October 4, 2025 • 26 mins
A super-special guest is joining Gemma at Happy Pants Headquarters this week - it's children's book author Deb Fitzpatrick!
This week, Gemma's happy pants are a waxy green that remind her of eucalyptus leaves, the sort of leaves you can crush between your fingers to get that fresh, eucalyptus smell. Deb's happy pants are a light blue denim, which make her think of the beach: sea breezes, the salty smell of the water, the sand and the blue sky...
As for what's in their happy pants pockets, there's a variety of items! For one, Deb's latest book, Tawny Trouble - and she treats us to a short reading. You'll also hear some really helpful tips from Deb for when it comes to writing your own stories and tales of her adventures in nature.
If you're in WA and can be in Fremantle on 10 October, you can have a spin on the Fremantle Wheel on Fremantle Esplanade and meet Deb on the 'Story Wheel' as part of Totally Lit Festival! Find out more and book on the Totally Lit website.
You can listen to Gemma's full interview with Deb here.
Totally Lit Festival events are happening all over Fremantle, WA from 26 September to 10 October 2025. Vision Australia Radio is a proud media partner.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:13):
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:17):
G'day, and welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially for
kids and especially for you on Vision Australia Radio. My
name is Gemma and today I'm joined by a very
special guest at Happy Pants headquarters. Her name is Deb Fitzpatrick.
She's written ten books for adults, young adults and children.
Plus is a part of the Totally Lit Festival happening
(00:39):
in Fremantle, Western Australia. Welcome, Deb. Hi, Gemma. How are
you going? Good, good. It's great to see you today.
Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. So today
my happy pants are super smooth and make a swishy
sound when I walk. They're a waxy green colour that
makes me think of eucalyptus leaves, which I love to
crunch between my fingers to enjoy the fresh eucalyptus smell. Um,
(01:03):
what are your happy pants like today, Deb?
S3 (01:05):
So my happy pants are a sort of a pale
blue striped denim that makes me think of the beach.
It makes me think of sea breezes and the salty
smell of the water and the sand and the blue sky,
and that sort of hot summer vibe. I suppose, that
(01:26):
we've just started to have here in Perth the last
couple of days.
S2 (01:29):
We have. We've had a lot of sunshine. It's been lovely. Yeah.
Before we check our happy pants pockets, I'd love to
know a bit more about you, Deb. What are your
first memories of books and stories?
S3 (01:40):
Oh, okay. So, I mean, I would have to say
my first memories of books and stories would be my
mum sitting on my bed with me, telling me stories
that she just made up. And they were very comforting
and very sweet. And then I very quickly became absolutely
(02:01):
addicted to the local library. So either the local library
or the school library. I was in one of the
two when I was at home. I would read books
of poetry. Um, mum and dad were both English. And
so we had a lot of sort of English poetry
and English books that had been sent over by family
members that I would read over and over again. So
(02:22):
I fell in love with A.A. Milne and other, you know,
writers like that. Um, and then just loved the library.
I as I got older and became a primary school
student and then a high school student, I loved the library.
S2 (02:36):
When did you start writing your own stories?
S3 (02:38):
Um, well, I started writing poetry when I was in
primary school, so in about grade five, I remember a teacher.
Her name was Mrs. Pugh, and she said that she
really liked my poetry. And she would send some home
to mum and dad, which was sort of embarrassing, but
in a good way. And then as I went into
high school, I continued with the poetry and I had
another amazing teacher who really supported supported me, and she
(03:02):
again went above and beyond and helped me sort of self-publish,
if you like, a little book of of poems, which
was rather badly called Frozen Tears, which you know, is
so angsty. Classic teenager stuff, right? But, um, stories didn't
come to me until I was in university.
S2 (03:20):
Mm. And whereabouts do you find inspiration for your stories,
your poems and books that you've written?
S3 (03:25):
So I am really, um, not one of those people
who has an amazing imagination. I don't have one of
those JK Rowling style fantastical imaginations. Uh, and as a
result of that, I looked to the world around me
for my inspiration. And most of my stories have come
from a variety of things that I've experienced myself or
(03:47):
witnessed or heard about from the real world. I always
tell kids when I go into classrooms, if they're thinking
about what they might like to write about. For me,
that always just comes back to what you most care
about and what interests you. So the things that you're
reading about in books, like I had a real fascination
for sharks at some point in my early years, and
I read every book about sharks from the library. I
(04:09):
would encourage kids who who are doing that to write
about sharks in a creative way.
S2 (04:15):
And any other tips that you'd give them to help
them with their storytelling. So following their passion, reading everything
they can about sharks, if that's their passion.
S3 (04:23):
Yeah, having a crack. So starting to put words on
the page, which is much harder than you would than
one would think, because you imagine that they will flow
in a way that they don't always. And so that
crafting is quite tricky. Tricky. But the other thing I'd
say to kids is to know that what they think
and feel is really valuable and really valid to write about.
S2 (04:43):
So speaking of the natural environment that you referred to
before that you enjoy so much, I heard that you
once lived in the jungle in Costa Rica.
S3 (04:50):
Yeah.
S2 (04:51):
Wow.
S3 (04:52):
Can you tell us a little about that? Well, I
can barely believe it. You know, really, even now, 20
years later, it was in the. Actually, it was in
the cloud forest, which is, um, about 1500m above sea level. Wow.
S2 (05:04):
And so what did you see while you were there?
S3 (05:06):
Oh my goodness. It was like a it's like a
Disneyland of amazing wilderness animals, birds. So the one that
springs to mind was something that we saw all the time.
