The trip

When we got closer and into the Northern Territory there were more things to see other than the bloated dead cows on the side of the road, the crows and the hundreds of fly on your food from the time you take it out of the esky and raise it to your mouth. We went to Douglas hot springs which was awesome, the crocodile spotted in a waterhole close by added to the excitement. Mataranka hot springs were also nice but they’d been paved and looked more manmade, they did have a cool suck hole that kids loved to tempt fate and hold on to branches and let your legs get sucked under, I’m sure it would be blocked off now for safety reasons. We went to Litchfield National Park which we all really enjoyed, Mum and Kara had their birthdays on the road but Kate had hers there so we’d been on the road for a month when we got there. She got a mini pizza with a candle in it for her birthday and she was happy. There were great bush walks, some of them took ages and we were all sure Dad had us lost but we got there in the end, maybe that’s where I get it from. The falls near the camping ground where awesome too, right at the top there are waterholes about 4 ft wide and really deep that you could jump into, I’ve heard now you can’t though for safety. At the bottom a few metres from the creek down the bottom is a natural spa with the bubbles made from the water constantly falling and flowing into it at such pressure. It really is a beautiful place and we were very privileged to have experienced it.

            When we first got to Darwin we stayed with our Aunty and Uncle Linda and Ross, they had a cold water spa that we would be in any chance we got as it was bloody hot there. We’d go exploring around town which was actually pretty nice and went to check out things like the night markets at the beach. We then moved a caravan park and started going to school; the park was fun, school wasn’t. There were two pools which we also spent a lot of time except the day someone spotted a poo floating in one, at the other one we’d also spend a lot of time on the change room roof trying to get a glimpse of girls getting dressed. There was another couple of travelling families who we hung around with exploring the bush and the old trashed cars and I explored a girl who was a bit older than me; Paige. I started to get more adventurous; she actually had all the bits so I was all over them I’ve seen photos of us together, she was taller than me and I was a skinny little kid in my sluggos. I suppose in places like that you take what you can get. I was starting to develop my big mouth that would get me into trouble in the years to come; one night Linda and Ross came over for a feed and I said sarcastically: ‘Ross knows everything about everything’ which earned me a clip around the ear hole, and rightly so.

Darwin

Coming from our high school where being a surfer makes you pretty cool and going to a different state where all of a sudden I’m back in primary school where playing footy or riding a motorbike makes you cool it was a bit of a shock. A humbling experience one could say, not that it worked. I was called a skeg or waxhead and had trouble making friends at first, then I got in with the cool group somehow but my big mouth ensured that wouldn’t be for long. The school bully had a girlfriend (a fact I wish I was aware of) who was a bit nasty to me, so in the big group I said that she was: ‘a butch’.  Needless to say I was out of the group and spent the rest of my time there running home from school each day to avoid getting bashed. We then moved into the Navy Base for a while, Dad was working in construction in the city so we stayed a few months. The highlight of Darwin was getting our first custom made boards sent up from home, mine was fluoro red and although we had no waves to ride them in we were stoked. We even got in the papers, it’s not very often you see surfboards in the Northern Territory but soon we would see more. Of course we were going to a church and that was where I met another girl and had a bit more kissing and more around the back of the church. We also went to some churchy thing with all aboriginal stuff like trying and failing to throw a spear with a woomera and eating kangaroo stew which was really nice. One weekend we got all packed up and were heading to the famous Kakadu; it was the wet season and we went through a huge puddle, when we came out the other side the Kombi wasn’t happy so we had to go back to the base and wait for the spare engine to be sent up that Dad had for such an occasion. We didn’t end up getting to go Kakadu. After getting the new engine in it wasn’t long until we were into the next part of our adventure in the Northern Territory; Gove or Nhulunbuy.

            This was where we would have our first plane ride as it takes a long time and a 4WD to get there through Arnhem Land; the way there was fine, I loved flying but on the way back we went through a storm and there was lighting all around us. The turbulence and probably fear was causing people to be sick and cry so it was a bit smelly and a bit of an eye opener. We had a good time in Gove, we had a lot more cool things to do than Darwin, the best of course being surfing. To our surprise there was actually a beach that got some mushy little waves when it was windy and there was actually a crew of surfers. Then when there was a cyclone and earthquake that hammered Papua New Guinea we scored some rare sick waves off a left hand point. There we were in Arnhem Land surfing these great waves just Dad, Clint and I. Other than that we’d ride the motorbike around the banana farm that Dad was working, hang around with the local kids exploring the bush and running from Buffalos which was fine until one of the kids through a spear at Clint one day. It was an Aboriginal Community called Yirrkala and Mum and Dad took us there to spread the good Christian word. We were invited to a traditional funeral of an elder, which was bizarre; the way some of them bash themselves over the head with rocks in mourning. We also witnessed the folly of the government’s indigenous incentives; decking out there homes every few months after they repeatedly smash the windows and build a fire inside and paying them all this money that they spend at the store and bottle shop in a couple of days then live off the land until next pay day. We also saw petrol sniffing which doesn’t look enjoyable at all. We got to taste kangaroo; which was good but we didn’t get to try turtle which I would have liked to.

