Cate Thompson is our only member to have spent Christmas Day/Eve cowering under a mattress with a girlfriend and male friends during the Darwin cyclone of 1974.
She had stopped over at Darwin on her way to Europe via Jakarta, but Darwin was as far as she got.
“I’d hardly settled in there before three emergency warnings in a row came in over the radio,” she says. “I was 19 and in a shared rented house at Nightcliffe. Would you believe, it had a straw roof and the roof blew off straight away. The warnings all said to get down under the bed but there was no space under mine. One of the rooms was brick and we all cowered in a corner there. The bed sailed away and we pulled the mattress on top of us. “We all hung on to it from below like grim death as the cyclone tore through. With such heavy rain the mattress became sodden and even heavier and provided better protection.
She had stopped over at Darwin on her way to Europe via Jakarta, but Darwin was as far as she got.
“I’d hardly settled in there before three emergency warnings in a row came in over the radio,” she says. “I was 19 and in a shared rented house at Nightcliffe. Would you believe, it had a straw roof and the roof blew off straight away. The warnings all said to get down under the bed but there was no space under mine. One of the rooms was brick and we all cowered in a corner there. The bed sailed away and we pulled the mattress on top of us. “We all hung on to it from below like grim death as the cyclone tore through. With such heavy rain the mattress became sodden and even heavier and provided better protection.
Pics: Cate at work with helpers and clients' deliveries
“When the wind calmed as the eye of the storm arrived, we rushed to the bathroom for shelter but the bathroom had disappeared. In half an hour the cyclone returned and we got back under the mattress. We could hear roofing and cars and timber hurling around outside, we all thought we were going to die. But by morning we were still there.
“In the wreckage of the town, the government declared martial law and people feared cholera would break out. It was a great insight into human nature - some people were so generous, sharing everything they had. Other people were the opposite, they were hoarding stuff away, stealing and looting. People’s reactions such a contrast I wrote a paper on it for my final year Sociology/Psychology degree.
“We camped down at a local high school for the first few days. Food and clothing and supplies began coming in to where we sheltered. Four days later, my girlfriend and I went to the airport to be evacuated, but they were giving priority to families and elderly so we spent a day and a half queued up. When our turn finally came, the system was that the planes were packed full with kids sitting on adults’ laps. I got an 8-year-old and he was really heavy, it was no joke. Qantas planes would never be allowed to be loaded like that today.
“When I arrived back in Melbourne I returned to my studies and previous life and didn’t make it to Europe until 25 years later. With my three sons all overseas working in different continents, I’ve made numerous trips since then.
“Now my eldest son Andrew is in Melbourne managing his own research and marketing business, Marcus is working as a journalist in Istanbul and Simon is in London writing for a financial newspaper.”
Cate grew up in Mentone and after a Monash BA and Dip.Ed., taught at Sandringham Technical School and Holmesglen TAFE. Then she moved into adult literacy teaching at Swinburne and found that with the dying of manufacturing, there were no more jobs for non-scholastic and migrant kids leaving school early. But there were few courses for such kids who could be intelligent but unsuited to classrooms. They were mixed up with older adults who’d been made redundant.
“I got grants to write new curricula and develop new courses for the young people with different learning styles. In 2000 I won a two-month TAFE Board scholarship to London to see how they managed this new cohort of young learners. It was good to put it all into practice back in Melbourne.
“I developed and coordinated and simplified community partnership programs and TAFE-led social enterprises like cafes where youngsters could learn on the job. When I turned 60, I retired from my career jobs but found retirement didn’t suit me. I went back to working with disadvantaged adults part-time and with a colleague was awarded a Fellowship to investigate how Europe engaged and supported disadvantaged people into learning and onto employment.”
In 2019 she tried retirement full time but again realised she wasn’t suited. Now she works three days a week at a Brunswick high-rise for Mary Outreach Support Services. She helps disadvantaged people aged 55+ (mostly men) to reconnect with community activities like civic gardens. She also helps coordinate Foodbank and Second Bite distributions of near-use-by food from supermarkets. “They also give us a lot of fruit and vegies. Our people pay $4 for packs worth close to $120. It’s all been challenging this year to keep everyone COVID-safe. But we’ve had up to 120 elderly in close quarters and not a single infection.”
