Micko O’Byrne

(1952)

Micko O’Byrne (1952-) was founder of Fremantle’s first agitprop street theatre group Desperate Measures and went on to set up the Fly By Night Club. He has been an important figure in Fremantle’s vibrant arts culture. Micko lives by this quote:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” Hunter S. Thompson (reference)

Micko O’Byrne was born in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1952. He has one sister Margo. O’Byrne (see information below).

Micko and his friend and collaborator Duncan Campbell (1952-2002) were both part of the Popular Theatre Troupe, a political theatre group from Brisbane. In 1977 they were invited to perform at the Festival of Perth and the two men stayed on afterwards, moving into rooms in a large share house with Ollie Black and several others at 18 Ord St in Fremantle.

After staging on a large and creative house party; which had a Green and Purple theme; a cargo net entrance to the second floor, a fog filled maze and a slide on the staircase, the two men soon got a reputation for ‘guys that could make things happen’. Many of their friends were Murdoch University students. Both men were good looking; Duncan was gay “but attracted all the girls and I was straight so I took advantage of that”.

The trio; Micko, Duncan and Ollie became the nucleus and founding members of Desperate Measures, a community theatre group that was committed to making good theatre that had something to say about political issues- but above all, entertained people in the street and was fun.

Micko recalls that Freo at that time was a place where people could still be spontaneous. He recalls that he met with the CEO of Freo Council and asked to close Market street for a couple of hours to hold a street parade and lead people down to Princess May Park for an Energy Picnic and Fallout Follies performance. The CEO not only said yes but helped arrange the Police Permit and for free toilets to be delivered.

“It was a place where young people with dynamic energy dreamed up ideas and then executed them. We were unconstrained and very open to anyone who came along and wanted to join in. So for instance a bricklayer could be in the Rockettes (a singing and dancing group of between 20-30 people who performed to Tom Lehrer songs).”

“We all lived in share houses together, in Ord St, Malcolm St and then Fothergill Streets and there was a great ‘spirit of spontaneity.’ Micko worked as a builder’s labourer by day and then at night would meet, rehearse, figure out costumes and then go and do it.”

In 1983 he lived in Fothergill St with his partner Beth Hewton; Sarah McNamara and Sharon McDonald and Denise Masters from the women’s band Tokyo Rose lived below. At one Tokyo Rose gig at the Wizbah in Perth he joined the band and performed as ‘Slackie Nagasaki.’ (see photo)

He recalls that they organised ‘Street Eats’ for 5 local houses- where they would take turns cooking an evening meal for all 5 houses. He recalls many such spontaneous community events happening around this period including people setting up the Fremantle Community School.

Desperate Measures soon attracted many other performers such as Michelle Stanley, Lena Rodriguez, Patsy Molloy, Pamela Nilan, Helen McAdam, Brian Peddie, David Cox, Noel Bowen, Celia White, Annie Robinson, Jansis O’Hanlon, Mandy Smith, and visual artists Mandy Browne, Sarah McNamara, David Young and Katie Thamo.

Desperate Measures attracted and supported many young women wanting to explore feminist issues in performance; and all these women went on to make trans-national contributions to Theatre, Circus and Performance in Australia.

Sarah McNamara and Ollie Black travelled to ‘the East’ and together with Rose Wise and Christine Evans, were co-founders of the Wimmins Circus. The Wimmins Circus came for a summer season in Perth in 1980, influencing a new generation of women performers. Celia White went on to work with Harpies Bizarre, Legs on the Wall (Sydney) and Vulcana Women’s Circus, in Queensland. Ollie Black went on to co-found Harpies Bizarre (Sydney) and Vitalstatistix (Adelaide). Brian Peddie and Di Shaw went on to establish Deckchair Theatre (1983-2012) in Fremantle.

From 1977 until 1982 Desperate Measures performed shows about controversial issues of the time including racism, Alcoa and bauxite mining, the logging of the old growth forests for wood-chips and the closure of the Fremantle train line (1979-1983).

In 1978 they made a satirical show about the Perth drought/water crisis called ‘Mr and Mrs Perth, any street any suburb’. In 1980 their show ‘Don't panic- this is your half-life Uranium Show’ addressed Premier Charles Court’s proposal that Breton Bay and Wilbinga (both less than 100 km north of Perth), would be possible sites for nuclear power stations. Desperate Measures also provided entertainment and social commentary at numerous anti-nuclear events.

Micko moved on from Desperate Measures to work as the Activities Officer at WAIT (now Curtin University) in the early 80s and Brian Peddie and Celia White formed Deckchair Theatre. During this time Duncan, Micko, Scott Wise and Lindsay Pollock wrote and performed a music show ‘Out of out Trio’ and toured pastoral properties for School of the Air. Micko also had a weekend business ‘The Fremantle Carriage Company’ doing historic tours of Freo in a horse drawn wagon. Some Saturdays he would drive around with musicians on the back providing free entertainment to passers by.