Every day, multiple times we would see toucans. So the
sorts of two cans with the bright green, yellow and
orange striped beaks that you might have seen on the
(05:29):
Froot Loops cereal packet, that sort of thing. What else
do we see? Scarlet macaws. We saw three toed sloths. Um,
we had a little shack that was facing into the
cloud forest. And when I was writing my first book
by that stage and when I was typing, I would
often look out and see spider monkeys or white faced
(05:50):
capuchins just looping one arm to another arm from tree
to vine to tree, literally through the window. Absolutely amazing
period of our time, of our lives.
S2 (06:01):
Yeah, it sounds incredible. And you said Cloud Forest. I
just want to come back to that. So you were
so high up in the mountains, you were literally in
the clouds.
S3 (06:09):
Yeah.
S2 (06:09):
How was.
S3 (06:10):
That? You're not sort of in the clouds so much
as what happens is that there's a lot of precipitation
up that high, and it comes in the form of
cloud that moved through that part of the forest on
its way up the mountain. And so at a certain
time of day, the weather would come in and there
would be cloud swirling through that mist, swirling through our
(06:32):
house as it moved up the forest.
S2 (06:34):
And what an amazing part of the world and an
experience so beautiful.
S3 (06:37):
It was like a Disneyland. Sometimes blue morpho butterflies would
all be coming out of the cocoons at the same time,
and you'd look out the window at one day and
it would be Blue Morpho birth day, with literally hundreds
of them bobbing around through those dark green leafed jungly
plants that live there. It was so different from our
(07:00):
Australian sort of bush colors, the olives and the grays
in it, that drier feel, which is equally beautiful but
just different.
S4 (07:10):
Fox with his bright fur coat. Dashing round with a
joyful note. Sly and swift through the trees. Clever fox
does what he pleases. Birds are high in the skies.
They soar. Singing songs we can't ignore. Feathers bright, the
(07:35):
colour show. Dancing on the breeze they go. Bird fly
with wings so bright. Flutters here. And then takes flight.
(07:55):
Softly lands on petals. Neat. With a dance so light
and sweet. Birds are high in the skies. They saw
Singing songs we can't ignore. Feathers. Bright, the color show.
Dancing on the breeze they go. Perfect. Fly with wings
(08:28):
so bright. Flutters here and then takes flight. Softly lands
on petal. Sneak with a dance so light and sweet.
Birds up high in the skies. They saw singing songs
we can't ignore. Feathers bright. The colors show. Dancing on
(08:53):
the breeze. They go listen close to the forest. Hum
every creature with a drum. Melodies in every nook. Nature's song.
An open book. Fox and Birds and butterflies in the woods.
(09:15):
They tell no lies. Every leaf and every sound. Magic
moments all around.
S2 (09:29):
It's time to check our happy pants pockets. How about
you go first? Deb, have a look. What have you
got in there today?
S3 (09:34):
Okay, just foraging around in there right now. There's an
old tissue. No, that doesn't count. Okay, so. Oh. What's that?
I've got some moths in here.
S2 (09:43):
Moths?
S3 (09:43):
Moths? Do you not like? Some people are funny about moths. Don't.
Don't you like moths?
S2 (09:48):
I don't mind them, but if they're in my hand,
I get the sort of dust that comes off them.
That sort of sensation. Are they sort of bit dusty
on your hands?
S3 (09:56):
They're very delicate, aren't they? You certainly wouldn't want to
try to touch them. They're actually just sitting on my
hand right now. I'm not touching them. They're touching me.
S2 (10:03):
Lovely. That must feel feathery.
S3 (10:05):
And it feels spidery and very delicate.
S2 (10:08):
What have I got here? I've got. Oh, it's quite hard.
I'm pulling it out. It's a book. Oh, it's tawny trouble.
I think you know this one.
S3 (10:17):
I might have seen that one before.
S2 (10:19):
Yep. That's your your most recent book. Excellent. I'm glad
we've got that here. Um, I've just got one other thing,
and it's really weird and large, and it's driving out
of my pocket. It's a food truck. Oh. And it's
selling doughnuts.
S3 (10:34):
Um. Yum.
S2 (10:35):
Oh, I can smell the cinnamon, the vanilla and all
the fried goodness.
S3 (10:40):
Yum.
S2 (10:41):
Can't wait to get me a doughnut. I wonder what's.
I wonder what that's about. We'll find out about that,
I guess. Have you got anything else in your pocket there, Deb?
S3 (10:47):
What else have I got in my pocket? I've got.
I've got the leaves of a Kari tree in my pocket.
And they are. They have fallen from great heights because
Kari's a really tall, and they have that eucalyptus smell
about them that you mentioned earlier. And they make me
(11:09):
think of the Australian bush. The south west of WA. Yeah. Mhm.
S2 (11:14):
Oh beautiful. Lovely. And I've just got one more thing
that's poking me here. Let me get that out. It's
a mini model of a Ferris wheel.
S3 (11:22):
Oh.
S2 (11:23):
Huh. That's weird. Okay, well, maybe we'll get to that
one a bit later, but the book. Well, that's your book. Fantastic. Um.
The moths. And I'm curious about the moths and the
curry tree leaves. Do they have something to do with
your book?
S3 (11:38):
They really do.
S2 (11:39):
Ah.
S3 (11:40):
They must have known that you had my book in
your pocket. Yeah. They wanted to make a connection. Tony
Trouble is a book about an 11 year old girl
called Tessa, who is with her family in the south
west of WA on a holiday in the Nanop sort
of area for those, um, those of you who've been there.
