Vale Rosslyn

“Lamed Wufniks are, without knowing it, the secret pillars of the universe. Were it not for them, God would annihilate the whole of mankind. Unawares, they are our saviors.” – Jorge Luis Borges, ‘Book of imaginary beings’.

Rosslyn Price runs a flower shop in Edith Street in Wynnum called Aaalora. At least that’s what it looks like from the outside. In the back of the shop there was a constant flow of people at risk coming for help. Rosslyn’s phone rang intermittently between people coming and going in the front of the shop. She would make you a sandwich or give you a cup of tea. She would dispense advice about some court action, or about a housing problem, she would scheme and help people avoid getting into the clutches of the public guardian or the corrupt public trustee. People would be doing odd jobs at the back of the shop: like delivering flowers, ironing clothes. There was a steady stream of people coming in with the cold draft of air through the back door. Rosslyn had been made homeless by the public trustee so she camped in the back of the shop.

Some might say it didn’t have to be this way, that she need not be homeless, that she could have gone on the dole or apply for public housing. This was largely fanciful given the lack of public housing and the refusal of governments to lower the price of rent. But there may be some truth in what people say. Ros had lost her flower farm on Chambers Flat Road to the bank. The council had rezoned the land as flood plain making it worthless. They probably made her bankrupt when she stopped paying off her mortgage. What was the point of trying to rebuild the flower farm when a flood could destroy it all again. Bernie offered Rosslyn an option. “Come and stay with Ross Taylor in his house at Sunnybank; he’s grieving for his wife; has had a heart attack and is not looking after himself, barely eating” Bernie told Ros.

Bernie Neville had taken me out to visit Rosslyn at her farm at Jimboomba, Ros had been deserted by her husband. Her daughter and son had grown up. Rosslyn introduced me to her goat, Billy. Bernie and Rosslyn had something in common. That was public trustee of Queensland, Peter Carne, or Peter Can’t as Bernie used to call him. The public trustee was railroading Roslyn’s mother out of a 100-year-old family home at Beaudesert. The public trustee had failed Bernie’s friend, Ross Taylor, and allowed the bank to take AHIMSA (Peace) house at 26 Horan Street in West End. Both Roslyn’s mum and Bernie’s friend Ross were deemed to have lacked capacity. Queensland Civil Administration Tribunal (QCAT) had ruled that they did not have the ability to manage their own financial affairs. That responsibility was given to the Public Trustee. QCAT ordered that their personal health issues were to be placed under the control of the Public Guardian. So Roz’s aged mother was removed from Beaudesert where she had spent her whole life. Mrs Price was taken up the north coast, far from where her community support was. Bernie’s friend Ross was abducted from his family home by a contractor working for the Public Guardian and the Public Trustee. Ross was placed in detention at Alexandra Headlands in a facility run by the RSL for people with severe dementia. So Roslyn and Bernie joined forces and with others began a group called ‘Expose the Public Trustee‘. The corruption proved to be widespread and became a national scandal after an ABC program Four Corners showed how the Public Trustee was milking people’s life savings by charging exorbitant fees and mismanaging people’s financial affairs.

However this was not all that Bernie and Rosslyn had in common. Bernie was a cable jointer at SEQEB when linesmen were sacked by the Bjelke-Peterson government in 1985. After school, Rosslyn worked at the ANZ bank in a small regional town. She learnt about how to look after money, about finance, about some basic legal principles. Rosslyn like Bernie was embued with a sense of justice. Ros read the bible whereas Bernie read about Wooblies and Marxists.

They were both hard workers who had decided to run against mainstream complacence. They gave up on the boss and saw the trickle down as a sham. Rosslyn and Bernie were clever. Hard to put on a leash, as both bosses, union leaders, and city bureaucrats were to find out. This is their story. Stop there. Don’t try looking them up in the Dictionary of Biography. They are not deemed to have had significant lives. Yet appearances can be deceptive. They may have been scarred by a former life. They may have been left fatherless at a young age. They have suffered trauma and abuse, perhaps beaten by a spouse, sacked by the boss, thumped by a copper, assaulted by a strike breaker. This is their story, they were poor, but could fight hard, though in appearance they were both thin and small.

Through their industry, these two are the kind of people who enable the world to run smoothly. They give a hand when it is most needed. Sure, they are rebels, but many a workplace and community has been made safe because of their efforts, gone unnoticed. Our protagonists may have been forced to break the law, but they are not criminals. They do not tell lies. They don’t dob in their mates.

They were artists, Bernie with words and Ros with her flowers. They attracted people like them to take up the fight. Both were self-taught, they had learnt a trade but been forced out by economic downturn and profiteering by banks, big business. In a crisis they were both sober people, they certainly were not sheep. But people do not know who they are. Or what they have done. They do not fit any stereotype. They did recognise a kindred spirit, they were like stray dogs, lost. What purpose they had was hidden from many. They were like the Lamed Wufniks. When asked they were likely to say I am a human being, I do not follow leaders.

Rosslyn would hitchhike up to her mother in an age care facility on the north coast each weekend. She would attend to her mother making sure she was well looked after.

