My Early Years in The Alice

I often wondered if I would ever get around to writing some of my story since I came to live here in Alice Springs.

Buoyed by the success of the Queers of the Desert project some five years ago, I guess now is the time to put down for posterity, or pure indulgence, some fond memories of my time here – the people, the magic of the country and the essential spirit of the land that has left such an indelible impression and impact on my entire life. No matter how much longer I have left to live; being now in my 56th year, there is nothing that could ever come closer to heaven for me than this place, Alice Springs.

I  begin by expressing the joys that living here has brought me – the adventures, the experiences, the wonderful memories and the fantastic opportunities that Alice has provided for me. She has opened many doors, presented me with a few obstacles, supported my dreams and created a brilliant reality that I will cherish all the days of my life.

The following are just a few excerpts of this most wonderful journey.

In the Beginning

Born on Saturday 28 August, 1954 around 6pm in Stanmore (Sydney) the second child of Nance & John Walcott, I was raised and lived much of my life in Sydney prior to moving here.

I first lived in Marrickville at my grandmother (Eileen Stella [Nanny] Walcott’s) home. My family (now including sister Jenny born in 1957) moved to Western Sydney when I was  around the age of five. I started school there in 1960 at Lalor Park Public School and completed high school (Seven Hills High) in 1972 (now with young brother Andrew completing our family in 1968). In my last 2 years of  school my family moved from Lalor Park to Wentworthville so I commuted daily by train or occasionally was given lifts by a couple of generous teachers.

In 1973, I had 12 months off between school and teachers’ college (called a ‘gap year’ these days) working as a circulation assistant with Cumberland Newspapers in Parramatta. I completed my teacher education training at Nepean College of Advanced Education in Westmead from 1974 – 1976.  During that time I began my first gay relationship with Allan that was to be for 11 years. We ‘married’ in 1978 in a private commitment ceremony attended by some family and friends at our home in Ashfield.

I began teaching in 1977 at Yennora Public School. In 1979, I transferred to Yagoona Public as a district relief teacher so that I could spend more of my time over the next 5 years completing an undergraduate Social Science degree externally through the University of New England in Armidale, NSW. I was selected for school counsellor training in 1983 and undertook a Master’s degree in psychology (sponsored by the NSW Education Department) at Macquarie University where I graduated in 1988.

I worked as a school counsellor at Whalan High (1985-86 and Canterbury Boys High (1987-1990) until I resigned from the NSW Education Department that year, prior to heading off to compete with Team Sydney playing tennis in the Gay Games in Vancouver. In combination, I also taught English to adult migrants in Campsie, Dulwich Hill and Cabramatta part-time over a period of 13 years from 1977 to 1989.

A couple of years before I arrived in The Alice, the sudden and unexpected death of my father, John, in 1991 had an incredibly significant impact on my world. I was feeling somewhat ‘rudderless’ without him and his guidance so, after leaving a job, I travelled overseas for 2 months essentially to attend an AIDS Conference in Berlin. This included travelling via South Africa to visit with my friend Simon and explore some parts of Europe out of Berlin. Part of that trip saw me linked up with two other psychologists who had started gay psychologist groups; one in the USA and one in Europe.  Jan (John) Schippers from Amsterdam, NL, and Dr. Catherine Acuff  from Boston, USA and I were driving from Amsterdam to Berlin to attend the conference. They had each successfully created gay & lesbian psychologist groups within their relative jurisdictions. While sitting at a check-point and from the front seat, they both turned around to me and suggested that I might establish one in Australia – and so I did, in time, out of Alice Springs.

Upon returning to Sydney I needed to get a job, mostly to pay for the trip I’d just been on!! I grabbed a copy of the Sydney Star Observer, found a position with the AIDS Council in Alice Springs and applied successfully. I left my home in the very capable hands of my sister Jenny and her boyfriend Darren with a one way ticket to Alice Springs supplied by the AIDS Council. I arrived in Alice with $35 to my name.

