The tale of Limestone Lizzie

johnboy said :

Here’s the wayback:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030212023412/http://www.limestonelizzy.com/

I remember that website & that was the Lizzie I remember. One of the guys at work found it & showed it to us. She used to wave to us as we drove past every day, used to send shivers down my spine……

1337Hax0r said :

Could this be Lizzie?
http://www.culturazi.com/?p=514

Hell no!- LL had a huge honker!

breda said :

Thanks for TVZ link, Deref. I’d like to hear the local version sometime as well. It’s a wonderful song.

🙂 My pleasure. Chris plays regularly at Beyond Q in Curtin – their web site has a calendar that’ll tell you when he’s on next.

1337Hax0r said :

Could this be Lizzie?
http://www.culturazi.com/?p=514

Nup, thats ont the one I remember seeing, she had dark hair & olive skin (not dark but european).

Assuming she is dead, where are all the posters who bang on about respect for dead criminals? Isn’t a raddled prostitute worthy of a few lectures to Rioters?

Yeah she’s real for sure, I used to work at campbell shops and she would come in every saturday morning and buy a diet coke and chocolate bar and someimes condoms it was way gross, she also used to make me go all the stuff for her becuase she said she was to tired from walking!

Could this be Lizzie?
http://www.culturazi.com/?p=514

Thanks for TVZ link, Deref. I’d like to hear the local version sometime as well. It’s a wonderful song.

Just in case anyone else out there really wants to do a poem they could try for these awards:

http://www.actwriters.org.au/awards/poetry-award.shtml (only if you don’t have a book of poetry published)

or http://monarocommunities.org.au/uploads/media/Feast_of_Poetry_2012_brochure.pdf

The last one has a song category (there you go, LSWCHP (-: ) and a ‘bush poetry’ category (that seems strangely appropriate) as well as open poetry. The winning poems are performed on the presentation day in Cooma at a lovely old gallery. Check closing dates.

Mine won’t be ready in time for this one. But I am going to have Limestone Lizzie turning into a feature of the landscape as she also enters the realm of myth. Won’t be a ballad though.

breda said :

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

It’s a Towes van Zandt song – and you’re right, it’s magnificent.

Here’s a vid of Townes performing it.

Canberra’s Chris Johnson does a brillant version.

poetix said :

Skidbladnir said :

It would be truly extraordinary if Original Lizzy were still doing a trade.
Some people believe she finally moved somewhere warm, others that she died in 2007, and a small few believe she merely became the Stig.

Although unfortunate people buying franchises with the Lizzy name to gain a loyal customer base holds a certain comedic appeal.

I wonder if her tragic ghost still wanders the lonely windswept verges and footpaths of Limestone Avenue, eternally seeking yet another customer?

I’ve already started a poem about her, so get off my patch! Perhaps I should rephrase that…

I wonder if her tragic ghost
still wanders the lonely windswept verges
seeking a lonely public servant
to satisfy his hidden urges…

There’s a song in that…:-)

I saw her a couple of times on my way between Defence offices at Campbell Park and Anzac Park West. One of my managers at the time (this is quite a bit more than a decade ago) actually pulled over to offer a ‘nice young girl’ a lift and found instead a very raddled older lady who proceeded to list prices (extremely cheap) for services (extremely tacky). A happily married and somewhat religious fellow, he did not take her up on the offer.

I remember being absolutely heartbroken once when I decided to enjoy a glorious spring afternoon and walk from Campbell Park up to where my husband worked at CSIRO on Limestone Avenue rather than wait around for him to pick me up. I got two toots and a ‘Hey Lizzie!’. I WAS wearing red and black, but it was a very respectable shirt/trouser combination, and I hated to think that I looked horrendous enough to be confused with poor Lizzie (and having seen her myself as I drove by, she was pretty haggard). I’m hoping it was just the coincidence of a female walking alongside that road. In my favour, both the toots and the ‘Hey Lizzie!’ came from drivers approaching me from behind. Thank God no one actually stopped. It was the first and last time I walked along that road!

rosscoact said :

breda said :

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

There is nothing glamorous about being a low-grade prostitute. Still, if Lizzie was genuine (and it seems that she was) I would rather see a piece of public art or even a plaque memorialising her than the endless tributes to the great and the good that infest this town. After all, she probably knew quite a few of them.