They're driving through the forest at night time. They're driving
(12:00):
through karri forest, karri country, and it's really tall trees.
It's really spectacular. They're all really tired because they've been
at the Nannup music Festival, where there may or may
not have been eating a lot of doughnuts from the
food trucks there. And yeah, and Tessa's in the back
seat with her brother and sister, who are twins. And
(12:21):
Tessa's mum starts to slow down the car because there
are animals sitting at the side of this forest road.
It's at night time. Then she slows down again because
something swoops in front of the car, and then Tessa
and her brother and sister hear a bit of a thud.
S2 (12:41):
Oh, um, they've hit something.
S3 (12:44):
And it's because of the moths. Gemma.
S2 (12:46):
Oh.
S3 (12:47):
Um. Tawny frogmouths like to eat insects and moths and
moths are attracted to light. And on the front of
a car at nighttime are the headlights shining into the
forest so the driver can find their way home. But
the tawny frogmouths also like what is attracted to these
(13:11):
lights and that is moths. So the moths are attracted
to the lights and buzz around the headlights and the
tawny's dive in for a feed. And yes, so Tessa's
mum tries very hard to avoid a tawny frogmouth, but
isn't entirely successful. Ouch. Sorry to say. Yeah.
S2 (13:31):
And so they pull over. That's it.
S3 (13:34):
And Uncle Mo is in the passenger seat, and he
and mum hop out, and they realized that it's a tawny.
They weren't sure what had happened, and they thought, oh
my goodness, please, can we really hope we haven't killed
this bird? Um, but they haven't. The bird is still alive.
And so they bundle it up and they put it
(13:55):
in a blanket from the boot of the car, and
they hand it to Tessa, who's 11 and who loves
Nate nature. Nature. Anyway, to hold on to whilst they
drive back to the village to figure out what on
earth they are going to do with an injured tawny frogmouth.
And it's all about how we care for wildlife. Yes,
the book is about that. And, um, that's a really
(14:18):
important thing to talk about. So yeah, you know, I
don't think there'd be too many families around who who
have had nighttime drives, who haven't also had an interaction,
good or bad, with a bit of Australian wildlife.
S5 (14:31):
Yay! Story time.
S2 (14:33):
I wondered if you'd be able to share an excerpt
of Tawny Trouble for us now, please?
S3 (14:37):
I'd love to. I'm going to read from the first
chapter of Tawny Trouble. It's called tiger country. The road
snakes blackly through thick forest. Why is it that night
time seems darker in the country? Darker and bigger. The
moon hangs like a crisp slice of apple over the road.
(14:57):
Moths and all sorts of insects dive across our headlights.
I pressed my cheek against the cold glass of the
window and look out into the trees for possums, owls
and who knows what else. Before we left the city,
Uncle Mo told us about a mysterious tiger that some
people believe lives down here. Seriously? A tiger in Western Australia?
(15:22):
The Tassie tiger. He said it was real. But it
didn't just live in Tasmania. It roamed the whole country
even here. Asked my little brother Felix. Even here, most
people believe it's extinct. Now, though most people, I repeated.
So you mean maybe it's not extinct? Maybe not. Tess.
(15:44):
Some people reckon there are still a few around. Uncle
Mo lowered his voice. And there have been sightings in
the Deep South, not far from Nannup. That's where we're going,
said Felix, eyes wide. That's right. They call it the
Nannup up, tiger. No, no, mum said, a playful grin
on her face. Oh yes, uncle Mo said. The tiger
(16:08):
is still out there. And now here we are down
in the Deep South in Tiger Country. We're driving back
to our cottage in the forest, not far from the
town of Nannup. I'm not sure I believe Uncle Mo's
tiger story. He loves mysterious things and when we beg
him to, he tells us about the night he was
walking home from a friend's place and a strange, warm
(16:31):
green light filled the whole sky above him. Uncle Mo
said he broke into a run to get home. He
was so scared. I laugh a little, thinking about that now.
Beside us, hugging the edges of the road are gnarled,
brown marri trees and deeper in the towering white trunks
of Careys. Wo mum slows down and swerves around something.
(16:53):
See that our heads snap up. What? Says Felix, sleepy
face suddenly alert. Half a tree on the road, mate.
Uncle Mo says. Oh. Felix's eyelids fall back shut. Not
a tiger then. A few seconds later, Vivi cries, look
and points at the edge of the road. A roo
(17:14):
roo mum completely takes her foot off the accelerator and
we look where Vivi is pointing. A big grey kangaroo
is poised on the road verge, its glossy eyes shine
in our headlights. A couple of smaller roos sit nearby.
Ears alert to the danger. Far out. That's a big one,
says Felix. King Kanga says Uncle Mo, that's the boss
(17:38):
of the pack for sure, kangaroo, I say. And the
twins giggle. I'm going to take it easy along here,
I think. Mum slows right down and adjusts her glasses.
Don't want to ruin the night for any of this
wildlife or for us. You hit something like that, Uncle
Mo starts. Exactly. Mum nods. And we have some precious
(18:00):
cargo on board, don't we, kids? Uncle Mo, I guess. No, Tess,
mum laughs. You three is who I mean, but most
precious too, of course. I smile at her in the
rear view mirror and snuggle back in my seat. I
want to think back over everything we saw and did
and heard today at the festival. It was amazing.
S2 (18:22):
That was an excerpt of Tawny Trouble by Deb Fitzpatrick.
