ONE of Mount Isa's leading ladies has taken pen to paper and written the story of her life in the North West.
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Pat Fennell has many feathers in her cap and was instrumental in the establishment of the live animal trade, which added hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian economy each year.
The decision to write What you can do with Twenty Quid began as a desire to have a lasting record for family, especially her grandchildren, of the life her and her husband Mark had led in the outback throughout the years.
``I often hear people say `I wish old mum had written that down' or `I wish old dad had put that in writing' because, as the generations come on, life changes so quickly, so I wanted my children to see a portrayal of what life was like out there 55 years ago,'' she said.
``We have a very big family and I felt that a lot of the grandchildren were now living away from me so I wasn't able to share a lot of those stories that I did with the earlier ones when they were with us.
``I felt they were missing out on something that maybe in later years they would be very interested to know.''
After raising and home-schooling four children, along with Aboriginal children in the community, Fennell dedicated every spare minute to committees and rural issues throughout the region.
Agricultural politics, conservation, women's rights and rural rights have always been important to Fennell, and her determination to address these issues has led to some incredible achievements.
In 1988, Fennell joined the Cattlemen's Union of Australia and later became the first female president of the Mount Isa branch.
With a thorough understanding of life on the land and issues affecting graziers, Fennell was the first woman to be elected as a representative of the Cattle Council of Australia.
Fennell said life on the land was at times both exciting and heartbreaking, and the passion she had for the way of life was echoed throughout the book.
``We have had an interesting life,'' she said.
``Anyone that gets really involved in the grazing industry is going to have a roller coaster of a ride.
``If your only interest is grazing and you put your whole life into it, you are going to have ups and downs, because sometimes you have got fat cattle and the market is no good that year, sometimes you have poor cattle and the market is booming and you have nothing to sell.
``Then you have fat cattle, the season is good, and the overseas market is not working.
``You are controlled by so many things.
``At the same time it is an exciting way to live and it is quite exciting when you are young, but as you get older the excitement dims a little, because you worry more.''
Agriculture aside, the book is interspersed with tales of love and loss, experienced throughout the life of Mark and Pat Fennell, and in parts reads like an old-fashioned love story set in the Queensland Outback.
It begins with two children born in the town of Charleville, one born to a grazing family and one to an ordinary working family in the town.
Fennell said it was a long and difficult journey for both her and Mark before they married.
``Right from the beginning, there was a division between our two cultures, because in those days, graziers were quite a different type of people - they were sort of the aristocracy,'' she said.
``The labourers and people in town were just the town people and there was a great divide between the two - not animosity, but a divide.''
Married at the age of 18 to an older man who was very fond of a drink, Fennell had a daughter before seeking a divorce.
``I soon realised there wasn't any future with this guy, it had been a schoolgirl crush on an older man and I woke up, in other words,'' she said.
``He didn't beat me, but he used to drink and I was always an ambitious girl and I was determined to get out of the poverty I was brought up in.''
Mark Fennell eventually came back on the scene and it seems their destiny to be together was finally revealed.
``We got back together when my little girl was about 15 months old and in later years Mark told me I was 13 when he saw me and he knew I was the girl he was going to marry,'' she said.
``It is amazing how constant some people can be.
``He came to the skating rink with his friend from school and he said `now, that's the day I knew I was going to marry you Patsy, you had a red skirt and a white jumper and white boots', and he was right.
``He told me that years after we were married.''
Fennell said the book had been a labour of love, and tells the tale of the exciting and sometimes frightening times of life on the land, with some issues as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.
The story is rich with characters interwoven in the tapestry of the Fennells' lives throughout the years and Fennell said she hoped it would help to share her heritage with her family and the wider community.
``I have had a very, very good life and I wanted to put it down for the kids, in a realistic way, warts and all, it is there,'' she said.
What you can do with Twenty Quid by Pat Fennell is available now at McCarthys Newsagency and MacRae News in Mount Isa.