Monika is a Melbourne based writer and researcher. Life’s intricacies and curiosities inspire her to write and give voice to stories that struggle to be heard, particularly those coming from abject and marginalised communities.
My dad built me the best and wackiest cubby ever
FINALIST Best Children’s Book ABLE Golden Book Awards 2025
“With thoughtful metaphors and beautiful illustrations, this book helps young readers understand emotional challenges in a compassionate, age-appropriate way, offering support, journaling pages and teacher resources for continued reflection.”
A timely and compassionate story about a child and father setting out to build a cubbyhouse under streaming sunshine. Until clouds snake in on a hazing horizon… skies swell, a clouding storm brews and finally breaks and swirls into pouring rain. All the while, the cubby grows wackier, with the rustiest of riches that rattle and rule! This is all a metaphor for the father’s mental ill health that gently aligns with the building of the cubby and changing weather.
“As a parent, I wish I had this book many years ago…” Professor Pat McGorry AO, Orygen
“So gentle and considerate, honest and touching. Very heartfelt...” Joanne
“Loved it. Loved the way you handled such a delicate topic so tenderly. Wanted more autobiographical links at the end! Wanted more chapters, a sequel, a class to share it with… Just loved it. You’ve handled it beautifully…” Rebecca
The faraway land of the house and two cows
FINALIST Best Nonfiction Book ABLE Golden Book Awards 2025
Sewerage ghost towns. They exist. Just ask Sorrowing Father, Dear Daughter and Blackened boy, and Yankee doodle dandy that smiles with the eyes and his shadowy mate. They and other characters tell the untold and unique story of the community once living on Melbourne’s Metropolitan Sewerage Farm for around 100 years, alongside sewage lagoons and land filtration and grass filtration paddocks being watered 24 hours a day with Melbourne’s sewage.
The faraway land of the house and two cows is a story like no other, told by ghosts through their timeless reality.
Published Works
The Metropolitan Sewerage Farm community
Abandonment, scattered remains in knee-high weeds, a place that once thrived in human activity and was far grander than the relics left behind, where complete homes of yesterday rest buried deep beneath the earth…
The belonging in abject communities: a new understanding through sewerage ghost towns
An article about sewerage town communities in Australia and the UK and specifically, the community living on Melbourne’s Metropolitan Sewerage Farm. It highlights that sewerage town communities are inclusive and highly connected, and even the murk of mustarding waters devoid of air and teeming in critters thriving in the souring stench of olive and brown, can be beautiful. Insights can be applied to any marginalised or abject community and company town.
Out on the Farm
Out on the Farm is a collection of memoirs giving a glimpse into the history, personalities and science of the State Research Farm in Werribee. More than 30 past residents, workers and families connected to the Farm share their memories in the collection, accompanied by photos from private collections.
Research
Monika is a writer and researcher of past industrial communities and their heritage. Monika focuses on sewerage ghost towns and how they flourish in their abject margins into self-sustaining and socially cohesive communities. She has worked across Australia and Europe for more than 30 years to give voice to these and other segregated or marginalised communities and their stories.
Monika presents at international forums and conferences and gives author talks regularly.