“I just like the place, I do. And people used to say, why go to Port Kembla, it’s only full of steelworks and smoke and dirt and dust, but I said they don’t look beyond themselves because, for instance, I’ve got the best view in the world. Yes, terrific view, yes, it’s lovely.  In my last illness, that I’ve just got over in the last couple of months, there was talk of ‘I don’t know about you going back to that house on the hill’ and I said, ‘That’s where I want to go’.

“I remember before the children were born, at different stages we’d be sitting here and you’d get up and look out the window and there was always something to see, but the number of lights have changed since then. When the grandchildren were growing up they’d say, ‘I have to see the fairy lights before I go to bed’. And it is like fairyland, beautiful at night.

“Especially if it’s a clear night and winter nights are good because it’s crisp and clear and it’s not foggy. Sometimes in the summer you get that haze about the place but in the winter, especially after a westerly when it’s crisp and clear, it’s beautiful. They’ll have to prise me off this hill in the end!  The trouble is the hill will finally get me though, because I’m finding it hard. Until a couple of months ago, I still walked to my sister-in-law’s which was down the hill and up Bland Street, which isn’t very far. It was good going down but I’m finding it hard to come back. This is pretty steep coming up.  I’ve been told I can’t do it by myself anymore. I’ve got to take a walking stick now.”

– Kathleen Catterall, 16 June 2016

Photo by Nina Kourea