Western Australia

It was a great learning experience, one we couldn’t have had at home; I remember seeing a bloke fishing with a spear just standing on a rock about 20m out stiff as a post waiting for a fish to swim by. We went to school in Nhulunbuy also which was better this time big state wide testing and I went really well in maths but actually got 100% in English, I think our state might be a bit further ahead. We then left Gove and started on our way across to Western Australia; back to home school, camping and long stretches of desert. Although a lot of it was uneventful it is an amazing place; we could see shells half way up mountains from the ancient inland sea and then of course we had our adventures in the Kimberleys. It was awesome, we went fishing in the Ord River Dam where Dad caught a big Barra just metres from a Croc who was sitting there minding his own business and we walked through a gorge to a beautiful secluded waterhole where we all took the opportunity to go skinny dipping. Then we got stuck in between two flooded river crossings, there was a bunch of travellers there; a few of Aussie truckies, a couple of young German fellas: Gunther and Peter, a dutch couple and Anita made some awesome Pasta and some Aussie travellers. Plenty of people tried to get through, some Aussie blokes lost their Land Cruiser ute to the River, one pelican in a Suzuki Sierra nearly lost his and the only people who got through were a ute packed with about 15 Aborigines who just ploughed through with a bit of a chuckle at us white fellas.

            When we eventually got over the river that was blocking our way we then had to stay at Halls Creek for a few days and wait for the water to go down again. This was where Clint had his birthday, there wasn’t much to get him there so he got a jar of vegemite and a packet of Tim Tams, he was happy though. We were all trying to stay positive but getting a bit sick of waiting around watching rivers overflow. To pass time we were playing footy once and I slipped over and really hurt my big toe, I know that sounds really weak but we went to the doctor and she said that it can’t be broken because I would be in pain if it was. I felt a bit silly after that so I stopped complaining and kept running around on it until months later when I was having trouble walking so Mum and Dad took me to another doctor and yes it was broken. Not that they could do anything but at least then I knew to take it easy, this might be one of the reasons I hate going to the doctor. We were still hanging with the crew we were stranded with and one we all went out for a drive to a waterfall on a road we thought was dry. We got bogged first in some boggy mud, then a bloke in a land cruiser tried to pull us out and he got bogged. Gunther and Peter had an old Kingswood and they pulled out the Land Cruiser and us, it was one of things when you’re cranky and someone says; ‘we’ll laugh about this later’ you do. When, against the odds we got to the waterfall it was worth it, it was a beautiful spot and I saw the most bright and colourful snake I ever have. It was neon blue with a red head but luckily I know that the prettier they are often the more dangerous so I admired from a distance. We got through Fitzroy Crossing, slowly and carefully as there was still a fair bit of water and we’d already broken down in Kakadu after going through too much water but there was more rain forecast so we thought we’d better take the chance. We then got to Broome and we even had a surf! At first we weren’t very confident about the prospect when we saw a bloke driving around with a board bolted onto his roof, I’m sure he thought it looked cool. The surf wasn’t great but we were stoked to get amongst it, we checked a few things in Broome like a Boab tree that used to be a jail for aboriginal offenders and then headed down the coast. We passed through Port Hedland quickly and then got to an awesome place called Coral bay.

