A humourous and historical look at a slice of 1963 discovering life's 'Oops' factors, whilst working for Reg Ansett at the 'Rock'.Julie Burdis, painter, ceramist and author who was born in the north of England and on a rainy grey day, aged 15 years old, while at the cinema had her life changed forever, when by chance ended up watching the film 'A Town Like Alice'. Julie was entranced with the infinite blue horizons with not a cloud in sight and went home and told her mother 'I'm going to Alice Springs'. It took Julie another 3 years to save up the £100 for the boat fare to Australia and after 9 months staying with friends in Geelong, bought a train ticket on the Ghan and after some time in Adelaide, set off once again for Alice Springs arriving with just £7's in her pocket. En route, when the Ghan was going uphill, Julie would jump off the train and walk alongside it captivated by the desert landscape""¦.then jump back on again as the Ghan continued on its journey. Within in a week, Julie went down to the 'Rock' where as one of only 14 people working there (and the only teenager), she spent 6 months working in the Ansett hotel. The only contact with the outside world was the regular visit by the Flying Doctor's aeroplane and it was while here that Julie first started painting the landscape of the red sands, dark tree trunks and blue skies.In between the creativity of painting and ceramics, Julie finds time to follow her other passion which is writing. Her first book 'Dirty Linen' is a humourous look at her early days down at the 'Rock' and how it was there she met and fell in love with a dashing pilot Geoffrey Robinson. Julie went on to recount the romantic story of how 8 years ago they met up again, after about 50 years from when they first met in the dry desert landscape, are now, finally, married.
