I live on the south coast of New South Wales Australia, where I live with my husband. It is in this place where I have finally given my spirit permission to speak after being silent and afraid for far too long. I was born and lived my formative years in the tiny country town of Peak Hill. My home was a tumbling-down shack in the poor farming community, where my mother, from the age of sixteen, raised six children. My father, older brothers, and uncles were shearers, drovers, and stockmen. A severe drought drove many families off their farms and into the cities to find work. My parents, with my sister and I, came to Wollongong, where my father found work in the coal mines.
