INTERVIEW WITH CJ TOINTON
By David Horton

CJ lives in the bush, in a self-built house on her land, named “Allambee”, in Far North Queensland. Her newly built, one room house is very open and free for animals mainly wallabies and brush turkeys, to wander in and out as they please, which of course they do. She loves all the animals being around - if they aren’t actually in CJ’s house, they are grazing nearby. CJ is a long time vegan, a passionate animal rightist and is always disappointed by her meat-eating, bush-burning neighbours. These rednecks, she says, can’t comprehend her being vegan or creature friendly. CJ is a proficient freelance proof-reader and editor of animal-friendly writing. She’s a vegetable grower and a house builder assistant with her friend Garry.

D: I hope there are some good manners in your house CJ? How do the wallabies regard your human ways? Your house manners? Do they regard you as a bit stupid or clumsy or noisy, being human? Do they think you are unnecessarily germ-phobic (unknown in the animal world) with all your cleaning, washing and flushing?

CJ: I think that the wallabies and brush turkeys like my house. They come and go as they please; hang inside on wet days and go off and do their stuff on fine days. But, I must be honest, they do like the food tidbits I offer them! I guess I’d have to say, they don’t like human loud noises – generator, chainsaws, etc. (hey, who does?)

D: Why are you vegan?

CJ: I genuinely feel an affinity with animals. I cannot help myself, if I see any animal (even a dog in town) my face breaks into a smile and I say “hello how are you today, you beautiful thing!” Stuff like that. I find all animals interesting and I love that they can fend for themselves in the bush. We humans cannot do that. I have a real friendship with all my “Allambee” wild creatures. The thought of EATING them doesn’t ever enter my head.

D: How important is it not to be merely a plant-based consumer but an abolitionist activist?

CJ: I think humans can thrive on a plant based diet. It makes me feel good, inside and out, to know that I can live alongside “animals” and not interfere with them. I think animals should just be left alone by humans. We should not (need not) use them – for entertainment, medical research, food, clothing, (the list goes on). Just leave them alone!

D: How many years have you been in Mount Fox, on “Allambee”? Observing wild animals, what do you see in them that you would also see in a cow on a farm? Do you see their souls? Do you understand how humans can do what they do to domesticated animals?

CJ: I came to Mount Fox in December, 1993. I hear gun shots on the weekend, I hear the endless bark, bark, bark bark of the neighbour’s dog when she goes off and leaves her dog alone all day. I hear stories of “gotta get a bigger bull bar so the car won’t get damaged WHEN I hit a ‘roo”; etc. and I just cannot understand how these people think. The animals I have come to know and love on “Allambee” are gentle, clean, happy souls. Every last one of them. I feel a great privilege in being able to share this land with them. They enrich my life – in ways difficult to describe in words.

D: What hardships do animals have to put up with (from us) - losing habitat and green corridors, road kill, guns, poisons, fires, farms, other man-made difficulties?

CJ: It all happens here at Mount Fox. All the bad stuff – Poison baits (1080) for ‘wild dog control’; transport of cattle up and down the Range; yearly burning of the bush; shooting; sausage sizzles. I just tell the animals I see – “stay here on Allambee”, You’re safe here – nowhere else”.

D: What’s it like living in nature, with it and not against it?

CJ: I only feel at peace, comfortable, safe and happy on “Allambee”. I walk my boundaries (15 ½ acres) every day. The wallabies and brush turkeys I meet on my walks don’t race off, but stand and listen as I say “hello”.

I am endeavouring to rid “Allambee” of bad weeds such as Lantana and Pracillus. I pull the weeds out. No poison – just physically pull them out. It works. I love working in the clean air amongst the trees.

D: Is it difficult to get good vegan supplies up in F.N.Q.?

CJ: I have lived, cooked and shopped in this area for over 14 years and I’ve never met another vegetarian - let alone a vegan. Vegan supplies are almost non-existent in Ingham. Oh, I can buy Tofu and Vege. Sausages and the Sanitarium tins; but I have to be very conscientious in buying products “cruelty free”. The Ingham population thinks healthy is “gluten-free”. Nothing else. I am so disillusioned with everyone I don’t even try anymore to argue. I get really hurt.

D: How do people in Mt Fox regard the land? Are they enthusiastic land clearers? Do they consider the flora and fauna?

CJ: People are buying land here at Mount Fox and they’re bringing in their own dozers and excavators and just “going for it!” Lovely little bits of bush are getting ripped apart so people can put down “cement slabs” and “pre-fab sheds” – AND they bring their domestic “pets” – dogs and cats! As if the local animals don’t have enough to put up with.

D: Socially do you feel left out of things in your neighbourhood because you won’t go to barbecues?

CJ: It’s always the big “double S” up here – “sausage sizzles”. That’s as far as the locals can see. I’ve tried and tried and tried to “connect”. I get immediate interest – but no results. I have no respect or affection left for “the locals”. I used to work at the Mt Fox School as Groundsperson. I took a Petition there one day to get rid of animals in circuses. I thought –“everyone will agree with this, surely”. But the Teacher’s Aide said – “oh but CJ, what will the kids have to look at and enjoy if the circus animals go?” She really wasn’t in agreement with the banning of the cruelty of* circus animals. I find this kind of thinking obscene really. I’d rather have the gentle wallabies in my life than people of that woman’s calibre – and she’s helping to teach young kids? They haven’t got a chance. I think the most horrific story of locals’ attitude was when a neighbour had to call on another neighbour to “put down” (with a gun) a badly injured wallaby. I wasn’t there, but apparently there was nothing else for it – the wallaby was suffering. The “man with a gun” brought his young son with him and the love, compassion and sympathy these two male humans had between them culminated in the child saying to Dad with the gun (before the shooting began) “which part will we feed to the dogs Dad?” Makes me want to weep!

For a few weeks now I have been able to observe my wonderful wallies and pesky brush turkeys from the safety and sanctuary of my “one room” house. I’ve had to get two doors operating and I’ve plugged up the other entrances with tin and stuff. Yes, I have created an area (the interior of my house) as “human space”. The wallabies still visit and the brush turkeys congregate and I go out to them, now – and I can still pat Marigold – and I give them food tidbits at irregular times. We are all happy with the change.