Isla's Way (2023) Movie Script
So,
my idea is that over a black screen,
where titles are coming up, is our voices
discussing why we decided to make a film
about your grandmother.
I don't know how you do that in a
non-obnoxious contrived way.
What do you mean?
The hoping thing that filmmakers put
themselves in the box seat and make it
about them.
Well, you are obnoxious and contrived,
so I have no problem.
I wouldn't change a single thing,
I wouldn't change what makes me what I am.
I could be my daddy's daughter,
I could be my daddy's son, but I won't be
late to rest until I'm done.
If I had my time again, I'd walk this
land, come sun or rain, I'd look up and
I'd thank my lucky stars.
I could be my daddy's daughter,
I could be my daddy's son, but I won't be
late to rest until I'm done.
If I had my time again, I would sing the
same old song until the end.
I would be nobody's fool, I would be
somebody's friend, but I'd do it all the
same if I had my time again.
What do you think about me following you
guys around for a year?
I think it's a marvellous antidote to the
invisibility of older women, grandmothers,
including lesbian grandmothers.
I think it's a marvellous, because Isla's
not a lesbian, you know that, don't you?
She is.
I'm a divorced woman.
No, I'm a widow.
Alan died one Christmas day, upset
everybody except me.
I said, thank Christ for that.
Sitting on the toilet in a nursing home,
they had to break the door down to get him
out.
I didn't realise that.
That's a sort of classic way to go,
isn't it?
Well, that's the trouble.
That's why doors and hospitals now open
out.
Yes, so you can get the corpse out.
Yes.
What are the good things, the best things
about Isla?
Her burning brown eyes is one.
Which one?
There you go.
Oh, oh!
Christ, I wouldn't marry Susan.
I'm not getting married.
What for?
I've done that once.
Why would you want to get married?
It's probably a declaration of love and a
party.
Love and a party?
We have good parties.
I think David would like to see you
married, wouldn't you, David?
Oh, come off it, don't be so much
bullshit.
He's not saying anything that I can see.
He's smiling.
Before that relationship, I had no idea
that my mother might have been gay.
And even when she went and lived with
Susan, you know, I just initially thought
it was just, you know, as an older person
to find companionship with someone else,
that was just a good thing.
If Mum was born now, she would be a gay
woman.
She would say she's a lesbian now,
where she still doesn't say she's a
lesbian.
You know, she says she lives with Susan,
but Susan's a lesbian.
I think we just thought it was nice for
Mum to have someone to love again.
Do you know the expression coming out when
someone comes out in the gay community?
Do you know what that means?
No.
It means that they know that they're gay
or a lesbian or whatever, you know,
they identify as, and they haven't told
anybody, and then they decide to come out.
So, you know, it's they'll tell their
parents or their families or their
friends, and they'll live openly in the
way that they really want to live,
right?
So, by definition, you getting with Susan
is kind of coming out, like your family
didn't know that you, you know...
Oh, they said I'd find somewhere to live.
She had a horse paddock.
But you were attracted to Susan,
weren't you?
Of course I was.
Yeah.
Of course I was.
And so when you started living together,
it was a relationship, right?
You weren't renting a room.
No, no, no.
You're getting personal here.
I know, my darling, but this is why.
Because I think if we're going to really
know about you, we have to know about you.
All the stories and all the other stuff,
I absolutely love.
I want to know everything.
But I also want to know who you are,
right?
As opposed to what you've done.
Oh, on me?
We have a different outlook on some things
in life.
Quite a few.
I know that you say, I'm not a lesbian,
right?
I'm not a lesbian.
You're just Irish.
I'm Irish.
Yes.
I don't need any names, thank you.
That's right, you don't need any labels,
and that's great.
But for someone like Susan, right,
who does identify as a lesbian,
how does that kind of work with your kind
of feelings about that?
You know what I'm saying?
Get used to it.
Get used to her.
But does she get upset by it, do you
think?
I don't think so.
I don't think so, no.
I think it's shit.
It annoys me.
She likes to say it as a policy statement.
I find that's rather negates our
connection.
She's good to live with.
Good fun.
Speak French.
Have you been overseas?
No.
So you've never left Australia?
No.
Ever wanted to?
No.
Why?
Couldn't be fucked.
Fuck, I've never had any money.
Ah.
Twenty, twenty to the...
I mean, that's just not pretty.
Where would you have wanted to go?
Out of the question.
I can't answer those sort of things.
They're made up.
Well, you could say, you know,
maybe I wanted to go to America.
Russia.
What for?
I'm happy here.
Susan's been all over the world.
That's right.
You can hear all about it from her.
I don't know whether she's any happier
than me.
Alright, cut them off.
Beautiful little stuff brought much help.
It's got a pole.
Two horses for the team in it.
This little bloke here, I've got from
somewhere which has been very handy.
Singles, I've had two horses.
I've had four horses in a ride,
which I'll show later.
It's done.
It's all good.
I've had many, many horses.
I've been driving for 70 years.
When you do an obstacle, it's lettered A,
B, C, and D, E, F, and you have to do them
in alphabetical order.
So if you do them out of order,
you've got to get back to where you've
done the error and find it again.
Well done, well done.
Thank you.
Isla's got Isla's style.
Nobody else drives like Isla.
It's Isla's way or no way.
Bit of bark falling off there over the
years.
When the horse took off out here,
and everybody said I can't, Jenny didn't
want me to drive at her place because it's
upset her, and everybody else said it's
upset them.
I said I'd be happy to go out with you in
a single with Rocky, but I wasn't going
out in a pair.
Grandma got excited.
No, we hit the post.
Yeah, but you got excited before that.
When you looked through that gap,
you got excited.
I'm getting to the flags.
And bang, it hit the post.
She's about a big bang, didn't it?
And then luckily the very good groom stood
up and reached over her shoulders,
and the two ladies pulled them up.
You're no longer actually driving and
competing.
I will be.
I'm sorry, but no, you won't be.
Well, with one horse, I'll do something.
You can do dressage and cones,
but Mum, I don't know whether you can
actually remember the obstacles anymore
and the timing and stuff.
You can play, but I don't think...
You've got to have that reality check.
Sorry, lovey.
I swallowed a chicken bone.
How can anybody swallow a chicken bone?
It's called the Isle of Bone now.
Went right down there past my belly button
and down to my pubes.
I had something.
And then somebody said, I'll be having a
colostomy and all this sort of thing.
Susan's crying her eyes out.
And then they said, oh, no, it's just a
perforated bowel.
I was just going to hang a picture up at
Coopers and put it on her because I've had
it, what do you call it?
Framed?
No, when I took it in, I had it.
Enlarged?
Laminated.
Laminated.
Who took the picture?
I've got no idea.
Possibly me, Isla.
Do you think?
Your constant companion?
Jesus Christ.
I don't think it's a photo that you would
take at your camera.
I don't think your camera's wide enough to
take that.
I could have had the Carl Zeiss lens with
the Panorama lens.
I've never seen you use it.
I haven't got it anymore.
How do you chip your tooth?
Playing football.
Long time ago.
On a piece of...
For a piece of pot that big.
You want to join us for it?
You go for two?
Yes.
I need a pile of loose and hay and I need
some clear plastic.
All right, yep.
Which is seven foot that way.
Just keep the frost off one of my plugs.
Yep.
Are they going to go around it?
It's four metres.
Oh, good bit of red gum there.
Hang on.
Very good.
Thank you.
Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on.
The plastic.
Oh, plastic.
Don't forget the tray.
Chuck that in.
Chuck that there.
I'll put these in my pocket.
Heads up.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
There you are.
You're going to tip him out, are you?
Oh, shit.
Oh, we've got a...
Isla's got to have an ultrasound of her
abdominal aorta because it's got an
aneurysm.
It's got a bit that sticks out and have to
see if it's got bigger or how much bigger
it's got.
And then the whole thing is it could bust
when I'm carried driving.
It's a difficult operation and it's not
always a success.
It could have a stroke or die.
So in that sense, I'd really rather we
didn't hurt.
On the wedding day, Grandma can drive Beck
and myself.
But we've got to make sure that Rocky,
the pony who's been getting very fat in my
paddock, he's up for it.
And he hasn't got a bit too wild or
anything like that.
I don't think we're going to fit.
Coming down, coming down.
Nice walk.
Yes.
Going.
That's just the hubcap.
How much room you got on your hubcap.
You might never be able to get it out.
Coming back, coming back.
Oh, my God.
Take these things off.
The things.
Shall we go to the ute?
They rang out from the garage and said,
my utes are unroadworthy.
I said, no, no, no.
Straighten up a bit now.
Not a lot, yeah.
That's not what I meant, but that'll do.
Yep.
Hands up.
This is going about as smoothly as I was
expecting.
And now in.
Now point it towards me, the outside
towards me.
And now down.
And now out, the outside out again.
Oh, the other way, sorry.
And then just a bit more.
What the hell is this?
Oh, it's the bathroom.
Why, shit.
They're not involved here, are they?
I don't know.
I did it in third.
Jesus.
We're all driving from the stands door in
third.
Want a brighter?
Looks a bit big on him.
Oh.
Rich food.
It was you, Dad.
Oh, thank you.
What, come out then.
I don't know.
Everything dead?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I just think he was...
I think he just did a little kick.
And what's it going to be if Rocky's not
up for it?
