‘The Cubbies’: a new book by one of Mirabel’s original grandmothers
The Fitzroy Adventure Playground has always been a place of joy and creativity for the local children.
It was here, in the adventurous world she had established for local children, that Joan Healey made a decision that would change her life. She became a foster carer to three young children who needed a safe and stable home, including a two-year-old girl named Urzlem. Alone, she raised the children to adulthood before Urzlem tragically passed away from a drug overdose. Urzlem left behind a baby boy named Haylen and Joan stepped up again to provide kinship care for the orphaned baby.
Urzlem’s saddened drug counsellor was Jane Rowe, who was so struck by how little support there was available for Joan and Haylen that she decided to raise some money through a concert. That early work would become the Mirabel Foundation and 25 years later, Mirabel is still going strong.
But while the Mirabel community knows Joan well in her role as one of Mirabel’s original grandmother kinship carers, she has worn many other hats and lived a varied and exciting life. Before embracing the often overwhelming and exhausting task of being a Mirabel carer, Joan was also an international journalist that travelled from Canada to Europe to Mexico.
Returning to Melbourne 50 years ago, she established her rebellious creative project: Australia’s first genuine adventure playground, just off Brunswick Street in the then somewhat wild, working-class suburb of Fitzroy. The battle to create the playground, what it meant for the kids and the suburb, is the subject of Joan’s new book, ‘The Cubbies’.
Joan said she wrote it because she wanted to set the record straight about the origins of the playground. It still exists, if a little more streamlined and safe in these over-regulated, helicopter-parenting days. A vast difference compared to when Joan deliberately let the kids run free. Now Joan is tired of people claiming responsibility for the venture when she is adamant it was ‘the kids, and the resilience of the kids, that made it happen.’
Joan’s book details her battles against the Catholic Church, raids by the federal police, and even skirmishes with ASIO as the playground gathered steam.
Joan’s original vision was to turn the playground over to the children and let their imagination and initiative shape it in whatever direction they decided. ‘The kids wanted tools and to be left alone,’ she said. ‘That freedom and risk taking was very important. We did have accidents because there were kids making fires, building things, making swords. There was even a three-storey cubby house. But there weren’t too many accidents.
‘That was my whole thing - the kids made a village out of this empty piece of land, using whatever they could find.’
She adds, ‘I should mention that government support was necessary to enable it to happen.’
Creating the book has been a whole new adventure. Joan laughs that she tested the patience of Haylen, now 27, as he dragged her into the modern world, given she’s still more comfortable on a typewriter than a computer keyboard. She vows the finished product is not ‘a literary tome’ but it promises to be a rollicking read.
About to turn 90, Joan is proud that she has been able to raise Haylen, who recently graduated from university. That was a celebration and now they get to enjoy the launch of her book together.
Like Mirabel, the pair have come a long way in a quarter of a century.
‘The Cubbies’ by Joan Healey is being published on August 1, at a RRP of $36.99, but thanks to the generosity of Joan and Monash University Publishing, Mirabel families can use the discount code PUBGEN20 at the link below, for a 20 per cent discount.
https://publishing.monash.edu/product/the-cubbies/
Thanks to the generosity of Joan and Monash University Publishing, Mirabel families can enjoy 20% off by using use the discount code PUBGEN20.