Patricia McPherson finished a decade of work from 1962 to 1973 in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, first as a sister at the AIM Hospital Fitzroy Crossing, and then as the pioneer of itinerant nursing in the Aboriginal camps. She was physically, emotionally and intellectually drained. She left the Kimberley both depleted of energy and without financial resources after years of being on a nominal ‘mission’ wage. 

But Pat McPherson’s Kimberley experiences had left her with two life-changing consequences. One was her realisation that she wanted to dedicate her professional life to community health. 

The second consequence was the meeting between Sister Pat, a legend of a nurse, and Luke McCall, the legendary outback stockman. Their lifelong friendship endured across the continent of Australia and across time.

FURTHER EDUCATION

Her immediate challenge after leaving the Kimberley was to replenish her inner resources, principally through further education.

“The pioneering work was over, new people with new skills were needed to take it to the next level and I was very tired and completely empty. I knew if I wanted to be a contributing person in the 1980s I would have to ‘fill up’, so I returned to Victoria, recovered, then took myself off to University and undertook an Arts Degree for four years, majoring in Sociology and Politics. 

I loved being at University as I found study very energizing. In fact the 70s was my favourite decade. The latest phase of the feminist revolution was in full swing which saw legislative advances in public policy that benefited women, such as equal pay, equal opportunity and anti-discrimination – all heady stuff which I found challenging and stimulating.”

Graduation Master of Nursing Studies La Trobe University 1991

PIONEERING PROGRAMS FOR THE RDNS

Pat’s plan to dedicate herself to community health was realised when she joined the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS), the pre-eminent not-for-profit agency for community health nursing. During her years with the RDNS, she was able to plan and pioneer new clinical programs that introduced specialist clinical nurses to meet the challenges of treating existing health problems in the community such as diabetes, and new health perils such as AIDS.

“After Uni. I was invited to join the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) in Melbourne where I spent 14 years working in Centre and Regional Management and then in 1987, I enrolled in a Masters Degree in Nursing Studies when it was offered for the first time in Victoria. This was a part-time course which I completed in1991 following which I was appointed as the Policy and Planning Officer for RDNS.

Planning involved developing new clinical programs which only became possible after the introduction of a new career structure for nurses that was one of the outcomes of the big nurse’s strike in the 1980s. The existing career structure only catered for nurse administrators and nurse teachers. The new one opened up opportunities for clinical nurses. New programs involved our specialist clinical nurses in AIDS care, leg ulcer management, continence management, 24 hour care, palliative care, Cystic Fibrosis home care, wound care, homeless person’s health care and a Diabetic Teaching Program.”

DIABETIC TEACHING PROGRAM

“The Diabetic Teaching Program (DTP) came about because I felt that there was an inordinate number of diabetic patients on the books for years in order to receive daily insulin injections and blood tests (finger pricks). I couldn’t see why most couldn’t learn to do this themselves. Not only that, they needed to understand all about their tablets and/or insulin, its administration, side effects and the equipment. They also needed to learn about (and manage) all other  issues related to their diabetes – diet, activity, care of teeth/eyes/feet and monitoring control. The Director of Nursing (DON) accepted my recommendations and together with the best of our nurse educators/clinicians we put together a complete DTP incorporating all of the above.  When this became established practice, 90% of new diabetic patients admitted were discharged because they had learnt to manage their own diabetic care.”

AIDS EPIDEMIC

Pat played a critical role in developing an effective community nursing response during the AIDS epidemic.

“The AIDS epidemic caught all health care organisations unprepared and there was a mad scramble to find a treatment. RDNS came into the picture when treatments began to save lives and young men were being discharged to home care and this project became mine to handle. It started with one nurse (who had undertaken self-directed learning)  and the first patient who became a test case. Every issue that came up (i.e parents/partner/gay community relationship, undertakers requirements, non-availability of normal in home supports) was worked through. This pioneer nurse was on call 24/7 but as more men were discharged home, we educationally prepared four more AIDS nurses, one to each region and as the numbers increased even further. AIDS care was devolved to the area nurses who were educationally supported at all times. Regarding the lack  of care from other community agencies,  we set up a joint project between RDNS and Victorian AIDS Council Home Care Unit (a group of gay volunteers who organised themselves into a strong home care team).  It was very successful collaborative (and sustainable) outcome which lasted throughout the AIDS epidemic.”

Pat in Tuvalu to develop a Primary Health Care Plan for the island nation 1999

FRAMING POLICY FOR THE RDNS

“Policy involved keeping on top of federal and state legislation and policies relating to health, aged care and nursing, writing position papers and submissions as required, well over a hundred if I remember correctly.  At the same time, together with a very gifted consultant and technical writer, we re-developed all the Agency policies and procedures within the framework of the Australian Health Care Standards by which the Agency was accredited. 

In my last year I prepared the agency for compliance with the new Commonwealth and State health privacy legislation.”

“In 1999, I had a particularly interesting experience when the head of RDNS education department obtained an AusAID grant to develop a Primary Health Care Plan for the island nation of Tuvalu (formerly Ellis Islands) – nine coral atolls stretched for thousands of miles along the Equator. This was a requirement when the nation signed up to the Health For All By Year 2000 Movement of the World Health Organization. She asked me to go with her because I had done my Masters thesis on the development of this movement and had a full grasp of the WHO framework and requirements.

It was full of highlights not the least of which was having to bribe a baggage handler at Suva airport to get our gear onto the plane. We were told we could go, but not our luggage which contained all of our teaching equipment. But twenty Australian dollars and a bottle of gin soon fixed that.” 

Legendary stockman Luke McCall – photo Jeff Wallace

LUKE McCALL

“The best reward that came my way (in the Kimberley) was meeting someone who was to become my best friend and soul mate. 

In late July 1967, I was waiting on the Fitzroy Crossing airstrip to put an Esky of pathology specimens on the DC3 mail plane en route to Derby when a tall handsome man, dressed entirely in black, came down the steps nonchalantly carrying a saddle over his shoulder, much as a city guy would carry a sports coat. He tipped his hat and said ‘Good morning’ in a plummy voice. 

His name was Luke McCall, a legendary stockman from the Queensland Gulf country who’d arrived to take up the position of Head Stockman on Jubilee Downs station.

I was working in the Jubilee camp later that morning and met Luke at lunch and was quite taken with his quiet dignity and manners. I was a bit blown away actually.

The muster (herding cattle and trucking them to the meat works) started soon after Luke arrived and I didn’t see anything of him until one day as I was returning to town after my weekly visit to the Jubilee camp, I came across a small tree bough placed across the track. Intrigued, I followed the way it was pointing through the scrub and came across the musterers’ dinner camp.  Luke and I had a chat and a drink of coffee and off I went. From then on, I would come across a bough across the track from time to time that would lead to Luke’s dinner camp for another coffee and chat.

During next year’s mustering season these meetings graduated from ‘smoko’ to ‘supper’ when the stock camp was camped not far from town on Jubilee’s No. 4 bore.  I would buy a packet of bacon, half a dozen eggs and a tin of pineapple juice and we would dine by the camp fire under a million stars, serenaded by horse bells and the low mooing of cattle. It was very romantic I can tell you.

