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Welcome to Kirra Beach, the second last stop on my Books By The Beach tour! It is hard to believe it is almost over! The small rocky headland Kirra Point separates Kirra Beach to the north and Coolangatta Beach to the south, and is noted as one of the world's premier surf breaks. In the... Continue Reading →
Welcome to Bilinga, the thirteenth stop on my Books By The Beach tour! Bilinga is close to the Queensland/New South Wales border to the west and has the Pacific Ocean to the east. The word 'Bilinga' is derived from the word 'Bilinba', meaning 'bats'. The name was adopted in 1918 as a place name for... Continue Reading →
Welcome to Tugun, the twelfth stop on my Books By The Beach tour! Over the hill from Currumbin, Tugun is north-west of Coolangatta and 96 kilometres (60 mi) south of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland. Tugun is a popular holiday destination, with a number of holiday units and motels lining Tugun Beach, its homey... Continue Reading →
I was a chef for seventeen years before I started managing a gentleman’s club, leading a team of twenty-two chefs over five kitchens. I loved working in hospitality, but eventually I decided to throw it all away. I landed a job as an operations manager at a gentleman’s club, organising bar stock and preparing the... Continue Reading →
I was twenty-one years old celebrating a friend’s eighteenth birthday in Brisbane when I visited my first gentlemen’s club. I kept coming back because it was just like hanging out at a pub with mates, but with a much nicer view. My regular venue introduced poker nights, but I was going in for weekly drinks... Continue Reading →
Sam told me she was a dancer about a month after we started dating, but I had my suspicions well before that. It was mostly typical things that go along with being a dancer, from the odd times that she worked, to certain aspects of her appearance. https://youtu.be/QSVNteuZ1Xw I felt all right with it, and... Continue Reading →
Paid To Dance: Stripping Past & Present is a comprehensive insight into the stripping industry, from its origins to its modern day evolution. Everyday women share stories of working in gentleman’s clubs, paying their way through university, funding travel and even escaping homelessness and crime. Parents and partners offer intriguing perspectives of their loved one’s... Continue Reading →
Helen: The Mother When my daughter Olivia voiced her interest in becoming a dancer, my immediate reaction was to think, “Okay, this is something she wants to do, so let’s look into it.” I didn’t have an overall negative feeling about the suggestion. Olivia was eighteen years of age at the time and exploring different... Continue Reading →
American touring ensembles were responsible for bringing vaudeville-style theatre Down Under, and the popularity of Shakespearean plays and opera performances increased. https://youtu.be/puwVhe-Vm-A The gold rushes of the 1850s brought a growth in population to Australia, and there was a growing demand for entertainment. However due to the disruptions of World War 1, the first decade... Continue Reading →
In the Far East, the geisha training system was founded in Japan in the 11th Century to promote the economic self-sufficiency of women. The geisha held high social status, and it was for that stated purpose that the geisha training system was established quite admirably in Japanese society, where there were very few pathways for... Continue Reading →
Kate Kelsen 