As Effie Anderson marked her 90th birthday, her life on Tamborine Mountain was celebrated by friends and family at the Heritage Centre, but it was a competition she entered at just 12 years of age, which remains her legacy.
In 1948 a competition was held for children to rename the North Tamborine Public Hall. Effie came up with the name Zamia, after the cycad common on the mountain, Lepidozamia.
“I had never envisioned myself as a competitive type, but over a few days I pestered my mother so much so that she stopped her busy work schedule and listened to me,” Effie recalled.
“She heard me waffling on about the birds, the flowers and the trees, the areas where mosses, palms and all manner of rainforest things grew. Exasperated she suggested that I look at the two Macrozamia Palms, which were growing in our front yard.
“That was it.”
Macrozamia was too long so she cut off the macro and stuck with Zamia.
The Zamia is still close to her heart, but she is not one for hoopla and shies away from the notoriety.
Effie moved to the mountain when she just six-years-old and attended North Tamborine Primary School, now Tamborine Mountain State School.
Joining Effie to mark her birthday was Allan Rosser, who celebrated his 100th birthday in November last year.
“I knew Allan Rosser when he was younger. His Dad used to pick up the cream cans to take to the butter factory when I was a child and we’ve been friends since then,” she explained.
“I didn’t expect to get to 90 because none of my family has,” she revealed.
“It feels no different from being 80, I’m just a bit slower and I think that happens to all of us.”
Every Tuesday Effie looks forward to her job helping at The Heritage Centre in the slab hut, which is one of the first buildings people lived in on Tamborine Mountain.
“It’s very rustic,” she shared.
“The one I lived in had birch floors which had to be cleaned with a birch broom from sassafras trees. Mum used to collect them and put together until they dried.”
Effie is a well-known volunteer on the mountain, also giving her time to the Tamborine Mountain Lions Club and Community Care.
“I love all of them,” she said.
In 2024 in recognition of her community work she was awarded a Scenic Rim Senior Citizen of the Year.
Her working life was spent as a teacher in both primary and high school as well as an assistant principal in the Northern Territory.
Effie’s husband, Neil passed away in 2009. She had four children, including her son, Malcolm, who passed away at just 13 years old.
Two of her children, Les and Julie Mudry, as well as her daughter-in-law, Judy Anderson, joined her for the celebration.
She is looking forward to going to see the Ten Tenors at the Star Gold Coast with her family for her birthday.
The post 90 years young: The woman behind the name Zamia appeared first on Tamborine Mountain News.