There's no plan B.
You've got to be positive about all these
things.
Rocky's going to be up to it, OK?
To stop this sort of bloody talking,
it's ridiculous.
When Dad died and you flew in from Perth,
and when we went out the house,
that's when I found his top teeth out
there.
I thought, shit, I'm going to take these
out.
I don't want him to have good lips.
Yeah, exactly.
Didn't want that.
He said, give me, I'll put them in.
I'll put them in.
I'll give them to you.
I'll know what I'm doing.
I said, put them under the water first.
And she did that.
And then she said, they won't go in.
I said, pass them to me.
Pass them to me.
And anyhow.
I said, no, they won't go in.
I said, because he's already got a set in
there.
So here it is.
There's Dad.
Where's Mum?
Here.
Ridgeway.
Inas Catherine.
Loved wife of Jack Ridgeway.
Loving mother and father of Margaret.
Isla.
Barbara.
William.
Richard.
The baby.
I had to go over there and do a weave.
To help some bushes.
You did a bush weave.
Did a bush weave, yeah.
Pulled your knickers out.
Yeah, see, I didn't get wet.
There's no money then.
I had a tissue in my pocket.
Hello, Rich.
Hello, sweetheart.
How are you?
I'll lead you up the garden path.
And that's when Australia was part of
Gondwana land.
And that's gravel and stuff ground up by
glaciers.
These things are built on the kettle.
Like that?
Yeah.
And fix it.
Good boy.
And this came out and was taken out to
Bascom's Well.
To pull logs out because we used to cut
trees for posts.
At Bascom's Well.
You put the throttle up to somewhere.
Now under that.
Put a wick in there.
Put a wick in it.
Lick the wick.
Put the decompressor on.
Yep, took that out there for a
few...somewhere.
Three goes for a crank handle.
One go for a bullet.
And then they went bang and hit that.
They go pum, pum, pum, pum, pum,
pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum.
And then you pull that thing down,
go pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum,
pum, pum.
And all the stuff's coming out the top.
I helped Dad do all the things,
the outside things.
And Barb helped mum do all the inside
things, so I did many things with my
father.
All sorts of things.
That's why I'm joined with Susan's place
because they built all the fences around
there and do all sorts of things in the
sheds.
I couldn't live in a city house.
I have to do things.
So that's why I bought a $600 battery
chainsaw the other day.
Bascom's Well, a marital home.
I haven't been out there for 60 years.
I've got my driving glass.
None of that mild driving, Richard.
I know, I've got...
I don't want either of you to get lost.
Well, I've got pensioners firing me.
What bloody time is it?
Huh?
11.16.
11.15?
Been here and there.
Oops, wrong button.
Tudum, tudum!
See the sign up here, it says Hat Damage
National Park or some bloody thing.
See the sign there?
Bascom's Well Compilation Park.
Oh, there's some sheep there.
Yeah.
I couldn't remember how to get out of
here.
Where's the track?
There's no track there, is there?
Nope, there's...
Must be up here somewhere.
I hope you don't run out of petrol here.
What's up?
I hope you don't run out of petrol here.
Are we lost?
No, we're not lost, we're just having a
look around.
So what happened to that track that used
to go straight in?
They didn't take it.
Yeah, we'll keep going down here a bit.
Let's have a bit of a think because I
think we're getting deeper and deeper to
nowhere here and we'll miss our window.
What did you do to your window?
When he got back he only had about 15 and
I remember Alan yelling out, Where's the
fucking sheep?
There's part of a roof.
Bastards.
Look at that.
I was told that the house was all boarded
up and was safe.
And all the bloody roofs off and the
windows are all open.
You'd be the shits, wouldn't you?
That's a...
This is a... Bees have been in here.
Look at that.
That's...
Bees.
The wall of the kitchen must have come
along here.
That was a bedroom.
Didn't realise it was so stony.
The bath was here.
There wasn't a shower, I can tell you
that.
Well, this is the kitchen.
There's been a door here and they grew a
big passion fruit.
Yeah, it was fantastic.
We dipped a whole lot of old cracker ewes
one night, shored them and then dipped
them.
And the night came in cold.
Next morning the poor bastards were nearly
lying down dead around here.
So I was going to shoot them all.
But, you know, sometimes you shoot them,
they move their head and a bullet comes
out that side of their neck.
So I cut all their throats.
This is the well that Alan and I dug when
we got down to the water.
Of course it had nothing on.
You put your tits in it like it's freezing
cold and get a bucket of water and then
hop to climb up.
Drill a hole, get the detonator in the
hole, and put the wire, the stuff that you
set alight into that.
And that's how we got through the first
three or four foot of stone.
Incredibly difficult.
Early settler, frontier, poverty.
Can't imagine it.
Can't imagine living like that with four
little kids.
I wonder, she's really stern about things.
So the kids used to be locked up there at
night.
The kids being the little goats,
not us children.
Still got spark plugs in them.
You've got jumper leaves in Richard's car.
Let's see if it'll ghost him.
There, tie it down.
Six bales.
And then you go all the way down there and
then come back and do another six bales.
Oh no, we only had six bales at a time to
do.
Oh right, you didn't share the whole
thousand sheep at once.
No, no, no, no, of course not.
Oh right.
No, no.
Idiot, we'd better get going.
I was absolutely disgusted.
I was just sort of disgusted.
But on second thoughts I said,
everywhere you go around the countryside
and you see stone buildings, they've been
cleaned up, there's not another thing
there.
And I always think, I wonder how the women
coped.
But you were one of those women.
I know, I know, I coped as good as gold.
You know, in a mob of goats.
Go to Broken Hill, I brought goats back
from all over the bloody place.
I could go down a well and pull a bloody
dead kangaroo out.
Garden, had a lovely garden.
Yeah, killer sheep, you know.
When you see ruins, right?
And in fact your house has Baskin's World
ruins.
Yeah, I know.
That's why I didn't know it was as ruined
as that, did I?
How the fuck did you ever live here,
Isla?
So I won't be going back to Baskin's
World.
This is all stuff from the previous funds.
Belong had a horse called Max when
I met Isla.
Well, before I met Isla actually.
And he was at...
He was at Kerry's Gully, a gist of it.
Then I had to get someone to shift the
horse.
And that turned out to be Isla.
It took a long time to get her.
Because I'd ring up and I'd get Alan.
I said, oh, I'm a busy woman, that's all
right.
I can do it at five o'clock Saturday
morning.
As far as I knew, she's happily married
with four children.
Then I thought, hmm, I think this woman's
after me.
Anyway, so that's how I met her when she
shifted my horse, Max.
The first time I saw Susan, she was
standing at a fence.
A saddle on her arm and a bridle on her
shoulder.
Because I called myself bye for a while,
because I was still married to
Christopher.
And then I took up with Kiran.
See?
And my then-Gully girlfriend.
So that was a bit of a scandal.
The onions.
It's terrific, isn't it?
It's my fave.
Put the zucchinis in there.
See, I was a vegetarian when I met Isla.
Isla cooked a chicken one day.
I was really nervous.
I thought, hmm, I haven't eaten meat for
15 years.
I might be sick.
I don't know how this is going to go.
And I had a piece, and you know what?
It tasted just like chicken.
That was good.
And another day she cooked roast pork.
Well, that was going too far.
I couldn't handle the pig.
Yeah, I like meat now.
Being a twin was a wonderful thing,
because you've always got a mate.
Aunty Isla came over and saw Mum,
and it was very emotional.
That makes me sad to get about it,
but hang on.
That's OK.
But that was the second cancer when it
came back.
Aunty Isla came over.
Yeah, sorry.
And then when she left, she knew that she
wouldn't come back for the funeral.
So that was really sad, because she knew
she wouldn't see her alive again.
When they moved to the station,
I got letters all the time, but then one
day she rang up.
And now this always makes me cry.
And I said, is that you, Barb?
Princess of Barb, is that really you?
I haven't heard your voice for 10 years.
She said, yes, it's me.
Fancy that.
Funny enough, nearly bloody night and I
still cry about it.
Dear Isla, happy birthday to you.
Raving, raging, feminist, radical.
There was an old woman called Isla who
could not find her vagina.
She searched and searched and did some
research and had it what ready for her
something or other.
I was living at Baskin's Well and I had
gone to Port Lincoln and Harry and Barb
went out.
I said, I'll look after the kids.
They both woke up for a cry.
So I laid down on the bed.
I had one on that titty and one on that
titty.
I fed them and they both went to sleep.
And I went to sleep with them.
Mum did the same thing.
There was an Aboriginal boy.
I was on one boob and now it's on.
And then when the Aboriginal woman wasn't
around or was around and mum wasn't,
I was on the boob and our kid was on the
mother's boob.
And she also fed lambs.
Nah, on the boob.
That'd be awesome.
Oh, a butt like that.
I'm in my best shoes, Aunty Isla.
Oh, they're thicker than my one.
Hold it up.
I've not held it up for.
It's still got his half a tent.
That's Merib's head.
Who's Merib?
Merib.
Merib?
The pony I had we bought when we were 16.
Oh, wow.
And died from poison.
I've been tying things down all my life.
I should put a motor on this for the
wedding go-karts.
You pushing?
OK, yep, mine's tied.
Get the other...
Bloody hell.
Get out of the rain, eh?