Read for us by the author herself. Thank you Deb.
S3 (18:28):
Such a pleasure.
S2 (18:29):
I'm curious, does Tessa end up seeing a nan up Tiger?
S3 (18:33):
You'll have. No, no, no. Gemma. Sorry. Not going to
go there. You're just going to have to read the
book to find out.
S2 (18:40):
Fair enough. I have to keep reading, so I will
absolutely do that. Now how about. If you live in Perth,
(19:49):
you can meet Deb and have your own private ten
minute storytime experience on the Fremantle Wheel as part of
Totally Lit Festival. Ah, now it makes sense why I
had that mini Ferris wheel in my pocket if my
happy pants. So, Deb, tell us, when is story wheel happening?
S3 (20:07):
So story Wheel is such a fun idea. I don't
think I've ever been asked to do such a fun
lit festival event. It's part of the new, um, Fremantle
Literature Festival called Totally Lit, and the story wheel idea
is literally to use the Ferris wheel that's on the
Esplanade Park in Fremantle, and to put an author into
(20:32):
one of those gondolas. The author can be joined by
up to four guests at a time, and the Ferris
wheel will go round. The author, who will be me
and a few others in different gondolas will have a
book to share with his or her guests, and I
will just read to them for that time. So I'll
(20:53):
be reading from Toni Trouble or maybe one of my
other books. Who knows?
S2 (20:58):
Oh that's amazing.
S3 (20:59):
So fun.
S2 (21:00):
Such an experience. So to have those words spoken to
you as you're experiencing the feeling of going up, up,
up and down and the swaying and the breeze, it's
always a breeze in Fremantle.
S3 (21:11):
Absolutely.
S2 (21:11):
And the views as well?
S3 (21:13):
Yes.
S2 (21:13):
And the sun. I'm sure it'll be a sunny day.
S3 (21:15):
I think it will be.
S2 (21:16):
I believe that's happening on Friday the 10th of October.
Between 10 and 2. Is that right?
S3 (21:22):
That's correct. Each author is on for one hour. I'm
on from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. You do have to book.
Each session will last for about ten minutes.
S2 (21:31):
Fantastic. So that's the story we'll happening as part of
Totally Lit Festival here in Perth and Fremantle, WA. You
can book via Totally Lit. That's totally lit. Deb Fitzpatrick, author, adventurer.
It's been such a pleasure to have you at Happy
Pants Headquarters today. Thank you for sharing your new book
(21:52):
with us, as well as some storytelling tips and tales
of your adventures. Perhaps we'll meet again on the big wheel.
S3 (21:59):
I hope so, Gemma, and honestly, thank you so much
for inviting me. I've loved getting to know you and
to learn a little bit more about what you do
here at Vision Australia Radio, and I hope that kids
keep reading and having fun with books.
S2 (22:12):
Let's go have some donuts from that food truck that
arrived earlier.
S3 (22:15):
Cinnamon, please.
S2 (22:16):
Yes. Thank you.
S5 (22:18):
V is for vision. A is for Australia. R is
for radio.
S2 (22:22):
Have you ever come across a tawny frogmouth bird? They
live across most of the Australian mainland and in Tasmania,
just not in far western Queensland, because they avoid living
in dense rainforests or in the central Northern Territory or
Nullarbor Plain because they don't like treeless deserts. And we'll
(22:42):
get back to why in just a moment. Tawny frogmouths
are quite large birds, measuring about 35cm to 55cm in length.
So that's about the size of an A4 page up
to the size of a small t ball bat. They're
often mistaken for owls because they're nocturnal. Awake at night
(23:04):
and have similar coloring. A tawny frogmouths superpower is hiding.
They can hide really well in the bushland. Their feathers
are silvery grey with white, black and brown streaks, which
helps them blend into tree trunks and branches, making them
tricky to spot. And that's why they don't like to
(23:25):
live in a desert with no trees or a very
dense rainforest, because their colours are more like the bush,
which is, you know, the brown of the trees, the
grey of the eucalyptus and the green of the leaves
and things and their feathers just blend into the tree
trunks and they can hide. Perhaps you've heard a tawny
(23:46):
frogmouth before. Something tawny frogmouths are not so good at
is building nests. They simply drop beak fulls of sticks
and leaves into place on a branch in the rough
shape of a nest, and lay their eggs inside that
(24:08):
mum and dad share, keeping the eggs warm, duty on
their pretty loose nest. And the same parents are said
to reuse the nest or what's left of it year
after year. As we heard earlier from our author guest,
Deb Fitzpatrick, Tawny Frogmouths love to eat moths. So imagine
(24:30):
there's a family of four tawny frogmouths settling down to
dinner and for their bellies to be full. Mum and
dad each need to eat five moths and their two
kids need to eat only three moths each to be full.
So how many moths do they need for their dinner? Well,
(24:51):
mum needs It's five. Dad needs five. Let's give them
enough to make their bellies full. So five and five
is ten. Yep. And then we've got the two kids
to think about, so we don't want them to be hungry.
They'll be squawking and complaining. So the kids, we said
(25:11):
need only three moths each. So if we add three
plus three because there's two kids, so three plus three
is six. Okay. So we've got six for the kids.
And what did I say before for the mum and dad. Okay.
(25:32):
So we need to now add ten and six. That's 16.
