THERE WAS A TIME when my search for release from the tedium of domestic duties led me to take the 5C bus into the City, get off on Adelaide Street at the City Hall stop and descend into the tranquil spaces of the Ladies Rest Rooms under Brisbane City Hall. As soon as I walked through the entrance, beneath the cool green leaves of the giant Monstera deliciosa that framed the doorway, I felt at home. An added bonus offered itself just inside the door: it was a warning sign that read, NO BOYS ALLOWED OVER THE AGE OF SIX. Just what I want, I thought to myself.
These rest rooms bore the popular title of the Red Cross Tea Rooms, but my pet name for the place was the Ladies Loo.
I could have a cup of tea and a scone, the price being within my restricted allowance. However, what attracted me most were the writing desks close to one wall. In 1981 I began to record in writing what happened in this cloister. From the perspective of the Ladies Loo, it was a simple matter to point out the errors of male society, and to pass judgement on the lapses in decorum and spiritual correctness of the world above the Loo, on Adelaide Street.
When ‘life’ intervened, I set the manuscript aside. Later, when I found the typed original in a drawer, my husband, Ed, encouraged me to complete it. I thank him for his love, enthusiasm and support, despite all my scolding about men. I am also grateful to all those who have shared their reminiscences about the Rest Rooms under City Hall, and have graciously allowed me to use their stories as if they were my own.
Inevitably, I have used considerable discretion in the historical placement of these stories, embracing these rich and amusing recollections from earlier times, within the forward chronology of the work.
My primary purpose has been to tell the way things look to the women who have patronised a particularly beloved place. Some episodes in Maddie’s story are modelled on detail included in Barbara Lovelock’s personal history of life on her family farm on Mount Coot-tha.
So here it is, dears. I dedicate Adventures in the Ladies Loo to all those who have encouraged me to complete what I began so many years ago.