It has a bit of cheering, like,
you know, have that touch on it.
Happens, it just happens.
You're going to have a stomach out like
that.
I don't know how those folks ever find
their dicks.
And brake.
Yes.
OK, good.
All good.
Pull out.
The first time we came up was fairly hairy
from my point of view.
The horse hadn't been driven in a year,
and the carriage was quite unsuitable,
I think, for the task, because it wasn't
balanced and it wasn't a good place for
the driver to sit where she could brace
herself.
Today's been a good day.
I've enjoyed it.
Sawed out the harness up there.
The horse went well.
It's a nice horse.
I felt very happy with how it went today.
I was relaxed today and enjoyed it.
Whereas the week of the time, I was
nervous and thought, ah, it's not going to
work.
I was thinking.
And all you were going on and I was
saying, for fuck's sake, just stop having
all this negative talk about it.
There's nothing wrong with the horse.
My funeral will be in the burning bucket.
Crematorium.
Yeah, that's what we call it, the
crematorium.
And I'll be buried in Locke, and then my
ashes will go to Locke, and Brother
Richard's going to fix that up.
I bought the block.
What did the block cost?
Oh, I forgot.
$50?
It might have been $120.
Why didn't you want to be buried at the
Port Lincoln Cemetery with your mum and
your dad?
I lived in Locke for many years.
I know all the people that have died in
there.
I can say hello to them in the night,
you know, when I hear the rabbits chewing
and the fox coming along.
And I say, give a pick at me.
Go and shoot the bloody thing,
will you?
Yeah.
So funny.
Go marry a station bloke.
Look, life will be grand.
And I went to see the doctor, and I said,
I want a letter from you to tell Alan he's
got to go to Glenside.
And he went down to Glenside for a week or
10 days or something like that.
And when I went down there, you know,
it's in a room like that, it's a small
room, so it was that big, with a bed,
and the nurse shut the door.
You put me in here now, wait and see
what's going to happen to you.
I'd never discussed it, but I was
terrified.
That's the only time I've been terrified
in my life.
You know, I took my guns and gave them to
Dr Picure to put under his bed.
I didn't want to shoot him, because I
wouldn't want that on the children,
you see.
I could have.
I think she went down there to get
something.
She wasn't living here, getting stuff out
of...
I don't know what she was doing,
but anyway, he was nasty and started
pulling her hair out.
And she rang me, and all I could hear was
heavy breathing, and I didn't...
I thought it was somebody going,
and it was her trying to catch her breath
in pain.
I didn't know that.
So I think that was the trick,
or that was when she said, that's it,
I'm out of here.
I'm not living there anymore.
Not safe.
This is the house that Ellen bought.
It's an acre, and we lived here for 20
years.
The kids had a fantastic childhood here.
Of course they did.
The mother made it fantastic.
Rode with a truck, had two ponies on it,
it had some goats on it, it had four
children on it, and it had me on it,
and two pieces of furniture.
Four or five cows, and I remember one cow
put another calf on it, so I had two
calves on it.
That took a little while.
And I had a handful of sheep, which I'd go
out to the market and buy them and have
them, because I used to do all my own
killing, you know, it's just made me
cheaper.
They'd cut chaff.
I cleaned toilets for pocket money.
The kids all went to music, so I found
enough money to pay for them to go to
music.
I don't know.
You can survive.
One day I got a phone call to say,
oh, I had sheep out there, you see,
and they said, there's a dog barking at
your sheep on the top of the hill,
somewhere all or so out, I took the gun
with me, wandered up this hill,
and there's this little dog, well,
I just got a sheep bowed up, so I shot it.
And then when I went in the forest or
wherever, I went into shopping in
Blackwood, and as soon as anybody seen my
little dog,
I'd try and come down, and that was on the
news that it hit a bloke there,
an old man.
So I went down and looked to see where he
got hit.
So the dog's had his brains, and one of
his arms had a big piece of skin off it
like that with all the hair on it.
I took that home and pinned it up on the
ship.
So you got after him, didn't you?
I don't want to know.
Just pass this bend and you'll try and
smash into it.
Oh, it looks good, doesn't it?
I co-founded the Goldisburg Pony Club.
For a lot of the kids that you were around
are probably instructors now.
So...
Go, go, go!
You all right?
Go, go!
Go,
go!
We're on the same side, right?
Yeah!
Karen, what's the biggest difference
between when Isla was really active here
and what it's like now?
What are the kids like now?
In my mind?
The kids...
aren't, um...
How do I say it?
The kids don't ride like they used to.
Like, you know, we'd get on at the crack
of dawn and get off it, you know,
before dark.
But they just don't ride like that
anymore, you know?
They ride for three hours and they're
exhausted.
Oh, my legs, my legs!
You know, my bum's sore and the horses are
the same.
They get sore backs.
We never heard of our horses getting sore
backs.
Never got a sore back.
They get sore backs and they, you know,
they seem to be a lot thinner-skinned than
they used to be, like.
What was this shed?
This used to be the old piggery.
It gets its...
has its...
it has its charms.
So what's this place?
This is the girls' dorms.
The girls' dorms.
And the bloody rabbits have been in here.
Oh, yeah, there's rabbits everywhere.
My mother said she'll wet the bed.
She wet the bed once.
I tried and said she'd never wet it again.
Isla was the dorm mum for years.
And you'd be like, you'd get up,
you'd go, Oh, Isla's wet!
And you'd walk towards the door and you'd
go like, you're thinking, she's asleep.
She's asleep, she's asleep.
And you'd touch the door handle and she'd
go, Where do you think you're going?
And you'd be like, nyoom, straight back to
bed.
We have had trouble with, over the years,
with these phones.
So now we basically say that they can have
them during the day as long as they're not
writing.
And then at night, as you can see from
over here, we've got our...
they all plug their phones in at night on
the bed.
At least that way we know where they are.
All right, let's go out and meet this
pony.
Yes, good.
This is actually your pony, isn't it?
Yeah.
I've got these two ponies for nothing.
Trot, trot.
Trot, trot.
Oh, look at that!
It's just beautiful.
Just how lucky to have your children turn
up here in one place.
This is what Manata does and Horses does.
Still family, children that ride.
It's lovely.
Oh, it's a big heart thing.
Good enough to make you cry.
I'm not sentimental.
Oh, look at that.
Robert's family.
So, 20 years ago.
Oh,
hello!
Hello!
And Eila, you went over the road and
knocked off someone's lamb.
This is all about one-upmanship,
so I think the year before she ate some
moths.
The goldfish eating, it was just,
it was crazy.
Half of the kids were outside crying,
half the kids were inside loving it.
She just, like, swallowed it whole.
Doesn't it look nice?
Look at him.
Oh, I don't know.
Good.
Oh, that's good.
Good.
Oh, no, no, no, it's nice, nice.
It's good.
Good, excellent.
What is it?
Not a snail.
Oh, it didn't rear.
Rocky played up the other day.
It became unsafe.
So, I didn't do it because people were a
bit scared.
Right, two, three.
Slow.
You've got to get photos.
Should we stop?
Initially, we're like, we've got to do it,
we've got to have this wedding,
and we've got to do it for the snakes.
That's why, that's why we're here.
There's no snakes.
So, I was like, rainstorm snakes.
That was the ratio we were juggling.
So, I hope we got it right.
If you're feeling woozy, I don't know,
check.
But, um, for bites.
Skip forward on that bit, Mum.
Life goes on, my dear.
I have not stopped driving a horse of
carriage.
I'm just not doing it at the wedding.
All right, in a minute, we haven't got a
ball, because you lost it.
Were you disappointed that you couldn't do
the carriage island on the day?
I got over it.
You know, you don't dwell on nice things.
It wasn't going to happen until I get
somebody else.
Yeah.
And Leonie loved doing it.
Oh, David's wedding was made nephesite,
but in the last 60 years, things have
changed.
They have.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Darling, I got married at a registry
office in Adelaide.
Because I happened to be months or two
pregnant.
Which was a sin.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know that.
No, you didn't know that.
David Reed was there.
My ex.
He's dead now.
David Reed?
I mean, not David Reed, my ex-husband.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Doug.
Yeah, Doug was there, yeah.
Doug, he's dead.
Nancy Barretton, who I nursed with.
He used to live in Tumbe Bay.
He was at the hostel with us.
And me.
Three people.
Well, and four with Alan, grandpa.
He wasn't there, I don't think,
was he?
When you got married?
I don't think so.
Your husband has to be there, didn't he?
No.
What, one person can sign?
No, you have to sign.
I flew to Adelaide to get married,
not to have a wedding in bloody lock.
Yeah, but surely, to legally be married,
the two people have to sign the document,
the two people being married.
He must have been there.
He must have been there, yes, because he
must have been there.
Because, I just remember, because he
didn't sleep with me that night before we
got married.
He said, I'm going to sleep in another
room.
Kate rang up and I said, oh, the queen's
not too good.
He said, no, she's dead, mum.
I said, what?
Well, I thought it was a very sad day.
Hmm, I still do.
But several friends of mine that I spoke
to on that day didn't.
It was funny, it was weird, really.
I thought, oh, I'm not allowed to feel how
I feel, apparently.
Came to Port Lincoln to open all sorts of
things.
And somebody to organise that we did a big
procession on horseback for her.
And Bob and I led the procession on our
horses.