At the end of that season, Luke decided that the Kimberley wasn’t for him and returned to the Gulf. He began writing to me and our friendship developed through letters.

1972 when I completed my work in the Kimberley and returned to civilization to recover and undertake years of study, Luke visited me wherever I was during his wet season break. When I got on with my career and bought a house in Melbourne, Luke could stay for the duration of the Wet. He took to holiday life in the southern capital like a duck to water; charmed my family, friends and neighbours; developed a passion for fine dining and learnt to ride a tram. 

Our friendship lasted for over 50 years, sustained by letters, phone calls (when Telstra came to the outback), holidays and Christmases. When we had both retired we made annual road trips to celebrations/reunions at the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach and the Drovers Camp at Camooweal on the Queensland/Territory border, meeting up with Luke’s old friends and acquaintances along the way.

In his 86th year Luke became very unwell so I brought him home to my place and became his carer. I was with him every day until he ‘left camp’ on 9^th November 2018.” 

Read Pat’s stories in WomanGoingPlaces about Luke McCall’s life as a legendary Australian stockman of the outback.  And about their annual trip to the iconic Drovers Camp Festivals held every year to commemorate the droving tradition when Camooweal Queensland was the centre for the largest cattle drives the world has ever seen.

Pat McPherson & Luke McCall at Palumpa homestead Northern Territory 1975

RETIREMENT AND REFLECTIONS

Pat retired to Bairnsdale in Victoria in 2002.

“After twenty-five wonderful years with the RDNS, I retired to Bairnsdale at the end of 2002 to enjoy the natural beauty of East Gippsland as a bird watcher, a bush walker, a land carer and a field naturalist  It is refreshment for the soul. And at long last, I have started to make long desired trips overseas”.

In the tough, isolating environment of her life and work in the Kimberley, Pat McPherson had found the strength and resilience she needed to face almost insurmountable challenges. She recognised that her work was of value, but it was her faith that provided the essential support she needed throughout those years.

“My years in the Outback were a time of rich spiritual growth. I found myself in an alien situation where all the props were gone. The church was no longer nailed down on the corner, accessible every Sunday and providing an uplifting gospel reading and a feel good homily for the week.

The AIM conditions, workload and challenges at Fitzroy Crossing so overwhelmed me that I couldn’t do it with my own strength and I needed help. I got it through a personal (direct) relationship with the Lord rather than one mediated by a Minister. I lived by prayer and when the chips were down (seemingly daily) I always got the help and the strength I needed which sustained me – that is my reward.”

And the rugged beauty of the Kimberley with its harsh seasons embedded itself in her heart.

“An unexpected reward came despite all the vicissitudes of the climate that I lived through i.e. the sub-zero nights and dusty, desert winds throughout the Dry season; unimaginable heat in the last three months of the year in the build-up to the Wet; shattering storms followed by stifling humidity when the rains came. 

By contrast, brief times of sweet coolness, colour and quietness at dusk and dawn and then the glory of the ever lasting stars at night brought refreshment for the soul and renewal. 

Along the way, the Outback became my ‘heart country’ and still is.”

PATRICIA MCPHERSON’S ENDURING CONTRIBUTIONS

Pat McPherson’s pioneering spirit and character together with her care for community and country have been consistent features of her life. Her innovative thinking, meticulous planning and application of solutions in community healthcare have fundamentally improved the healthcare system and saved many lives.

Her enduring contribution was recognised when in 2001, as part of Australia’s Centenary of Federation celebrations, Patricia McPherson received the special honour of being included on the inaugural Victorian Honour Role of Women – Women Shaping the Nation.

By the mid-1960s, Patricia McPherson had been working for two years as a nurse at the severely under-resourced AIM (Australian Inland Mission) Hospital at Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. (See ‘Sister Pat – A Legend of a Nurse’ Part 1)

Pat and her fellow AIM nurse Gloria (Nat) Natoli were deeply affected by the repeated experience of watching Aboriginal babies die despite their best efforts to save them. 

“After our arrival in Fitzroy Crossing, we soon experienced the first of many major gastroenteritis epidemics. We admitted 20 dehydrated babies, who despite our 24-hour nursing care, nearly all died because they came to us too late. This was to be the pattern of our next two years. 

My strongest memory is of working night after night on moribund babies; of watching them die. Of wrapping little bodies in a blanket and leaving them in the engine shed for the Missioner to pick up and bury the next morning. Of the mothers wailing and hitting their heads with stones in their sorrow. Of walking up to the police station in the middle of the night to report the death/s to the policeman. Of being told off for waking him up (despite this being his requirement). Of biting my tongue when he invariably asked if the death was caused by a spear or other suspicious circumstances. Of always replying “No, just a preventable disease”. 

I would often say “If only we could get out into the camps and pick them up in the early stages, before it was too late”. If only! 

The opportunity to do just this came my way in 1966 with the commencement of an itinerant child care service as an outreach of our traditional hospital service.” 

Bush Clinic Brooking Springs Station

In 1966, Dr. Davidson, the Commissioner of Public Health in Western Australia asked the AIM to find a way to reduce the exceptionally high Indigenous infant mortality rate in the Fitzroy Crossing area which was the highest in the state, as well as the significant number of hospital admissions of the Indigenous peoples. The AIM accepted and handed the challenge to Patricia McPherson. 

Pat was eager to take up a task she had long felt was necessary – treating and getting the sick children to the hospital in the early stages of illness before it was too late.  In taking on the task, Pat McPherson pioneered and established the Itinerant Child Care Service in the West Kimberley.

She created and developed an accessible, unique system of routine preventative treatment and holistic healthcare education that was available to the Indigenous population where they lived and worked. Pat’s project would save lives, reduce infant mortality to almost none, and raise the standard of child care in areas where people lived at subsistence levels. It would also usher in a new public health nursing service to remote areas of Western Australia.

Pat began her task by routinely driving in her donated Land Rover in the cooler hours of the very early mornings to the Aboriginal camps that were attached to 4 stations in her region of the Kimberley – GoGo, Brooking Springs, Fossil Downs and Jubilee Station.  Using the tailgate of the Land Rover, she set up a mobile clinic in whatever shade and circumstances that these impoverished camps could provide. Pat did not see her role as simply dispensing medicines.  She recognised that the illnesses prevalent in the communities she was tasked to serve arose from the powerlessness, abject poverty, and filth in which the people in the camps were forced to live, circumstances that were far removed from their traditional way of life and culture.

Pat’s tailgate antenatal clinic

CONDITIONS IN THE CAMPS

Pat approached her work by first observing the situation in each camp and grew familiar with the people and culture of the place. She wrote:

“The Aborigines lived in small, overcrowded camps on million-acre cattle stations (privately owned ranches) and formed part of the feudal society which a cattle station was in those days. They had no rights. Furthermore, if they left the station they would be turned back by all the other stations and have no hope of employment or livelihood anywhere else. 

The camps are usually built on high bore ground within calling distance of the homesteads.

