My family lived on a sheep station, in the outback of Queensland (about half way between Townsville and Mount Isa) when I was born in 1956. All of our supplies came out to the sheep station on the back of a lorry. If we were rained in, we did not receive any supplies.

Like a lot of children in the bush we were educated at home by our parents via the primary correspondence school and over the radio by school of the air. My parents and the family next door employed a governess and in grades two and three I went to school next door – which was 7 miles away - where we had five children in the school.

In 1964, when I was eight we came down to Caloundra. There was a strip of bitumen down the main street. There were overgrown vacant allotments down the main street.

Caloundra in those days was quite different to what it is now. The picture theatre, which used to be where the cinema is now, had canvas seats. They had Saturday matinees. In 1968, when I was 12, I used to take 40c to the cinema. That would get me admission and an ice cream.

As a child in Caloundra, I used to ride my pushbike everywhere and cover miles every day. There was one pushbike between me and my brother and sister. Whoever wanted to ride it got up early. I still get up early today. My parents knew where I was at breakfast, and at bed time; in between, I could be anywhere in Caloundra. Caloundra was a little village in those days; all the grown-ups knew all the kids. No one got into real trouble. No one got away with anything. My parents always knew when I had misbehaved because someone had been on the phone to them.

I went to school at Caloundra Primary and Caloundra High School and had a brief period at boarding school at Warwick, surely the coldest place in Queensland.

When I was in grade 7, it was 1968, and I went on a walkathon from Henzells Park in Caloundra to the Bridge at Mooloolaba. The bitumen road had been put in connecting Caloundra to Mooloolaba. The whole of Kawana was just wallum scrub – miles and miles of it.

When I was in grade 11, my father arranged for me to write seeking articles of clerkship from the local solicitor, Mr Fox. His grandfather had been the first solicitor on the Sunshine Coast at the end of the 1800s.

Mr Fox was quite progressive. When I started work for him, he had four article clerks, two of whom were women. Women were virtually unknown in the law at that time.

In 1974, when I started work for Mr Fox, the office was quite primitive compared to my office today.

There were two phone lines, which came into the office. The switchboard and two switches, and they had two positions - up and down.

There was a wet photocopier. The paper had a greasy feel, and was on a giant roll.

There was a bank of typists, all of whom used manual typewriters with carbon paper. They were excellent typists who almost never made a mistake. If they did make a mistake, then they had to rub out. Not only on the original, but also on the first and second carbon copies. I wonder how many people understand that when we put "cc" on a letter, it actually stands for carbon copy.

There was no fax, no computers, no internet, no couriers, and no rush.

As an article clerk, particularly at first, you are no use at all. I made the tea, in a giant teapot. The senior staff member used to supervise my making the tea, warming the pot, calling on the water, while it was still boiling. After I'd made the tea, I handed out the tea, with the biscuit barrel, starting at the most senior person (Mr Fox) and ending with the most junior person - me.

I also did the dusting, collected the mail, delivered the banking to the bank and delivered any letters up and down the main street.

When I started work for Mr Fox, there were two solicitors' firms in town -- his office and one other.

When I had completed my five years training and passed 19 subjects, I was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland on 27 February 1979. It was a proud day and I still remember it. On the day that I was admitted, there were 33 solicitors admitted, three of whom were women. I was the 121st woman admitted to practice in Queensland, since 1915. Now there are literally thousands of women lawyers, but I was one of the pioneers.

Just a few differences between then and now.

My first pay packet as an articled clerk was $23.65 per week, 65c more than then unemployment benefits. I worked weekends in a newsagency and received $40.00 so I could live.

I wore stockings to work, because that's what nice girls did. I still do, and am probably the only one in my office who does. (I think if men wore stockings they would last longer.)

Dress was more modest in offices. In 1974 no cleavage was on show, although skirts could be fairly short.

In general, dress was more dowdy. We wore dark plain colours, like navy or dark grey or black.

Because there were almost no women lawyers in those days, when I was on the phone, I immediately introduced myself as an article clerk or as a solicitor. Even then, some people did not believe that I was a lawyer and I had to convince them.

