mmg.com.au

Former Kotta resident and now famous comedian Monica Dullard was happy to return to the ‘‘hot, flat’’ plains of Rochester for a comedy routine at Rochester and Elmore District Health Service for International Women’s Day on Thursday.

Ms Dullard was born in the Rochester hospital and enjoyed growing up in the district.

‘‘We had a lovely life on the farm,’’ she said.

‘‘We had sheep and a bit of crop.’’

She enjoyed being part of various sporting clubs in the community.

She said her father had a dry sense of humour which she admired and there was always plenty of laughter in her house when she was growing up.

In 1979, Ms Dullard left her parents’ farm at Kotta to do theatre work in Melbourne.

She then went on to study a bachelor of arts at Melbourne University and travelled overseas to do more theatre comedy.

She now has many comedy festivals under her belt and has toured the entire country but she especially enjoys performing in rural Victoria and making comedy about issues close to farmers’ hearts.

Ms Dullard said her parents, who still work the farm at Kotta, were always supportive of her comedy career.

‘‘I’ve always had other jobs around it,’’ she said.

Ms Dullard works in the St Kilda library and enjoys children’s storytelling.

‘‘Between reading books I tell jokes to the mums and dads,’’ she said.

Although comedy is Ms Dullard’s true passion, she is also active in inclusion projects.

She works as the hostess to the Sydney Road Traders during the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Ms Dullard said she wanted to break down barriers and preconceived notions people had about foreigners and wanted the multi-cultural street of Melbourne to show what it had to offer.

‘‘I live in Brunswick so it was my local community so it is important to me,’’ she said.

She said there had been so much in the media and politicians constantly spoke about ‘‘those people’’ (foreigners) but people did not get an opportunity to find out what they did, how they lived and why they were in Australia.

Ms Dullard said the traders had a chance to tell their stories and share their different cuisines with people who might not usually visit the area.