Content area
Full Text
OUTSPOKEN FORMER TOOWOOMBA MAYOR DIANNE THORLEY HAS ACCEPTED A NEW CHALLENGE IN TASMANIA'S HUON VALLEY
WHEN publican Dianne Thorley broke up a fight outside her tavern in Franklin, dressed in her pyjamas, patrons of the Huon Valley pub experienced first-hand the former Toowoomba mayor's formidable character.
The 58-year-old was watching television in her room at the back of the Lady Franklin Hotel when the fight broke out.
"It was between a couple of lads and they soon went on their merry way," Thorley says. "There's only been two fights since I've been here, it's generally pretty quiet."
Thorley was indomitable during her three terms as mayor of Toowoomba. Her campaign to recycle the town's sewage water won her national fame and divided the community when the federal government forced her to hold a referendum on drinking recycled water in 2006.
It was a bitter and at times personal fight, which Thorley ultimately lost when the town voted no. But the brash and straight-talking Queenslander insists her experience as mayor was the making of her.
"It was amazing. I got death threats and my electricity was cut off [in the lead up to the referendum]," Thorley says.
"But you learn a lot about yourself in trying times. I didn't realise I had so much courage.
"Toowoomba is of the soul. It was the growing up of this woman who was a drivelling idiot into a courageous, passionate advocate for the community."
Thorley was a "distraught and emotional wreck" when she arrived in Toowoomba 22 years ago as a single mother and victim of an abusive relationship.
Determined to make good for her family, she lied her way into a cooking job at a pub, worked her way into restaurants and eventually began a catering...