Exmouth

This was my first experience of amazing snorkelling and I was hooked, it was perfect for a first timer too. You just walk straight off the beach and it drops off to about 5 metres and then deeper, the coral was awesome; all different kinds of colourful, hard, soft, flowery and tons of fish. We were also there when turtle eggs were hatching and we watched in awe as they dug themselves out, instinctively scrambled towards the shore then ploughed through the waves and out to sea. We also rescued a huge old turtle that was stuck in the rocks, incredible they can swim half way round the world to exactly the same spot but then get stuck in rocks; chances are he’d be back there the next day. We also got to see the coral spawning at night, it was like something in a sci-fi movie all these neon spawns being spat out simultaneously in the world’s biggest underwater orgasm. We then moved onto the bluff anxious to surf but stoked with what we had just seen. There awesome waves at the bluff but it was big and shallow so since we were young and hadn’t surfed for a long time Dad said it was too heavy for us. We argued and said: ‘We’re not scared’ but I’m sure he made the right decision, it’d have to be a place I’d get back to when I was older. We then got to Kalbarri, it had sick waves; it was about 4-6 ft not too crowded and hollow. We got some of our first really good barrels there. It was pretty sharp and rocky underneath so it was probably a good place for us to grow some nuts. We then went to Exmouth itself and got some good waves around there too, one was a big fun right that would sometimes get hollow called sunset. Once we went looking for waves and ran into a couple of old fisherman as we were on the beach with our boards about to paddle out to a reef. We noticed how big their rods were and asked what they were fishing for: ‘we’re trying to get one of these 8ft Bronze whalers that keep swimming past. We turned around and got back in the car. We went to see the fisherman later and bought a huge crayfish really cheap and sat there and ate with him. He told us stories about some of the sharks he’d encountered. A Tiger shark ripped the outboard off his boat and his mate was stranded on some reef at Coral Bay when sharks chased him and they waited for hours for him to get back in the water. Finally they gave up which was lucky because he didn’t have much tide left and was getting very worried. We then headed for...

On the way we camped at Gnaraloo station for a while, that was another awesome surf experience. We surfed Tombstones for a couple of days about 4-6 ft, long hollow lefts, we were so stoked. When we got to Geraldton we surfed a lot at a place called explosives that didn’t often get big but had fun little lefts on reef. We surfed everyday and started to improve a bit, we’d also be surfing with a white seal who would come and say g’day. There’d also sometimes be a big fella on the beach who would just sit in the seaweed and look at you or sometimes bark. We went to school there for a while as dad was working away on a mine. It was a better school experience than Darwin but we weren’t there long enough to make many friends. The girl I met at church in Darwin was there but she either didn’t remember me or pretended not to as I was new and not cool.  We had a great time there but we had to move on and on the way we went to Monkey Mia to see the Dolphins it was cool but the dolphins just come to eat and then take off and when I went for a swim with the rangers got pissed and told me I was too close to them, I’d had better experiences with dolphins in the surf or at Coral Bay. We then ended up in a place called Bullsbrook where dad was working at the naval base. It wasn’t on the coast but on weekends we’d go a couple of hours up the coast to Yanchep or Drummond’s Cove. Yanchep was a pretty short but hollow left rock break that we saw a cool photo of in a surf shop with our car parked in front of it and sick waves in the background. Drummond’s was a long beach break that we had to walk for about 10 minutes and then we’d pick a break and be getting sick barrels by ourselves.  We’d also go to Perth which was closer but gets pretty crowded around Trigg’s and Cottesloe Beach, had some fun little waves at Trigg’s though and even some barrels. Perth as far as Cities go was a nice city and I’d love to get back there one day; back to anywhere in WA, I loved the big open space and less people in the water.

Down South

We went to school again at Bullsbrook and here I made more friends, a girl came from Perth and I went out with her. Kelly and I got a bit more serious; I’d go to her place, drink her beer and jump into bed with her and play with her and her with me. She even gave the old fella; Brutus a rub when we were sitting in class one day, sure enough though she started flirting with some other bloke so I got rid of her and a few days later she was with him. I tried to get into her friend but all I got was stepped on the head by her horse when I was on the back with her, then this crazy horse took off and was roaming the streets scaring people in their cars so we ran after it for ages and I still didn’t get anything out of or in her. I got with an older girl not long before we left and finally got to touch some boobs again, I was getting to taste the opposite sex and I loved it. With my friend and Clint we were walking through the bush one day and we found our first porno, we’d seen an old playboy of dad’s when we were younger but it was nothing compared to this. Mum wasn’t real happy when we found that mag and he had to get rid of it, he probably hated us for that. This was the cover of a video called Anal fist, they had photos of chicks in a doctors surgery getting violated in any entry point with these big 3ft long white things about as round as my head. I wondered if that was what girls expect and looked down at Brutus and didn’t feel confident. While we were there we went over to Rottnest Island; the trip over on the cat was great, the sea was pretty big and someone hurled, that sent off a chain reaction and soon the whole thing stunk terrible. Rottnest was beautiful; the quokka’s cruising round and no cars, it was a real escape from the rat race. The fact there were no cars meant you catch a bus or walk for a couple of hours to the surf; we walked of course, why pay a couple of bucks when you can walk for a couple of hours each way in the hot sun? Dad surfed at Strickland Bay, it was pretty big and looked good but there was a helicopter circling out the back for ages and Clint and I thought it might be the big white pointer we’d heard about feeding on whale blubber. I guess Dad figured he’d walked all that way he may as well get out there he was by himself and got sick waves but the walk back wouldn’t be as fun missing a leg or two. After Bullsbrook we headed...