Another aspect of the role is coordinating and training the adult volunteers, mainly retirees. She’s hoping to increase the volunteers number to 30+, post COVID. And with journalism in the family, she enjoys doing a monthly newsletter for the high rise.
Asked if she’ll ever retire, she says, “I’ll keep going as long as they let me.”
She put her hand up to help Bearbrass before it was even launched. “I saw the initial publicity and thought I’d give the nice and intelligent people a hand. I never dreamt it would be all Zoom for six months.” She’s on the management committee and runs the book group – she’s a great fiction fan. Her apartment’s in St Kilda and currently chaotic with building works. But at least lockdown is over. #
“In the wreckage of the town, the government declared martial law and people feared cholera would break out. It was a great insight into human nature - some people were so generous, sharing everything they had. Other people were the opposite, they were hoarding stuff away, stealing and looting. People’s reactions such a contrast I wrote a paper on it for my final year Sociology/Psychology degree.
“We camped down at a local high school for the first few days. Food and clothing and supplies began coming in to where we sheltered. Four days later, my girlfriend and I went to the airport to be evacuated, but they were giving priority to families and elderly so we spent a day and a half queued up. When our turn finally came, the system was that the planes were packed full with kids sitting on adults’ laps. I got an 8-year-old and he was really heavy, it was no joke. Qantas planes would never be allowed to be loaded like that today.
“When I arrived back in Melbourne I returned to my studies and previous life and didn’t make it to Europe until 25 years later. With my three sons all overseas working in different continents, I’ve made numerous trips since then.
“Now my eldest son Andrew is in Melbourne managing his own research and marketing business, Marcus is working as a journalist in Istanbul and Simon is in London writing for a financial newspaper.”
Cate grew up in Mentone and after a Monash BA and Dip.Ed., taught at Sandringham Technical School and Holmesglen TAFE. Then she moved into adult literacy teaching at Swinburne and found that with the dying of manufacturing, there were no more jobs for non-scholastic and migrant kids leaving school early. But there were few courses for such kids who could be intelligent but unsuited to classrooms. They were mixed up with older adults who’d been made redundant.
“I got grants to write new curricula and develop new courses for the young people with different learning styles. In 2000 I won a two-month TAFE Board scholarship to London to see how they managed this new cohort of young learners. It was good to put it all into practice back in Melbourne.
“I developed and coordinated and simplified community partnership programs and TAFE-led social enterprises like cafes where youngsters could learn on the job. When I turned 60, I retired from my career jobs but found retirement didn’t suit me. I went back to working with disadvantaged adults part-time and with a colleague was awarded a Fellowship to investigate how Europe engaged and supported disadvantaged people into learning and onto employment.”
In 2019 she tried retirement full time but again realised she wasn’t suited. Now she works three days a week at a Brunswick high-rise for Mary Outreach Support Services. She helps disadvantaged people aged 55+ (mostly men) to reconnect with community activities like civic gardens. She also helps coordinate Foodbank and Second Bite distributions of near-use-by food from supermarkets. “They also give us a lot of fruit and vegies. Our people pay $4 for packs worth close to $120. It’s all been challenging this year to keep everyone COVID-safe. But we’ve had up to 120 elderly in close quarters and not a single infection.”
Another aspect of the role is coordinating and training the adult volunteers, mainly retirees. She’s hoping to increase the volunteers number to 30+, post COVID. And with journalism in the family, she enjoys doing a monthly newsletter for the high rise.
Asked if she’ll ever retire, she says, “I’ll keep going as long as they let me.”
She put her hand up to help Bearbrass before it was even launched. “I saw the initial publicity and thought I’d give the nice and intelligent people a hand. I never dreamt it would be all Zoom for six months.” She’s on the management committee and runs the book group – she’s a great fiction fan. Her apartment’s in St Kilda and currently chaotic with building works. But at least lockdown is over. #