And so this remarkable journey began. The plan in my mind was to be here for a period of up to two years. If I didn’t like it here, I could always jump a ‘plane and head back home to Sydney. As time has proven, that didn’t happen.

It all began with Love

Day 1: Thursday August 26, 1993. I arrived on board a Qantas flight around 11am to be warmly greeted by Sue who was then President of the AIDS Council of Central Australia (ACOCA) and her girlfriend at the time, Lyndalee. We shared a drink in the bar whilst waiting for my luggage to arrive from the carousel.  Sue and Lyndalee drove me to Lyndalee’s home in Bacon Street to what would be my home for the next five years. Lyndalee lived at what was affectionately termed ‘Piggy Street’ sharing at the time with Janine (Neen) and Cheryl (who proclaimed that she must have been pre-lesbian and subsequently post lesbian – she just forgot to be lesbian in between). After moving into the granny flat that Cheryl was then using as her sewing room, I was invited to become a ‘Piggy’ for as long as I wished. I was taken into town, looked around a bit, picked up my push-bike that I bought from my predecessor, Christopher, and cruised around the town.

It was very nearly my last day in Alice (and on Earth) when I had my first encounter with a road train while riding the bike down the Stuart Highway. Jammed between the curb-side and a 16 wheel vehicle was very scary for what was only a minute but seemed like an eternity, and I really thought ‘this is it’. I got lost on the way back home to Piggy Street but finally made it through the maze of Gillen streets.

Day 2: Friday August 27. I spent some time at the new job being orientated by my new co-workers, Di and Tony, who both introduced me to Swinger’s Cafe on Gregory Terrace – the place ‘to be seen’ back in those days. I visited Tony the ACOCA co-ordinator with ‘outreach’ Tony and we talked about my new role, then went over to ‘outreach’ Tony’s for a while in the afternoon. He was the one who told me that in Alice I would have to ‘face my demons’ and that she brings people here to help them work stuff out. Back home to Piggy Street in the evening for a most fantastic Asian meal lovingly prepared by Neen, Cheryl and others. Dinner guests that night included Philip and Michelle. Cheryl made me a chocolate cake for dessert because it was going to be my birthday the next day. She and Neen came out to the granny flat at midnight with the cake ablaze with candles.

Day 3: Saturday 28th August. Happy 39th birthday! I had breakfast at Swinger’s Cafe and then off to watch Neen play in the netball final. After the game we went to the Oasis Hotel which was a favourite of the local gay and lesbian fraternity in those days. We had a few drinks, played some pool and then I was taken to Undoolya Hill for the first sunset viewing over Alice. I have photos of that afternoon which are still very special. Then it was back to Piggy Street for another birthday dinner and a great night.

Day 4: Sunday 29th August. Recovery! I made a phone call to Mum back in Sydney to assure her that I was just fine and all was working out well. I was making new connections all the time and being made feel most welcome.

Day 5: Monday 30th August. My first official day at ACOCA. I met Paola and Jana who along with Tony and Di helped to explain some of how the place operated. I began learning how to use a computer from them. Apart from writing my Master’s thesis it was not anything I’d had much experience with in my previous roles, so it was to become a real learning curve.

Day 6: Tuesday 31st August. My second day at ACOCA brought with it a phone call from Graham, who was one of the leading lights in the local gay scene, inviting me to Tuesday night drinks at his place to meet some of the local gay men. I accepted the invitation and after dinner at home that night I was dropped of in Hong Street to meet the crew. I was quite nervous and as I walked in the back door, I was introduced to about 15 local gay men sitting in Graham’s lounge room. The group included Graham, John, Robin, Selby (Warwick was at work that night), Phil & Steve, Chris, Stephen and Philip.  Both Graham and Robin, with whom I built a very strong association and friendship, were individually and collectively very influential in my life that was to unfold.