We then headed off again, we got some good waves along the way, went to Mandurah and surfed a fun beachy there and saw Paige again but she was more developed then and I was still a little weed so she wasn’t interested. We went and got Sick waves at Yallingup; fun lefts point and a sick hollow beachy called Supertubes. We then got down to Margaret River, it was big and messy but we surfed the shorey’s which had a few little barrels and where nice and punchy. We went to Cowaramup Bay and surfed the South Point lefts; North Point looked awesome, but scary. We also surfed a beachy that was pretty big and heavy but a heap of fun; I’d surfed decent size waves at home but it was a different animal and rocks or reef and this much power, I was loving it. After surfing our asses off for a few weeks we headed down to Albany and checked out the whale factory, where they unmade whales. I think diplomatically about things and this pisses many people off, the whole Japanese illegal whaling thing is a particular bone of contention. The decimation of their population is not cool in my opinion but I think it’s typical of the West to interfere and say they have no right to hunt whales in other countries waters or their own. How about we encourage them to farm whales, obviously this is an arduous task as their breeding is so slow but it’s Ok for us to kill millions of the animals we say it’s OK to. Another option is to boost their tourism is to bring people to Japan to spearfish whales; better yet drop them in Antarctica to hunt killer whales, that’d be fun. Anyway back to my point; more of my nonsensical ideas and enjoyment out of being the devil’s advocate like my brother later, there are plenty of them. Seeing the enormity of the whale hunting was overwhelming, the killing floor was stained with blood, there were hundreds of skeletons that we saw and huge vats to store their oil in. There were also videos about it and they had planes to track them down and tell the boats, the poor big dumb whales never stood a chance. Anyway we all had ourselves a whale steak, shot a couple of endangered birds and then headed off to the Gloucester tree.

South Australia

It was amazing; we climbed up and could see all through the canopy of this huge forest. We then went to Wave rock, it was beautiful too, and it was probably a good thing I was a wuss because I considered going down it on my skateboard and years later I’d probably be stupid enough to try. We then got to Esperance which was great we had a fun surf there at long rocky little right and then we went up to the big sand dunes to have a go on the sand board that Dad had made before we left. We weren’t doing the jumps and stuff that we thought we would be but we had a blast. After that we headed up and across the Nullarbor, it was what you’d expect; a bit of a novelty for the first hour or so then pretty bloody boring. Somewhere before the Nullarbor we were heading along in pretty barren sort of farmland when we got to a valley and the temperature dropped and all of a sudden we were in Rainforest. We got out and went for a walk; it was beautiful, huge trees and little streams trickling along. We decided to spend a night along the Nullarbor; it was too cold for tents which were all we had after selling the Camper in Perth and now just having a trailer that dad made up with all our gear. We slept in the Kombi all squashed up and I was too tall so my feet had to hang out the door, freezing and beckoning dingoes to come and munch. We then headed into...

            South Oz was also great, the Great Australian Bight is awesome, until we saw it ourselves we couldn’t appreciate the enormity of the sheer cliffs, cold and power of the Ocean. Somewhere along there we stayed at a caravan park/pub/servo and a bloke offered me a beer when I went to the toilet. I was still only 13 and mum and dad weren’t far away so I declined. We went through Adelaide which is a beautiful old city with all their churches and Victorian architecture. We were hoping to get to Uluru which was still allowed to be called Ayers Rock back then but dad wasn’t confident in the Kombi; being air cooled and built for cold Germany the heat of the desert probably would have killed it, again. We then went to visit some old friends of mum and dad’s at Mount Gambier and went to the huge dam. We’d never seen anything like it; it was beautiful, we then had a barbie there and pork crackling, scrumpdidliumptious! Then we got to an awesome little town on the coast called Victor Harbour we got some fun little beachy waves and really liked it; just a small laid back sort of place, one of the many I’d love to take Michelle to one day. We then went to Streaky Bay and Ceduna, we got some fun waves at Streaky but it was another case of not feeling entirely comfortable after seeing shark jaws in the fish and chip shop that would be able to swallow us whole. We didn’t spend a big deal of time in South Oz and before long we were in...