Micko inspired other performers to be as daring as possible and to up the ante: he performed in the Fountain pool outside the Fremantle Council buildings in the centre of Fremantle, under the name ‘the Hysterical Society‘, reciting Shakespeare in the fountain, in a successful attempt to raise money for a ticket to Portugal.

Soon after there were counterpoint performances in the fountain by ‘the Fremantle Hysterectomy Society’ (we tie up all the loose ends): whose members included Rose Wise and Wendy Wise (Friendly Wise), Lilly Leaver and Mandy Smith. Their performance titled ‘the Typing Pool’, Jan 1980, saw the women, wearing ‘their best CWA dresses and pearls’, type on typewriters in the dry fountain, for two hours. Two other performances involved Rose in ‘the Nutcracker suite’ bathing on top of the fountain while the others below acted like a Greek chorus -”showing the reality of the trouble women go to to make themselves beautiful” and ‘the Car Pool’ where the group drove a car in near the fountain, parked, opened the bonnet, jacked the car up, opened a car manual, removed the wheels, took out parts of front of engine - had cups of tea etc., then put the whole thing back together. This group also used Micko and Duncan’s ‘ironing toast’ idea, extending it for a different performance.

Micko went on to help Lindsay Pollock start the Ethnic Music Centre of WA and in 1986 was a founder (and ‘first Wing Commander’) of the Fly By Night Club in Fremantle, alongside Lucky Oceans, Jim Fisher, Scott Wise and Jon Catlin.

Micko learnt to fly small aircraft and was the pilot for Freo based acoustic band ‘Bungarra’ on a tour to Broome and occasionally flew musicians to Kalgoorlie to perform.

In 1984 he, together with his partner Beth Hewton, undertook a trip by horse drawn wagon from Adelaide to Alice Springs. Many local musicians ran a benefit concert to supply additional funds for this trip.

Beth Hewton (1955 - 2002) worked as the first coordinator of the Meeting Place in South Fremantle and then at the Migrant Resource Centre in Perth. She also silk screened the iconic image All Smart Girls Say NO! NO! NO!  No Sailors, No Ships, No Bases, which was printed onto T-shirts and posters and cards c. 1984.

While managing the Fly By Night Club in 1986 he gave studio space to local visual artists Jeremy Kirwan-Ward and George Haynes. Jeremy had been the roadie for Bungarra band and helped set up PA’s for the Fly By Night Club.

Micko and Beth Hewton married in 1985 and later moved to Margaret River where they started a family. Sadly Beth passed away in 2002 leaving Micko with two teenage sons to raise as a single parent. In Margaret River Micko develop a new career as a business facilitator assisting emerging enterprises. He received an award for ‘Outstanding contribution to Economic Development in the Region’. He also took some time off to drive a stagecoach in a feature movie in NSW,

Returning to Perth Micko was the Director of the Rural Innovation Centre assisting farmers to develop value added and import replacement products. He later developed the Arts Venture Capital project for ARTS WA offering interest free loans to artists to develop profit making ventures. Two notable and successful clients were Broome based musicians, the Pigram Brothers and Jimmy Chi.

Micko has also worked as a senior consultant to the managing directors of mining companies, providing strategic advice in the area of Aboriginal economic development. Clients have included Rio Tinto, Argyle Diamonds, Newmont Gold and Woodside.

Micko has a love of overland travel and has driven and ridden motorcycles in over 70 countries. These include a 2 year trip from Rottnest to Rotterdam accompanied by his then partner Liesbeth Goedhart, and up the East side of Africa to Europe and back down the West coast.

He flies his own plane and holds a helicopter license, and rides motorcycles and horses. Micko has created exclusive adventure tours in Africa and Australia by Motorcycle, and/or 4WD.

Since moving to Africa in 2014 he now lives in an extremely poor regional area of Zululand, South Africa where his wife Nicky Rattray owns a lodge and is chair and co-founder of a charity that support 21 schools. His new home is on a 5,000 acre nature reserve.

Margo O’Byrne has lived in Fremantle for more than 40 years and has strong connections with the local community. She spent six years of her childhood as a Ward of State in Queensland, in St Vincent’s Orphanage, St Patrick’s Convent Gympie, and with a foster family. She has written about her experience as a Forgotten Australian in a memoir, Left Unsaid – A triumph of sibling love over institutional care and parental neglect, published in 2009. You can hear her interviewed about her life for the Shipping News, July 27, 2021 (link)

Researched and written by Jo Darbyshire after correspondence with Micko O’Byrne over several months May-July 2024

All photos supplied by Micko O’Byrne, Sarah McNamara and Wendy Wise

*Thank you to Mandy Smith (correspondence 7 June 2024) for description of activities of the Fremantle Hysterectomy Society.