Day 7 – Wednesday 1st September. The ACOCA office was closed today so I went about setting up my part-time private practice; getting ready for my first client the following week. I had to register as a psychologist in the NT first and seek out a practice space away from home. Vicki at Diarama Village gave me my first opportunity to go into business and we set up to start from there about a month later. All these wonderful opportunities and people were part of the first week here and I was keen to see what else would unfold. I was very fortunate.

From those First Days Forward

You may well wonder how I can remember all that off the top of my head. I suppose it’s because it was so special. I was made feel welcome from the moment I touched the ground. The overwhelming feeling of love and support was very apparent. It was the first week that made it for me here in the Alice.

The story continues to grow positively and develop beyond expectations since that first week. I saw the Todd flow three times within the first three months of being here and was told the ’see the Todd flow three times’ story. So the fact that it happened within the first three months of me being here was quite phenomenal. I travelled to Darwin with Sue, Lyndalee and their friend that November to see a Tina Turner concert and be introduced to Darwin. Just prior to that Christmas, Cheryl and I drove out to Hermannsburg where I played Santa to a group of kids from Kulpitarra community. That was a very special experience and an honour to be asked to be involved.

I went back to Sydney that Christmas deciding that I had found a new home here in Alice. I had a load of my possessions trucked back up and left the house in Erskineville to a renter. Jenny and Darren were moving to Gladesville. As it turned out, I never stayed or lived in the house again. I came back to Alice filled with enthusiasm and conviction. Mum came up to visit in the May and we drove to Ayers Rock – the first time for both of us, and saw in raining on the rock the afternoon we arrived – another special and significant experience that Mum and I enjoyed together.

And Then

I continued working at ACOCA through 1994 during which I was appointed as a Board member to the NT Psychologists Registration Board; one which was to run for the full six years. I worked for Central Australian Aboriginal Congress in November 1994 when John and I put together the first Aboriginal Gay Men and Transgender Sexual Health Conference held at Hamilton Downs. We sourced money through government grants to host the conference which was an outstanding success. Anwernekenhe subsequently held another three such meetings and have held a 10th anniversary celebration five years ago. The conference was a long-held dream of John’s and I was delighted that his dream had come true before his life ended tragically in 1995.

Internal politics combined with a clash of personality issues drove me to leave ACOCA in late November 1994 to join the Community Mental Health Team. The salary more than doubled ACOCA’s and I was far more content from a working perspective. I worked a combination of day, afternoon and weekend shifts  over the next five years. There’s nothing like sleeping with an on-call pager! That experience was very fulfilling under the guidance of the former manager, Vicki. She left in 1996 but came back after 3 years away in NSW and I stayed with the team until 2000 when I joined the Education Department as a Guidance Officer to cover for a colleague who was on 12 months leave.

Under the auspices & support of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Special Interest Group was born from Central Australia within the first couple of years of my being there. A series of letters sent via snail mail were sent to all the gay/lesbian psychologists I could find in the national gay papers to glean an impression of whether others would support such a venture.

The group continues to operate under the leadership of Dr Damien Rigg in Adelaide with a healthy membership in excess of 120 active members. It now enjoys an international recognition with some of the members attending overseas symposiums etc (as I did in San Francisco August 2001). Alice Springs certainly allows people ‘permission’ to create new enterprises and explore adventures where they didn’t previously exist. On ya, Alice!!!

I never returned to Mental Health on a permanent basis after 2000, opting instead to begin a career in private practice as a psychologist. It meant that I could be more flexible with my dual careers as both a practitioner and tourism operator. I began full-time private practice working at St Philip’s College in 2001 as their first psychologist/counsellor, gradually building a presence from one to four days per week.

Building The Rainbow Connection as the first established gay and lesbian bed and breakfast required a good deal of business time and along with my good friend and business partner in Alice IS Wonderland, Kalikamurti, we spend time dreaming up new events and promoting Alice to the gay and lesbian communities globally. Whilever it all stays fun, I’ll continue.