I can see the flaming eye of LotR fame on Limestone Ave as the sister piece to the Belco owl

A 60 foot statue of her could be placed, legs astride, over the Federal Highway when you drive into Canberra.

The statue would act as a welcome sign to visitors.

Now THAT is public art.

rosscoact said :

breda said :

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

There is nothing glamorous about being a low-grade prostitute. Still, if Lizzie was genuine (and it seems that she was) I would rather see a piece of public art or even a plaque memorialising her than the endless tributes to the great and the good that infest this town. After all, she probably knew quite a few of them.

I can see the flaming eye of LotR fame on Limestone Ave as the sister piece to the Belco owl

A 60 foot statue of her could be placed, legs astride, over the Federal Highway when you drive into Canberra.

The statue would act as a welcome sign to visitors.

Hang on. Not a statue astride but a statue recumbent with an appropriately placed tunnel. Or two, one going in, one coming out (of town)

The straddling thing would only work if we had a tiny representation of a former Chief Minister underneath, looking up in wonder and joy.

rosscoact said :

breda said :

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

There is nothing glamorous about being a low-grade prostitute. Still, if Lizzie was genuine (and it seems that she was) I would rather see a piece of public art or even a plaque memorialising her than the endless tributes to the great and the good that infest this town. After all, she probably knew quite a few of them.

I can see the flaming eye of LotR fame on Limestone Ave as the sister piece to the Belco owl

A 60 foot statue of her could be placed, legs astride, over the Federal Highway when you drive into Canberra.

The statue would act as a welcome sign to visitors.

That works on so many levels.

breda said :

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

There is nothing glamorous about being a low-grade prostitute. Still, if Lizzie was genuine (and it seems that she was) I would rather see a piece of public art or even a plaque memorialising her than the endless tributes to the great and the good that infest this town. After all, she probably knew quite a few of them.

I can see the flaming eye of LotR fame on Limestone Ave as the sister piece to the Belco owl

Poetix, you could do worse than look at the lyrics of Steve Earle’s “Tecumseh Valley” about the fall of a dirt-poor girl into prostitution, here:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steveearle/tecumsehvalley.html

But, you really need to listen to the song, which is heartbreaking. There is a version on youtube, but the sound is awful.

There is nothing glamorous about being a low-grade prostitute. Still, if Lizzie was genuine (and it seems that she was) I would rather see a piece of public art or even a plaque memorialising her than the endless tributes to the great and the good that infest this town. After all, she probably knew quite a few of them.

poetix said :

Skidbladnir said :

It would be truly extraordinary if Original Lizzy were still doing a trade.
Some people believe she finally moved somewhere warm, others that she died in 2007, and a small few believe she merely became the Stig.

Although unfortunate people buying franchises with the Lizzy name to gain a loyal customer base holds a certain comedic appeal.

I wonder if her tragic ghost still wanders the lonely windswept verges and footpaths of Limestone Avenue, eternally seeking yet another customer?

I’ve already started a poem about her, so get off my patch! Perhaps I should rephrase that…

The Ballad of Limestone Lizzy? or the Saga? There is a certain lutheran nordic motif there

Skidbladnir said :

It would be truly extraordinary if Original Lizzy were still doing a trade.
Some people believe she finally moved somewhere warm, others that she died in 2007, and a small few believe she merely became the Stig.

Although unfortunate people buying franchises with the Lizzy name to gain a loyal customer base holds a certain comedic appeal.

I wonder if her tragic ghost still wanders the lonely windswept verges and footpaths of Limestone Avenue, eternally seeking yet another customer?