And we were dressed as kangarooskin.
It's a little bit ridiculous that
Australia has the Queen in England,
now King Charles.
I think that's really about time to get
rid of that.
I think the Republic would be a better
plan.
Have a nice walk?
Because Islay is very local, everybody
knows Islay, everybody loves Islay.
She's a celebrity.
Nice day for it anyway.
I'm not a local celebrity.
I have friends.
Which is good.
But yes, I need to get out more,
seriously.
Here they come, look.
Here comes one, look.
Got the camera there.
This way.
Hello, sweetie pies.
You alright?
That's that one.
I need to step into my own identity more.
Because I've been home a lot, which I do
like being home, but it's fucking boring
sometimes.
Well, the basic reason why I stopped going
to choir, because you had to sing in a
mask, which I think is plain stupid.
So I couldn't see the point.
But at the same time, I miss the singing,
because it's fun.
There weren't enough altos, so she's
singing alto in that song, next to me,
which means I can learn how to read the
music.
Thank you, darling.
Look at that.
Now there, the King Alfred.
From the horse paddock.
Well, he never fixes the fence.
The least he can do is give you some
daffies.
Ila's long had a reputation.
Long before I met her, that if you want a
horse, dog, cow, put down for some reason,
she doesn't do humans, as far as I know.
Bang!
Ila's your one.
She's the one you want.
So when she moved to Milo, I guess that
made her the Milo Strangler.
The other day I was in the veggie shop
down here.
There was an old man there with a walking
stick like this.
He had a hat on.
Eventually he went around and one of the
women that owns the place was giving me a
big hug.
I said, Ila!
I haven't seen you in ages.
Where have you been?
This old bloke said to me, what does one
have to do to get a hug?
I said, you take your hands off the frame
of your walking thing.
I said, you take off your hat and I will
give you the biggest hug you've had in 50
years.
He told me he'd broken his back.
You see it once.
I gave him a kiss on the head.
He said, there you are.
And he cried.
We've got our boys over Please welcome my
friend tonight It's been a long afternoon
It's been a long afternoon We're really
long for nothing and we're quite sed?ged
satisfied Happy birthday to you Happy
birthday to you Happy birthday Happy
birthday dear Ila, happy birthday to you.
That goes in your ear, Ila, see?
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
In your hair cut.
I know.
Tomorrow, I think.
Tomorrow, is it?
So cross with that.
Yeah.
So do I put the plug in first?
Yeah.
Or put the thing behind the ear?
Put the thing behind my ear.
First.
Okay.
There's too much there.
Yes, nurse.
What's it supposed to be?
There.
Put that in my ear, push it in hard.
Is it into your brain yet?
Ah!
Stop it!
Jesus!
Has it turned on?
Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me?
I pressed the thing.
I don't know if it's turned on or turned
off.
Well, it's significant.
Well, I never know.
I've got a new page.
Right.
There's a tomato, Susan.
We'll get three.
Pretty crap.
We need a leak.
Two pairs.
Two pairs of what?
Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, tell!
Shut up.
Oh, so funny.
Yes.
Two pairs.
Okay.
Proper blue castello.
Not the one in the triangle.
But you want that one?
The one in the half circle.
Yeah!
I went to the shops.
Couldn't find a park.
Then I found a park.
But there weren't any shops.
So I went back home.
And I parked the car.
There were still no shops.
So I got back in the car.
The shop.
Past the shop.
I
got to the shop.
The shop.
And I went shopping!
Where'd I put my card?
Uh, you talking about a payment card?
Is it a plastic one?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had it in my hand.
Did you go over to the ATM with it?
I saw you had a blue tarpaulin.
I'll have a bunch of poppies, sis.
Absolutely.
Any particular one?
Right here, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Any particular one?
Right here.
And you're enjoying it.
Love it.
Good, good, good.
I can't see it.
Somebody can scroll when they're working.
All right, surgeon.
That's wearing very thin tarpaulin.
Funny remark.
Celery, lovely.
Leek.
Lovely leeks.
Oh, proper blue castello.
Is that the one?
Yes.
Yes, that's the best.
Hi, hello, Philip.
How are you?
You home?
Are the babies a-born?
They're born.
Lily, Pepper.
And Poppy, Isla.
Lily and Poppy?
Yes.
Ah!
You're cutey!
So it was a good birth, easy?
Just popped them out.
Fancy that.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
I said, I'm lucky I've just struck twin
girls, which don't even mind.
Great, great children.
Oh, she said, what's their names?
I said, Lily and Poppy.
Oh, she said, wonderful.
And after, you know, flowers.
She said, it's just wonderful.
I said, I'm actually glad to have the
dogs.
You haven't got any wrinkles or anything.
Look, look what you're going to be like
when you're nearly no one, do you?
Oh, what a miserable year But what a time
to be alive Sadly some friends disappeared
It's never been like this before Feels
like a rule So I wonder who's going to
decide If we can do the old man's line I
wish that I could do what I like With this
family of mine We're going out of our
minds So what are we to do About your
FaceTimes and your Zooms There's a room
inside my mind And it's always here for
you Nothing's gonna stop Christmas No
chance You can't take away how season Like
you can't take away the signs It's on its
way, but now it's to me Tells the world
Call a spade a spade, I think.
I do.
No, you don't.
Of course I do.
You call a spade a bloody shovel,
but we're talking about the name lesbian,
lezzo or dyke, Isla.
I'm not a lezzo, I'm not a dyke.
I'm Isla Roberts.
Correct.
That's it, I know.
Full stop.
Yes.
Grandmother.
Grandmother.
Great grandmother.
You can forget all the other little
bullshit names.
You missed one, I think.
What was that?
Friend of Susan's is the other one.
Oh, friend, yes.
I rest my case.
There's not much point going on,
really.
I haven't felt like I could go overseas to
the Northern Hemisphere, but I had a
brainwave yesterday that I could go,
because I rang Kate and said, say if I
went to England or Paris for three weeks
or four weeks, maybe Isla could have a
little holiday with you.
And she said, of course.
Ah, ha ha ha.
So I've been feeling a little constrained
about possibilities, and now I'm thinking,
well, I could, I could.
You can't do it without any money.
You've got to keep your thoughts down,
doing what you can afford to do.
But you say to me you don't especially
want to go.
I don't know, I can't be bothered.
But why, but why?
Well, I get a lot of joy out of watching
all these things grow around here.
Yes.
I don't want to go over and see all these
people that I can't talk to.
Who would for, for Christ's sake?
They must be mad.
Isla, you know what I've realised hanging
around with you over the course of the
last year?
Just how influential your pony club days
were.
And the Mitcham Council has decided to
name a road in your honour.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
What?
Ha ha ha ha.
Nancy, that's a truth.
Yes.
Well, I'll be buggered.
Ha ha ha ha.
I'm going to invite Ms Isla Roberts to
come up the front.
There's I'm lucky.
And you are, because we don't name streets
after people that are still getting up in
the morning.
And here you are.
So I would like to present this sign to
you.
Thank you very much.
That's a pleasure.
I'm not going to give it to you yet
because I'm going to hold it while you say
something.
Oh, okay.
I'd like to, that's about nearly 40 people
here.
Ha ha ha ha.
I'd like to say thank the women.
And it's nearly all women who have
organised this and around the place
there's been a Pony Summit and all that
sort of stuff.
Very much.
I don't think the men would have done it.
Ha ha ha ha.
The women have been wonderful.
Without you, there wouldn't have been a
Goldensburg Pony Club writing for the
disabled or the interaction of the
disabled with the Blackwood community.
Hello.
How are you?
What's your New Year's resolutions?
Mine?
Oh, I've got a pony to break in.
I'll get somebody to break it in.
And I wouldn't mind just finding another
pony that matched the chestnut horse so I
could drive a pair.
I've got to get a ute too before I can do
anything.
Where can you drive that pair?
Where can you do that in the future?
Well, I go up to Judy's car so he can sell
the property that's where I drive up
there.
Judy comes out with me when we go through
the forest all around the place up there.
Do I recall Kate telling you she doesn't
want you to carriage drive anymore?
No, she's never said that.
Nobody can stop me carriage driving.
Except perhaps your back situation.
Not ideal.
Susan, stop on that please.
Isla is definitely getting frail and
probably recognises it but doesn't want to
admit it.
I don't know that she recognises that
Rocky is also getting old and is past his
prime.
I would hope today is the last day that
Isla drives.
If I had my time again I wouldn't change a
single thing I wouldn't change what makes
me what I am I could be my daddy's
daughter I could be my daddy's son But I
won't be late to rest until I'm done If I
had my time again I'd walk this line come
sun or rain I'd look up and I'd thank my
lucky star I could be my daddy's daughter
I could be my daddy's son But I won't be
late to rest until I'm done If I had my
time again I would sing the same old song
until the end I would be nobody's fool I
would be somebody's friend But I'd do it
all the same If I had my time again
If I had my time again I'd love you like I
did today I'd hold you close and never let
you go I could be my daddy's daughter I
could be my daddy's son But I won't be
late to rest until I'm done
We travel to Tasmania where she hopes to
become the oldest person to drive four
Clydesdales through a main town and she's
nothing if not determined I'm driving it
there's two hands driving it and tell us
why you're doing it because I can
my idea is that over a black screen,
where titles are coming up, is our voices
discussing why we decided to make a film
about your grandmother.
