Haunted Hills, Cemetery Road and a Brisbane woman’s life as a goth – Brisbane Times

Ms Perry-Stephen loved reading horror books and was fascinated by archaeology.

She and her family moved to Caboolture, north of Brisbane, in 1982. Four years later, the then 13-year-old, who wore only black and had a mohawk, felt like she didn't belong.

So the black-clad teen began travelling regularly to Brisbane to be part of the goth scene.

"Back then, you were a full-on goth if you had a totally white face, thick black eye shadow and eyeliner, black rouge on cheeks, black lipstick and long black nails," she said.

"We'd all sit at Hungry Jack's at the circle in the '80s and punks and skinheads would have full-on punch-ups in the botanical gardens."

Ms Perry-Stephen said that era was a frightening time to be part of a subculture. The Fitzgerald Report into police misconduct and corruption, which resulted in the jailing of three former ministers and a police commissioner and ushered in sweeping reforms to policing in Queensland, wasn't delivered until July 1989.

Joanne Perry-Stephen would wear white face powder, dark black eyeliner and black clothes.

"You could be picked on because you were different," she said."Police could pick you up and ask what you're doing and search you.

"You had to be careful walking with more than two people because you could have gotten arrested for protesting.

"That's why it was natural you discovered people like you when that happens ...

"You find your tribe."

Ms Perry-Stephen has been active in the goth community, sharing her interests in witchcraft, voodoo and death.

She launched the Carpathian Magistrates Vampyre Society in 1993, and during the '80s, '90s and mid-2000s, ran the Bloodlust Ball, where about 500 goths banded together.

"I am a very proud goth. I was born in black and I'm going to die in black," she said.

"It's a pretty bad time to be a goth in Queensland though because the community has gotten smaller and well, the heat is a challenge in itself.

"Years ago, we used to get clothes from op shops but now the clothes we wear are commercialised.

Joanne Perry-Stephen began coming to Brisbane as a teen to join the goth scene.

"It has become more mainstream and a little more socially acceptable now ...

"People tend not to run away screaming."

The mother-of-three who owns two cats, one of them black,said her interest in death was what led her to her career as an education and training co-ordinator.

"The gothic culture is very fascinated about death," she said."I'm in aged care now and I'm interested in palliative care and caring for the older community because I want them all to have a good death.

"Goths gather on the eighth of August for Dying To Know Day, and there are death cafes around.

"We're all interested in death rituals, the grieving process and how to help people.

"Our culture was hidden away and made secret, but there are goths everywhere."

Asked whether her children would escape the goth culture, Ms Perry-Stephen said her 14-year-old was already following in her footsteps.

Jocelyn Garcia is a journalist at the Brisbane Times, covering breaking news.

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Haunted Hills, Cemetery Road and a Brisbane woman's life as a goth - Brisbane Times

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