They consist of rows of small tin huts, the ubiquitous bough sheds and a washhouse-cum-ablution block, usually communal and detached. A perimeter is formed of old cans, bags and general rubbish and the old bones and hooves of many ‘killers’ – leftovers of the camp’s meat supply.

Goats, cats and pigs stroll around unconcernedly and dogs bark and fight and sleep as one with the inhabitants.

A few trees struggle for life in the rocky ground and the white cockatoos screech and wheel and settle on them.

From the shade of the huts, the people sit and watch. Overall, is the ever-present heat and dust and smell of old bones. The people lived at subsistence level.”

INITIAL ASSESSMENT 

“The original aims were to cut down the infant mortality rate and hospital admissions by raising the standard of child care.

My initial health assessment of the Aboriginal people showed that there was over 60% trachoma; one in 12 had leprosy; about 10% suffered from diabetes; at least three-quarters of the population had chronic anaemia; 27% of the babies and pre-schoolers had chronic ear infections with one or two perforated ear drums; about one-third of the group exhibited signs of deafness; 25% had suppurating sores; and nearly all carried a heavy bowel parasite load. Upper respiratory tract infection was rife and gastroenteritis was endemic and very often terminal. No comprehensive immunisation program had ever been carried out; and no ante-natal care was sought by the pregnant women who usually delivered in a creek bed and only presented at the hospital if something was wrong. Sub-nutrition was a way of life and no child under the age of two could be safely expected to last the distance, and most didn’t.

My area covered six such camps within a 30-mile radius of Fitzroy Crossing in which seven hundred Aborigines lived. I drove to each camp twice a week thinking at first that all I had to do was to pick up the sick children early and take them to the AIM hospital. My thinking proved very wrong.”

Thoughtful and analytical, Pat expanded the scope of her service to include a crucial component – health education that involved the participation of the entire community. She methodically worked with the people of the camps to bring changes that would bring a measurable improvement to the health of adults and particularly, their children. 

Health education program

HEALTH EDUCATION – Expanding Scope of the Service

“My area originally covered ‘GoGo’ station and Brooking Springs station, the United Aborigines Mission camps and Aboriginal families with children who camped and worked at three of the houses and at the pub in the town of Fitzroy Crossing. I extended it to include Jubilee Downs and Fossil Downs stations.

“Getting sick children to hospital early did become part of my work, along with medical checks, minor treatments, antenatal care, trachoma and anaemia treatments, immunisations and leprosy checks. This was my ‘hospital half hour’, conducted from the tailboard of my Land Rover, before my major work for the day – health education. 

The nurse became a teacher of: 

Child Care with emphasis on adequate and appropriate food and water, hygiene, clothing and care of it.

Environmental Care  with emphasis on rubbish disposal, camp cleaning, housekeeping and vegetable growing. 

First Aid with emphasis on self-reliance. I taught the mothers how to care for their children’s sores, treat their infected ears, and administer treatment for their anaemia on an on-going basis.”

A NORMAL WORKING WEEK 

“A normal working week consisted of five days in the camps. Trachoma treatments were carried out at dawn and at dusk for maximum cover when the people were either getting out of, or getting into, their swags. Then I’d conduct my ‘Hospital Half Hour’, routinely checking the health of babies and preschoolers and seeing anyone else who was sick or pregnant. Then I’d carry out my various health education programs. 

After lunch I’d go to a second camp and repeat the process there, returning at sundown to the camp receiving the trachoma treatment that week to administer the oily Achromycin eye drops. This treatment had to be administered morning and evening, for six months to each patient.

On Saturdays, I did all my writing up for the week in comprehensive records that I’d established for each child, as well as the graphs and the action research data that I happened to be working on at the time. On Sundays, I cleaned my Land Rover and gear and washed my clothes, which were always filthy. I played tennis on a Sunday afternoon at the AIM Hospital tennis court. After two years I had a holiday. “

In 1966, at the end of the first year of the project, she wrote:

“I have now worked for a full seven months in the Aboriginal camps and have driven 13,532 miles. An average of 1,933 miles each month and roughly 86 miles each working day.”

Ear examination ‘Hospital Half Hour’

REDUCING INFANT MORTALITY 

Pat researched the causes of the illnesses prevalent amongst children in the camps, especially anaemia and gastroenteritis. She reached the fundamental conclusion that “our greatest weapon is to implement a full-scale teaching programme with more Aboriginal participation.”  

ROUTINE MEDICAL EXAMS 

“On each station I visit, the first thing I do is to quickly do a routine check on all babies and pre-schoolers. This means that each week I do 274 checks on the 128 children in the camps in my area.”

INFANT CARE

“I followed a six-point plan for babies’ daily needs – bath, clean clothes, milk, solids, water and sleep.

The first step was to get the mothers to clean their children up a bit, so I spent time observing their facilities and watching their own efforts, and gradually improved on them with what was available. Demonstration baths were done in wash troughs, old coppers, buckets, camp ovens, drums, the guttering in a shower room floor and in an old horse trough on another station.

Clean clothes were a problem at first as most mothers did not have many at all but this was overcome when the AIM Sisters at Fitzroy and the nuns at Derby Native Hospital started issuing layettes to all babies they delivered. These were supplied by the Native Welfare Department and purchased with money from the baby bonus.

The conventional wisdom in the Kimberley was that Aborigines successfully breast-fed their children for two years. Of course, I knew from my hospital experiences that this was not so because most children reached a low ebb at 9–10 months and died from either gastroenteritis or broncho-pneumonia, a complication of their poor general condition. In the camps, my research showed that the breast milk supply began declining after 4 months. I came to believe that in order for Aboriginal children to survive, they had to bridge the nutritional gap between breast and solids.

The aim was to ensure that the baby was well established on an alternative food source when the breast milk supply eased off at four months and mostly petered out at ten months.

As the only alternative food available was damper dipped in tea this raised a host of issues about sourcing a supply of complementary food (baby tucker) and feeding utensils and their storage and preparation. 

The implications of these findings for the Aboriginal women were great. There were no problems about breast-feeding, that was traditional, but they had to grapple with and ultimately accept the difficult notion of the introduction of food and water (of all things) at a time when breast milk was available and at a time when the baby least appeared to need it. 

Bridging the gap proved simple when their weight charts showed periods of decline at 4 and 10 months and I discovered their motor ability was far more advanced at three months than that of a white child. So, I started the early introduction of solids in the form of pre-cooked cereal and water to drink. With almost constant supervision and practice, by four months, they were on to three meals a day with a pannikin of milk to follow and water in between times, and I found they thrived and never really looked back. Their diet then increased, depending on what was made available to them on the various stations and from the store in Fitzroy – whether it was kitchen tucker of porridge, bread and milk, or soup and stew, or tins of baby food and cereal.

‘Baby tucker’

On the GoGo Station where the endowment money is pooled and food and clothing are issued from the station store, I received a weekly supply from the Manager and issued it and supervised feedings three times a week and just before the ‘wet’, the mothers knew exactly the weekly requirements for the babies; they then went to the station store each Sunday to ask specifically for the various items they had been handling all year – and I had worked myself out of a job!