Early on Monday, 24 July 2023, I received a text from a close friend of Rosslyn: “Would you please ring me Roz is critically ill, so I want to bring you up to speed.” Apparently Rosslyn had collapsed at her shop after an asthma attack. Ros texted her friend Jackie who is a liaison officer at the local aboriginal health centre (currently on leave). Her SMS said “I can’t breathe.” Jackie texted back “Do you want me to ring an ambulance?” knowing how reluctant Rosslyn was for seeking help or assistance. She received an uncharacteristic thumbs up. Jackie and later her other friend Kylie who looks after The Eclectic Mix shop just up the road came down to help. Rosslyn was lying face down in her shop. When Jackie turned Roslyn over she was blue, deprived of oxygen, Jackie administered CPR and soon after the ambulance arrived and tried to resuscitate her, administering adrenaline etc. They took Rosslyn to the PA hospital in Brisbane and on arrival in emergency she had only the faintest of breath and was in a coma. Subsequently doctors placed Rosslyn in the intensive care unit where she was put on life support to maintain her vital signs of breathing, warmth, and heart rate.

Our thoughts are with her, her daughter Marion and her son, Cornell. Whatever happens they had a remarkable, strong woman for a mother. There is a lot more positive stuff that could be said about Rosslyn but I will leave it to others. Put your thoughts in the comments section down below if you wish and if you feel able at this sad time.

Rosslyn passed away today at 11:30am. We will never forget her. Out of respect, this Saturday’s meeting of the Committee to Expose the Public Trustee has been postponed.

Ian Curr
26 July 2023

Postscript

“It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.” – George Orwell in Down and out in Paris and London.

I attended a funeral yesterday in Wynnum (Aboriginal word for the fruit of the bread tree). Over 300 people turned up, many of them homeless. This was a tribute to Rosslyn who had decided the only way to understand homelessness was to become homeless. Some may consider this an extreme step. Some at the funeral pointed to her homelessness as being a significant factor in her dying at such a young age. Ros was born in 1956.

Rosslyn died as a result of complications from an asthma attack. This was the third severe attack she had had in the past year. It made friends and family very concerned for Ros ‘s health and safety.

One of the reasons so many people turned up to Ros ‘s funeral was that she was involved in three diverse organisations that touch the lives of ordinary people: (1) Rosies – Friends on the Street (2) Orange Sky Laundry (3) Committee to expose the public trustee.

There were many people at the funeral who had connections with these organisations. There were many homeless and ‘at risk’ people present. The priest at the funeral came from Logan city where Rosslyn had a flower farm when her children were growing up. The priest had been the principal at their school. As Wynnum is becoming more gentrified, poorer people have been forced out to Logan city where the housing crisis is at its peak. The Australian treasurer, Dr Jim Chalmers, represents Rankin, the seat that covers Logan City in the federal parliament.

Even Dr Chalmers’ staff members lament the housing crisis exacerbated by successive federal governments and their counterparts in the states. The main weapon against inflation is popularly understood as being the Reserve Bank raising rates of interest. However the main weapon being used against inflation has been the driving down of real wages and policies that increase unemployment. You will not hear economists saying the real reason for inflation is the exorbitant profits made by capitalist enterprises. ‘Greed is still good’ in the minds of the rich and those who represent them.

One avenue for people’s anger, currently being explored, is to protest the policies of the federal Labor government. However protest has its limitations. It is unlikely to have much affect on this government or any government that replaces it while the underlying causes of poverty, homelessness, and lack of public housing remain. Rosslyn was right to identify homelessness and exorbitant rent and mortgages as a dominant feature in the lives of ordinary people. Ros chose her path of how to fight this.

Ros ‘s friends laid these flowers outside her shop in Wynnum as a tribute to her.

Ian Curr
3 Aug 2023

Gary White says:

It was 2 years ago to the day today that the decision was made to turn off Rosslyn Price Mirciov’s life support as her life could not be saved. This was after she had suffered a severe asthmatic attack 2 days earlier, on July 24th 2023, which had left her unable to breathe and made it necessary for her to be rushed to hospital.

Rosslyn was generally regarded as the matriarch of the anti- guardianship movement in Australia and was particularly held in high esteem in both QLD and NSW where she had been an administrator in both those states groups up until the time of her passing. Her death came as a shock to many as Rosslyn was only 66 years old, was still very active, and had played down her two previous asthmatic attacks as being only minor and
nothing to worry about.

However, I was not shocked as I had been with her when she suffered her second attack, which occurred 11 months prior to her third and fatal one, and had seen just how serious these attacks were. We had been in Brisbane’s Queen St Mall at the time when she suddenly became unable to breathe or move and an ambulance had had to be called to take her to hospital. I had expressed my views to her back then that some lifestyle changes were needed but she would have none of it.

For those who might not have known, Rosslyn was also very active in the work of her two favourite charities, Orange Sky and Rosies and the support they provided the homeless.
To better identify with these people, Rosslyn chose to live a homeless life herself. However, at her age and being an asthmatic, sleeping out in the open and cold at night
had serious consequences on her health. It was no coincidence that all 3 serious attacks that she suffered occurred during winter months but her response to me was that the Lord would look after her.

Rosslyn’s passing has been a massive loss to the anti-guardianship movement generally and to the Greater Brisbane region in particular as it was she who organised the support that was given by having members attend each others QCAT hearings and seeing that the QLD group’s own regular monthly meetings always took place. She did this even when under attack or where there were those otherwise trying to make things difficult for her and her group’s effectiveness. Her response was to say that there was always a place for them in her group and that she would welcome them back if they wanted to make a positive contribution.

Rosslyn was truly a remarkable lady who was seen as Mother by so many people, both within our movement and amongst the homeless communities around Brisbane generally. We are thinking of you at this time, Rosslyn. You are sorely missed. God bless you.

Gary White

Received July 2025