Victoria

            Victoria was another short lived experience but a memorable one, the Great Ocean Road of course was amazing, it was one of the first big things we hit coming in from the other side and we had some great waves and times along there. A few memorable ones were staying at beautiful little towns on the beach like Airey’s Inlet, where we had some fun little beachy waves. The twelve apostles were awesome to see and just the scenery in general on the cold bushland meeting the equally cold cliffs and ocean was beautiful. I remember Clint and I surfing pretty mushy little windy and rainy waves at Lorne and it was so cold dad told us to only stay out about an hour because we’ll get hypothermia, I think he was joking but we’d get headaches each time we had to duck dive so for once we stayed out for a shorter time than we were told to. There were a number of other places I can’t remember the names of, some of them pretty heavy, nothing really big but it was all good. Bells was fun, it’s not the quality of a wave that I expected for its fame but it was fun, Winki Pop’s a fast little punchy wave too. When surfing Bells my steamer was getting fixed, it was bloody cold, it felt like my arms were on fire, if that makes any sense. It’s the kind of cold where when you sit there waiting for a wave too long when you catch one it feels like your joints remove to move at first and then when you go in yours hands are that cold that when you try to open the car your hands sting. Any way enough sooking about that, we also had a fun little surf at Torquay and Mum and Dad weren’t too worried about going into the vast expanse of suburb upon suburb that is Melbourne and I was glad when we started to head to...

            We went to Tassie on the maiden voyage of the then new ferry from Victoria: The Spirit of Tasmania. It was on odd looking thing, kind of like a hotel on the water and a lot of it stuck out of the water too. We had heard concerns by people that it was too top heavy and when we heard about the big swells in the Bass Strait that we were heading toward we were a bit nervous to tell the truth. It turned out to be good fun there were heaps of different areas for us to go and get lost in and when we were in bed it almost felt like we were going to fall out from the rocking of the swell. There were playgrounds, a pool that was too cold to swim in and even a video game room! We were pretty excited at that idea but Mum and Dad just laughed and gave us one of their usual reminders like: ‘You’re going around Australia, you don’t need video games’ ‘Silly me what was I thinking, be sure to remind me if I am ever so foolish again’. So we spent a bit of time looking over the edge at the raw power of the Bass Straight, I know I’ve probably harped on a bit about the power of the ocean but it’s a thing that’s always amazed me, getting to go out and feel like you’ve tamed a bit of it is an awe inspiring experience and looking at it sometimes and being glad you’re not in the middle of it can be very humbling experience. I also think when I see water moving with such force, whether it be in the ocean or in a river or waterfall that it would be great if we can harness that power to greater effect one day. Anyway enough of that, I’d hate for anyone to think I was a bloody hippie. We got to Tassie and fell in love with the place, it’s beautiful. It’s not all green and lush but even in some of the dryer areas it’s so quiet and unspoilt and usually it’s not too long before you’ll get to a valley or range and the temperature changes and all of a sudden you’re in a forest. We did a bit of surfing on the way down which was fun but we got the really good waves when we went to stay with Roy and Jane. They’ve lived there a long time and obviously Roy had figured out some top spots. There were a few fun beachys around Hobart that we surfed but there was a right point on a river that went for ages and we were the only ones surfing it. To add to that all you could see for hundreds of kms it seemed was nothing, no houses; the only thing was our bright red Kombi on the beach. There were big smoky mountains in the distance as it was a big bay, it was a great surf but also a beautiful place, it’s one of the places I think about when I dream of one day living in the Apple Isle.

Tasmania

Roy and Jane lived in a place called Derwent which is about an hour south of Hobart and there land backs on to a river in which they have their boat docked on their own little private jetty. They had a beautiful little English cottage with the chimney usually always on. I have very fond memories of that time, they were both very warm to us kids and they took us out to Bruny Island on their boat. There was a chance we would get waves but it wasn’t to be that trip as we were forced to stay the night in a bay as a squall came up all of a sudden. At first glance you could think I’d be spewing that we didn’t get to surf, yeah there’s that but I really enjoyed it and Bruny Island itself is beautiful. Again this is when I began to dream about having a setup like there’s one day. Just being able to jump in your boat and have your own little hideaway, I loved it. We did plenty of other things like helping, no watching in amazement as Roy was tackling sheep to get them in his truck and going up to Mt Welling ton for a bird’s eye view of Hobart and surrounds. Hobart is another city that I liked, it’s heritage buildings and more English looking kind of architecture is a bit of a step back in time and suits the friendly more laidback people there. One of the other memorable things we did there was going down to the most Southern Tip of Australia, it took us nearly all day to walk there and back but it was an enjoyable walk also. The thing about the countryside down there is that goes through so many changes, we walked between 3-4 hrs each way that day and in that time went from Rainforest to  rocky scrub to plains of nut grass to pine forest to sand dunes and over again in different orders. It was amazing, when we eventually arrived at the coast which was a huge sheer cliff where we were overlooking nothing but cold blue as far as we could see. The wind was ferocious and so was the surf. If we had of walked another half an hour we could have got down to where we could get onto the sand but we were all pretty well had it by then. We walked all that way just to look and maybe partly to say we’d done it but it was well worth it, another chance for me to admire the power of the ocean and the magnificence of this country. Sadly we had to leave Tassie, we went back up the coast, called into Port Arthur along the way, which was a spooky place with the jail and stories about all the death there, it just gives me an uneasy feeling. We then got back on the boat and were back ni mainland Australia. We moved up the Coast pretty quickly as a lot of it was stuff we’d seen when we were younger and we were getting back into...