On Brooking Springs Station, where the Aborigines are supplied with food for the babies from the kitchen and keep their own endowment money and buy from the Fitzroy store, I tried to change their ‘biscuit and cool drink’ mentality. With the co-operation of the local storekeeper, I gathered a crate of ‘good’ food on endowment and pay days and I myself peddled it to the mothers – the bonnet of the Land Rover looked like a self-service grocery store on these occasions and I had great difficulty working out change in (the recently introduced) decimal currency but fortunately, some of the young Aboriginal girls fresh from school could help me out! Eventually, I came to realise that it was easy for the mothers to have money available on these two days so I started taking the goodies out every week and this became a regular thing and slowly the mothers started keeping some money for next week so that the tucker box wasn’t completely bare always.

One thought I had in the back of my mind was to make them familiar with that which was good food value so that when they went into town to do their own shopping and were confronted by a range in the local store (which was made self-service this year), they would see something familiar on the shelves. 

Lately, I have stopped taking food to Brooking Springs and tend to run a delivery service instead. The mothers give me money and tell me what to buy and I take it out next visit. They themselves do most of their own buying now – true, they still buy biscuits, lollies and cool drink but they also buy Weeties, milk, tins of fruit juice and packets of dried fruit.

A slow change has started but whether it will gain impetus I cannot tell.”

Sterile drinking water for babies

WATER TO DRINK

A critical component of Pat’s 6-Point plan to reduce the very high mortality rate was the early introduction for babies of plenty of boiled and cooled, sterile drinking water. Babies who weren’t doing well were put onto water from a bottle to complement their waning breast milk supply.

“Water became my private obsession although I fully realise it is a national one too and this proved to be the most beneficial, yet most difficult, to introduce as Aboriginal mothers just did not give their babies water to drink at all and it wasn’t until the kids were old enough to dip their heads into the billycans themselves that they began to get an adequate intake.

Eventually, all this changed. I found myself constantly reiterating ‘water to drink’, ‘water to drink’ and slowly established a pattern. New babies were put onto a bottle straight away. The first step was to show the mothers how to make a billycan out of a milk tin which was not to be used for any other purpose. When the bottle was cleaned and boiled it was left in the billy, covered with a net and hung up to cool. This was done after a drink so that there was always a supply of cool, boiled, sterile water whenever the baby was thirsty.

When they started drinking from a pannikin at six months, I took the bottle away and the baby’s billy then went into general circulation.

My final aim in this total child care programme was to extend the care from camp to wherever they journeyed and I had the ‘wet’ season walkabout in mind. I had to get the mothers to take food and water for the babies with them wherever they went – and finally settled on the idea of a ‘Walkabout Bag’ fashioned on the principle of the ‘rabbiting bag’ my brothers and I made when we were younger. It is a flour bag with a piece of rope tied to one corner and finishing with a noose around the neck, and both of these are available on any station. This is then carried over the shoulder and rests on the back. Into this went the cereal and tinned milk, tin opener, plate, spoon, pannikin and a bottle of water.

These things were stored in the bag always, and this kept them out of the dirt, and, when they left camp, this was automatically shouldered and the needs of the babies could then always be met, whether they were in Fitzroy for the day or out on the tractor or on their ‘wet’ season walkabout, and this caught on. So much so, that on one station the mothers themselves went one step better. They chose to cover the water bottle with hessian extending into a handle and this they kept wet from time to time to cool by evaporation, and carried it by hand.

After this huge initiative, health education continued to environmental care such as rubbish disposal and housekeeping, teaching mothers personal care and eventually growing a vegetable garden.

This then, is my health education programme. Not a great contribution and, perhaps, of doubtful benefit but time alone will put it into perspective and reveal its worth, if any.”

Tending Veggie Patch

Time did indeed reveal the worth of Pat McPherson’s initiatives.  Three years into her work, the benefits were evident and dramatic. Fitzroy Crossing had held the record for the highest infant mortality rate and number of hospital admissions in Western Australia. But by 1968, Pat recorded that:

“At the end of three years, the infant mortality rate at Fitzroy Crossing had dropped dramatically; my records indicated only one infant death in that time. Gastroenteritis was episodic rather than endemic. The gap between breastfeeding and solids, a critical factor in Aboriginal child rearing had been bridged. Complete immunisation cover for the community, (Aboriginal and white) had been achieved, including direct BCG at birth, which in those days, was considered to be a preventative measure against leprosy.”

“It took over two years for my health and education program to be translated into routine behaviour. However, with the health of the babies and pre-schoolers under control in 1968, I spread the work from a child oriented service to a more public health oriented one to cover the family unit. This involved the introduction of school medical examinations and more emphasis on the care of the mother, especially during the critical phases within her reproductive life cycle. 

PAT’S PROGRAM – A TEMPLATE FOR COMMUNITY NURSING SERVICE 

The success of Pat’s program and pioneering work led to the decision by the West Australian Health Minister and the Commissioner of Public Health to appoint public health nurses to other centres – Derby, Wyndham and Broome, and AIM to appoint additional itinerant childcare nurses based in Halls Creek and Kununurra.

“The success of these pioneering efforts would subsequently lead to the establishment of a new branch within the Western Australian Health Department in 1972, called the Community Health Services. The enabling Act of Parliament established the infrastructure to carry a statewide public health nursing service, which was called the Community Nursing Service.” 

In 1970, Patricia McPherson received the British Empire Medal for her pioneering work in the Fitzroy River region. Sister Pat had become a legend of a nurse.

Professor Kim Rubenstein has become a popular guest on programs such as Q&A because she clearly articulates how the Australian Constitution impacts on the most important issues we face as a nation and as individuals.

So when she announced in August the she had formed Kim For Canberra, her own independent political party, and would run for the Senate in the coming federal election, many welcomed her candidacy.

Professor Rubenstein currently holds the position of Co-Director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra, having formerly been Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the ANU from 2006-15. She is recognised as a constitutional and citizenship expert. Professor Rubenstein wrote the leading book on citizenship, Australian Citizenship Law in Context, and was involved in drafting the Australian Citizenship Act and reviewing the Citizenship Test. Her support for gender equality led to her becoming the Inaugural Convenor of the ANU Gender Institute.  

WomanGoingPlaces has a special interest in spotlighting the stories of Australian women aged 50+ and so we interviewed Professor Rubenstein recently on her candidacy, goals and vision.

THE CANDIDATE 

Q: Professor Rubenstein, why are you standing for Parliament?

I have spent the last 25 plus years teaching the next generation about law, citizenship, rights, gender equality and the Constitution. Throughout my professional life I have been keen to make sure that what I have been doing in academia reaches into the public policy field.

In the last 18 months with Covid-19, there has been an amplification of the issues central to what I do on citizenship and gender. But no matter how convincing and evidence-based your arguments, if the people in Parliament don’t want it or care, then it just doesn’t go anywhere.

So that made me think that if that is the case, let’s see if I can have a go doing this stuff inside Parliament rather than outside.

GOALS

Q: What is your purpose?