We lodged our documents in the stamps office and the titles office and the Supreme Court, District Court and Magistrates Court by hand. That meant that we actually understood what happened to our documents. We met face-to-face with the people who assessed duties and looked at our documents.

Today, those things are done by post, or in some cases by e-filing.

In 1975, I saw my first electric typewriter. It was just magic - barely touching the keys allowed you to type. If there is anyone out there, who used a manual typewriter, you would remember how sore your little finger used to get, from reaching out for the a or the colon keys.

I can remember the first time I saw a fax machine. We had been told about this marvellous device but none of us actually believed it. Almost all the people in the office stood around watching the first fax to be spat out of the machine.

There are some people reading this, who are old enough to remember a telex machine. You had to type your message onto a piece of tape. Then you fed that piece of tape into the machine and the message went quickly.

In about 1982, we got our first computers.

If there is someone reading this, who sells computers, I apologise in advance, but the fact is that the salesman who sold us our first computer told us a lot of lies. They told us how computers would change our lives, give us more time and make our lives easier. Everyone knows that that is not true.

What computers did for solicitors was to enable us to produce longer and longer documents, and the ability to produce more and more drafts.

Those first computers were L shaped. The keyboard and screen were built into the desk. They had to be in an air-conditioned room. At that time, the air-conditioned room was where the senior partner, sat. He had to leave his room so that computers could go in there.

In 1995 a computer was put on my desk, and I was told I had to learn how to use it. I am still learning. I pick up hints by watching what other people do.

In about 1998, one of the computers in our office was able to connect to the Internet. We were all very scared of the Internet. That computer was put in a room by itself, and we hardly ever went into the room.

Today, most of my work is done over the Internet, including work with the courts, and with clients on the coast, all over Australia and overseas.

Today I appear in some Courts by telephone.

As technology changed, the Sunshine Coast changed as well.

When I first started working in Mooloolaba in 1975, the Esplanade was a bitumen strip. There was no kerbing and channelling. Where we have the tourist strip now was all old-style Queenslanders - wooden houses, on high stumps. Gradually, one by one, they were knocked down and high-rises were built in their place.

The first office, I worked in Mooloolaba was at 87 The Esplanade. Across the road was a caravan park. From my window, I could see tourists lying on their towels. I guess that was another difference, in those days, everyone wanted a tan and no one was concerned about skin cancer.

When I first started working in Mooloolaba in 1975, there were two solicitors there, Barrie Munro and Frazer Thompson. There would have been less than 50 solicitors, on the coast. There were times when I was the only woman lawyer between Caboolture and Gympie.

In 1975, Kawana Estates was starting to develop land at Currimundi, just over the bridge, on the sea side of the highway.

In 1975, Butts shopping centre was the best place to shop – on the site of the Big Top.

In about 1980, the first high rises went up along the Esplanade – Northwind was one of them. I remember a meeting at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club with a room full of real estate agents – how excited we all were.

My first practice

With another solicitor I opened my own practice in January 1981 and I practiced as a general solicitor in partnership with other solicitors. I left the partnership in August 1989 to travel round Australia in a campervan with my 5 year old son, and my mother.

In the 1990s I worked on the Sunshine Coast as a locum solicitor for solicitors who were either on holidays or needed a hand on a temporary basis. I also assisted solicitors whose practices were a bit run down and they needed some systems in place particularly in relation to their administration and debt collection.

By about 1995 one firm had claimed all my time, and by that time I had developed a mediation practice. I began working as a mediator in 1991. At that time, the idea of settling disputes by talking rather than going to Court was a bit revolutionary.

My second (and I hope my last) practice

In March 2001 I opened my own practice. I needed to generate some more income because the tax department had reassessed three years tax and I found myself owing what seemed at that time to be a very large sum.

When I opened my doors in March 2001, I had one assistant and that was my husband. By day three of my practice I had put on two part time assistants as the practice was already too busy. Now there are 17 people in the practice, including me.