            We went back to some of the places we spent time at on our had trips down south when we were younger like Bega, Bermagui and Ulladulla and had some good surfs  but it wasn’t too long before we were at Shoalhaven Heads seeing Nan and Pop. We got some great waves in this time; we were beginning to surf reasonably well by now so we really got stuck into it. We surfed heaps of places like Werri Beach, Shoalhaven heads itself, Bombo, Seventeen Mile, Comarong Island and over the other side, whatever it’s called, the farm, mystics, port Kembla, Shellharbour and this is when we had that all time surf at Callala Bay. We also spent a lot of time at our cousins the Harbrows’ at Callala Beach and got to know them all a lot better as we were getting older and didn’t see them as often  We had a lot of fun at Nan and Pops too, just hanging round with them, playing darts or with the classic little dog Soot. I also met a girl at the beach and she wanted to meet me down there one day, I was stoked, thought I might get in there but I had to go to church and it made me late so I was racing down on my skateboard and I fell off and gashed myself up pretty bad. I was determined thought so I stumbled down there but it was too late, she was gone and so was my chance. She was there on holidays and so was I, chances are we’d never meet again, how can god stand in the way of young love? After spending a fair bit of time there we headed back up the coast, went to see Uncle Noel and the crew and have some laughs their and some fun beachy waves at North Wollongong before going back to where it all started at Woonona. That was great too we got to surf decent waves at Woonona itself and then Sandon Point and the beach just up from it. It was awesome, I’d heard dad talk about it but now I got to check it out for myself with my mate from Mullaway Brent who was staying with his old man. It wasn’t long after that we started heading...

Back home

            We moved up the coast pretty quick as it was all places we’d been before on our many trips up and down the coast. We were about 2 hrs from home when the Kombi gave in, a little place called Frederickton, yes the famous pies! Nan and Pa came and towed us home and there we were, after all that amazing time we were back to Darkum. We were all stoked to be home of course but also a bit bummed that it was all over, we’d been together all that time and done some amazing stuff together and now it was back to normal life. No more setting up tents in the dark and rain, no more driving or walking for hours and dad keeps saying: ’I reckon it’ll be just around this corner’ no more campfires on the side of the road and damper with baked beans, no more games to pass time in the car which I’m sure mum and dad got sick of. I got stuck into surfing and for a long time that was all, I had a go with girls but the fact I wasn’t allowed to drink and go to parties made it all a bit hard so I put it on hold until I started doing it anyway, still didn’t have much luck. I did start getting into other habits but they didn’t take over too much and I was still surfing heaps but they did have a big part in some of the stupid stories that came up in this time. I was surfing bigger waves too, one session in particular was at Mulhearns and it was 8 foot plus, I loved it! None of the other young fellas were out and I got heaps of waves.We went on a school excursion and this footy head (who is actually a top bloke) and I were throwing an empty plastic bottle of coke at each other and I got him right between the eyes and he was pissing out blood; I couldn’t do it again if I tried and everyone said he was going to smash me but he was cool about it so I was very lucky, wouldn’t be the first time. I also started playing in a band which was awesome, we started out calling ourselves Supremus and it was Josh, Brent, Terry, Clint, Shaun and me. Eventually we got a little more serious and Tim Daw played guitar, Josh played drums, Brent sang and I played bass. We got Tim in the band because he was a good guitarist but he was also a jerk off. He had bloody agro dogs too; they had three mangy, crazy red heeler looking things locked in a concrete room in between the house and garage. They were hardly ever let out but unfortunately I was there for band practice one day and one got out, it jumped there pissy little fence no worries and was out for blood; mine. I ran back to the car but it was too fast, it latched on to my leg and I had to hit it off with my bass, I got back in the car before he could hit me again and I inspected the chunk he took out of me. Off to get a tetanus shot, I had a run of bad luck with dogs for a while there I got attacked by another two. One was Kate’s friend’s black lab which took a chunk out of my gut and another was when I was working with dad I’d passed this German shepherd for hours until he decided to have a go.