To use my skills set as part of the Senate’s role of reviewing legislation and contributing to public policy discussion. It’s rare for a Government to have a majority in the Senate, so I could have real influence over the areas that I’m really keen to progress. These fall into 3 categories:

1. Being a Senator for Canberra.

Canberra has always had a Labour and a Liberal representative and both are caught in the framework of their party’s policies in terms of progressing anything specific to Canberra. They have been deliberately stymied in some respects.

Unlike the rest of country, Canberra is a Territory. The Commonwealth has the capacity to override the legislation in Canberra and this has happened on a couple of occasions. That is not good for Canberrans in terms of their democratic rights being curtailed. So I would be a direct voice that is not bound or prevented from pushing as hard as it can and standing up for Canberra.

2. Making Parliament a more representative body.

There has been a politicisation of really important issues such as climate change, gender equality and refugee policy. The parties have come to the point where they are the blockages on these issues. There are groups within parties that are committed to good policies, but are being stymied by the party system which is so set on making sure they win rather than staying committed to the policies they represent. As an independent I could bring out the best in the parties, and not as we are seeing, the worst. I would contribute to improving the quality of policy discussion in Parliament.

We are waiting on Kate Jenkins’ Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces as safe and equal workplaces. I really want to push for those recommendations to be seriously engaged with. As an independent voice I want to ensure Parliament really scrutinises those recommendations and endorses where appropriate. Having an independent voice is crucial to making Parliament work for the people and not parties.

3. Changing the Constitution.

I have a life-long passion around Constitutional change and bringing Australia into the 21st Century. It’s about recognising that our Constitutional structure was written in the1890s, and realising that Australia of the 21st Century is a very different and much more mature entity.

Three things need changing in this order:

The first is regarding the Uluru Statement from the Heart and Australia becoming reconciled with its Indigenous people. The First Nations people went through a process of getting to the Uluru Statement by meeting with people around the whole country and inspiring active citizenship. This is what all Australians should be doing in engaging with their Constitution.

In Parliament I would really push for a referendum on a Voice to Parliament and I feel really positive that the work First Nations people have been doing as a community around this will lead to successful referendum change. Once that happens it will remind people that we can actually change the Constitution.  

The second change is regarding our multi-cultural society. Section 44 of the Constitution prevents dual citizens from being members of Parliament. This has been a real hurdle for our multicultural society being properly represented in Parliament because you presently have to renounce the other citizenship in order to nominate, whether you win or not. So it’s a real negative block on dual citizens from being MPs. If you think about it, if our Parliament had had more dual citizens, it would have been much more proactive about setting up quarantine stations to enable people who have family overseas to connect with family, without undermining our health security. The fact that they dragged their heels over it is because they weren’t responsive enough to this. Almost 49% of Australians have a parent born overseas or were born overseas, so changing that in our Constitution would lead to a more representative democracy.

The third change is regarding the move towards a republic. I have been involved since 1998, when the Constitutional Convention was held, in advising and supporting Constitutional change to reflect the reality of our 21st Century.  With an Australian as a Head of State, and secure in our own independence, we could still be part of the Commonwealth. But we don’t need to have the Queen of England acting as the Queen of Australia.   

Q: How do you think the sentiment is on that now?

If you have really positive leadership which shows the community what the vision is and the capacity we have of doing this to bolster our own identity, people will respond positively. People are looking for leadership. We haven’t had a vision for Australia. We’ve had marketing for Australia.  Which is not doing much for social cohesion or a sense of optimism for the future.

ROLE OF INDEPENDENTS

Q: Why stand as an independent? And if elected, how will you deal with what you described as a toxic boys’ club and party machines?

It was a very clear decision to run as an independent primarily because none of the parties fully reflect my views. I would prefer to do that directly in Parliament. I have been approached by parties before but I chose not to. 

I would be putting all my energies into changing the Party rather than the nation.

Secondly, parties are structures that are outdated and I would actually have more power from the outside rather than from within. Parties have good people in them, but they haven’t been able to shift those structures. Having independents in Parliament who reflect the will of the people, will help parties to change.

This is the contribution that the independents have been able to make outside the party system. Kerryn Phelps and her Medevac bill, Zali Steggall’s bill on climate change, and Helen Haine’s bill to establish the Australian Federal Integrity Commission.  All of these things are so fundamental to the health of our democracy but none of the parties have made moves on them. And yet each of these independent women is able to pull the parties along. Independents have a greater positive influence on our system and can improve the parties.

WOMEN AGED OVER 50

Q: Women aged over 50 find themselves becoming invisible or are encouraged to become invisible. And yet you are going in the other direction. Why?

My capacity has been enhanced rather than reduced by being a woman over 50.  

It is interesting to reflect on the capacity of women to enter political life.

All the public policy work that I did over the last 25 years I was able to do in a way to balance work and family. Academia and public commentary was consistent with an equal role with my husband in raising a family. It would have been a real strain on that capacity to have done it earlier. 

I’m now at an age when my kids are adults and are keen to be involved in my standing for Parliament so this will be a combined family and professional exercise. In my 50s I’m liberated to do it.

I want to change things in Parliament to enable younger people with younger children to be involved without being compromised. That includes thinking through opportunities that Covid19 has provided. With Zoom, parliamentarians are not necessarily having to come to Canberra for every sitting. Also, changes in parental leave so it is seen by more men as the norm for them to be involved with their partners. So the balance of work and family can be done in a way that enables both to contribute more in the political sphere if they want.

I would be advocating for policy transparency, so that there is gender responsive budgeting and broader policy frameworks that Governments can incorporate into their thinking.

Q: But actually for most women over 50 in Australia, opportunities are not enhanced. Older women have been forgotten by the Government. Ageism is more prevalent that racism or sexism in Australia. What do you plan on doing about women over 50 and what issues do you see as needing to be addressed? 

First of all, all strength to you in bringing attention to this issue. I think that it is really fundamental.

There is a range of issues about older people and the specific impact on older women compared to men that need to be looked at. If I am in Parliament I would be very attentive and responsive about policies that could be developed to focus on that.

It speaks to the lived experience that is needed in Parliament to better reflect the needs of the community. Parliament is not diverse enough.

So if I get into Parliament as a woman whose first entry into Parliament is as a women over 50, that will be a really positive role modelling for the nation. That we should not be ignored. 

Then there is the bias that people hold broadly that we need to make more transparent  and unpack. I think a lot of it is about calling out people’s often unconscious assumptions and then working with people against those assumptions. For example, job applications for women over 50.  Whether we can require private business sector and gender equality agencies to use gender blind and age blind CVs. I am certainly keen to support your work in this. These are things that I’m passionate about in terms of supporting equity in our society.

CONVICT PAST

Q: Your ancestor, a Jewish convict by the name of Henry Cohen, came to Australia in 1833. And now 6 generations later you are Australia’s  foremost expert on citizenship and a Constitutional law authority. History is having a bit of a giggle. But also what does it say about Australian citizenship? 

