The Journal of Australian Ceramics Vol 49 No 3 November 2010
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Tribute<br />
1 left to right: Martha, Trudie and Selma<br />
Photo: courtesy family archive<br />
2 Trudie Alfred, Potters' Society Biennial<br />
Exhibition, Potters' Gallery, Sydney; photo:<br />
Douglas Thompson; Pottery in Australia,<br />
<strong>Vol</strong> 10, <strong>No</strong> 2, Spring 1971<br />
3 Trudie Alfred; photo: courtesy family<br />
archive<br />
passage w ith her husband. Selma's one desire was to see her family reunited and safe, far from wartorn<br />
Europe. <strong>The</strong> couple settled in the small town <strong>of</strong> Ravenshoe, high in the Atherton tablelands in Far<br />
<strong>No</strong>rth Queensland. <strong>The</strong>y eventually were able to set up their own business, a small restaurant providing<br />
decent meals to the local timber mill workers and cane cutters. Selma kept in contact with Trudie via<br />
mail and after the war managed to locate their eldest sister, Martha, who miraculously had survived the<br />
concentration camps.<br />
Selma, being able to <strong>of</strong>fer them jobs at the restaurant, sponsored Trudie and Martha's migration<br />
to Australia. Grateful as she was to Selma, Trudie hated it at Ravenshoe. She missed the stimulating<br />
conversations she'd had in Oxford and above all, the arts - the classical music she loved, the theatre, the<br />
literature, the fine arts, all <strong>of</strong> which were in short supply in Ravenshoe. <strong>The</strong> restaurant was sold in 1950<br />
and Trudie moved to Cairns and then Surfers Paradise where she met and fell in love with Gary Alfred,<br />
an Irish poet with a love for partying, pubs and reciting Oscar Wilde. Together they moved to a cottage<br />
at Kurrajong Heights, in Sydney's outer suburbs, .<br />
<strong>The</strong>ir bohemian life continued, filled with friendships, poetry, theatre and music. For a while, Trudie<br />
worked for a small pottery factory, Vande Pottery in Mosman, under Sam Vandesluis. <strong>The</strong> work was<br />
mainly slipcasting and decorating, but there was a wheel and Trudie threw pots in her spare time.<br />
Vandesluis planted cactus in her pots to sell, but soon her pots were more popular than the cactus. In<br />
addition, Trudie and Gary started a small business together, selling advertisi ng space round dartboards in<br />
pubs.<br />
THE JOURNAL OF AUSTRALIAN CERAMICS NOVEMBER <strong>2010</strong> 11
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