Yeah 16 moths for their dinner. So they'll have to
get busy now and go and catch all those moths. Well,
that brings us to the end of Happy Pants for
this week. Don't forget Story Wheel, which you can find
Deb Fitzpatrick at with her book Tawny Trouble Coming to
(25:55):
the Fremantle Wheel on the Fremantle Esplanade in WA on
October 10th. Find out more and you can book via
Totally Lit. If you would like to get in touch
with us here at happy HQ, please email Radio Australia.
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you next time.
(26:20):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area, we pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(26:44):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
One, two, three. It's happy pants.
S2 (00:17):
G'day, and welcome to Happy Pants, a show specially for
kids and especially for you on Vision Australia Radio. My
name is Gemma and today I'm joined by a very
special guest at Happy Pants headquarters. Her name is Deb Fitzpatrick.
She's written ten books for adults, young adults and children.
Plus is a part of the Totally Lit Festival happening
(00:39):
in Fremantle, Western Australia. Welcome, Deb. Hi, Gemma. How are
you going? Good, good. It's great to see you today.
Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. So today
my happy pants are super smooth and make a swishy
sound when I walk. They're a waxy green colour that
makes me think of eucalyptus leaves, which I love to
crunch between my fingers to enjoy the fresh eucalyptus smell. Um,
(01:03):
what are your happy pants like today, Deb?
S3 (01:05):
So my happy pants are a sort of a pale
blue striped denim that makes me think of the beach.
It makes me think of sea breezes and the salty
smell of the water and the sand and the blue sky,
and that sort of hot summer vibe. I suppose, that
(01:26):
we've just started to have here in Perth the last
couple of days.
S2 (01:29):
We have. We've had a lot of sunshine. It's been lovely. Yeah.
Before we check our happy pants pockets, I'd love to
know a bit more about you, Deb. What are your
first memories of books and stories?
S3 (01:40):
Oh, okay. So, I mean, I would have to say
my first memories of books and stories would be my
mum sitting on my bed with me, telling me stories
that she just made up. And they were very comforting
and very sweet. And then I very quickly became absolutely
(02:01):
addicted to the local library. So either the local library
or the school library. I was in one of the
two when I was at home. I would read books
of poetry. Um, mum and dad were both English. And
so we had a lot of sort of English poetry
and English books that had been sent over by family
members that I would read over and over again. So
(02:22):
I fell in love with A.A. Milne and other, you know,
writers like that. Um, and then just loved the library.
I as I got older and became a primary school
student and then a high school student, I loved the library.
S2 (02:36):
When did you start writing your own stories?
S3 (02:38):
Um, well, I started writing poetry when I was in
primary school, so in about grade five, I remember a teacher.
Her name was Mrs. Pugh, and she said that she
really liked my poetry. And she would send some home
to mum and dad, which was sort of embarrassing, but
in a good way. And then as I went into
high school, I continued with the poetry and I had
another amazing teacher who really supported supported me, and she
(03:02):
again went above and beyond and helped me sort of self-publish,
if you like, a little book of of poems, which
was rather badly called Frozen Tears, which you know, is
so angsty. Classic teenager stuff, right? But, um, stories didn't
come to me until I was in university.
S2 (03:20):
Mm. And whereabouts do you find inspiration for your stories,
your poems and books that you've written?
S3 (03:25):
So I am really, um, not one of those people
who has an amazing imagination. I don't have one of
those JK Rowling style fantastical imaginations. Uh, and as a
result of that, I looked to the world around me
for my inspiration. And most of my stories have come
from a variety of things that I've experienced myself or
(03:47):
witnessed or heard about from the real world. I always
tell kids when I go into classrooms, if they're thinking
about what they might like to write about. For me,
that always just comes back to what you most care
about and what interests you. So the things that you're
reading about in books, like I had a real fascination
for sharks at some point in my early years, and
I read every book about sharks from the library. I
(04:09):
would encourage kids who who are doing that to write
about sharks in a creative way.
S2 (04:15):
And any other tips that you'd give them to help
them with their storytelling. So following their passion, reading everything
they can about sharks, if that's their passion.
S3 (04:23):
Yeah, having a crack. So starting to put words on
the page, which is much harder than you would than
one would think, because you imagine that they will flow
in a way that they don't always. And so that
crafting is quite tricky. Tricky. But the other thing I'd
say to kids is to know that what they think
and feel is really valuable and really valid to write about.
S2 (04:43):
So speaking of the natural environment that you referred to
before that you enjoy so much, I heard that you
once lived in the jungle in Costa Rica.
S3 (04:50):
Yeah.
S2 (04:51):
Wow.
S3 (04:52):
Can you tell us a little about that? Well, I
can barely believe it. You know, really, even now, 20
years later, it was in the. Actually, it was in
the cloud forest, which is, um, about 1500m above sea level. Wow.
S2 (05:04):
And so what did you see while you were there?
S3 (05:06):
Oh my goodness. It was like a it's like a
Disneyland of amazing wilderness animals, birds. So the one that
springs to mind was something that we saw all the time.
Every day, multiple times we would see toucans. So the
sorts of two cans with the bright green, yellow and
orange striped beaks that you might have seen on the
(05:29):
Froot Loops cereal packet, that sort of thing. What else
do we see? Scarlet macaws. We saw three toed sloths. Um,
we had a little shack that was facing into the
cloud forest. And when I was writing my first book
by that stage and when I was typing, I would
often look out and see spider monkeys or white faced
(05:50):
capuchins just looping one arm to another arm from tree
to vine to tree, literally through the window. Absolutely amazing
period of our time, of our lives.
S2 (06:01):
Yeah, it sounds incredible. And you said Cloud Forest. I
just want to come back to that. So you were
so high up in the mountains, you were literally in
the clouds.