It does show the potential for Jewish Australians to feel confident about wanting to even run as Parliamentarians. We have several at the moment, and Kerryn Phelps was there briefly. I think it’s exciting for the community generally that a descendant of a convict who throughout the family history has maintained our Jewish identity. It is really a testament to Australia  multiculturalism and the experience of settlement.

I say that conscious of the Indigenous Australian experience. Even though I wasn’t personally touched by the Holocaust, I know of the power of the state to exercise its brute force over communities, as Nazi Germany did against the Jewish community. The desire to assist indigenous Australians in terms of the Uluru Statement is motivated both by my strong sense of citizenship in Australia as a legal concept, and by their always having been formally members of the community but constitutionally seen as the other.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Q: You were saying that we are not ready of the 21st century and one of the most outstanding examples of that is climate change.

Having an independent voice in Parliament will help with the deadlock that the big parties are in.

Part of the reason we are in this terrible scenario is because our political system is not really open to engaging with policy rather than with the politics. But secondly, I want to model a commitment to good climate change action. I’m going to be running a carbon neutral campaign and I have some experts helping me how to do that.

We all have a role to play and I want to model that we all should be thinking about this. And then it’s really about the science showing us what we need to do. We can be buoyed by renewable energies and investing in renewable energies, but ultimately the specifics will depend on the advice I get from experts. But I am totally committed to coming up with policies to ensure that as a country we are doing what we can to respond to the really urgent scenario that we are in and working towards a future where our children can survive and can develop in a healthy environment

VISION

Q: What’s your vision of where we should be and what we should be doing?

That vision links in that 21st Century vision of a nation reconciled with its Indigenous population, that affirms and enhances its multicultural identity, that is secure in its own independence as a republic, and that is an inclusive society that errs on the side of inclusion over exclusion, that is enabling of all its citizenry and all its residents, that they have a place and that they can all contribute as active citizens.

Rosie Batty made Australia listen.

Her son, Luke aged 11, was with his father playing cricket in the park when his father walked over to him and killed him. Speaking quietly from the depths of her horror, Rosie said “ No matter how nice your house is, how intelligent you are, it can happen to anyone – and everyone.”

In expressing her personal grief, Rosie compelled us to see that family violence was our business. She made us see that the plight of thousands of women and children could one day be our plight, or that of someone close to us.

The numbers are indeed frightening: in Australia, two women are killed every week on average; almost 1,000 cases of child abuse are reported every day; one woman is hospitalised every 3 hours; and one in 3 women have experience physical and/or sexual violence.

Rosie has described family violence as an “epidemic”.

On what would have been his 13th birthday on 20 June, 2015, Rosie established the Luke Batty Never Alone Foundation to raise awareness, improve crisis services and advocate on behalf of the victims.

Since then she has been a tireless advocate for women in situations of domestic violence.

She was awarded an AO in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition for her leadership role on this issue.

Rosie joined the Aboriginal Alice Springs Town Camp in their Women’s March Against Domestic Violence.  “I’m very keen to support this group of women who are working in their community and ensuring the voices of Aboriginal women are heard.”

Rosie has spearheaded a public campaign and presented the Prime Minister, lawmakers, the police and judiciary with tens of thousands of signatures urging fundamental change in the way the system responds to family violence.

“The conversations around family violence are definitely occurring now, compared with previous generations. Those women had no-one to talk to or lean on. The attitude was ‘ you made your bed, now lie in it’. There is still much misunderstanding and victim blaming, but I am being told by women that they have more confidence to come forward,” said Rosie. “It will take time but I see it as the kind of generational change we need.”

Rosie worked closely with Fiona Richardson the first Victorian Minister for Family Violence Prevention, on the Royal Commission into Family Violence which delivered its report on March 2016. Ms. Richardson died recently and Rosie paid tribute to her as both a mentor and a friend.

“I wouldn’t be where I am now without her love and belief in me. And I wouldn’t have been able to do what I have been able to do without the practical support she made available to me in so many ways.”

Rosie & Luke Batty

In 2015, Rosie Batty was recognised as Australian of the Year.

“If I can be seen as a leader of women, even if I don’t feel it myself, as someone who can create change in their mid-50s, it’s what I want to do,” says Rosie.

In July this year, she delivered a statement to a parliamentary inquiry into family law and family violence. Her statement, which received 11,000 signatures in 7 days, decried the federal family law system for endangering children in particular.

“The family law system is another avenue for the abuse to continue,” insists Rosie. She condemns the practice of the courts to grant abusive parents access to the children. “The children are absolutely forced to have access visits and forced to continue relationships. Their mothers have to drag them to the car where they self harm and are suicidal. And the mother is threatened that if she doesn’t allow it she will lose (custody of) the child.…So she has to give them up and hope that each weekend they come home safe and are not killed like my son was.” [See the full video below of Rosie Batty’s appearance before the parliamentary inquiry].

Rosie came to Australia from England 30 years ago, not expecting to stay. She was shy and alone and she wanted to challenge herself through travel. One of her earliest memories is of being 16 and not wanting to get to 80 with regret for not doing things and “not pushing myself out of my comfort zone”.

Her grandmother, an incredibly strong woman who lived to 100, was her role model.

Rosie stayed in Australia after Luke’s death because “Australia has been supportive and kind to me.”

She is determined not to just sit and exist. Her mindset is to “live life to the fullest. There is still that sense of adventure and the unexpected ahead of me and I will keep doing that as long as I can.”

See Rosie’s choices of her favourite destinations in Australia.

Rosie’s Top 5 Places

Cape Tribulation, Queensland

Cape Tribulation Queensland

I was 24 years old when I first arrived in Australia from England. I back-packed up the east coast. When I got to Cape Tribulation, I worked as a cleaner in a hostel. Coming from England I couldn’t believe how remote and isolated it was. Really remote. It’s where unique, ancient rainforest meets reef. It’s difficult to find somewhere else in the world as stunningly beautiful as it is.

There were crocodiles and jellyfish, and you couldn’t put a toe in the water.

There were no sealed roads then, and 4-wheel drives and the ferry were the only way in or out. You didn’t have the comforts you take for granted, no electricity, just a generator.

It was incredibly humid. But if you go July – September it is the most beautiful weather – very comfortable, not humid. Even though the roads are sealed now, it is still remote.

I like lots of different types of holidays – the hustle and bustle of cities but also to be far away in nature, remote, tuned out, embracing the beauty.

Australia is incomparable in beauty and still so remote.

Larapinta Trail, Northern Territory

Larapinta Trail trek with Rosie Batty

In August, I led a dozen supporters on a six-day fundraising walk for the Luke Batty Never Alone Foundation, along Australia’s most iconic desert trek, the Larapinta Trail.  Already one of the 7 Great Walks of Australia, the Larapinta Trail recently joined the ranks of the top 10 walks in the entire world.

I think that the Australian Outback is quintessentially Australian in a way suburban and metro areas aren’t. It is amazing and beautiful. We live in a large continent and don’t take the time to explore and appreciate its beauty. It is so evident how old Australia is when you see the rocks. You get transported back in time.