Anyway after the dog attack at Tim’s I was beginning to dislike him more. We had a few fights at band practice; Josh and Tim shaped up to each other but either where game to throw the first blow. The funniest was when Brent wanted to fight me, we were always having little scuffles but this day he threw my skateboard the bush and then got pissed off when I told him to get it. He climbed up a tree to get away but I followed him and pulled him back down. Then I hit him until he bled, cried and got my skateboard; of course he went to school and told everyone he beat me, a couple of days later we were friends again. Tim though had pushed me too far, we kicked him out of the band and I was paying him out so he came and threatened me with a wheel brace when I was on my way to work at Big W. I was in a hurry to get to work so I told him: ‘I’ll get you later’ to after threatening me he didn’t like it when I called him and said: ‘meet me at the beach so I can smash your head into the road’ He had his parents listening on the other phone and they rang the cops. I got a slap on the wrist and told to leave poor Tim alone, it could have stopped there but it didn’t. I would throw rocks at his house in the middle of the night, beep my horn at their house at 2:00 in the morning and the best was when I knocked their wheelie bin over and drove rubbish around there front yard. That was probably what made them take me to court, they didn’t turn up and I saw Tim months later and he said: Sorry, let’s put all this behind us’. ‘You wish Tim, you’re not always going to have mummy and daddy there to look after you and one day I’ll get you and I’m going to kill you’ I answered. It turned out he pretty much did have mummy and daddy always there, things died down until years later I drove past him and gave him the finger and a mouthful of abuse and they followed me. When I eventually stopped, Tim, his sister and his dad got out and they wanted to finally have a go. The one with the most balls was the sister she hit me in the head and I said: ‘get this slut off me’. They still wouldn’t hit me first and i knew better than to. It was a good thing I didn’t because of course his mum was in the car on the phone to the cops’. Nothing happened that time but it was the last I saw of him, so I’m still waiting but it’s over now, I think...

Rock stars

            It wasn’t long after the fighting in the band that we kicked Tim out and then we got a new guitarist called Julius, he was meant to be our guitarist but he and Josh had other plans. Josh and Brent were always closer than I was to either of them; I wasn’t impressed that when he and Julius decided to kick Brent out that they didn’t have the balls to tell him. I told him and I didn’t even want to kick him out, Julius was a good singer but Brent was a good front man and we were playing more of a variety of songs. When Julius was singing we just did Silverchair and his dreary originals, I was starting to get into sick music like my all time favourite Slayer and heavier stuff like Emperor so our music was boring me. I was less and less keen and drifting away from the band and my friends so it wasn’t that much of a surprise when they kicked me out, oh no that’s right they didn’t kick me out they just made a new band with everyone the same except me being replaced by Julius’ brother. Another dog act doing it too, Kara came home from school one day and said:’ aren’t you in the band anymore?’ First I’d heard of it but I had a feeling they were doing the same they did with Brent so I raced down to Josh’s and sure enough the decision had been made. Before getting kicked out we were actually going OK, we played at Pubs, Parties, Battle of the Bands etc. We even recorded a tape but were too stingy to pay the extra couple of hundred and get a CD made. We had a few really good gigs and some funny ones, one was a bucks party for a bikie kid, the stripper was from our school and that ugly the bloke wouldn’t take her gear off. We decided to dress up as chicks for one, because it’s so original. The other fellas wore long dresses but I wore a skimpy one and this old drunk scrubber took a shine to me, I learnt how vulnerable a young girl must feel with a drunk old man all over her. We once played a battle of the bands at the Hoey Moey. We had a fun time but we were followed by a black metal band called Oracle of the Void who supported big bands like Fear Factory. They weren’t really well received in a pub but I felt blown away, I hadn’t gotten into black metal yet but I thought their intense wall of sound was awesome. I saw some of the members years later in a different form called Graa and they played a cradle song; amazing musicians.

