Fashion designer Julie Appo, 71, achieves lifelong dream of opening boutique clothing store

When Julie Appo was a young girl, she believed being an Indigenous Australian meant she would never be able to achieve her dreams.

But refusing to let go of her childhood ambition and artist’s calling, Julie battled poverty and social attitudes to finally open her own boutique fashion retail shop at 71 years of age.

In a small retail space in the coastal village of Bargara near Bundaberg, a sewing machine sits surrounded by colourful fabric and handcrafted clothing featuring unique designs.

The textile designs are related to carved-rock-art imagery from the Gooreng Gooreng people, original residents of a region known as the Burnett River rocks, between Gladstone in central Queensland and…