Daphne Robinson is making the most of her freedom after spending more than two decades in medical and mental health institutions.
She has fallen in love with making a 900-kilometre round trip using public transport from her hometown of Mount Gambier to Melbourne on the same day.
“The more I go over, the more I get addicted to it,” Ms Robinson says.
“They say you get addicted to chocolate, smoking and alcohol and all that type of thing, but I get addicted to going on V/Line because it has done wonders and given me a new lease on life.”
Disability brought on by medication
Ms Robinson has tardive dyskinesia, a condition that leads to jerky movements, reduces her mobility and makes it difficult to speak and swallow.
The 78-year-old cannot drive and mostly gets around Mount Gambier on a Gopher mobility scooter.
She eats via a tube straight to her stomach.
The condition stems from being given too much anti-psychotic medicine, which Ms Robinson was on from when she was 16 after complications from an appendix operation.
She spent all her time either at the old Mount Gambier hospital or the Glenside mental hospital in Adelaide.
Then when she was 40, a doctor came to see her in Mount Gambier to tell her she did not need to be on any mind-altering medication.
“From that day to this I haven’t had any of them and I have been able to speak to you clearly and others but before I couldn’t even make a conversation, I was living in another world. I didn’t like it,” Ms Robinson says.
There is no cure for tardive dyskinesia.
New outlook through public transport
Being out of hospital gave Ms Robinson some freedom.
She says she saw a television ad for the Portland cable tram 18 years ago and decided to visit the Victorian town, about an hour-and-a-half bus ride south-east of Mount Gambier, which is in South Australia.
She now travels on the V/Line bus at least twice a week to attend the Uniting Church in Portland, meet up with friends and explore the city.
She also brings back newsletters from her church to people in Mount Gambier.
“What I have learnt in Portland is making you feel important, wanted, needed and useful does wonders for you — life is worth living,” she says.
Ms Robinson discovered about five years ago it was possible to go all the way to the Geelong suburb of Waurn Ponds and back on the same day by swapping from the bus to the train at Warrnambool.
After falling asleep on the train one Friday, she found it was possible to go all the way from Mount Gambier to the Southern Cross railway station in Melbourne and back on the same day — but only on Fridays because of the timetable.
The V/Line bus leaves Mount Gambier about 8:20am and the train arrives in Melbourne about 4pm.
The return journey takes from 5pm to 11:30pm.
“It is a big day, but it is worth it and I do enjoy it and it gives me a different outlook on life,” Ms Robinson says.
“I do not live in a good neighbourhood and when I come back I can face reality a lot easier and cope a lot better.”
Freedom through cheap travel
The whole trip only costs pensioners such as Ms Robinson $5.30 on weekdays or $3.60 on weekends because of a daily fare cap that came in for Victorian public transport last year.
It would cost Ms Robinson about 10 times as much to go to Adelaide on the Stateliner bus.
Ms Robinson also prefers the forests and coastal scenery in Victoria to the drier country in South Australia.
“I just enjoy looking at the country and the wildlife and the blossoms and the flowers and you can see something different every time when you go through,” she says.
“That helps me more and does more for me than taking medication.
“A lot of people have said they don’t know how I can do it and [ask if] I do it on my own.
“[Then] they look at me to say, ‘I don’t believe you’, but it’s amazing what you can do if you really want to do something.
“Because of being shut in for so long, from 16 to 40, I am trying to make the most of my freedom.”
No interest in Melbourne’s charms
Despite going to Melbourne about every two weeks, Ms Robinson has only once seen the sights of the city on a separate visit with her son.
She stays within the Southern Cross station so as not to miss the train back.
Her disability makes it hard for her to stay overnight at a hotel and, in any case, she does not like big cities.
She enjoys the company of the conductors on the train and the help from the bus drivers.
She took a break from her trips over winter while the train between Warrnambool was replaced with a bus during a track upgrade.
Ms Robinson is glad to be back on the train and plans to continue her trips as long as she can.
“I feel if you are really interested, if you really want to do something or if you really want to go somewhere or do something, you can do it,” she says.
“There are people out there on the bus and the train who will help you — that is what they’re there for — and that’s all you need.
“If you don’t ask and if they don’t know, they’re not able to help you.”
New, faster VLocity trains are set to replace locomotives on the Warrnambool line later this year, fulfilling a Victorian government promise made seven years ago.