This page is for all the other stuff I want to share with other people. Some of it's about me or involves me, but it's also where I'll put links to interesting websites, blogs and whatever else occurs to me.

On Friday 5 March 2010 Julie walked from Palm Beach to Balmoral with the Coastango team as part of a group of 200 people raising money for the Fred Hollows Foundation. The Coastrek event was organised by the trek training group, Wild Women on Top. This photo was taken just before dawn at Palm Beach with (Left to Right) Judy, Julie, Lisa, Wendy and Cvet (Back). Julie had planned to be a volunteer support person, but Cvet injured her foot a couple of days before the event, so Julie joined the group. Fortunately Julie had been training with the group in January and she was thrilled to cross the 50km finish line at Balmoral Beach 13 hours and 47 minutes later, with the Coastango team, in pouring rain and in the dark. Approximately 100 people went on to complete 100kms to finish at Coogee.

Lisa, Julie, Judy and Wendy at North Curl Curl Beach, roughly half way on the journey to Balmoral. Cvet and her husband, Emile, provided lunch by the beach and the walkers were able to experience the bliss of sitting down and changing their socks. The journey followed the magnificent coastline of Sydney. See www.wildwomenontop.com.

DNRS-NSW CMDR Peter Collins (third from right) and Ms Julie McCrossin (hand on wheel) joined bosses and foreign defence attaches on the forecastle of HMAS Anzac on the VIP sea day. read Navy article


Julie and Melissa were thrilled to be in the audience for a secret myspace show at the Uniting Church in Oxford Street Paddington in Sydney. It was Florence and the Machine's first performance in Australia. It was an intimate and vocally gorgeous performance from this gifted and challenging young woman. It was thrilling to be there.

"(L to R) Lisa, Julie and Judy on a training walk along the coastline stretching from Palm Beach to Balmoral Beach in northern Sydney. The trekking group Wild Women on Top have organised a fundraiser called Coastrek for the Fred Hollows Foundation. Teams of women and men will start at Palm Beach and walk either 50km or 100km in one continuous walk. Julie is supporting a team called Coastango by training with them. In January 2010 Julie and the Coastango gals walked over 80kms in four sessions, walking from Palm Beach to North Narrabeen and then from North Narrabeen to Fairlight. They walked each section of the coast twice, once by day and once by night. For more information about Coastrek go to http://www.wildwomenontop.com/wild-walks-adventures/coastrek and if you'd like to support Coastango by making a donation to Fred Hollows go to http://www.everydayhero.com.au/coastango. This year Julie will be one of many volunteers supporting the walking teams on 5/6 March 2010 and in 2011 she plans to walk the 50km section.

"(L to R) Judy, Wendy, Cvet and Julie on 9 January 2010 walking the Sydney coastline between Palm Beach and North Narrabeen. The trekking group, Wild Women on Top provide the written instructions for the coast-hugging route the gals must follow as they train for Coastrek on 5/6 March 2010. Cvet and her husband, Emil dance the tango and so the gal's team for the fundraiser is called Coastango.


The Tuesday morning Wild Women on Top adventure fitness group on 25 August 2009. Julie is looking flushed in a blue hat and she is immensely grateful that the group welcomes her determined attempts to keep up! Although Julie doubts she will ever actually develop a core. more photos

Australian Tango Championships on Saturday 11 July 2009 at the University of NSW. Emil and Cvet Jankulovska are dancing the Milonga. Cvet is a friend of Julie's from the Wild Women on Top walking group. Cvet and Emil danced with intensity and intimacy. They were hypnotic.

Margaret Whitlam and Julie at a SCEGGS Darlinghurst Old Girls' lunch on Ascension Day, May 2009.

Julie with her old friends Sophie and Anne in Taormina in Sicily April 2009. Julie and Sophie were recovering after a challenging walking holiday on the Amalfi Coast south of Naples.

Julie's nephew Guy Beynon running in the gold medal winning Under 11 Male Beach Relay Team at the NSW Age Surf Life Saving Championships in February 2009.

Julie and her friends Valerie (left) and Kica (right) on top of Mt Townsend. A group of 14 women from the women's fitness group Wild Women on Top climbed Mt Kosciuszko and Mt Townsend in a single day on Saturday 28 March 2009, after walking in from Thredbo without using the chair lift. They slept out overnight in this marvellous, wild country and walked back on Sunday 29 March. See www.wildwomenontop.com.
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One of Julie's oldest friends, Julie Bishop, on a visit to Iran as part of her current London-based job as Director of the Law Centres Federation of the United Kingdom.

Jack Richards of Norfolk Island reads his first book at 6 weeks, a present from Julie and
Melissa. Welcome to the joy of reading!


Julie McCrossin and Virginia Bell, Sydney Town Hall, 1993 (photo by Mazz Images)

On Friday 22 August 2008 the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives celebrated their 30th anniversary at the Fitzroy Town Hall in Melbourne. Julie was the MC for the night and she donated two photographs to the collection.
In the first (above) Julie is carrying a megaphone as part of a march down George Street in Sydney in 1974 in support of Penny Short. Penny lost her Teacher's Scholarship after publishing a lesbian love poem in the student newspaper at Macquarie University. Penny never regained her scholarship, although she did ultimately work as a teacher some years later.
In the second photograph (below) Julie is dressed as a nun outside St Mary's Cathedral in 1975 as part of a rally in support of Mike Clohesy. Mike lost his job as a teacher at a Catholic school in Sydney after appearing on the ABC TV current affairs program Chequerboard. Mike was being interviewed about the CAMP Inc (Campaign Against Moral Persecution) submission, which called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, to the Royal Commission into Human Relationships. Homosexuality was finally decriminalised in NSW in 1984.