I don't know how you do that in a
non-obnoxious contrived way.
What do you mean?
The hoping thing that filmmakers put
themselves in the box seat and make it
about them.
Well, you are obnoxious and contrived,
so I have no problem.
I wouldn't change a single thing,
I wouldn't change what makes me what I am.
I could be my daddy's daughter,
I could be my daddy's son, but I won't be
late to rest until I'm done.
If I had my time again, I'd walk this
land, come sun or rain, I'd look up and
I'd thank my lucky stars.
I could be my daddy's daughter,
I could be my daddy's son, but I won't be
late to rest until I'm done.
If I had my time again, I would sing the
same old song until the end.
I would be nobody's fool, I would be
somebody's friend, but I'd do it all the
same if I had my time again.
What do you think about me following you
guys around for a year?
I think it's a marvellous antidote to the
invisibility of older women, grandmothers,
including lesbian grandmothers.
I think it's a marvellous, because Isla's
not a lesbian, you know that, don't you?
She is.
I'm a divorced woman.
No, I'm a widow.
Alan died one Christmas day, upset
everybody except me.
I said, thank Christ for that.
Sitting on the toilet in a nursing home,
they had to break the door down to get him
out.
I didn't realise that.
That's a sort of classic way to go,
isn't it?
Well, that's the trouble.
That's why doors and hospitals now open
out.
Yes, so you can get the corpse out.
Yes.
What are the good things, the best things
about Isla?
Her burning brown eyes is one.
Which one?
There you go.
Oh, oh!
Christ, I wouldn't marry Susan.
I'm not getting married.
What for?
I've done that once.
Why would you want to get married?
It's probably a declaration of love and a
party.
Love and a party?
We have good parties.
I think David would like to see you
married, wouldn't you, David?
Oh, come off it, don't be so much
bullshit.
He's not saying anything that I can see.
He's smiling.
Before that relationship, I had no idea
that my mother might have been gay.
And even when she went and lived with
Susan, you know, I just initially thought
it was just, you know, as an older person
to find companionship with someone else,
that was just a good thing.
If Mum was born now, she would be a gay
woman.
She would say she's a lesbian now,
where she still doesn't say she's a
lesbian.
You know, she says she lives with Susan,
but Susan's a lesbian.
I think we just thought it was nice for
Mum to have someone to love again.
Do you know the expression coming out when
someone comes out in the gay community?
Do you know what that means?
No.
It means that they know that they're gay
or a lesbian or whatever, you know,
they identify as, and they haven't told
anybody, and then they decide to come out.
So, you know, it's they'll tell their
parents or their families or their
friends, and they'll live openly in the
way that they really want to live,
right?
So, by definition, you getting with Susan
is kind of coming out, like your family
didn't know that you, you know...
Oh, they said I'd find somewhere to live.
She had a horse paddock.
But you were attracted to Susan,
weren't you?
Of course I was.
Yeah.
Of course I was.
And so when you started living together,
it was a relationship, right?
You weren't renting a room.
No, no, no.
You're getting personal here.
I know, my darling, but this is why.
Because I think if we're going to really
know about you, we have to know about you.
All the stories and all the other stuff,
I absolutely love.
I want to know everything.
But I also want to know who you are,
right?
As opposed to what you've done.
Oh, on me?
We have a different outlook on some things
in life.
Quite a few.
I know that you say, I'm not a lesbian,
right?
I'm not a lesbian.
You're just Irish.
I'm Irish.
Yes.
I don't need any names, thank you.
That's right, you don't need any labels,
and that's great.
But for someone like Susan, right,
who does identify as a lesbian,
how does that kind of work with your kind
of feelings about that?
You know what I'm saying?
Get used to it.
Get used to her.
But does she get upset by it, do you
think?
I don't think so.
I don't think so, no.
I think it's shit.
It annoys me.
She likes to say it as a policy statement.
I find that's rather negates our
connection.
She's good to live with.
Good fun.
Speak French.
Have you been overseas?
No.
So you've never left Australia?
No.
Ever wanted to?
No.
Why?
Couldn't be fucked.
Fuck, I've never had any money.
Ah.
Twenty, twenty to the...
I mean, that's just not pretty.
Where would you have wanted to go?
Out of the question.
I can't answer those sort of things.
They're made up.
Well, you could say, you know,
maybe I wanted to go to America.
Russia.
What for?
I'm happy here.
Susan's been all over the world.
That's right.
You can hear all about it from her.
I don't know whether she's any happier
than me.
Alright, cut them off.
Beautiful little stuff brought much help.
It's got a pole.
Two horses for the team in it.
This little bloke here, I've got from
somewhere which has been very handy.
Singles, I've had two horses.
I've had four horses in a ride,
which I'll show later.
It's done.
It's all good.
I've had many, many horses.
I've been driving for 70 years.
When you do an obstacle, it's lettered A,
B, C, and D, E, F, and you have to do them
in alphabetical order.
So if you do them out of order,
you've got to get back to where you've
done the error and find it again.
Well done, well done.
Thank you.
Isla's got Isla's style.
Nobody else drives like Isla.
It's Isla's way or no way.
Bit of bark falling off there over the
years.
When the horse took off out here,
and everybody said I can't, Jenny didn't
want me to drive at her place because it's
upset her, and everybody else said it's
upset them.
I said I'd be happy to go out with you in
a single with Rocky, but I wasn't going
out in a pair.
Grandma got excited.
No, we hit the post.
Yeah, but you got excited before that.
When you looked through that gap,
you got excited.
I'm getting to the flags.
And bang, it hit the post.
She's about a big bang, didn't it?
And then luckily the very good groom stood
up and reached over her shoulders,
and the two ladies pulled them up.
You're no longer actually driving and
competing.
I will be.
I'm sorry, but no, you won't be.
Well, with one horse, I'll do something.
You can do dressage and cones,
but Mum, I don't know whether you can
actually remember the obstacles anymore
and the timing and stuff.
You can play, but I don't think...
You've got to have that reality check.
Sorry, lovey.
I swallowed a chicken bone.
How can anybody swallow a chicken bone?
It's called the Isle of Bone now.
Went right down there past my belly button
and down to my pubes.
I had something.
And then somebody said, I'll be having a
colostomy and all this sort of thing.
Susan's crying her eyes out.
And then they said, oh, no, it's just a
perforated bowel.
I was just going to hang a picture up at
Coopers and put it on her because I've had
it, what do you call it?
Framed?
No, when I took it in, I had it.
Enlarged?
Laminated.
Laminated.
Who took the picture?
I've got no idea.
Possibly me, Isla.
Do you think?
Your constant companion?
Jesus Christ.
I don't think it's a photo that you would
take at your camera.
I don't think your camera's wide enough to
take that.
I could have had the Carl Zeiss lens with
the Panorama lens.
I've never seen you use it.
I haven't got it anymore.
How do you chip your tooth?
Playing football.
Long time ago.
On a piece of...
For a piece of pot that big.
You want to join us for it?
You go for two?
Yes.
I need a pile of loose and hay and I need
some clear plastic.
All right, yep.
Which is seven foot that way.
Just keep the frost off one of my plugs.
Yep.
Are they going to go around it?
It's four metres.
Oh, good bit of red gum there.
Hang on.
Very good.
Thank you.
Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on.
The plastic.
Oh, plastic.
Don't forget the tray.
Chuck that in.
Chuck that there.
I'll put these in my pocket.
Heads up.
Come on.
Come on.
Come on.
There you are.
You're going to tip him out, are you?
Oh, shit.
Oh, we've got a...
Isla's got to have an ultrasound of her
abdominal aorta because it's got an
aneurysm.
It's got a bit that sticks out and have to
see if it's got bigger or how much bigger
it's got.
And then the whole thing is it could bust
when I'm carried driving.
It's a difficult operation and it's not
always a success.
It could have a stroke or die.
So in that sense, I'd really rather we
didn't hurt.
On the wedding day, Grandma can drive Beck
and myself.
But we've got to make sure that Rocky,
the pony who's been getting very fat in my
paddock, he's up for it.
And he hasn't got a bit too wild or
anything like that.
I don't think we're going to fit.
Coming down, coming down.
Nice walk.
Yes.
Going.
That's just the hubcap.
How much room you got on your hubcap.
You might never be able to get it out.
Coming back, coming back.
Oh, my God.
Take these things off.
The things.
Shall we go to the ute?
They rang out from the garage and said,
my utes are unroadworthy.
I said, no, no, no.
Straighten up a bit now.
Not a lot, yeah.
That's not what I meant, but that'll do.
Yep.
Hands up.
This is going about as smoothly as I was
expecting.
And now in.
Now point it towards me, the outside
towards me.
And now down.
And now out, the outside out again.
Oh, the other way, sorry.
And then just a bit more.
What the hell is this?
Oh, it's the bathroom.
Why, shit.
They're not involved here, are they?
I don't know.
I did it in third.
Jesus.
We're all driving from the stands door in
third.
Want a brighter?
Looks a bit big on him.
Oh.
Rich food.
It was you, Dad.
Oh, thank you.
What, come out then.
I don't know.
Everything dead?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I just think he was...
I think he just did a little kick.
And what's it going to be if Rocky's not
up for it?
There's no plan B.
