“The separation from my husband was my toughest time but my kids, even my business kept me going and not long after, I found new love. My partner has been such a huge backer of everything I do, he’s always been so supportive, pushes me to try other things, he’s great like that.
I’ve always been really creative, always into art and everything like that. That is what got me into doing something like this, something out of the box. The mermaid idea was started in Mildura in Victoria 9 years ago.
My four-year-old daughter saw a picture of a mermaid on the internet and said ‘I want to do a photo like that.’ So, the first tail was made out of a pair of leggings with a leg cut off and drawn on the scales with a felt tip marker with a little cardboard tail and that was it. Then people saw the photo and went nuts.
I really enjoy seeing the kids get so excited; they just think it’s the best thing ever. When I had my first ever customer as a mermaid that was a really happy time just seeing that they light up and they got to live out their little dream of being a mermaid.
I’m trying to do it more over here but we seemed to have gotten here at the wrong time. We arrived here just before the fires, then covid hit, so it’s been a very slow start to get back into it. In WA I was booked a year in advance, to go from that to a couple of shoots here and there, it’s a huge change.
I was born on the island, fourth generation, and we lived on a farm out of Parndana. I left the island when I was in kindergarten or year 1 and we moved to a farm near Parrakie out in the middle of nowhere in South Australia and after that to Strathalbyn, then we travelled around Australia for a year. My Mum was a cook and my Dad was a shearer and we ended up in WA when I was around 15.
Just recently, my partner and I decided to have a fresh start. I had the opportunity to come back home and so we moved and live in Kingscote now.
We love it here, we don’t even like going to the mainland. It is so quiet here, so laid back and in Adelaide it is so crazy. Our kids definitely love living here, my son is a huge fishing child, loves anything to do with fish. We definitely hope to stay.”
If you or you child want to be a mermaid on KI one day, contact Fiona here:https://www.facebook.com/CoastMermaids