I didn’t realise it until we started the Larapinta walk, but all the participants were all living with the impact of family violence – whether it was a family member, a friend, or their own personal experience. It was a deeply moving realisation. We felt confident to share our experiences and it was comforting.

The purpose of the walk was both to raise money for the Foundation and to give these people an opportunity to do something physically challenging, and something for themselves – to take time out to sit under the stars. I have done several treks, others on the walk hadn’t and it was very challenging.

The Larapinta walk came close to raising $30,000 for the Luke Batty Foundation and that’s a significant achievement.

Broome, West Australia

Cape Leveque Western Australia

Broome is a long way away, but you’re not doing it tough when you get there.

The restaurants and resorts are stunning, and I had some of the best meals I have ever tasted. You can sit having a drink while watching the sunset and the camels coming back along the beach. While there, I was shown footprints of dinosaurs.

Looking down from plane on the way to Cape Leveque  you see a vast expanse of untamed beaches. You see crocodiles, but you see no-one, just a beautiful uninhabited place, remote and untouched. You have to understand the terrain, it’s risks and dangers.

Compared to England which is small with nothing dangerous, and where you are always surrounded by people, in Australia everything is big and dangerous. You have a pioneering feeling, a feeling of adventure.

I love that in Australia we can go to so many vast places and have limited contact with people, where you are not queuing up, not milling around and surrounded.

Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria

Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria

My greatest memory was of spending a week there with my brother.

We camped and went on long walks every day, stunning walks. I love walking. We saw everything, stingrays, koalas, wombats, kangaroos.

If you go at dusk you are guaranteed to see as many kangaroos as you ever could see. And stunning beaches – it’s just such a beautiful place, one of those gems. And not too far from Melbourne.

Sydney, NSW

Sydney is a fabulous city – so vibrant and beautiful. On a sunny day, with blue skies and views of Sydney harbour and Opera House, it is hard to find a better or more stunning city. I have climbed the bridge 3 times. I always take relatives and visitors from overseas to Sydney. It’s just vibrant and busy – lots of lovely restaurants with harbour views. I love the Rocks, the setting is lovely.

Sydney Opera House and Harbour

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Rosie Batty’s statement to a parliamentary inquiry into family law and family violence – July 24th 2017

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Maestro Simone Young AM was appointed Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in July 2022. She is considered one of the world’s great opera and concert orchestra conductors. She has been called a ‘superconductor’, a conductor whose elegance and power, strength and sensitivity on the podium inspire her orchestra. She is a highly esteemed interpreter of the works of Wagner and Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner and Brahms, as well as those of contemporary composers.

It is easy to recall images of famous conductors, many of them legendary figures idolised by the public. But there were few women conductors in this array. When Simone Young took her place at the podium on the international stage “she forged a path where there was no path,” says Alondra de la Parra, one of a handful of rising women conductors.

Born in Sydney to what Simone Young describes as a non-musical family, the girl who “grew up on the beach in Manly ” was invited to conduct the most prestigious orchestras in the world and became an internationally acclaimed conductor.

Maestro Young’s accomplishments are extraordinary regardless of gender.

She studied composition at the Sydney Conservatorium at a time when she was the only woman in that faculty and made her conducting debut at the Sydney Opera House at the age of 24. By 25, she was conducting assistant to James Conlon at the Cologne Opera House and then became an assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. Since then, she has conducted at all the world’s leading opera houses, including at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and the Opera National de Paris.

She was the first woman to conduct Wagner’s full Ring cycle. Her first full Ring was in Vienna in 1999, followed some years later by her own Ring cycle in Hamburg.

She was Artistic Director and Music Director of the Australian Opera from 2001 to 2003.

Maestro Simone Young – photo Klaus Lefebvre

On the concert stage, Simone Young has conducted the world’s leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic.

Last year, Maestro Young completed a 10-year engagement at the helm of one of Germany’s pre-eminent cultural institutions where Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Klemperer had conducted. She held the dual appointment Artistic and Music Director of both the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra where she was responsible for 500 performances conducted in the Opera house, 50 new productions, and more than 30 different operas performed each year. She oversaw a workforce of 700 people, including an orchestra of 128 musicians, a 70-voice chorus, and an ensemble of 20 full-time singers plus guest artists. She was one of the longest serving directors of the 333 year-old organisation in the past century.

For Maestro Young, the issue of gender, of being a woman in the traditionally male preserve of conducting, was not decisive. It was only one of many challenges that face the “musician whose instrument is the entire orchestra.”

She believes that artistry, not gender is the key.  A conductor as an artist must be both strong and sensitive, and neither attribute should be assigned a gender. She prefers to see it as a union between the left and right sides of the brain.

“Gender, nationality, upbringing, sexual orientation, shoe size, are all completely immaterial – it’s all about music-making.”

“I don’t think my professional qualifications and achievements are in any way revalued because of my gender.

Maestro Young has built her career by focusing always on the music and not on the obstacles. “ If your assumption is that this is going to be so much harder for me, then it will be harder for you,” she said. “ If your assumption is that this is a great piece of music, and what a privilege it is now to be able to conduct this, you and the people you’re working with will have a good time.”

And she credits growing up in Australia with giving her the freedom to avoid the more stultifying aspects of European music culture – and for a spirit that dares to overcome conventional stereotypes.

Maestro Simone Young

Simone Young’s  husband, Greg Condon, a teacher and literary expert and her two daughters moved with her as she took up conducting engagements with different orchestras throughout Europe. She credits the full support of her husband and children for enabling her to manage an overwhelming schedule.

She is the recipient of many awards and honours since she won the Young Australian of the Year Award in 1986. These include a Member of the Order (AM), honorary doctorates from the University of New South Wales, Griffith University Queensland and Monash University Victoria, the French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the German Goethe Medal.

Simone’s Top 5 Places:

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I can’t stay away from water. I am drawn to the ocean, to rivers, to lakes in a way that can only be explained by a childhood in Manly. Picnics at Clontarf, walks along the Esplanade, paddling in the Queenscliff lagoon across from my grandparents’ home, secretly munching on fish cocktails (little pieces of battered fish for non-Sydney-siders) while waiting for piano lessons, and catching the ferry home from meeting my Dad in the city after school and lessons at the Conservatorium – this was my childhood, and how lucky and blessed I now know that it was!

I recently came to the shocking realisation that I have now lived more of my life in Europe than in Australia. I think such a moment is a turning point for us expats; I have yet to meet an Australian overseas who doesn’t want to go home “some time in the future”, but after more than half a lifetime away, I have now officially joined the ranks of the gypsies who have lives and families in two countries (or more) and who will never feel really whole in either one again. I fly to Oz as often as I can – a colleague recently suggested I just ask the orchestras I work with to transfer my fees to Qantas directly rather than to my bank account! – and when I do, there are always some must-see places that I try to visit, to find that sought-after feeling of “home”.

Manly beach, Sydney – australia.com

Manly Beach

I just love it. It’s sometimes down-at-heel, looks unloved in the rain, can be a bit dodgy late on a Saturday night, but when the sun’s out and there’s a light breeze over the beach, it is truly wonderful!

