Pictures 1959
Catalogue / Memoir
Introduction
Pictures
Objects
Animations
PICTURES are both finished and ephemeral works made for animations.
1949---- 1950---- 1951---- 1952---- 1953---- 1954---- 1955---- 1956---- 1957---- 1958---- 1959---- 1960---- 1961---- 1962---- 1963---- 1964---- 1965---- 1966---- 1967---- 1968---- 1969---- 1970---- 1971---- 1972---- 1973---- 1974---- 1975---- 1976---- 1977---- 1978---- 1979---- 1980---- 1981---- 1982---- 1983---- 1984---- 1985---- 1986---- 1987---- 1988---- 1989---- 1990---- 1991---- 1992---- 1993---- 1994---- 1995---- 1996---- 1997---- 1998---- 1999---- 2000---- 2001---- 2002---- 2003---- 2004---- 2005---- 2006---- 2007---- 2008---- 2009---- 2010---- 2011---- 2012---- 2013---- 2014---- 2015---- 2016---- 2017---- 2018---- 2019---- 2020---- 2021---- 2022---- 2023---- 2024---- 2025---- 2026----
Skate, Hate, Fly
1959. Me (top) at Chelmsford School, Glen Iris
1959. Photo: Noel. Rollerskating at Chelmsford School, Glen Iris
Nadya and I went to a small school called Chelmsford in Glen Iris, for children who didn't fit into so-called normal schools. The school was in a big old weatherboard house set in a small garden. In a corner of the garden was a shanty we had built with materials we dragged off the street. That's where I first kissed a boy, in this makeshift sanctuary.
The teachers were two old spinsters, Miss Taylor and Miss Harper. Miss Taylor had permed hair with a blue rinse. Miss Harper's hair was dead straight and white. I don't think Miss Harper did anything to her hair. I liked that about her. She was no phoney, trying to be someone she wasn't.
Nadya and I travelled together by train from Glen Waverley. One day a boy got into our carriage - one of those dog-box carriages that you couldn't escape from while the train was going - and he started playing with his penis and staring at us.
Another day, Nadya chased another student through the staff room with a hose and was expelled. The staff room was built into a verandah with a door at each end.
After Nadya left Chelmsford, Noel took to dropping me off at school early, on his way to work, before school started. I would sit high up in a tree and eat Twisties until the school doors opened. One morning I looked down from the tree and saw Miss Taylor reprimanding a small child. I got really angry with Miss Taylor and shouted at her. I climbed down the tree and walked out the school gate and never came back.
1959. Photo. Me with brother Tom on the front porch of our new house in Glen Waverley
EVENTS
1959: Australia's population reaches 10 million
The Australian Almanac, Pub. Angus & Robertson 1985
The Cuban Revolution brings Fidel Castro to power after toppling Fulgencio Batista;
construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail begins, later crucial in the Vietnam War;
The Day the Music Died plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson;
Miss Baker becomes one of the first animals to survive spaceflight;
the Kitchen Debate reflect Cold War tensions between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev;
the 1959 Tibetan uprising forces the 14th Dalai Lama into exile; the Leopoldville riots ignite unrest in the Congo;
the Malpasset Dam collapse kills hundreds in France;
Typhoon Vera devastates Japan.
Written by me, Lisa Roberts/Euphausia superba (Antarctic krill), on
16/04/2026
