Norma Green — Coochiemudlo Gem

By Christine Leonard

One morning in May 2024, I was lucky to find myself on the verandah of Norma Green’s Owl Cottage in Tagaruba Street, revisiting happy memories and earlier days on Coochie with Norma Green and two special friends, Margaret Andersen and Lindy Dodd. Small talk buzzed around the table only to be returned in a volley of tall tales lubricated by cups of tea, coffee and biscuits.

Norma Green in the Coochiemudlo Island library, c. 2021. Photo courtesy of Coochiemudlo Island Heritage Society.

According to Lindy, there was a time when Norma was ‘deadly’ on a bicycle. Many a morning, Norma could be heard saying, ‘I’ve lost my glasses!’ Norma and Bruce Green regularly caught up with friends for beachside BBQs opposite where the Beach Bar is today. Norma would often arrive on her bike in a fluster like the time she announced, ‘I’ve just dropped all my onions in the ditch!’ Managing to save one she produced a tray of meatballs, opening them up with a flourish before—PING! They landed on the sand. Not one to waste, Norma picked them up and scattered them around the hot plate.

‘After having a meal at so and so’s, we used to walk past this house with two big dogs who lived behind a high thick hedge,’ Linday recounted. ‘Norma would sneak up to the hedge, jump up and go “blllluurrrrgh”, The dogs went crazy. One night I was with her when she did it. The next thing I heard, “bugga off Norma!”’Lindy reckons she didn’t stop laughing for the first five years she was here.

Before coming to Coochiemudlo Island, Norma Ward managed a warehouse for Balder, a large electrical company at Seven Hills in Sydney. Her cousin lived at Tanah Merah in outer Brisbane, and Norma visited during her annual holidays. During her time in Queensland, she would drop into AB Controls, a company that Baldor had dealings with. One year, the boss at AB Controls offered Norma a job.

With her second marriage behind her, Norma moved to Coochiemudlo in 1992. This was before Bruce and his previous wife bought their Coochie holiday house Cedar Cottage. I asked Norma how she met Bruce, which brought a smile and a faraway look. Norma’s memory might not have been as reliable as it once was, but when it came to Bruce, the years fell away. ‘I was sitting here on a Saturday when I saw him mowing his lawn. Hmmm… he’s not bad looking, a bit short, could be army. Next thing, he comes down. There were no fences then.’

Bruce looked up. ‘Hullo, I’m Bruce Green. I’ve just moved in and thought I’d introduce myself.’

Norma said, ‘Well, Bruce, I’m having a beer. It’s a hot afternoon; would you care to have one?’ Norma thought the skid marks were still embedded in her driveway. ‘We formed a friendship—it was love at first sight.’

Norma and Bruce had both been married twice before; Bruce had two sons, Norma—two daughters. When they tied the knot in March 1999, the year of the Matthew Flinders Bicentenary Queensland, they laughed, knowing it was ‘third time lucky for both.’

The Greens were lifelong supporters of the Coochiemudlo Island Progress Association (CIPA), a story for another day. The annual Octoberfest, Friday meat raffles, Flinders Day, Halloween activities for the kids and shopping trips were just some of the popular events on Coochie’s calendar. The first year Progress ran the Octoberfest they had 40 entries, including from other islands. It was very competitive, Norma recalled. T-shirts were made and sold, there were prizes galore, and the judging took place at the Community Hall around lunchtime, followed by a party and BBQ.

Friday night meat raffles, which ran for about 14 years, and other fundraisings helped purchase a defibrillator for the ambulance and a course for one of the Island nurses, amongst many other things designed to benefit the Island community. This prompted another interjection from Lindy. ‘My kids came running home one Saturday morning, “There’s a poisoner on the island! There’s all this meat lying on the road for the dogs!”’ It wasn’t a poisoner. An individual who shall remain nameless had won the meat tray the night before. He was very unsteady on his feet when he collected his prize and as he staggered home, shoulders weary and unreliable, sausages rolled and steaks slipped out of the meat tray, leaving a trail behind him.

People who knew him well called Bruce ‘Biggles’. He used to own a license to fly, and one night over a cask of wine, someone said, ‘You’re a Biggles.’ Things like that stuck, and when Bruce started up an island newsletter, he called it Biggle’s Bugle. The Coochiemudlo Island Heritage Society has several copies visitors can read. Bruce supported Norma in all her ventures and was very proactive when it came to the issues he cared about. He instigated a Neighbourhood Watch on Coochie and was a regular writer to newspaper editors. Norma was often called Snorm—a shortcut for ‘oh, here’s Norm.’

The lead-up to the Flinders Bicentenary Queensland in 1999 started two years before, with a local committee formed under the auspices of CIPA, having received a $20,000 grant.

Long-time island identity Prof. John Pearn was Chair of the Centenary Committee and John was happy to put forward the names to represent Coochiemudlo on its local planning committee. As president of CIPA, Norma Green commandeered Margaret Andersen as coordinator of the Coochiemudlo Flinders Festival committee, which also included Bev Holcroft as market coordinator and Ted Jones, who played Matthew Flinders for the past 17 years. These people were integral to the festival’s success, along with the outstanding support of 40 local volunteers. The Bicentenary Festival represented some 30 coordinated events tied together by a reenactment voyage of the Replica Sloop, HM Norfolk, entering Moreton Bay on 15 July 1999. This event also coincided with the 50th Anniversary celebrations of Redland Shire Council. It was a huge undertaking for the committee and volunteers but also for the Island’s permanent population at the time, which was around 400.

Norma and Margaret won Australia Day awards for their efforts. CIPA won a Redland Tourism Award for Best Community Event, which was presented at a major event in Cleveland by the then-mayor Eddie Santaguilana. This two-day event, two years in the making, with HM Norfolk anchored off Coochiemudlo’s Norfolk Beach for 24 hours, warrants a separate story. Norma’s volunteering continued after CIPA, after which she spent many more years volunteering with the Island library.

In the mid-2000s, Bruce Green was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which saw Norma nursing him for as long as she could before he passed away in hospital in January 2018. Norma described Bruce as a wonderful man, kind-hearted, an officer and a gentleman.

Coochiemudlo lost Norma Green in August 2024, and like her beloved Bruce, she did not want a service. Norma’s Coochie life was celebrated on Norfolk Beach on 31 August with more tall tales, a few laughs, and toasts of good cheer lubricated by something more festive than cups of tea, coffee and biscuits.

Videos: Norma talks about the early days

Coochiemudlo Island Heritage Society opened its History Room one morning in August 2018 to hear Norma Green, a long time island resident, share her memories of Coochie and the Progress Association. The full video has been cut into three parts.