Vale Laurene Kelly 1954-2019

by Susan Hawthorne

Several days ago I woke from a dream about Laurene Kelly, author, environmental activist, feminist, a dear friend and a fine writer. We at Spinifex are feeling the loss of Laurene and join with her friends and family in our sorrow.

Laurene had a great love for the world, especially for animals and the natural world. She worked for many years with abused children and women in refuges and in the 1990s for five years at the Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary at Mole Creek in Tasmania, with Tasmanian Devils and other native animals. Laurene also lived on women's lands in Wales, Tasmania and NSW.

Laurene Kelly wrote a trilogy of young adult novels which dealt with deadly violence against women and the way violence ricochets throughout the family and the community. Her novels are I Started Crying Monday (1999), The Crowded Beach (2001) and Still Waving (2005). The reader meets teenagers, Julie and Toby after a house fire in which several members of their family – and their dog – die. The Crowded Beach follows the pair from rural Tasmania to city life in Sydney's Bondi with their Aunt Jean. In Still Waving Julie develops a passion for surfing, but does she want to stay in the city? And what about her father?

She wrote passionately of her love for the Tasmanian wilderness in her contribution to Australia for Women including this memorable poem:

I get a fright in the night
when I hear the trains go by
It is because they are carrying bodies
carrying bodies, bodies of trees
they are murdering in the night
and in the day,
our trees, our spirits
the death trains rattle by.

Lauren Kelly and her books

Reviewers said the following:

'I recommend I Started Crying Monday to readers looking for an accessible real life novel that pinpoints issues without overexposing them. I thoroughly enjoyed the autobiographical/narrative style. I give it a rating of 9/10.’

—Susan Cole, Gold Creek School React 99

 'What Kelly has done in The Crowded Beach is to courageously address one of the great sleepers in contemporary society. This is the presence domestic violence and child abuse in the home. As uncomfortable as the issues Kelly raises are, The Crowded Beach is a book parents might consider reading and discussing with their teenage children. Teachers should set it on courses dealing with family life in contemporary society.'

—Christopher Bantick, The Sunday Tasmanian

‘This is a most satisfying conclusion to the tragic story of Julie and Toby. With a deft hand Kelly is able to immerse the reader in Julie’s world and experience her emotional recovery first hand. Kelly is to be commended for making this heartrending story so realistic and not making Julie or any of the other characters saint like, instead portraying them in gritty realism so we the reader see their flaws and frustrations. A recommended read.’

—Stephen James-Smoult, YARA website

November 2019