Sarah Schwager
FORMER Queen of Yakkerboo Janet GrangerWilcox may have been embarrassed at being named queen of Pakenham’s big event but 18 years on she still has the sceptre.
“I had to hand back the tiara though. It must have been too precious to give away,” Janet laughed.
Born and bred in Iona, Janet moved to Sydney in 2000 with her husband Rob when he transferred there through work.
But she said West Gippsland would always be home.
“Eventually we want to come home. We still have a house in Emerald which is being rented out,” she said.
Janet, now 38, worked as a journalist and assistant editor at the Gazette for 13 years before moving.
She now works as the media relations manager for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.
Janet spent her childhood in Iona and attended Bunyip and Iona primary schools and Drouin High School and was heavily involved with the Garfield Scouts.
After being crowned Yakkerboo Queen when she was 20, she served on the Yakkerboo Committee for a couple of years.
“It was such a surprise,” Janet said. “There were some really lovely girls in the competition that year. I don’t envy the judges at all. It would be really hard to choose.”
She has stayed in touch with some of her rivals.
As Yakkerboo Queen, Janet was involved with the community and she had a busy round of commitments as queen, including presenting prizes at Pakenham race meetings.
She also helped organise the first World Moot in Gembrook in 1990.
Janet now has three stepchildren, Sarah, 23, who lives in Cockatoo and just got engaged on the weekend, Amy, 19, who lives with them in Sydney, and Michael, 17, who lives with his mum in Diamond Creek.
Despite not completing her undergraduate journalism degree due to her commitments at the Gazette, Janet was given Recognition of Prior Learning and recently completed her Masters in Communication Management at the University of Technology in Sydney.