You've got to be positive about all these
things.
Rocky's going to be up to it, OK?
To stop this sort of bloody talking,
it's ridiculous.
When Dad died and you flew in from Perth,
and when we went out the house,
that's when I found his top teeth out
there.
I thought, shit, I'm going to take these
out.
I don't want him to have good lips.
Yeah, exactly.
Didn't want that.
He said, give me, I'll put them in.
I'll put them in.
I'll give them to you.
I'll know what I'm doing.
I said, put them under the water first.
And she did that.
And then she said, they won't go in.
I said, pass them to me.
Pass them to me.
And anyhow.
I said, no, they won't go in.
I said, because he's already got a set in
there.
So here it is.
There's Dad.
Where's Mum?
Here.
Ridgeway.
Inas Catherine.
Loved wife of Jack Ridgeway.
Loving mother and father of Margaret.
Isla.
Barbara.
William.
Richard.
The baby.
I had to go over there and do a weave.
To help some bushes.
You did a bush weave.
Did a bush weave, yeah.
Pulled your knickers out.
Yeah, see, I didn't get wet.
There's no money then.
I had a tissue in my pocket.
Hello, Rich.
Hello, sweetheart.
How are you?
I'll lead you up the garden path.
And that's when Australia was part of
Gondwana land.
And that's gravel and stuff ground up by
glaciers.
These things are built on the kettle.
Like that?
Yeah.
And fix it.
Good boy.
And this came out and was taken out to
Bascom's Well.
To pull logs out because we used to cut
trees for posts.
At Bascom's Well.
You put the throttle up to somewhere.
Now under that.
Put a wick in there.
Put a wick in it.
Lick the wick.
Put the decompressor on.
Yep, took that out there for a
few...somewhere.
Three goes for a crank handle.
One go for a bullet.
And then they went bang and hit that.
They go pum, pum, pum, pum, pum,
pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum.
And then you pull that thing down,
go pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum,
pum, pum.
And all the stuff's coming out the top.
I helped Dad do all the things,
the outside things.
And Barb helped mum do all the inside
things, so I did many things with my
father.
All sorts of things.
That's why I'm joined with Susan's place
because they built all the fences around
there and do all sorts of things in the
sheds.
I couldn't live in a city house.
I have to do things.
So that's why I bought a $600 battery
chainsaw the other day.
Bascom's Well, a marital home.
I haven't been out there for 60 years.
I've got my driving glass.
None of that mild driving, Richard.
I know, I've got...
I don't want either of you to get lost.
Well, I've got pensioners firing me.
What bloody time is it?
Huh?
11.16.
11.15?
Been here and there.
Oops, wrong button.
Tudum, tudum!
See the sign up here, it says Hat Damage
National Park or some bloody thing.
See the sign there?
Bascom's Well Compilation Park.
Oh, there's some sheep there.
Yeah.
I couldn't remember how to get out of
here.
Where's the track?
There's no track there, is there?
Nope, there's...
Must be up here somewhere.
I hope you don't run out of petrol here.
What's up?
I hope you don't run out of petrol here.
Are we lost?
No, we're not lost, we're just having a
look around.
So what happened to that track that used
to go straight in?
They didn't take it.
Yeah, we'll keep going down here a bit.
Let's have a bit of a think because I
think we're getting deeper and deeper to
nowhere here and we'll miss our window.
What did you do to your window?
When he got back he only had about 15 and
I remember Alan yelling out, Where's the
fucking sheep?
There's part of a roof.
Bastards.
Look at that.
I was told that the house was all boarded
up and was safe.
And all the bloody roofs off and the
windows are all open.
You'd be the shits, wouldn't you?
That's a...
This is a... Bees have been in here.
Look at that.
That's...
Bees.
The wall of the kitchen must have come
along here.
That was a bedroom.
Didn't realise it was so stony.
The bath was here.
There wasn't a shower, I can tell you
that.
Well, this is the kitchen.
There's been a door here and they grew a
big passion fruit.
Yeah, it was fantastic.
We dipped a whole lot of old cracker ewes
one night, shored them and then dipped
them.
And the night came in cold.
Next morning the poor bastards were nearly
lying down dead around here.
So I was going to shoot them all.
But, you know, sometimes you shoot them,
they move their head and a bullet comes
out that side of their neck.
So I cut all their throats.
This is the well that Alan and I dug when
we got down to the water.
Of course it had nothing on.
You put your tits in it like it's freezing
cold and get a bucket of water and then
hop to climb up.
Drill a hole, get the detonator in the
hole, and put the wire, the stuff that you
set alight into that.
And that's how we got through the first
three or four foot of stone.
Incredibly difficult.
Early settler, frontier, poverty.
Can't imagine it.
Can't imagine living like that with four
little kids.
I wonder, she's really stern about things.
So the kids used to be locked up there at
night.
The kids being the little goats,
not us children.
Still got spark plugs in them.
You've got jumper leaves in Richard's car.
Let's see if it'll ghost him.
There, tie it down.
Six bales.
And then you go all the way down there and
then come back and do another six bales.
Oh no, we only had six bales at a time to
do.
Oh right, you didn't share the whole
thousand sheep at once.
No, no, no, no, of course not.
Oh right.
No, no.
Idiot, we'd better get going.
I was absolutely disgusted.
I was just sort of disgusted.
But on second thoughts I said,
everywhere you go around the countryside
and you see stone buildings, they've been
cleaned up, there's not another thing
there.
And I always think, I wonder how the women
coped.
But you were one of those women.
I know, I know, I coped as good as gold.
You know, in a mob of goats.
Go to Broken Hill, I brought goats back
from all over the bloody place.
I could go down a well and pull a bloody
dead kangaroo out.
Garden, had a lovely garden.
Yeah, killer sheep, you know.
When you see ruins, right?
And in fact your house has Baskin's World
ruins.
Yeah, I know.
That's why I didn't know it was as ruined
as that, did I?
How the fuck did you ever live here,
Isla?
So I won't be going back to Baskin's
World.
This is all stuff from the previous funds.
Belong had a horse called Max when
I met Isla.
Well, before I met Isla actually.
And he was at...
He was at Kerry's Gully, a gist of it.
Then I had to get someone to shift the
horse.
And that turned out to be Isla.
It took a long time to get her.
Because I'd ring up and I'd get Alan.
I said, oh, I'm a busy woman, that's all
right.
I can do it at five o'clock Saturday
morning.
As far as I knew, she's happily married
with four children.
Then I thought, hmm, I think this woman's
after me.
Anyway, so that's how I met her when she
shifted my horse, Max.
The first time I saw Susan, she was
standing at a fence.
A saddle on her arm and a bridle on her
shoulder.
Because I called myself bye for a while,
because I was still married to
Christopher.
And then I took up with Kiran.
See?
And my then-Gully girlfriend.
So that was a bit of a scandal.
The onions.
It's terrific, isn't it?
It's my fave.
Put the zucchinis in there.
See, I was a vegetarian when I met Isla.
Isla cooked a chicken one day.
I was really nervous.
I thought, hmm, I haven't eaten meat for
15 years.
I might be sick.
I don't know how this is going to go.
And I had a piece, and you know what?
It tasted just like chicken.
That was good.
And another day she cooked roast pork.
Well, that was going too far.
I couldn't handle the pig.
Yeah, I like meat now.
Being a twin was a wonderful thing,
because you've always got a mate.
Aunty Isla came over and saw Mum,
and it was very emotional.
That makes me sad to get about it,
but hang on.
That's OK.
But that was the second cancer when it
came back.
Aunty Isla came over.
Yeah, sorry.
And then when she left, she knew that she
wouldn't come back for the funeral.
So that was really sad, because she knew
she wouldn't see her alive again.
When they moved to the station,
I got letters all the time, but then one
day she rang up.
And now this always makes me cry.
And I said, is that you, Barb?
Princess of Barb, is that really you?
I haven't heard your voice for 10 years.
She said, yes, it's me.
Fancy that.
Funny enough, nearly bloody night and I
still cry about it.
Dear Isla, happy birthday to you.
Raving, raging, feminist, radical.
There was an old woman called Isla who
could not find her vagina.
She searched and searched and did some
research and had it what ready for her
something or other.
I was living at Baskin's Well and I had
gone to Port Lincoln and Harry and Barb
went out.
I said, I'll look after the kids.
They both woke up for a cry.
So I laid down on the bed.
I had one on that titty and one on that
titty.
I fed them and they both went to sleep.
And I went to sleep with them.
Mum did the same thing.
There was an Aboriginal boy.
I was on one boob and now it's on.
And then when the Aboriginal woman wasn't
around or was around and mum wasn't,
I was on the boob and our kid was on the
mother's boob.
And she also fed lambs.
Nah, on the boob.
That'd be awesome.
Oh, a butt like that.
I'm in my best shoes, Aunty Isla.
Oh, they're thicker than my one.
Hold it up.
I've not held it up for.
It's still got his half a tent.
That's Merib's head.
Who's Merib?
Merib.
Merib?
The pony I had we bought when we were 16.
Oh, wow.
And died from poison.
I've been tying things down all my life.
I should put a motor on this for the
wedding go-karts.
You pushing?
OK, yep, mine's tied.
Get the other...
Bloody hell.
Get out of the rain, eh?
It has a bit of cheering, like,
you know, have that touch on it.