S3 (06:09):
Yeah.
S2 (06:09):
How was.
S3 (06:10):
That? You're not sort of in the clouds so much
as what happens is that there's a lot of precipitation
up that high, and it comes in the form of
cloud that moved through that part of the forest on
its way up the mountain. And so at a certain
time of day, the weather would come in and there
would be cloud swirling through that mist, swirling through our
(06:32):
house as it moved up the forest.
S2 (06:34):
And what an amazing part of the world and an
experience so beautiful.
S3 (06:37):
It was like a Disneyland. Sometimes blue morpho butterflies would
all be coming out of the cocoons at the same time,
and you'd look out the window at one day and
it would be Blue Morpho birth day, with literally hundreds
of them bobbing around through those dark green leafed jungly
plants that live there. It was so different from our
(07:00):
Australian sort of bush colors, the olives and the grays
in it, that drier feel, which is equally beautiful but
just different.
S4 (07:10):
Fox with his bright fur coat. Dashing round with a
joyful note. Sly and swift through the trees. Clever fox
does what he pleases. Birds are high in the skies.
They soar. Singing songs we can't ignore. Feathers bright, the
(07:35):
colour show. Dancing on the breeze they go. Bird fly
with wings so bright. Flutters here. And then takes flight.
(07:55):
Softly lands on petals. Neat. With a dance so light
and sweet. Birds are high in the skies. They saw
Singing songs we can't ignore. Feathers. Bright, the color show.
Dancing on the breeze they go. Perfect. Fly with wings
(08:28):
so bright. Flutters here and then takes flight. Softly lands
on petal. Sneak with a dance so light and sweet.
Birds up high in the skies. They saw singing songs
we can't ignore. Feathers bright. The colors show. Dancing on
(08:53):
the breeze. They go listen close to the forest. Hum
every creature with a drum. Melodies in every nook. Nature's song.
An open book. Fox and Birds and butterflies in the woods.
(09:15):
They tell no lies. Every leaf and every sound. Magic
moments all around.
S2 (09:29):
It's time to check our happy pants pockets. How about
you go first? Deb, have a look. What have you
got in there today?
S3 (09:34):
Okay, just foraging around in there right now. There's an
old tissue. No, that doesn't count. Okay, so. Oh. What's that?
I've got some moths in here.
S2 (09:43):
Moths?
S3 (09:43):
Moths? Do you not like? Some people are funny about moths. Don't.
Don't you like moths?
S2 (09:48):
I don't mind them, but if they're in my hand,
I get the sort of dust that comes off them.
That sort of sensation. Are they sort of bit dusty
on your hands?
S3 (09:56):
They're very delicate, aren't they? You certainly wouldn't want to
try to touch them. They're actually just sitting on my
hand right now. I'm not touching them. They're touching me.
S2 (10:03):
Lovely. That must feel feathery.
S3 (10:05):
And it feels spidery and very delicate.
S2 (10:08):
What have I got here? I've got. Oh, it's quite hard.
I'm pulling it out. It's a book. Oh, it's tawny trouble.
I think you know this one.
S3 (10:17):
I might have seen that one before.
S2 (10:19):
Yep. That's your your most recent book. Excellent. I'm glad
we've got that here. Um, I've just got one other thing,
and it's really weird and large, and it's driving out
of my pocket. It's a food truck. Oh. And it's
selling doughnuts.
S3 (10:34):
Um. Yum.
S2 (10:35):
Oh, I can smell the cinnamon, the vanilla and all
the fried goodness.
S3 (10:40):
Yum.
S2 (10:41):
Can't wait to get me a doughnut. I wonder what's.
I wonder what that's about. We'll find out about that,
I guess. Have you got anything else in your pocket there, Deb?
S3 (10:47):
What else have I got in my pocket? I've got.
I've got the leaves of a Kari tree in my pocket.
And they are. They have fallen from great heights because
Kari's a really tall, and they have that eucalyptus smell
about them that you mentioned earlier. And they make me
(11:09):
think of the Australian bush. The south west of WA. Yeah. Mhm.
S2 (11:14):
Oh beautiful. Lovely. And I've just got one more thing
that's poking me here. Let me get that out. It's
a mini model of a Ferris wheel.
S3 (11:22):
Oh.
S2 (11:23):
Huh. That's weird. Okay, well, maybe we'll get to that
one a bit later, but the book. Well, that's your book. Fantastic. Um.
The moths. And I'm curious about the moths and the
curry tree leaves. Do they have something to do with
your book?
S3 (11:38):
They really do.
S2 (11:39):
Ah.
S3 (11:40):
They must have known that you had my book in
your pocket. Yeah. They wanted to make a connection. Tony
Trouble is a book about an 11 year old girl
called Tessa, who is with her family in the south
west of WA on a holiday in the Nanop sort
of area for those, um, those of you who've been there.
They're driving through the forest at night time. They're driving
(12:00):
through karri forest, karri country, and it's really tall trees.
It's really spectacular. They're all really tired because they've been
at the Nannup music Festival, where there may or may
not have been eating a lot of doughnuts from the
food trucks there. And yeah, and Tessa's in the back
seat with her brother and sister, who are twins. And
(12:21):
Tessa's mum starts to slow down the car because there
are animals sitting at the side of this forest road.
It's at night time. Then she slows down again because
something swoops in front of the car, and then Tessa
and her brother and sister hear a bit of a thud.
S2 (12:41):
Oh, um, they've hit something.
S3 (12:44):
And it's because of the moths. Gemma.
