Numulgi resident Lyn Armanasco is a lover of gardening, books and horses whose life has taken some surprising twists. Here she shares her story with Sara Browne.

Dad’s dad was Italian, from Tovo di Sant’Agata, up north in Italy. Mum died in 1999, Dad in 2005. Technically, I’m the only child. I found out in 2007, because someone challenged the will, that I was actually adopted. I was 55. I lived all that time not knowing.

I was born in Perth. Jigsaw in Perth did a lot of work. I found out I had a half-sister who died, she was 11 years older. I’ve got nieces, nephews, cousins – we’re Irish. My birth name was Lilliana Tracey which is a beautiful name but I’d been Lyn Armanasco too long and Mum and Dad brought me up and I loved them dearly. Anyway, my birth mother came over here. I found out I had a half-brother and I did actually get to meet him in Adelaide before he died. I’ve got nieces and nephews there too.

It was awful when I found out. I got something from the solicitors, an affidavit from this person who was challenging the will. She was getting money in the will anyway – dad’s mistress, mum and dad had separated years before – she wanted more money. Anyway, she was challenging it and it just said ‘I believe Lyn Armanasco is adopted.’ So, I phoned my cousin in Perth – Jose, who is still my cousin I reckon because we love each other – and she promptly burst into tears. Then I got really angry with her. I did phone back the next day and apologise and said why didn’t you tell me? My husband found a nice bottle of wine and opened it and just kept pouring.

I thought I’d lost my history. The interesting thing for me is finding this whole new history. There was me, an only child, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t. Good excuse to go to England and meet them all. I’ve been over several times and they’ve come over to visit me. I’ve met my Adelaide nephew and two nieces. We were going to travel a bit more to each other’s places but of course, then the virus interrupted.

How I ended up here in the Northern Rivers was really through my husband, Steve. We met in Tasmania, the Huon Valley. He was a journalist and I’d just got a new job managing the Neighbourhood House. I used to manage aged and disability care for Glenorchy Council because I went to uni there. 

I did a BA and then a graduate diploma in Social Science in administration, mainly because I was working for the feds - federal government - and I thought it would be handy to know what I was doing. I was working on lots of projects there and some good programs came up. I was there for quite a few years then moved down to the Huon.

Steve was a journalist and worked for the radio station and wanted to interview me. We worked on some projects together. While I worked in aged and disability care, I’d done counselling training. I don’t work as a counsellor but I’ve trained in death, depression and dementia. They were my main areas, sounds awful doesn’t it. But of course, in 1996, every counsellor went down to Port Arthur so I had to deal with all the local work. After that, I thought it was time for me to travel.

The kids were at uni in Melbourne – Favel and James. James was doing Fine Arts - he’s a sculptor. Favel is an author, although she came to that a bit later.

I had a farewell party and I remember Steve said ‘oh I’m going to miss you mate’ and I just looked at him and said ‘why don’t you come?’. And he did. We’ve been together ever since. That was 20-something years ago.

We stayed in Melbourne for a little while with my dad. Dad was 81 and still had five horses in training. That’s what Steve and I were doing until dad retired. I’d grown up with horses.

We were going to Brisbane to visit Steve’s family and we were thinking about buying land. I said ‘what about Toowoomba?’ and I could see the look on Steve’s face, he thought there were better places. He was born in Brisbane and as a young guy he used to come across the border with all his friends to this area, this is where they used to hang out. He knew the area really well. He said ‘I’ll just show you this place’. It was Numulgi. I said ‘that’s it isn’t it”. We bought the block of land and went back to Melbourne to stay for a few months. Then we moved back up. We had to get some money together so we rented in Dunoon for a few years then finally built our house. It’s on five acres.

Dad and his best friend and business partner bought a stud farm way back in 1965. His business partner Alf – his son and I – still run Sandown Lodge. We breed thoroughbreds but we have them at different studs in Victoria and NSW. I personally don’t have horses on my property.