I recently arrived on a flight from Europe at a ridiculously early hour (all the passengers had that charming grey-tinge to their skin-colour that only 24hours on a plane can achieve!) and rather than wake up my elderly mother, I asked the driver to take me to Manly Beach. It was even too early for the café that caters to the early-morning swimmers, but just watching the sun slowly rise over the horizon, I found that my breathing relaxed, the stress and fatigue fell away and a meditative calm came over me. Soon the café was open, with obviously a faithful clientele of slightly shivering and surprisingly older surfers, who slung L.A-Story–style coffee orders around (just what exactly is a double skinny piccolo?), the day swung into life. The joggers gave way to business folk, running just that little bit late for the ferry and to school kids, jostling and comparing the latest instagrams, and I promised myself to return the next day to do the magical walk from South Steyne around to Fairy Bower. If you do it, don’t forget to look for the tiny metal figures of the local wildlife set into the rocks. Or better still, get your snorkelling gear on and go and look at some yourself! And after that exercise, fish and chips sitting on the beach wall, dangling your legs over the side, is the only way to go – but watch out for those seagulls, they’ll steal the chips out of your fingers!

Ningaloo Reef Western Australia – womangoingplaces

Ningaloo Reef  Western Australia

The beach theme continues, but this time in a very different environment. It had been a tough season, encompassing many performances, almost as many farewell dinners (I was leaving Hamburg after 10 years running the opera and the philharmonic there) and then a massive move of the household from north Germany to the UK. If a teacher’s weakness is books (and my husband Greg was a teacher for more than 30 years) a musician’s is scores and CDs (and of course some old vinyl that I just couldn’t get rid of!) – oh, and a grand piano, a harp, violins in various sizes, a couple of flutes, guitars, etc – and then the rest of the household. I was in great need of some serious R & R before the annual tour of the Australian orchestras began, less than two weeks after the big move.

Where could I find beach, sun, some solitary, reflective time and a proximity to nature? I’ve had many wonderful holidays on the east coast of Australia, from the Whitsundays up to Port Douglas, and just about everywhere in between, but now it was the far less-known and wilder West Australian coast that caught my attention. I flew into Exmouth, smiling broadly at the tiny airport, climbed into my rental car, called ahead to my eco-camp/hotel and set off. Very soon I was in the only car I could see, the houses gave way to scrub and the welcome and familiar dry landscape opened out. Once in the national park, (entrance paid into an “honesty box” – another smile!) the only pedestrians were the odd kangaroo or pair of emus, until I arrived at my destination. Bags dropped, I was in the water in a matter of minutes, and already marvelling at the coral and marine life.

Whale Shark Ningaloo – australiancoralcoast

And yes, I swam with a whale-shark – an extraordinary experience that I will never forget. Swimming (quite vigorously – you’re on the open sea) next to one of these gentle giants of the sea is exhilarating and humbling.

I love the Great Barrier Reef, but Ningaloo is rather a hidden gem!

Bundanoon, Southern Highlands, NSW – beautifulbundanoon.com.au

Bundanoon New South Wales

Ok, I must move away from the beach for a bit. In the early days of my marriage, when we were living in Sydney and a holiday meant throwing everything you might need in the car and just setting off west, we visited some wonderful places. Most of them have long been on my list to revisit, but I have rarely been able to do so. One place that I would love to see again, and is so close to Sydney as to be almost a day trip, is lovely Bundanoon.  Next time, I’ll do it in style, staying in one of the charming hotels with big open fires and gloriously indulgent menus. Last time, we did it as you do when young – we stayed at the YMCA and explored the National Park on a bicycle built for two. Very romantic.

The whole area of the Southern Highlands has a great deal to offer  – and the drive from Bowral to Kangaroo Valley is one of the loveliest I know – just look out for the speed cameras……

West region of NSW – David Gordon

The West (of NSW, that is!)

My Dad was a teacher in his early years, and his first postings were to one-teacher schools in small towns in the West of NSW. As kids, we often piled into the old 1964 Ford and we would all set off towards “the West”. There was almost always a breakdown on the road up the Blue Mountains, and we had a number of near-misses on winding and steep dirt roads, but a love of the “dry country”, the gums and the wild flowers, was instilled in me for life. With the luxury of the beaches on our home doorstep near Manly, the wide horizons and constantly changing colours of the countryside beyond the tablelands was another kind of exoticism….. and the birdsong at dawn charmed my ears and engaged my developing musical mind.

Like a lot of girls of my generation, I married a man who greatly resembled my Dad – Greg was born in “the Bush”, moved to the Big Smoke at 8, and like my Dad, struck out for the dusty west at every opportunity. He prided himself at one point of having driven over every mapped road in the state – and I’ll swear we drove over plenty that weren’t mapped.

Wattle -redzaustralia.com

But it is the wildflower season, and the wattle in particular, that always grabbed us and made us come back again and again. There’s a stretch of dirt road (well, it was in 1982!!) between Yeoval and Cumnock where the wattles were astonishing. But if you don’t want to be laughed at by the locals, check the pronunciation of the local town names – Greg’s family still gives me a hard time about Ardlethan – which I mangled, not to mention the trouble you can get into with Tibbooburra……

Lavender Bay Ferry Wharf – pbase.com

Sydney NSW

Back to the water and back to Sydney – and to one of my favourite spots – McMahons Point. A place to be avoided at NYE or at any time when there’s an event on the harbour – but at all other times one of the best spots for looking at the magnificent view that is the Bridge and the Opera House.  I will often take a detour, when heading north over the Bridge from the City and just stop for a few minutes in the parking bay at the point, to take in that majestic sight. My daughters list it as one of their favourite places for munching on a steak sandwich, drinking a milkshake and watching the life on the Harbour. And if there’s no pressing appointment waiting, then a little meander around the tiny streets in the area, marvelling at the charming, historic houses that stand so close together here, does the soul good!  Or park somewhere and go for a walk down to the ferry wharf at Lavender Bay and picnic on the grass or on the wharf itself. Very busy during the day, it’s magic in the early evening, when the air is soft and the bells in the moored boats there in the Bay ring slowly as the tide moves them gently. Ah, I’m feeling homesick already……

Travel tips:

*  I always travel with my noise-reducing headphones – listening to classical music without them on a plane is almost impossible. I’m not a very social animal on long flights – my headphones, a couple of Sudoku puzzles or a cryptic crossword and a good book, and I’m set for the trip.

*  I invariably get to the airport way too early – but I’d rather work a bit airside than stress about getting through the ever-growing queues at security….

*  Everything I need for my first day’s work is in my hand-luggage – thank goodness they don’t usually weigh it! Added to a few toiletries and the obligatory spare undies are my laptop and a couple of orchestral scores and a long, narrow case with batons in it – which often leads to some amusing conversations at the security check-points….

*  I try to smile every time a passport officer reads “conductor” on my visa/entry card and says “Ha ha, on the buses, love?”. After nearly 30 years, it’s hard to make it look as though I’m hearing that joke for the first time…………..

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For more information about Maestro Young and upcoming performances see SimoneYoung.com