderful. I went to the local school for a couple of years and then correspondence with my Mum while she did her Bachelor of Education by Correspondence. I feel I have the same lifestyle here in Lismore as I had in Latoka in Fiji. Lismore reminds me so much of Latoka. We have the Mango trees, the Frangipanis, the vistas and the huge cultural connection we have here with the theatre, art and the beaches. School was interesting with the different cultural groups. I was 10 and left when I was 14 so very formative years. We went sailing and I got my Scuba Diving certificate there on those amazing reefs. With the work my father was doing, we were allowed to go to islands where most people couldn’t go back then. One of those island was where Blue Lagoon was filmed. I just loved camping out by the fire with our li-los and mozzie nets right on the beach. Massive land crabs with huge nippers would go scurrying past and we’d make sure our Mozzie nets were tucked in tight. No way I was getting up for a pee. It was magic and we were so sad on the flight back to Australia. I remember we stopped at NZ on the flight home and walked around Auckland at night. We saw a shop with a window display which was one Mango with a $5 price tag on it. It was traumatic. (laughs).
I came back and went to a state high school in Brisbane which was ok. Because it was a big city we didn’t have access to all the extra curricular stuff we had in Fiji like swimming, sailing or scuba diving.
I loved studying with Mum. Those were the days when you would do your lessons and post them and they’d take 4 weeks before you got your results. 11am it was time for the Goon show. Radio was really big back in the 70’s. Dad would lurk on the jetty and make friends with everyone. Every time a Navy ship came into harbour Dad would make friends and drag the sailors back home so we got to see Submarines and big ships first hand. Dad is now in his 80’s and he has Dementia. His partner is caring from him. My Mum passed away just before her 50th birthday from breast cancer. That was hard as I was sort of estranged from my family at that time.
I finished my schooling, went to teachers college and I met and fell in love with a Musician as you do. I dropped out of college and we moved in together. My father was horrified so basically I didn’t see my family for a couple of years. My father was quite abusive to me but particularly to my boyfriend Michael at the time which was a bit sad. Michael’s family lived in the same suburb so we visited them often. They were lovely people and we would all play Bridge. One day I saw my Mum at the shopping centre and she told me she had found a lump in her breast. I saw her in hospital and visited her sometimes. Mum decided once she’d had the tumour and lymph removed not have any chemo so she and my father travelled around Australia and went on a world trip for a few years. Five years later she died. So I always figure every year after 50 is a bonus so I’m going strong.
I did my Science degree at Griffith University studying Australian Environmental Studies and I loved it. I was still with the boyfriend. We were together for 9 years which was lovely. We listened to a lot of music and collected a lot of vinyl which I still have. We loved cinema, riding our bikes along the river, seeing live music and studying. After I dropped out of teachers college I decided I better get a job so I worked with computers. I did a Tafe course on the latest computer programs which at that time was Word Perfect, Lotus 123 with the double disc drive and remember the old floppy discs. I worked for a company that had an office in Lismore and they actually came up with the first portable computer which was a big box. We used to supply all the government departments and I loved that job.
I then got a job reading Newspapers for a publishing company, so every morning I’d go to the office in town and read 250 newspapers, all the way from QLD down to the Byron Echo. I’d read articles for DA’s or buildings that were happening. They would compile and sell this info, say to a carpet manufacturer who would buy our magazine and know that a hotel was being built and they’d know what to tender for. I started coming home with all these articles about city farms, communities and all the things that were happening in the Byron Echo. That’s when I enrolled in my Science degree where I majored in Economics and Planning. We bought motorbikes and started travelling down this way through Rathdowney then through Lions Road. You come down through QLD and it’s bare then you come to the tick gate and then there’s lush rainforest. So beautiful!
One summer an old school friend John came to visit. We were both in relationships at the time but we got together and caused a bit of heartache. We fell in love, I moved down here…then we had babies.”
The ocean has always been a big part of my life, that’s why I love living here. It’s a little trip to Ballina, Evans or Byron. After Cyclone Tracey which devastated Townsville we moved to Brisbane for a few years where I went to an independent school just outside Brisbane which is still going now. They had acreage and we knew our teachers by first name. I’m still Facebook friends with my teacher Margaret. I remember we had animals at school and once we went to Uki on a school camp and bought some Clydesdale horses. We also had really scary goats called Nibbles and Squashy and they terrified us kids. The curriculum was fantastic because someone’s mum would come and teach us things like bread-making. Film making was really big for a long time. We also made a shingle hut ourselves. It was so creative and relaxed. It was a really good way to engage in learning. I think I was in Year 5 before I’d actually read anything and my teacher sent me down to the library. He found War of the Worlds and started reading it to me. He would leave to go back to another class and I would have to know what happens next so I learned how to read through wanting to know the rest of the story.
