Her father, Edward Dickson, was born in Nerrigundah and her mother, Hilda (nee Collett), was a “little English girl” who had recently arrived in Australia.

The couple met in Cobargo and moved to Mt Utopia to mine reef gold.

Norma still marvels at how her mother coped.

At first they lived in a tent, then a slab hut, which her mother later called “The Castle”.

On one occasion, her parents were caught in a heavy rain storm on the return trip from Cobargo, and the Tuross River was in full flood.

Her mother, who was pregnant at the time, swam across the river with her young son Ted in her arms.

She became a good shot with a rifle, and supplemented the family’s meals with whatever she could find, including kangaroo.

When the mine inspector came, kangaroo was all she had to serve and the inspector complimented her on the meat, saying he’d never tasted lamb done that way before!

She did not bother enlightening him.

Norma’s family moved to Bodalla in 1938, when Norma was three or four, but she remembers the experience.

“It was a beautiful time of freedom, love and security,” she said.

The stamper from the Utopia gold mine is now on display at Old Mogo Town.

Norma said her family visited the Utopia gold mine site in 2008.

Relics of the bygone days included the base for the stamper and water pump and the remains of the cyanide pit (cyanide was used in the processing of gold).

The peach tree that her parents had planted was in blossom.

Along with photographs of the Utopia mine, Mrs Costin has an old crucible that her father had given her as a memento of their mining days.