In early 1999, I sold my Erskineville property in Sydney, retaining Robin Street South Golden Beach near Byron Bay as an investment property, to purchase the Raggatt Street properties here in Alice. I moved into 22 Raggatt Street on Friday 29th January and purchased 24 Raggatt Street at auction the next day for $121,000. It was a very busy 48 hours!

The Rainbow Connection dream began establishing over the next 18 months. My first renters at #24 were Cain and Paola for a short time followed by Andrew and Matthew who lived there for about 18 months. When they purchased their own property, they were soon followed by Anthony, Tim, Clinton and Alex who all shared together for a while before Alex and Clinton moved on to live in Sydney. Tim and Anthony remained for an extended period before Tim moved to Sydney to be with his new partner, David. Anthony and his partner Darren moved into their own place on the north side of town and moved in the day before Brett and David arrived in town to live. Brett and David lived on the ‘Estate’ for just on 2 years before moving on to Brisbane. The property has recently sold for substantially more than I paid for it!!

Sexual partners were a casual affair for many of the years I was here. They were certainly not a priority. Surprisingly, one day The Universe decided and presented me with an angel to begin a brand new year – and century.

Glenn came into my life on 31st December, 2000. We were both at Kalika and Linda’s New Year’s Eve party. He would come to events at my place over the next few months and was very supportive during the Alice IS Wonderland hysteria that emerged for 10 weeks in the local Centralian Advocate newspaper from February 16th through until April of 2001.

We remained acquaintances and developed a growing friendship up until 13th July that year when we took our association several steps forward. He continues to be a very special part of how The Rainbow Connection develops and is truly my angel in life and love. He is a remarkably affable younger man who is very devoted and loving. I’m so glad to have him in my world for as long as he chooses to be here.

In August 2003, I celebrated my Decade Of Alice (my 10th Alice-versary) – a accolade of my time here and some of the events that took place over that time. It was a fantastic event with my Mum, brother Andrew, sister Jenny and Andrew’s girlfriend (now wife) Pat coming up to join in the party. My eldest sister Stephanie was unable to travel. We had over 100 guests who came and played on the ‘Gay Boyz Estate’. There was much to celebrate and much celebration was done! My friend Rose once said to me that ‘Alice is where one learns how to become a human being rather than a human doing’. She’s so right!

And now…

However, whenever and whyever this journey ceases to be is yet to be known.  For anyone who ever gets to read this, just know that it is the quality of my life that I love rather than the quantity.

I retired my role at St. Philip’s College in June, 2009 in an effort to ‘buy back some time’. I travelled from Alice Springs to Alice Springs around the planet for a month in June/July on a tourism related business trip. It proved to be a remarkable adventure and hugely successful from a business perspective. I continue to work in private practice as a psychologist on Mondays and Tuesdays and at headspace Central Australia on Wednesdays. In August this year, I purchased a block of land at Stirling Heights out near my beloved Alice Springs Desert Park. We will build on that over the next 18 months. The plan is to build an ‘old Territory’ style home with a large breezeway running front to back, rooms off to the left and right and verandah running all the way around the house. Plantation louvres, solar power and a cellar are all on the agenda. Glenn with design and build the kitchen and bathrooms. Once that property is ready for us to live in, I’ll sell #22 Raggatt St. and we’ll move . The accommodation aspect of the business will no longer be available but I’ll continue to ‘talk up The Territory’ from a consultancy and marketing  perspective.

I’ve been blessed and graced with a life that places me within the top 2% of beings on the planet. We are all here for a limited time but I believe that there is a legacy that we are each able to leave behind us when ‘the party’s over’. Alice Springs has allowed mine to be filled with loads of love, fantastic adventures and a wealth of friendships.

To all of my Alice ‘family’  with so many people I’ve met and loved as friends, a very special thank you for all that you’ve given me and all that I’ve become because of you. If I attempted to name everyone who has come into my life for whatever reason over the period, I would invariably leave out some names – compromised memory is one of the downsides of aging. So it’s best not to try. You all know who you are! Thank you. XXX

And my venture into NT Parliamentary politics – que sera sera!!