In this second part to Marlene Lawson's story from 2000, we discover more about the Lawsons while gaining further glimpses of life as it was lived on Magnetic Island by a 1960s teenager and where life took Marlene from there. Marlene's story, as she told it, moved freely back, forth and around without following any strict chronological order. The freshness and forthrightness of her story telling was nonetheless vivid and enlightening.

Marlene paints an idyllic picture of Magnetic Island in the days of her youth. "We really ran wild and free as kids in those days. It wasn't as if we really got up to much mischief - just sleeping on the beach and making imaginary games - catching yabbies in Gustav Creek after school. It was a pretty safe, crime free place and I think that's probably because there was little commerce - crime follows commerce".

The powerful influence of Marlene's father Aub was, in those days, however, never far from Marlene's thoughts "I can't really remember a normal conversation with dad. He always spoke in rhymes, riddles and verse. We kids were always 'tin lids' and to wake us he'd call, 'Rise and shine your country needs you - have you packed your swag?'. He always called me 'Snooksie' because nothing apparently rhymed with Marlene".

"I think we kids really used the Island more then. TV came later to north Queensland and I didn't see one until I was 17. For me to be having a good time was to be up in the hills exploring".

Marlene mused about school on the Island and the sorrow she felt after another tragedy which occurred when her good friend and the only other kid in her grade at school, Robert Nolan, was shot and killed accidentally on Bright Point while hunting possums with a friend Craig Miller.

As for mates of the time Marlene speaks fondly of the Chilcott boys from Horseshoe Bay and the Bowerman girls from Picnic Bay. "Joan Bowerman and I used to work for the Picnic Bay Store. I got to know them really well.

The early teenage years, after Marlene's sister Judy drowned at Alma Bay, were, it seems, not surprisingly, a period of breaking out for Marlene. "On the Island I began drinking lots of alcohol at Arcadia and I hung out with the surfies. They were more hip than the lifesavers who called them 'ripple riders'. We drank outrageous amounts and sometimes I'd wake up not knowing where I was or where I'd been".

"It was a good life but I had hardened. I had a sharp tongue and was quite promiscuous because I wanted attention and needed to be held. I didn't actually have intercourse until I was 21. I was scared of falling pregnant so I was known as a 'prick teaser' but I always loved the Island and the 'anything goes' feel of the place. We'd often walk to Horseshoe Bay to raid the pineapples. I lived on pineapples, mangoes and oysters!

"There were so few cars on the Island then and because everyone knew eachother people would just hop in and drive a car to Arcadia or somewhere knowing that someone else would drive it back," says Marlene with a laugh.

Going to Town High opened up another world to Marlene. "There was a long wait before I could get the ferry back and I began to inhabit the seedier parts of the city. I hung around the snooker halls with all the boys. They did more interesting things! I found myself more accepted in that world than in the straight and I was a real person amongst those characters. They all knew me!"

Marlene reflected on the sorts of people north Queenslanders were at the time. "I don't think that many Aussies of that time were very socially adapted. I often think that you could never find two people more world's apart than English convicts and their descendants and Aborigines. I don't think white Australians have much sense of roots or tradition. You find that more and more the further you go north - where the white population came to a very strange and lonely place and were set apart from a continuing culture. I think that has led to a people who don't have much idea of where they are really going. Not like Asians and European immigrants who have a much stronger sense of family and tradition. But that also makes the Aussies pretty interesting and I think more open in outlook".

Returning to her own story, "I was becoming a hippy and it was as if I was destined to be a hippy because it was always part of my lifestyle" said Marlene with characteristic frankness.

"Peter, my brother started a band around that time called Unleashed and at about the same time my parents rented an old bank building in Flinders Street so we could stay over in town more easily. The band practised downstairs and went on to support visiting bands. They even supported the Easybeats!".

"I passed Junior - It was almost as though I was born already knowing the English language. About then I met a girl called Gay Bare. We all called her 'Happy Naked'. We went off to Brisbane at first and later I went to Melbourne with Happy's sister Carol and got jobs as barmaids. It was my first experience of the big city after childhood and I spent about three years there". Becoming pregnant in Melbourne Marlene decided to return to Magnetic Island where she gave birth to Mandy.

"It was 1969 and I was 21. I found a house on Nobby head in Picnic Bay and we inherited a dog called Tunkin. I began doing tie-dyeing and sold it in town. I also worked for Graham and Jo Wieneke who began the moke hire on the Island. It was a great job. I always had a car!" Marlene continued to live on Magnetic Island for the next 7 years.

At a time when hippy ideals meant escaping the everyday world and pursuing a more self sufficient lifestlye, Marlene was drawn, with friends Ken and Sue Mills who had lived at White Lady Cove, to an opportunity to live in a truly extraordinary place where those dreams were not an option but the only reality. They had been invited to live on remote Percy Island, 60 miles (100 kms) off the coast from Mackay.

Percy Island is approximately the size of Magnetic Island but mostly consisting of huge sand dunes. It was inhabited by one man, Andy Martin, who had a perpetual lease on the Island and a house well inland. "Percy Island was one of the outstanding experiences of my life." said Marlene. "We dreamed of self sufficiency but that didn't really happen. There was a supply boat which came every two weeks and we lived mostly on dried fruit, fish and oysters. I made bread but most of our time was taken up with finding food. We all went naked and didn't need money. The headland we lived on was a favourite spot for yachties. We found it difficult to get on with Andy and we lived separately but it was probably the most relaxed time I have ever had in my life. We were only there four months. Mandy was 7 then and the kids really enjoyed it too but the supply boat service ended and I contracted scurvy".

It was then that Marlene moved to the Sunshine Coast and an alternative community called Starlight in the Yandeena Valley. "Starlight became a big part of my life. I made lots of friends. It was jointly owned and there were lots of odd little hand built houses. It was different to the outside world and I liked that because it reminded me of the Island. I got a job at a local nursery and met a guy called Greg. I was 34 and hadn't been in a relationship for ten years and was ready for one then. We had some great fun but I think I was attracted to him because he wasn't a hippy like me. We travelled a lot including a good deal of Asia. Greg was the father of my other two daughters Rosy and Shelley".

Rosy was, however, born suffering from cerebral palsy. "When Rosy was born all our energy went into her and not eachother. Greg and I spent most of our 13 years together travelling which reminds me of Aub's restlessness. Eventually Greg found someone else but he comes and visits regularly".

"I was also working as a masseuse and a palmist. I don't know where the palmistry came from but I'd always been interested in hands and in my streetwise days in Townsville I gravitated towards people interested in the occult. I read books on palmistry and it just developed. I don't actually need palms - I can just 'read' people. Its like I've got antennae. I pick up a lot about people. I can never get sick of it either. I'm sure Aub had it too but it was all flavoured by his Christianity".

Marlene has spent most of her last twenty years on the Sunshine Coast. She has also made the realisation that she too is a writer. "I've always kept diaries and I write every day but most of it has been very personal. I guess I really started because I could express myself better that way. For years and years I never showed it to anyone. It was mostly private and I burnt lots and its only in the last few years I have come to consider myself as a writer. It's easier to write my truth than speak it. I wouldn't say the things I write and I've never been interested in publishing. I think a lot is too personal except for a few things. I don't censor what I write. Mandy thinks I'm really blunt because I say what I think. My mouth has gotten me into a lot of trouble in the past".

Story & photo: George Hirst