Happens, it just happens.
You're going to have a stomach out like
that.
I don't know how those folks ever find
their dicks.
And brake.
Yes.
OK, good.
All good.
Pull out.
The first time we came up was fairly hairy
from my point of view.
The horse hadn't been driven in a year,
and the carriage was quite unsuitable,
I think, for the task, because it wasn't
balanced and it wasn't a good place for
the driver to sit where she could brace
herself.
Today's been a good day.
I've enjoyed it.
Sawed out the harness up there.
The horse went well.
It's a nice horse.
I felt very happy with how it went today.
I was relaxed today and enjoyed it.
Whereas the week of the time, I was
nervous and thought, ah, it's not going to
work.
I was thinking.
And all you were going on and I was
saying, for fuck's sake, just stop having
all this negative talk about it.
There's nothing wrong with the horse.
My funeral will be in the burning bucket.
Crematorium.
Yeah, that's what we call it, the
crematorium.
And I'll be buried in Locke, and then my
ashes will go to Locke, and Brother
Richard's going to fix that up.
I bought the block.
What did the block cost?
Oh, I forgot.
$50?
It might have been $120.
Why didn't you want to be buried at the
Port Lincoln Cemetery with your mum and
your dad?
I lived in Locke for many years.
I know all the people that have died in
there.
I can say hello to them in the night,
you know, when I hear the rabbits chewing
and the fox coming along.
And I say, give a pick at me.
Go and shoot the bloody thing,
will you?
Yeah.
So funny.
Go marry a station bloke.
Look, life will be grand.
And I went to see the doctor, and I said,
I want a letter from you to tell Alan he's
got to go to Glenside.
And he went down to Glenside for a week or
10 days or something like that.
And when I went down there, you know,
it's in a room like that, it's a small
room, so it was that big, with a bed,
and the nurse shut the door.
You put me in here now, wait and see
what's going to happen to you.
I'd never discussed it, but I was
terrified.
That's the only time I've been terrified
in my life.
You know, I took my guns and gave them to
Dr Picure to put under his bed.
I didn't want to shoot him, because I
wouldn't want that on the children,
you see.
I could have.
I think she went down there to get
something.
She wasn't living here, getting stuff out
of...
I don't know what she was doing,
but anyway, he was nasty and started
pulling her hair out.
And she rang me, and all I could hear was
heavy breathing, and I didn't...
I thought it was somebody going,
and it was her trying to catch her breath
in pain.
I didn't know that.
So I think that was the trick,
or that was when she said, that's it,
I'm out of here.
I'm not living there anymore.
Not safe.
This is the house that Ellen bought.
It's an acre, and we lived here for 20
years.
The kids had a fantastic childhood here.
Of course they did.
The mother made it fantastic.
Rode with a truck, had two ponies on it,
it had some goats on it, it had four
children on it, and it had me on it,
and two pieces of furniture.
Four or five cows, and I remember one cow
put another calf on it, so I had two
calves on it.
That took a little while.
And I had a handful of sheep, which I'd go
out to the market and buy them and have
them, because I used to do all my own
killing, you know, it's just made me
cheaper.
They'd cut chaff.
I cleaned toilets for pocket money.
The kids all went to music, so I found
enough money to pay for them to go to
music.
I don't know.
You can survive.
One day I got a phone call to say,
oh, I had sheep out there, you see,
and they said, there's a dog barking at
your sheep on the top of the hill,
somewhere all or so out, I took the gun
with me, wandered up this hill,
and there's this little dog, well,
I just got a sheep bowed up, so I shot it.
And then when I went in the forest or
wherever, I went into shopping in
Blackwood, and as soon as anybody seen my
little dog,
I'd try and come down, and that was on the
news that it hit a bloke there,
an old man.
So I went down and looked to see where he
got hit.
So the dog's had his brains, and one of
his arms had a big piece of skin off it
like that with all the hair on it.
I took that home and pinned it up on the
ship.
So you got after him, didn't you?
I don't want to know.
Just pass this bend and you'll try and
smash into it.
Oh, it looks good, doesn't it?
I co-founded the Goldisburg Pony Club.
For a lot of the kids that you were around
are probably instructors now.
So...
Go, go, go!
You all right?
Go, go!
Go,
go!
We're on the same side, right?
Yeah!
Karen, what's the biggest difference
between when Isla was really active here
and what it's like now?
What are the kids like now?
In my mind?
The kids...
aren't, um...
How do I say it?
The kids don't ride like they used to.
Like, you know, we'd get on at the crack
of dawn and get off it, you know,
before dark.
But they just don't ride like that
anymore, you know?
They ride for three hours and they're
exhausted.
Oh, my legs, my legs!
You know, my bum's sore and the horses are
the same.
They get sore backs.
We never heard of our horses getting sore
backs.
Never got a sore back.
They get sore backs and they, you know,
they seem to be a lot thinner-skinned than
they used to be, like.
What was this shed?
This used to be the old piggery.
It gets its...
has its...
it has its charms.
So what's this place?
This is the girls' dorms.
The girls' dorms.
And the bloody rabbits have been in here.
Oh, yeah, there's rabbits everywhere.
My mother said she'll wet the bed.
She wet the bed once.
I tried and said she'd never wet it again.
Isla was the dorm mum for years.
And you'd be like, you'd get up,
you'd go, Oh, Isla's wet!
And you'd walk towards the door and you'd
go like, you're thinking, she's asleep.
She's asleep, she's asleep.
And you'd touch the door handle and she'd
go, Where do you think you're going?
And you'd be like, nyoom, straight back to
bed.
We have had trouble with, over the years,
with these phones.
So now we basically say that they can have
them during the day as long as they're not
writing.
And then at night, as you can see from
over here, we've got our...
they all plug their phones in at night on
the bed.
At least that way we know where they are.
All right, let's go out and meet this
pony.
Yes, good.
This is actually your pony, isn't it?
Yeah.
I've got these two ponies for nothing.
Trot, trot.
Trot, trot.
Oh, look at that!
It's just beautiful.
Just how lucky to have your children turn
up here in one place.
This is what Manata does and Horses does.
Still family, children that ride.
It's lovely.
Oh, it's a big heart thing.
Good enough to make you cry.
I'm not sentimental.
Oh, look at that.
Robert's family.
So, 20 years ago.
Oh,
hello!
Hello!
And Eila, you went over the road and
knocked off someone's lamb.
This is all about one-upmanship,
so I think the year before she ate some
moths.
The goldfish eating, it was just,
it was crazy.
Half of the kids were outside crying,
half the kids were inside loving it.
She just, like, swallowed it whole.
Doesn't it look nice?
Look at him.
Oh, I don't know.
Good.
Oh, that's good.
Good.
Oh, no, no, no, it's nice, nice.
It's good.
Good, excellent.
What is it?
Not a snail.
Oh, it didn't rear.
Rocky played up the other day.
It became unsafe.
So, I didn't do it because people were a
bit scared.
Right, two, three.
Slow.
You've got to get photos.
Should we stop?
Initially, we're like, we've got to do it,
we've got to have this wedding,
and we've got to do it for the snakes.
That's why, that's why we're here.
There's no snakes.
So, I was like, rainstorm snakes.
That was the ratio we were juggling.
So, I hope we got it right.
If you're feeling woozy, I don't know,
check.
But, um, for bites.
Skip forward on that bit, Mum.
Life goes on, my dear.
I have not stopped driving a horse of
carriage.
I'm just not doing it at the wedding.
All right, in a minute, we haven't got a
ball, because you lost it.
Were you disappointed that you couldn't do
the carriage island on the day?
I got over it.
You know, you don't dwell on nice things.
It wasn't going to happen until I get
somebody else.
Yeah.
And Leonie loved doing it.
Oh, David's wedding was made nephesite,
but in the last 60 years, things have
changed.
They have.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Darling, I got married at a registry
office in Adelaide.
Because I happened to be months or two
pregnant.
Which was a sin.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know that.
No, you didn't know that.
David Reed was there.
My ex.
He's dead now.
David Reed?
I mean, not David Reed, my ex-husband.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Doug.
Yeah, Doug was there, yeah.
Doug, he's dead.
Nancy Barretton, who I nursed with.
He used to live in Tumbe Bay.
He was at the hostel with us.
And me.
Three people.
Well, and four with Alan, grandpa.
He wasn't there, I don't think,
was he?
When you got married?
I don't think so.
Your husband has to be there, didn't he?
No.
What, one person can sign?
No, you have to sign.
I flew to Adelaide to get married,
not to have a wedding in bloody lock.
Yeah, but surely, to legally be married,
the two people have to sign the document,
the two people being married.
He must have been there.
He must have been there, yes, because he
must have been there.
Because, I just remember, because he
didn't sleep with me that night before we
got married.
He said, I'm going to sleep in another
room.
Kate rang up and I said, oh, the queen's
not too good.
He said, no, she's dead, mum.
I said, what?
Well, I thought it was a very sad day.
Hmm, I still do.
But several friends of mine that I spoke
to on that day didn't.
It was funny, it was weird, really.
I thought, oh, I'm not allowed to feel how
I feel, apparently.
Came to Port Lincoln to open all sorts of
things.
And somebody to organise that we did a big
procession on horseback for her.
And Bob and I led the procession on our
horses.
And we were dressed as kangarooskin.
