Monika is a Melbourne based writer and researcher. Life’s intricacies and curiosities inspire her to write and give voice to stories and communities that struggle to be heard, particularly those from abject and marginalised communities.
“So gentle and considerate, honest and touching. Very heartfelt...” --- “What a wonderful read!!!! ---
“So gentle and considerate, honest and touching. Very heartfelt...” --- “What a wonderful read!!!! ---
My dad built me the best and wackiest cubby ever
“As a parent, I wish I had this book many years ago…” Professor Pat McGorry AO, Orygen
A timely and compassionate story about a child and father setting out to build a cubbyhouse under streaming sunshine. Until clouds snake in on a hazing horizon… skies swell, a clouding storm brews and finally breaks and swirls into pouring rains and eventually subsides. All the while, the cubby grows wackier, with the rustiest of riches that rattle and rule! This is all a metaphor for the father’s mental ill health that gently aligns with the building of the cubby and changing weather.
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The faraway land of the house and two cows
Released July 2022
Sewerage ghost towns. They exist. Just ask Sorrowing Father, Dear Daughter and Blackened boy, and Yankee doodle dandy that smiles with the eyes and his shadowy mate. They and other characters tell the untold and unique story of the community once living on a sewerage farm for around 100 years, alongside sewage lagoons and land filtration and grass filtration paddocks being watered 24 hours a day with Melbourne’s sewage. THE FARAWAY LAND OF THE HOUSE AND TWO COWS is a story like no other, told through a timeless reality.
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Published Works
The Metropolitan Sewerage Farm community
Abandonment, scattered remains in knee-high weeds, a place that once thrived in human activity and was far grander than the relics left behind, where complete homes of yesterday rest buried deep beneath the earth…
The belonging in abject communities: a new understanding through sewerage ghost towns
An article about sewerage town communities in Australia and the UK and specifically, the community that grew on Melbourne’s Metropolitan Sewerage Farm. It highlights that sewerage town communities are inclusive and highly connected, and even the murk of mustarding waters devoid of air but teeming in critters that thrive in the souring stench, and the poor blighter disappearing within those waters of olive and brown, can be beautiful. Insights can be applied to any marginalised or abject community and company town.
Out on the Farm
Out on the Farm is a collection of memoirs giving a glimpse into the history, personalities and science of the State Research Farm in Werribee. More than 30 past residents, workers and families connected to the Farm wrote the collection of memoirs and shared photographs from their private collections.
Consultancy and Research
Monika holds a PhD exploring engagement principles and practice in Australia and Europe, focusing on isolated and marginalised communities and particularly, industrial communities. She has more than 30 years experience working in issues rich and complex environments for the corporate, government, community, waste, water and environment sectors.
Monika has a proven record in project management and conceptualising frameworks that guide policy, strategy, research, social impact assessments, and stakeholder and partnership projects and management.
Monika presents at international forums and conferences, and gives author talks regularly.