Our land was ex-dairy land but we’ve planted 2500 native trees. We have an acre just around the house clear but everything else is trees. We do have carpet snakes. We get the occasional brown. We get so many birds because we’ve planted lots of grevilleas so native birds, the ones that like the nectar. This morning I was being nagged because the birdbath was empty. So, I walked out and all the birds went off as if to say ‘can you fill the bath please.’ They’re not scared of me, they know us now to a degree. Filled the bath and turned to walk away and there were three of them in there…’about time lady’.

I was married when I was 19 in Melbourne. I had Favel when I was 22 and James when I was 24. We were married 11 years, I was 30 when the marriage broke up. I’d always wanted to go to university but when I was younger, dad didn’t think girls needed to go to uni. I was quite good at art and history. I loved history at school. He got me an apprenticeship with an interior decorator in South Yarra which was ok but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. So, I stuck that out and got married and had babies.

Then I thought, I’m going to go to university and the best place for me to go at the time was Hobart because they had Japanese history and that was my favourite. So, I went down and rented for a while, the kids were about 8 and 10. I virtually raised them. I went to uni – it was free then – and I saved enough to buy a house because properties were quite cheap there back then. I got a supporting parents allowance. I got my degree and worked for the government and then got my post-grad.

At 15, Favel decided she wanted to go back to finish school in Melbourne with her dad. They used to go for holidays to see him. They did their final couple of years there and then went to university. They’d always come back for holidays so I still got to see a lot of them.

Both sets of grandparents adored them and supported them. I didn’t have much of a social life but I had really good friends at uni. I was older too. I’ve still got friends that I did Japanese history with. I was 31 when I started uni and one of my closest friends was 19 then. We’re still best friends. I was motivated. I did a double major – history and sociology.

Oddly enough, it was the combination of the two that got me the job with the government because I had written a paper that was an analysis of the voting patterns for Hitler in modern history but I used sociology to do the analysis. Apple Macs were just coming out and I was just learning to use computers. When I got to the interview, they asked what sort of analysis I could do and I just told them about my paper and they gave me the job. The degree did help but not necessarily in the way I’d planned.

Lyn and Steve married in Goonellabah, 2001

Technically I’m retired, but I’m still Company Director of Sandown Lodge. It’s breeding season at the moment so I’m organising all the insurance for the foals but we’ve only got five mares. I normally go down to Melbourne for races and yearling sales and things but the pandemic has interrupted that recently and I haven’t had to do that and I’m quite pleased actually.

I’d rather go to the races in Lismore. I love Lismore race club. When we first moved and we were in Dunoon, I thought I really should support the local club so I phoned up and said ‘hi I’d like to become a member, what do I do?’ The guy said, ‘we’ll get your name and address and I’ll send you forms to fill in, it will have to go to a meeting to see whether you pass or not’. He asked my name and I said ‘Lyn Armanasco and he said, ‘any relation to Angus?’ And I said yes and he said, ‘come pick up your tickets any time you want.’

 Lyn's father Angus Armanasco with jockey Roy Higgins

Dad was seven times top trainer in Victoria. They used to call him King of the Kids because two year old and three year olds he trained won all the top races – not Melbourne Cups or longer races – sprints mainly.

I’ve been around horses literally all my life. There were times I could have given it away, especially when I was about 14 and a jockey didn’t turn up for track work in the morning and dad would say, ‘come on kid we need you.’

There’s me, four o’clock in the morning, groaning, I never obeyed instructions. Of course, I could ride and I always had ponies. I’ve got a few breaks here and there, fractured collar bones. I’ve been thrown off a few times. Don’t ever try to put a pony over jumps when you haven’t got a saddle. The horse stops and you go straight over the top. I learnt that when I was 12. That was on a Saturday and mum made me go to school on the Monday. She said it was my own fault and she was actually right.

Angus Armanasco

Later on, when we were at Dads and we were looking after the five horses, they’d come in off the track and I was telling my husband what to do because he hadn’t had much to do with them in his life…he said he’d just watch me and the horses were always calm with me. These were stallions, race horses.