My father got a contract in Fiji so we lived there for 4 years which was wonderful. I went to the local school for a couple of years and then correspondence with my Mum while she did her Bachelor of Education by Correspondence. I feel I have the same lifestyle here in Lismore as I had in Latoka in Fiji. Lismore reminds me so much of Latoka. We have the Mango trees, the Frangipanis, the vistas and the huge cultural connection we have here with the theatre, art and the beaches. School was interesting with the different cultural groups. I was 10 and left when I was 14 so very formative years. We went sailing and I got my Scuba Diving certificate there on those amazing reefs. With the work my father was doing, we were allowed to go to islands where most people couldn’t go back then. One of those island was where Blue Lagoon was filmed. I just loved camping out by the fire with our li-los and mozzie nets right on the beach. Massive land crabs with huge nippers would go scurrying past and we’d make sure our Mozzie nets were tucked in tight. No way I was getting up for a pee. It was magic and we were so sad on the flight back to Australia. I remember we stopped at NZ on the flight home and walked around Auckland at night. We saw a shop with a window display which was one Mango with a $5 price tag on it. It was traumatic. (laughs).
I came back and went to a state high school in Brisbane which was ok. Because it was a big city we didn’t have access to all the extra curricular stuff we had in Fiji like swimming, sailing or scuba diving.
I loved studying with Mum. Those were the days when you would do your lessons and post them and they’d take 4 weeks before you got your results. 11am it was time for the Goon show. Radio was really big back in the 70’s. Dad would lurk on the jetty and make friends with everyone. Every time a Navy ship came into harbour Dad would make friends and drag the sailors back home so we got to see Submarines and big ships first hand. Dad is now in his 80’s and he has Dementia. His partner is caring from him. My Mum passed away just before her 50th birthday from breast cancer. That was hard as I was sort of estranged from my family at that time.
I finished my schooling, went to teachers college and I met and fell in love with a Musician as you do. I dropped out of college and we moved in together. My father was horrified so basically I didn’t see my family for a couple of years. My father was quite abusive to me but particularly to my boyfriend Michael at the time which was a bit sad. Michael’s family lived in the same suburb so we visited them often. They were lovely people and we would all play Bridge. One day I saw my Mum at the shopping centre and she told me she had found a lump in her breast. I saw her in hospital and visited her sometimes. Mum decided once she’d had the tumour and lymph removed not have any chemo so she and my father travelled around Australia and went on a world trip for a few years. Five years later she died. So I always figure every year after 50 is a bonus so I’m going strong.
I did my Science degree at Griffith University studying Australian Environmental Studies and I loved it. I was still with the boyfriend. We were together for 9 years which was lovely. We listened to a lot of music and collected a lot of vinyl which I still have. We loved cinema, riding our bikes along the river, seeing live music and studying. After I dropped out of teachers college I decided I better get a job so I worked with computers. I did a Tafe course on the latest computer programs which at that time was Word Perfect, Lotus 123 with the double disc drive and remember the old floppy discs. I worked for a company that had an office in Lismore and they actually came up with the first portable computer which was a big box. We used to supply all the government departments and I loved that job.
I then got a job reading Newspapers for a publishing company, so every morning I’d go to the office in town and read 250 newspapers, all the way from QLD down to the Byron Echo. I’d read articles for DA’s or buildings that were happening. They would compile and sell this info, say to a carpet manufacturer who would buy our magazine and know that a hotel was being built and they’d know what to tender for. I started coming home with all these articles about city farms, communities and all the things that were happening in the Byron Echo. That’s when I enrolled in my Science degree where I majored in Economics and Planning. We bought motorbikes and started travelling down this way through Rathdowney then through Lions Road. You come down through QLD and it’s bare then you come to the tick gate and then there’s lush rainforest. So beautiful!
One summer an old school friend John came to visit. We were both in relationships at the time but we got together and caused a bit of heartache. We fell in love, I moved down here…then we had babies.”