S2 (12:46):
Oh.
S3 (12:47):
Um. Tawny frogmouths like to eat insects and moths and
moths are attracted to light. And on the front of
a car at nighttime are the headlights shining into the
forest so the driver can find their way home. But
the tawny frogmouths also like what is attracted to these
(13:11):
lights and that is moths. So the moths are attracted
to the lights and buzz around the headlights and the
tawny's dive in for a feed. And yes, so Tessa's
mum tries very hard to avoid a tawny frogmouth, but
isn't entirely successful. Ouch. Sorry to say. Yeah.
S2 (13:31):
And so they pull over. That's it.
S3 (13:34):
And Uncle Mo is in the passenger seat, and he
and mum hop out, and they realized that it's a tawny.
They weren't sure what had happened, and they thought, oh
my goodness, please, can we really hope we haven't killed
this bird? Um, but they haven't. The bird is still alive.
And so they bundle it up and they put it
(13:55):
in a blanket from the boot of the car, and
they hand it to Tessa, who's 11 and who loves
Nate nature. Nature. Anyway, to hold on to whilst they
drive back to the village to figure out what on
earth they are going to do with an injured tawny frogmouth.
And it's all about how we care for wildlife. Yes,
the book is about that. And, um, that's a really
(14:18):
important thing to talk about. So yeah, you know, I
don't think there'd be too many families around who who
have had nighttime drives, who haven't also had an interaction,
good or bad, with a bit of Australian wildlife.
S5 (14:31):
Yay! Story time.
S2 (14:33):
I wondered if you'd be able to share an excerpt
of Tawny Trouble for us now, please?
S3 (14:37):
I'd love to. I'm going to read from the first
chapter of Tawny Trouble. It's called tiger country. The road
snakes blackly through thick forest. Why is it that night
time seems darker in the country? Darker and bigger. The
moon hangs like a crisp slice of apple over the road.
(14:57):
Moths and all sorts of insects dive across our headlights.
I pressed my cheek against the cold glass of the
window and look out into the trees for possums, owls
and who knows what else. Before we left the city,
Uncle Mo told us about a mysterious tiger that some
people believe lives down here. Seriously? A tiger in Western Australia?
(15:22):
The Tassie tiger. He said it was real. But it
didn't just live in Tasmania. It roamed the whole country
even here. Asked my little brother Felix. Even here, most
people believe it's extinct. Now, though most people, I repeated.
So you mean maybe it's not extinct? Maybe not. Tess.
(15:44):
Some people reckon there are still a few around. Uncle
Mo lowered his voice. And there have been sightings in
the Deep South, not far from Nannup. That's where we're going,
said Felix, eyes wide. That's right. They call it the
Nannup up, tiger. No, no, mum said, a playful grin
on her face. Oh yes, uncle Mo said. The tiger
(16:08):
is still out there. And now here we are down
in the Deep South in Tiger Country. We're driving back
to our cottage in the forest, not far from the
town of Nannup. I'm not sure I believe Uncle Mo's
tiger story. He loves mysterious things and when we beg
him to, he tells us about the night he was
walking home from a friend's place and a strange, warm
(16:31):
green light filled the whole sky above him. Uncle Mo
said he broke into a run to get home. He
was so scared. I laugh a little, thinking about that now.
Beside us, hugging the edges of the road are gnarled,
brown marri trees and deeper in the towering white trunks
of Careys. Wo mum slows down and swerves around something.
(16:53):
See that our heads snap up. What? Says Felix, sleepy
face suddenly alert. Half a tree on the road, mate.
Uncle Mo says. Oh. Felix's eyelids fall back shut. Not
a tiger then. A few seconds later, Vivi cries, look
and points at the edge of the road. A roo
(17:14):
roo mum completely takes her foot off the accelerator and
we look where Vivi is pointing. A big grey kangaroo
is poised on the road verge, its glossy eyes shine
in our headlights. A couple of smaller roos sit nearby.
Ears alert to the danger. Far out. That's a big one,
says Felix. King Kanga says Uncle Mo, that's the boss
(17:38):
of the pack for sure, kangaroo, I say. And the
twins giggle. I'm going to take it easy along here,
I think. Mum slows right down and adjusts her glasses.
Don't want to ruin the night for any of this
wildlife or for us. You hit something like that, Uncle
Mo starts. Exactly. Mum nods. And we have some precious
(18:00):
cargo on board, don't we, kids? Uncle Mo, I guess. No, Tess,
mum laughs. You three is who I mean, but most
precious too, of course. I smile at her in the
rear view mirror and snuggle back in my seat. I
want to think back over everything we saw and did
and heard today at the festival. It was amazing.
S2 (18:22):
That was an excerpt of Tawny Trouble by Deb Fitzpatrick.
Read for us by the author herself. Thank you Deb.
S3 (18:28):
Such a pleasure.
S2 (18:29):
I'm curious, does Tessa end up seeing a nan up Tiger?
S3 (18:33):
You'll have. No, no, no. Gemma. Sorry. Not going to
go there. You're just going to have to read the
book to find out.
S2 (18:40):
Fair enough. I have to keep reading, so I will
absolutely do that. Now how about. If you live in Perth,
(19:49):
you can meet Deb and have your own private ten
minute storytime experience on the Fremantle Wheel as part of
Totally Lit Festival. Ah, now it makes sense why I
had that mini Ferris wheel in my pocket if my
happy pants. So, Deb, tell us, when is story wheel happening?
