Mad Anna
Katoomba has always been the home
to the outsiders, misfits and people who feel that they don’t fit well into
mainstream communities.
Late in her life, the writer Eve Langley lived in a shack in North Katoomba. She was locally famous not for her novels, but for her habit of wearing male clothing and carrying a knife. Eve Langley is buried in Katoomba cemetery under the name Oscar Wilde, which she officially adopted in 1954.
Eleanor Dark a contemporary of Eve Langley also made her home in Katoomba. The Darks made their home on the opposite side of Katoomba in a grand house at the bottom of Cascade Street called Varuna. During the Menzies era Dr Eric Dark, a prominent member of many left-wing groups became locally famous for his belief that anti communists would come and burn his library. To forestall this eventuality Dr Dark had made plans to move himself, his family and his library to a cave that he had discovered to the north of Katoomba in 1937.
In more recent times, an elderly woman who lived in a local boarding house became one of Katoomba’s most popular eccentrics, Mad Anna. Originally, from Croatia, Anna had run away from her family and friends in Sydney and walked to Katoomba. Anna was clearly suffering some form of mental illness or dementia, her conversation was limited to purchasing coffee from local cafes and randomly exclaiming, “Tito bad.” She also spoke of being used as forced labour as a teenager by the occupying German army.
For years Anna formed part of the texture of local life, though her English was minimal and her origins unknown, she became a curious though beloved figure.
In 2012, Anna was hit by a car and her leg was broken. News of this event travelled through the town at such a pace that by nightfall everyone knew that she was in hospital. When she died after a short spell in a local nursing home, her funeral at the local Catholic Church was full, as people came to show this fiercely independent woman that she had belonged and that we would miss her.
Late in her life, the writer Eve Langley lived in a shack in North Katoomba. She was locally famous not for her novels, but for her habit of wearing male clothing and carrying a knife. Eve Langley is buried in Katoomba cemetery under the name Oscar Wilde, which she officially adopted in 1954.
Eleanor Dark a contemporary of Eve Langley also made her home in Katoomba. The Darks made their home on the opposite side of Katoomba in a grand house at the bottom of Cascade Street called Varuna. During the Menzies era Dr Eric Dark, a prominent member of many left-wing groups became locally famous for his belief that anti communists would come and burn his library. To forestall this eventuality Dr Dark had made plans to move himself, his family and his library to a cave that he had discovered to the north of Katoomba in 1937.
In more recent times, an elderly woman who lived in a local boarding house became one of Katoomba’s most popular eccentrics, Mad Anna. Originally, from Croatia, Anna had run away from her family and friends in Sydney and walked to Katoomba. Anna was clearly suffering some form of mental illness or dementia, her conversation was limited to purchasing coffee from local cafes and randomly exclaiming, “Tito bad.” She also spoke of being used as forced labour as a teenager by the occupying German army.
For years Anna formed part of the texture of local life, though her English was minimal and her origins unknown, she became a curious though beloved figure.
In 2012, Anna was hit by a car and her leg was broken. News of this event travelled through the town at such a pace that by nightfall everyone knew that she was in hospital. When she died after a short spell in a local nursing home, her funeral at the local Catholic Church was full, as people came to show this fiercely independent woman that she had belonged and that we would miss her.