A painting of Julie with her much-loved terrier Jane based on a photograph taken in the streets of Stanmore in inner western Sydney over 20 years ago - see below. The painting is being exhibited by the artist Ann Mara at the Mulga Bill Arts Festival in Yeoval NSW in late July 2008. It captures the contrast between Julie's joy and Jane's surliness.

Julie with statewide staff from the Victorian Aboriginal Childcare Agency in Melbourne where Julie ran a workshop on Presentations People Remember in July 2008.

The panel members at Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney on 28 April 2008 for Ageing Disgracefully: A public forum on ageing and ageism in the GLBT Community which Julie facilitated with lively audience participation. The panel members are (back row L-R) Justice Michael Kirby, High Court of Australia; Jane Marsden, Chair Aurora Foundation; Stevie Clayton, CEO AIDS Council of NSW (ACON); Lloyd Grosse, HIV activist; Julie McCrossin, MC; Mark Orr, President ACON; (front row L-R) Ghassan Kassisieh, Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby; Siri May, Lesbian Health, ACON; Carmen, transsexual icon.

At the launch of the Capacity Toolkit, Julie interviewed Dr Robert Zoa Manga about cultural diversity. The Toolkit is a comprehensive information resource for family, friends, carers, doctors, lawyers, finance staff and community workers involved with a person whose decision-making is in question.

Left to right (rear): Maureen Tangney (Attorney General's Department [AGD] Acting Director General), Jenna Macnab and Anne Mangan. (Front): Julie McCrossin (hypothetical facilitator) and Julia Haraksin (AGD Manager Diversity Services).
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International Women's Day Celebrations with the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA Victoria). On 5 March 2008 at the Melbourne Telstra Dome 1400 people marked the centenary of the vote for women with performances by the Womens' Circus and interviews with three generations of women in the public service, including four mothers and daughters.

Julie with the Wild Women on a 25 km wet and wild walk from Narrabeen to Barrenjoey Lighthouse at Palm Beach on Sunday 2 March 2008.

Curator Daniel Mudie Cunningham (L) and artist Drew Bickford with Julie and her partner Melissa Gibson at the opening of Bent Western at the Blacktown Arts Centre in February 2008. Bent Western surveys the work of queer Australian artists who have forged connections to Western Sydney in exciting and challenging ways over the last thirty years and made important contributions to queer cultures in the region and beyond. Bent Western examines the work of queer artists through a bent lens, acknowledging how Western Sydney itself is marked by broader notions of multicultural difference and change.

Julie on the cliffs in Sydney's east with the women's adventure walking group Wild Women on Top, December 2007.

Julie, Melissa and Amelia on Goolwa Beach in South Australia
on a happy visit to Carol and Anne at Currency Creek.
These photographs of my partner Melissa, the Hounds of the Baskervilles and the nearby bush were taken by our friend Mark Friedman, author of Trying Hard is Not Good Enough: How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities www.resultsaccountability.com. The man and the book are highly recommended! Click on each image to display a larger version.
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"The launch of The Story of Growl at Books Illustrated in April 2007 was fantastic fun, with lots of people, adults and children. The inimitable Julie McCrossin read the book in fantastic style. She conspired with the audience and organised different 'growlers' for each growl in the book, including Grandfather Growl and Leaping Growls. The kids loved the story, and there were plenty of anarchic asides for the adults, and then we retired for afternoon tea and book signing." Judy Horacek, www.horacek.com.au/
Ian and Rachel McCrossin, Julie's nephew and niece, wearing the contents of their show bags. Click the photo for a larger version.
A very special document from 1963 that illustrates some then commonly held notions about women in senior public service positions. Download the document in PDF format.


Angela Catterns, Julie and Denise Robertson, a passionate ABC Radio National listener, after the 40th Walk Against Want for Oxfam Australia in Victoria Park, Sydney on Sunday 12 March 2006. Julie and Angela were the MCs for this final walk.
The nine images below are by Alex Craig (c) 2006. Click on each image to open a new window displaying a larger version. Close the window to return to this page.
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Julie McCrossin and Nick Di Candilo, Project Officer for The Fred Hollows Foundation's Indigenous program, enjoy a swim at Edith Falls. Julie McCrossin spent nine days on The Fred Hollows Foundation's See Australia Challenge 2005 in the Northern Territory.
Click on each image below to open a new window displaying a larger version. Close the window to return to this page. Photos courtesy of www.hollows.org/photolibrary/.
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Read about Julie's trip in PDF format.
In 2001 Julie travelled to a remote village in Papua New Guinea with Oxfam Community Aid Abroad and gave many media interviews on her return to explain the work of Oxfam with the local people.
Download Conscious Living article in PDF format.
Working on Good News Week provided the opportunity for some less than usual media coverage, such as music culture magazine Juice's cover story. There are more photos further down.
"Leading the rebellion against sanitised smiles and plastic bodies, McCrossin's presence on the idiot box offers an intelligent and refreshing alternative to theblow-up doll girls who keep male variety hosts company.
If you have the capacity to make people laugh, you get a lot more leeway about how you look on the television and I think that this is a relief for people. People are prepared to pay a higher price for comedy, explains the feisty McCrossin on comedy's great equalising ability. Comedy is one of the rare places in television that your looks are not a primary determinate."
text by Catherine Caines and images by Sandy Nicholson (c) Terraplane Press 1999
Here's a link to an interesting perspective on what happened to Good News Week.
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click on each photo for more detail
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