I’ve already started a poem about her, so get off my patch! Perhaps I should rephrase that…

Skidbladnir said :

It would be truly extraordinary if Original Lizzy were still doing a trade.
Some people believe she finally moved somewhere warm, others that she died in 2007, and a small few believe she merely became the Stig.

Although unfortunate people buying franchises with the Lizzy name to gain a loyal customer base holds a certain comedic appeal.

Kind of like the Dr Who of prostitution.

artuoui said :

‘Limestone Lizzie’ – I can see the next folksy public art sculpture coming along right now.

I could get behind public art sculptures of local characters like Limestone Lizzy.

Lindsay the Window Washer is amazingly resilient for a bloke who’s looked to be at death’s door for the last five years, but when he finally drops off the twig I’d love to see a statue of him on his chosen corner. Mind you, he could well outlive me at this rate.

She existed and was a nuisance – once I had to swerve to avoid her as she’d “strayed” onto the road. Not sure who was more pathetic, her or the men who picked her up.

‘Limestone Lizzie’ – I can see the next folksy public art sculpture coming along right now.

poetix said :

I wonder if anyone at all remembers her real name?

According to http://ca.nberra.com/index.php/2012/01/limestone-lizzie-the-musical/ Elizabeth Reginavic

She is real and not a fable/myth. I heard she had been walking that patch for decades.

I wonder if anyone at all remembers her real name?

It would be truly extraordinary if Original Lizzy were still doing a trade.
Some people believe she finally moved somewhere warm, others that she died in 2007, and a small few believe she merely became the Stig.

Although unfortunate people buying franchises with the Lizzy name to gain a loyal customer base holds a certain comedic appeal.

A very real person, and yes she died in 2007. I accompanied a close friend who was up on a drink driving charge in the early 00’s and she was there fronting for her 188th time for solicitation.She certainly lit the courtroom up with her actions and colourful language. I recall her ‘patch’ was between ADFA and the war memorial in the late afternoons.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=limestone+lizzy+riotact

http://www.culturazi.com/?p=514#more-514

http://ca.nberra.com/index.php/2012/01/limestone-lizzie-the-musical/

http://region.com.au/police-wrap-21-july/8076
http://region.com.au/limestone-liz/4571

Used to see her doing the walk between the war memorial and Mt Ainslie turnoff when we were running rental cars between the Airport and city around 2000. I heard she died 5 or so years ago.

Sorry, no real “stories” to tell. Not even the most deviate of my co-workers would go there, although several did stop to find out her rates.

Disposable said :

She definitely existed around 15 years ago. The rumour is that she is dead now. The other rumour is that someone made a website about her back in the day.

One thing that is true is a really churchy Defence colleague of mine once pulled over genuinely to see if she needed a lift. She then proceeded to rattle off prices and he floored it in disgust.

Yeah she is real. Heard a lot of story’s about her but don’t know if any are true. But I did used to see her every day around maybe 8 years ago driving to jobs. Used to wear a lot of leapord print. She disappeared and a more younger, attractive woman took over for maybe 6 monthes then she disappeared as well.

Limestone lizzie kind of reminds me of the junkie gf of the window washer on northbourne. She wore clothes that from a distance made her look like a young woman but up close a drugged out mess of a human.

Limestone Lizzie aka Mary is not a myth. In fact, after not seeing her turning tricks on Limestone Avenue for a few years, I saw her twice last week between 4:30pm and 4:45pm standing near the Mt. Ainslie turnoff trying to wave down traffic (times inserted for the lonely and desperate).

She definitely existed around 15 years ago. The rumour is that she is dead now. The other rumour is that someone made a website about her back in the day.

One thing that is true is a really churchy Defence colleague of mine once pulled over genuinely to see if she needed a lift. She then proceeded to rattle off prices and he floored it in disgust.

Yes, she exists. I believe she was in the news a few years back but I can’t remember what for?