Shaine Melrose
This month, I had the privilege of interviewing Shaine Melrose, an emerging poet and writer based in Kaurna Country. Click here to read her featured poem, “See our chronic illness–.”
Tell us a bit about your background.
I spent my childhood in the Victorian High Country, East Doncaster, and the Dandenong Ranges. My father’s main job was as a primary school teacher, and my mother was a beautician. I had three siblings and a large extended family. We spent a lot of time in the out doors. I was a great swimmer and runner, climbed to the top of trees.
My parents gave up their jobs to follow a dream, buying 16 acres of bush and building a holiday centre. This inspired me creatively, and I would write stories with my sister and by myself. I loved to draw and work with clay, and we were fortunate enough to have an abundance of story-books and coloured pencils.
Where did your journey with chronic illness begin?
There were many incidents in my life that left me carrying trauma. I worked with plants in the outdoors to try to manage my daily demons. Aged four, I was viciously attacked by a dog, sustaining wounds to my face and hands. I still have a scar like a dimple on my face. I was hit on the head with a baseball bat when I was seven or eight and suffered depression and migraines afterwards. Aged 12, I was trampled by a racehorse, thanks to my brother spooking her. I also fell through a roof, dislocating my coccyx.
What other challenges did you face growing up?
There was a lot of conflict and social expectations I was trying to get away from. As a young teenager, I lost my brother, three close family members, and a family friend within a couple of years. I was a tough kid but very sensitive, and I unravelled a bit after this period. I learned to separate things and mimic behaviour to survive the tragedy and health issues I faced. In my late teens, I started seeking medical help for hormonal, digestive and mental health issues.
“I learned to separate things and mimic behaviour to survive the tragedy and health issues I faced.”
When and why did you choose to pursue poetry?
At high school I was involved in drama, art, woodwork, photography, and film making. I was a voracious reader, and the librarians took me under their wing, providing a safe place throughout high school. I started writing poetry and plays at age 14, encouraged by my Drama and English teacher, to explore the emotions of loss and nature.
Which poets inspired you, and how did they impact your work?
We studied Dickenson, Plath, T.S Elliot, and Lowell at school, and I was swept away. They really opened my eyes to what can be achieved within a poem. Through Plath’s The Bell Jar, I was able to consider the beast of suicidal ideation and mental illness, and begin a dialogue with myself.
What was life like as you got older?
My upbringing was one of stoicism. My parents were raised in a strong Presbyterian tradition. Although not practicing, ours was a strict childhood. So, I was compelled to get a job and work hard in spite of my struggles. My dream of becoming a journalist was buried in grief, otherness, and the ash of the 1983 fires.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2014. I believed I could beat it through yoga and a healthy lifestyle; I was wrong. 2017, I was in so much physical and mental pain, I could no longer work. I had reduced working days, hours; I had become a shadow. Pushing away those I loved. I felt worthless and hopeless. Still, a stubborn spark drove me to reinvent myself, make myself interesting, to spill the truth of my suffering to my GP. Within two years, I was having surgery, seeing a psychologist, and reconnecting with my rheumatologist.
I had started reading poetry at open mic nights and on the slam scene. At this point, writing was a lifeline out of my illness. Writing was the only thing I had in my back pocket, and I threw myself into it. I could no longer do the physical work I had engaged in for four decades. Writing gave me community, identity, and a way to express the crisis I was experiencing; it saved my life. Medications caused havoc, my mobility became limited, and I had to re-learn to walk numerous times. I slept nearly two years during COVID. I made it through with words, the endless support of my partner, and a great medical team.
“Writing was a lifeline out of my illness. Writing was the only thing I had in my back pocket, and I threw myself into it.”
Much of your work is inspired by the natural world. What compels you to write about nature?
I was always surrounded by bush and towering Mountain Ash. Nature was an enormous support growing up, and I felt a real camaraderie with trees and the natural world. I wrote nature poems abundantly, exploring mosses, insects, rocks, plants, and water. But I was always interested in people and politics, so I wrote many controversial pieces and portrait poems.
What is the most beautiful natural place you have ever visited?
I have visited many beautiful forests around Australia and the world. The only way my partner could get me to travel was to entice me with trees. I will always have a soft spot for the Victorian high country and the central desert of Australia.
What new project are you working on, and what inspired it?
Survival is my story, and the ocean is my beginning, my middle, and perhaps will be my end. My latest project has gone through much change. The core is invisibility; ageism, disability, queer experience; all hidden below an exterior that looks acceptable to society. Below the surface there is much more, as with the ocean. Below the waves is very queer, I feel right at home. Little effort has gone into understanding the chronic illnesses of humanity or our oceans, and the impact of our ignorance has major consequences for the entire living system of the world.
“The core is invisibility… all hidden below an exterior that looks acceptable to society. Below the surface there is much more, as with the ocean.”
Tell us a bit about your poem, ‘See our chronic illness–.’
The algal bloom in South Australia inspired me to write this poem. This natural disaster confirmed my idea of the ocean as a great entity suffering the ills of this world, much like my own experience and my cohort. We are not understood, and we struggle to be seen or have our needs met without judgement. I fall through layers of ocean into the darkness. I go on a journey with the creatures below, but we rise into the light, we make ourselves seen.
If you could give your younger self advice on managing chronic illness while encouraging creativity, what would you tell young Shaine?
I wish my younger self had the confidence to believe in the capacity of their creativity, but they were up against so much; survival took everything. I am glad I made it through to be here today.
“Survival is my story, and the ocean is my beginning, my middle, and perhaps will be my end.”
Shaine Melrose is a writer, poet and gardener living and resting on Kaurna Yerta. In 2025, Shaine won a Red Room Poetry Fellowship and Varuna remote residency. Published in numerous anthologies and journals, Shaine’s work explores the natural world, chronic illness, and the queer-self. Shaine has been commended and runner-up in several local/national competitions, including shortlisted for The Judith Wright Poetry prize 2022, and longlisted in the Vice Chancellors International Poetry Prize 2023. Shaine’s full length poetry collection, The Natural World Somersaults, was published in late 2024 by Walleah Press.
Post published 01/09/26
Article by Jacqueline Collier
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