I came back from Hobart one Christmas to stay with Mum and Dad and help in the stables. I was getting the horses out in the yard and Dad would tell me where to put each one back in the stables. Boys and girls were working there. I brought in one horse and it reared up and lifted me a couple of feet off the ground and I just yanked on the rope and came down. Dad yelled, ‘be careful of that horse, he’s valuable.’ And I yelled back, ‘I’m you’re only child and I’m pretty bloody valuable too.’ I wasn’t frightened of them.

Dancing at the Italo Club 40s evening

This is home now. This is the longest I’ve ever lived in one place. I get up in the morning and I look out the window and I think, why would you be anywhere else? I can come into Lismore for everything. I don’t want a big department store. I walk around town and I bump into people. Not so much as the moment, since the flood. But we’ll stand there and talk for half an hour.

It takes time in a place to establish that. 22 years. We figure we may have to move later on, as we’re getting older, to a smaller place. I want to be close to Lismore. I’m hoping that’s a good few years off yet. I love Lismore.

My daughter and I did the whole block the other day, she comes up every couple of years. My son and daughter-in-law and grandkids are here now too, they’re over at Eureka. My grandson does his karate here. And roller-skating, I do hope that comes back. It’s just our place. They all love it here too, the Northern Rivers.

The environmental aspect is my religion – if I can call it that – being able to plant trees, have native birds and animals...even if they are snakes and darn bandicoots who dig up my vegetable garden. I’ll put up with them. I don’t go to church but I can sit out in my garden, in the shade, and realise I’ve been out there for an hour. It’s the best place to think. You can sit and think about chores and stuff too but then you look, what’s that bird? Or should I plant something there? Or notice some weeds that need to come out. That to me is almost a religion if you know what I mean. It also gives me inner peace, just being out there.

Recently, I was showing my daughter the old family photo album, my parents that raised me and I love them. I showed my grandkids and they were really interested and we were talking about what I’ve done in my life and what they’d like to do, not quite sure at age 10 and 13. When I was 14 we did a world trip with Mum and Dad. I showed the grandkids a photo of the hotel we stayed at, the Dorchester in London. We didn’t stay in the expensive side.

Both grandkids have been to Japan, my daughter-in-law is Japanese and they’re both fluent in Japanese. My granddaughter is interested in what I did when I travelled back then. I was allowed to do things that you wouldn’t allow kids to do now. I wandered around New York by myself.

Southern Ireland, 2019, village of Lismore

I actually got to sit in the Royal Box at Epsom Racecourse when I was 14. I didn’t meet the Queen! My dad trained a horse for a guy called Stanley Wooton who was originally Australian but they’d gone overseas when he was quite young. He and his brother were jockeys. He then became a trainer and he trained for the Queen. So, when we went to England, he had the lease on Epsom Racecourse and he took us to the races there.

I used her loo….I sat on the Queen’s loo. Everyone was walking past the Royal Box looking to see and wondering who the heck are they? I was waving to people because I was a cheeky 14 year old. We went to Beirut in that trip too. It was 1966. We went to the markets there. Mum and dad went out to dinner one night and I stayed in the hotel room which was fine but I don’t think I’d let a 14-year-old stay alone in a city like that now.

One of my main interests is my vegetable garden. I grow enough vegetables to feed a small army. When the flood was on and no one could get into town, I took boxes of vegies to the Dunoon doctors so people could collect them. I’d taken in a whole lot of spring onions and one dear lady said, ‘oh I really wanted some spring onions,’ she took one and started to get a bit teary. Then I said, take more and then I got teary and everyone in the waiting room got teary and we all burst out laughing. Someone said, ‘we’re crying over onions??’. No one could get into town to help, we all wanted to, so at least I could take vegies.

That’s what I do while I still can, gardening. I’ve got rheumatoid arthritis, I’ve had it since I was 27. We want to stay there as long as we can.

I really want to go back to Japan again, I’ve been there several times. After my first year at uni, January 85, the kids were with their Dad so I put on a backpack and I went to Japan. I’d just done a year of Japanese history. I travelled around. On my fridge I’ve got a photo of Fukushima, the whole town that doesn’t exist anymore. We both want to go back.

I suppose we might get back to England to see the rellies. Last time we went, which was 2019, I went to what was left of the workhouse down in Gorey where my grandfather was born. I’m still putting together family history.