We were surfing heaps; I’d be up at 5, surf for a couple of hours, go to school come home and surf any free periods then surf after school once or twice in daylight savings. We surfed across the road as much as we could when it worked, had some amazing surfs there, spot K and at Cabins. One of the best ever was by myself across the road about six ft A frame barrels. I got a few long ones that I still remember the sound and stoke of today. We also started surfing in comps, I did OK sometimes but wasn’t really that into it. Josh and I represented the school at Byron and got to the 3^rd round but then we were at Tallows and it was pretty heavy and to tell the truth we pussed it a bit. It was a classic though when we beat some tosser from Ballina and he went and argued with the judges because we were some unknown blokes and he thought he was awesome because he was sponsored. Mum and dad started running Christian surfers and that was cool because we’d go on camps all the time at beaut spots like Point Plummer, Minnie Waters and down around Forster. I was one of the only ones who’d turn up every week so I won the championship a couple of years so I was stoked with that. We also went on a lot of Mal club camps which were great too. We were getting up to a bit more mischief in those days. I was surfing a lot with dad and Clint, a bit with Josh who was a bit too lazy for me and I was surfing a lot more with Jared who was a really good surfer and was keen as mustard. I was working a fair bit too. I had the best surf I’ve ever had; across the road by myself getting big long barrels for hours, we had countless other sick uncrowded barrels there and at Cabs and a few big scary sessions. We got Dad up for a surf one day and when we got there it was pretty average looking; Dad lost it, which doesn’t happen often and he threw his board off the headland. Luckily it was really windy and it blew his board back towards us, which seemed to frustrate him even more that he couldn’t wreck something, but I’m sure he was glad later.On days off I’d work with dad doing antennas and at night I’d work at Big W packing shelves. When I was in yr 8/9 I was actually pretty good at school, not maths of course but when I got to yr 10 and started working more and doing bad things more I started to care less and less about school. I went from being in advanced English to general, I was also driving so I had more freedom to get out of school and surf any chance I got. My first car was the Volkswagen Passat and we had some great times in that little beast. I was pissed off at the time but also lucky that it wasn’t worse and no one got hurt when I went away with a girl called Kelly and Clint and his mates decided to have a party at home and drive my car when they were pissed. I heard from Damon that they couldn’t even get it up the street and he had to do it as they couldn’t find the right car and were revving the guts out of it. Then they decided to do fishies up and down our dirt road. It was one of Clint’s idiot mates who couldn’t control it and ran into a tree, creasing up the front passenger side, It was pretty easy to knock it back out but I was pissed off, not to know at the time that I would have my revenge years later.

I managed to go nearly all the way off my P’s the first time and after having 4 attempts to get my L’s and then three driving tests for my P’s I really wanted them. The first driving test I was just hopeless, I nearly ran over a family at traffic lights; I get nervous with any kind of test and I just didn’t see them, the instructor had to reef the hand break and screamed at me. There was also a big 4WD coming towards us so if I didn’t hit the family it would have wiped us out, needless to say I didn’t pass that one. The next one was a bit better, I didn’t try to kill anyone but I disobeyed rules, sped, did the worst parking I ever had and crossed the all important stop line. The first 2 times I’d read the book heaps, went to bed early and been straight for the tests, the last time I didn’t stress so much, went out the night before and got pissed turned up wasted and cruised though it! Not that I’m recommending that. Anyway back to when the trouble started, I’d just finished my HSC and worked at Big W that night so I decided to celebrate my amazing 0-15% with some work mates. I’d been studying sort of hard and staying off the grog kind of for a year so it hit me pretty quick. I only had a couple of drinks, they were straight but for some reason a cop pulled me up and breath tested me, possibly it was because I stuck my head out the window and yelled at him. So they took me back to the station and put in the lock up for a couple of hours and then let me go on my way so I walked back to the car and drove home. I wish I could say from there that I learnt my lesson but it just got worse. I got loads of speeding fines, seatbelt fines, had crashes and lost my license three more times before finally getting to my full license. The third car I got was a Subaru Leone and it had a fair bit of guts, so I took advantage of that’ when I was driving home at 1or 2 in the morning after Big W I’d get her up to 160-80k’s. One night I really scared myself though, it was wet and I was probably going 140-50 when some pelican pulled out on me, there was a car coming the other way so I had to brake but I just started sliding, he was getting closer and closer but somehow I turned into the side lane and slid right past him. He gunned it out of there after that and I wanted to chase him but he was gone and I felt like my gut was in my throat and once again something was looking after me. I had only a few experiences with violence when I was young and it was usually my mouth that got me in it and thankfully sometimes my mouth that got me out, one such time was when I was mucking around with this Indian and the big fat fairy suddenly decided it was a serious and didn’t appreciate me calling him a fag. So then everyone was saying he was going to smash me and he was the biggest bloke in our grade, when he did eventually come after me I decided to try to talk my way out of it. I was tall for my age but he was so big he was hitting me in the head with his shoulders but I managed to talk him down before he caused any real damage.