It's a little bit ridiculous that
Australia has the Queen in England,
now King Charles.
I think that's really about time to get
rid of that.
I think the Republic would be a better
plan.
Have a nice walk?
Because Islay is very local, everybody
knows Islay, everybody loves Islay.
She's a celebrity.
Nice day for it anyway.
I'm not a local celebrity.
I have friends.
Which is good.
But yes, I need to get out more,
seriously.
Here they come, look.
Here comes one, look.
Got the camera there.
This way.
Hello, sweetie pies.
You alright?
That's that one.
I need to step into my own identity more.
Because I've been home a lot, which I do
like being home, but it's fucking boring
sometimes.
Well, the basic reason why I stopped going
to choir, because you had to sing in a
mask, which I think is plain stupid.
So I couldn't see the point.
But at the same time, I miss the singing,
because it's fun.
There weren't enough altos, so she's
singing alto in that song, next to me,
which means I can learn how to read the
music.
Thank you, darling.
Look at that.
Now there, the King Alfred.
From the horse paddock.
Well, he never fixes the fence.
The least he can do is give you some
daffies.
Ila's long had a reputation.
Long before I met her, that if you want a
horse, dog, cow, put down for some reason,
she doesn't do humans, as far as I know.
Bang!
Ila's your one.
She's the one you want.
So when she moved to Milo, I guess that
made her the Milo Strangler.
The other day I was in the veggie shop
down here.
There was an old man there with a walking
stick like this.
He had a hat on.
Eventually he went around and one of the
women that owns the place was giving me a
big hug.
I said, Ila!
I haven't seen you in ages.
Where have you been?
This old bloke said to me, what does one
have to do to get a hug?
I said, you take your hands off the frame
of your walking thing.
I said, you take off your hat and I will
give you the biggest hug you've had in 50
years.
He told me he'd broken his back.
You see it once.
I gave him a kiss on the head.
He said, there you are.
And he cried.
We've got our boys over Please welcome my
friend tonight It's been a long afternoon
It's been a long afternoon We're really
long for nothing and we're quite sed?ged
satisfied Happy birthday to you Happy
birthday to you Happy birthday Happy
birthday dear Ila, happy birthday to you.
That goes in your ear, Ila, see?
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
In your hair cut.
I know.
Tomorrow, I think.
Tomorrow, is it?
So cross with that.
Yeah.
So do I put the plug in first?
Yeah.
Or put the thing behind the ear?
Put the thing behind my ear.
First.
Okay.
There's too much there.
Yes, nurse.
What's it supposed to be?
There.
Put that in my ear, push it in hard.
Is it into your brain yet?
Ah!
Stop it!
Jesus!
Has it turned on?
Can you hear me now?
Can you hear me?
I pressed the thing.
I don't know if it's turned on or turned
off.
Well, it's significant.
Well, I never know.
I've got a new page.
Right.
There's a tomato, Susan.
We'll get three.
Pretty crap.
We need a leak.
Two pairs.
Two pairs of what?
Oh, oh, oh!
Oh, tell!
Shut up.
Oh, so funny.
Yes.
Two pairs.
Okay.
Proper blue castello.
Not the one in the triangle.
But you want that one?
The one in the half circle.
Yeah!
I went to the shops.
Couldn't find a park.
Then I found a park.
But there weren't any shops.
So I went back home.
And I parked the car.
There were still no shops.
So I got back in the car.
The shop.
Past the shop.
I
got to the shop.
The shop.
And I went shopping!
Where'd I put my card?
Uh, you talking about a payment card?
Is it a plastic one?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had it in my hand.
Did you go over to the ATM with it?
I saw you had a blue tarpaulin.
I'll have a bunch of poppies, sis.
Absolutely.
Any particular one?
Right here, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Any particular one?
Right here.
And you're enjoying it.
Love it.
Good, good, good.
I can't see it.
Somebody can scroll when they're working.
All right, surgeon.
That's wearing very thin tarpaulin.
Funny remark.
Celery, lovely.
Leek.
Lovely leeks.
Oh, proper blue castello.
Is that the one?
Yes.
Yes, that's the best.
Hi, hello, Philip.
How are you?
You home?
Are the babies a-born?
They're born.
Lily, Pepper.
And Poppy, Isla.
Lily and Poppy?
Yes.
Ah!
You're cutey!
So it was a good birth, easy?
Just popped them out.
Fancy that.
Ha, ha, ha, ha.
I said, I'm lucky I've just struck twin
girls, which don't even mind.
Great, great children.
Oh, she said, what's their names?
I said, Lily and Poppy.
Oh, she said, wonderful.
And after, you know, flowers.
She said, it's just wonderful.
I said, I'm actually glad to have the
dogs.
You haven't got any wrinkles or anything.
Look, look what you're going to be like
when you're nearly no one, do you?
Oh, what a miserable year But what a time
to be alive Sadly some friends disappeared
It's never been like this before Feels
like a rule So I wonder who's going to
decide If we can do the old man's line I
wish that I could do what I like With this
family of mine We're going out of our
minds So what are we to do About your
FaceTimes and your Zooms There's a room
inside my mind And it's always here for
you Nothing's gonna stop Christmas No
chance You can't take away how season Like
you can't take away the signs It's on its
way, but now it's to me Tells the world
Call a spade a spade, I think.
I do.
No, you don't.
Of course I do.
You call a spade a bloody shovel,
but we're talking about the name lesbian,
lezzo or dyke, Isla.
I'm not a lezzo, I'm not a dyke.
I'm Isla Roberts.
Correct.
That's it, I know.
Full stop.
Yes.
Grandmother.
Grandmother.
Great grandmother.
You can forget all the other little
bullshit names.
You missed one, I think.
What was that?
Friend of Susan's is the other one.
Oh, friend, yes.
I rest my case.
There's not much point going on,
really.
I haven't felt like I could go overseas to
the Northern Hemisphere, but I had a
brainwave yesterday that I could go,
because I rang Kate and said, say if I
went to England or Paris for three weeks
or four weeks, maybe Isla could have a
little holiday with you.
And she said, of course.
Ah, ha ha ha.
So I've been feeling a little constrained
about possibilities, and now I'm thinking,
well, I could, I could.
You can't do it without any money.
You've got to keep your thoughts down,
doing what you can afford to do.
But you say to me you don't especially
want to go.
I don't know, I can't be bothered.
But why, but why?
Well, I get a lot of joy out of watching
all these things grow around here.
Yes.
I don't want to go over and see all these
people that I can't talk to.
Who would for, for Christ's sake?
They must be mad.
Isla, you know what I've realised hanging
around with you over the course of the
last year?
Just how influential your pony club days
were.
And the Mitcham Council has decided to
name a road in your honour.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
What?
Ha ha ha ha.
Nancy, that's a truth.
Yes.
Well, I'll be buggered.
Ha ha ha ha.
I'm going to invite Ms Isla Roberts to
come up the front.
There's I'm lucky.
And you are, because we don't name streets
after people that are still getting up in
the morning.
And here you are.
So I would like to present this sign to
you.
Thank you very much.
That's a pleasure.
I'm not going to give it to you yet
because I'm going to hold it while you say
something.
Oh, okay.
I'd like to, that's about nearly 40 people
here.
Ha ha ha ha.
I'd like to say thank the women.
And it's nearly all women who have
organised this and around the place
there's been a Pony Summit and all that
sort of stuff.
Very much.
I don't think the men would have done it.
Ha ha ha ha.
The women have been wonderful.
Without you, there wouldn't have been a
Goldensburg Pony Club writing for the
disabled or the interaction of the
disabled with the Blackwood community.
Hello.
How are you?
What's your New Year's resolutions?
Mine?
Oh, I've got a pony to break in.
I'll get somebody to break it in.
And I wouldn't mind just finding another
pony that matched the chestnut horse so I
could drive a pair.
I've got to get a ute too before I can do
anything.
Where can you drive that pair?
Where can you do that in the future?
Well, I go up to Judy's car so he can sell
the property that's where I drive up
there.
Judy comes out with me when we go through
the forest all around the place up there.
Do I recall Kate telling you she doesn't
want you to carriage drive anymore?
No, she's never said that.
Nobody can stop me carriage driving.
Except perhaps your back situation.
Not ideal.
Susan, stop on that please.
Isla is definitely getting frail and
probably recognises it but doesn't want to
admit it.
I don't know that she recognises that
Rocky is also getting old and is past his
prime.
I would hope today is the last day that
Isla drives.
If I had my time again I wouldn't change a
single thing I wouldn't change what makes
me what I am I could be my daddy's
daughter I could be my daddy's son But I
won't be late to rest until I'm done If I
had my time again I'd walk this line come
sun or rain I'd look up and I'd thank my
lucky star I could be my daddy's daughter
I could be my daddy's son But I won't be
late to rest until I'm done If I had my
time again I would sing the same old song
until the end I would be nobody's fool I
would be somebody's friend But I'd do it
all the same If I had my time again
If I had my time again I'd love you like I
did today I'd hold you close and never let
you go I could be my daddy's daughter I
could be my daddy's son But I won't be
late to rest until I'm done
We travel to Tasmania where she hopes to
become the oldest person to drive four
Clydesdales through a main town and she's
nothing if not determined I'm driving it
there's two hands driving it and tell us
why you're doing it because I can