S3 (20:07):
So story Wheel is such a fun idea. I don't
think I've ever been asked to do such a fun
lit festival event. It's part of the new, um, Fremantle
Literature Festival called Totally Lit, and the story wheel idea
is literally to use the Ferris wheel that's on the
Esplanade Park in Fremantle, and to put an author into
(20:32):
one of those gondolas. The author can be joined by
up to four guests at a time, and the Ferris
wheel will go round. The author, who will be me
and a few others in different gondolas will have a
book to share with his or her guests, and I
will just read to them for that time. So I'll
(20:53):
be reading from Toni Trouble or maybe one of my
other books. Who knows?
S2 (20:58):
Oh that's amazing.
S3 (20:59):
So fun.
S2 (21:00):
Such an experience. So to have those words spoken to
you as you're experiencing the feeling of going up, up,
up and down and the swaying and the breeze, it's
always a breeze in Fremantle.
S3 (21:11):
Absolutely.
S2 (21:11):
And the views as well?
S3 (21:13):
Yes.
S2 (21:13):
And the sun. I'm sure it'll be a sunny day.
S3 (21:15):
I think it will be.
S2 (21:16):
I believe that's happening on Friday the 10th of October.
Between 10 and 2. Is that right?
S3 (21:22):
That's correct. Each author is on for one hour. I'm
on from 12:00 to 1:00 pm. You do have to book.
Each session will last for about ten minutes.
S2 (21:31):
Fantastic. So that's the story we'll happening as part of
Totally Lit Festival here in Perth and Fremantle, WA. You
can book via Totally Lit. That's totally lit. Deb Fitzpatrick, author, adventurer.
It's been such a pleasure to have you at Happy
Pants Headquarters today. Thank you for sharing your new book
(21:52):
with us, as well as some storytelling tips and tales
of your adventures. Perhaps we'll meet again on the big wheel.
S3 (21:59):
I hope so, Gemma, and honestly, thank you so much
for inviting me. I've loved getting to know you and
to learn a little bit more about what you do
here at Vision Australia Radio, and I hope that kids
keep reading and having fun with books.
S2 (22:12):
Let's go have some donuts from that food truck that
arrived earlier.
S3 (22:15):
Cinnamon, please.
S2 (22:16):
Yes. Thank you.
S5 (22:18):
V is for vision. A is for Australia. R is
for radio.
S2 (22:22):
Have you ever come across a tawny frogmouth bird? They
live across most of the Australian mainland and in Tasmania,
just not in far western Queensland, because they avoid living
in dense rainforests or in the central Northern Territory or
Nullarbor Plain because they don't like treeless deserts. And we'll
(22:42):
get back to why in just a moment. Tawny frogmouths
are quite large birds, measuring about 35cm to 55cm in length.
So that's about the size of an A4 page up
to the size of a small t ball bat. They're
often mistaken for owls because they're nocturnal. Awake at night
(23:04):
and have similar coloring. A tawny frogmouths superpower is hiding.
They can hide really well in the bushland. Their feathers
are silvery grey with white, black and brown streaks, which
helps them blend into tree trunks and branches, making them
tricky to spot. And that's why they don't like to
(23:25):
live in a desert with no trees or a very
dense rainforest, because their colours are more like the bush,
which is, you know, the brown of the trees, the
grey of the eucalyptus and the green of the leaves
and things and their feathers just blend into the tree
trunks and they can hide. Perhaps you've heard a tawny
(23:46):
frogmouth before. Something tawny frogmouths are not so good at
is building nests. They simply drop beak fulls of sticks
and leaves into place on a branch in the rough
shape of a nest, and lay their eggs inside that
(24:08):
mum and dad share, keeping the eggs warm, duty on
their pretty loose nest. And the same parents are said
to reuse the nest or what's left of it year
after year. As we heard earlier from our author guest,
Deb Fitzpatrick, Tawny Frogmouths love to eat moths. So imagine
(24:30):
there's a family of four tawny frogmouths settling down to
dinner and for their bellies to be full. Mum and
dad each need to eat five moths and their two
kids need to eat only three moths each to be full.
So how many moths do they need for their dinner? Well,
(24:51):
mum needs It's five. Dad needs five. Let's give them
enough to make their bellies full. So five and five
is ten. Yep. And then we've got the two kids
to think about, so we don't want them to be hungry.
They'll be squawking and complaining. So the kids, we said
(25:11):
need only three moths each. So if we add three
plus three because there's two kids, so three plus three
is six. Okay. So we've got six for the kids.
And what did I say before for the mum and dad. Okay.
(25:32):
So we need to now add ten and six. That's 16.
Yeah 16 moths for their dinner. So they'll have to
get busy now and go and catch all those moths. Well,
that brings us to the end of Happy Pants for
this week. Don't forget Story Wheel, which you can find
Deb Fitzpatrick at with her book Tawny Trouble Coming to
(25:55):
the Fremantle Wheel on the Fremantle Esplanade in WA on
October 10th. Find out more and you can book via
Totally Lit. If you would like to get in touch
with us here at happy HQ, please email Radio Australia.
Keep wearing those happy pants and we'll catch you next time.
(26:20):
Happy pants is produced on the lands of the Whadjuk
Noongar people. Vision Australia Radio acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples as the first Australians, and the traditional owners
of the land across our working area, we pay our
respects to elders past, present and future in maintaining their cultures,
countries and their spiritual connection to the lands and waters.
Vision Australia Radio acknowledges and respects the genuine diversity and
(26:44):
richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.
Happy pants has been made possible with the support of
the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
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