Beryl Attkins was 14 when a Newcastle Herald photographer captured her image in a sandstorm at Nobbys in 1954.
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"I was in high school then," said Ms Attkins, now 83.
"The sand blowing across the road was like something cutting into your skin. It was horrendous."
The photo shows her and her dad Walter Shea walking along the breakwater towards Nobbys, as a Herald reporter jogs back towards the photographer.
They lived in one of the three signalman's cottages at Nobbys.
"My dad would come and pick me up from school to make sure I got home OK," she said.
The Herald republished the historic photo early this month as it was part of a new film, titled Whibayganba: The Story of Nobbys Headland.
It saddens her to think that memories of the past, such as those at Nobbys, will be lost forever.
So she was grateful that the film was made. She had watched it "over and over again".
"I've always wanted to write down memories of my life. My dad was there for 22 years and I lived there for 13 years. I grew up there."
She said living at Nobbys was "fun when I was younger".
"Friends would come up and play cricket and use the lighthouse door as the wicket," she said.
"As I got older, I started to resent it. We were isolated. I couldn't wait to get away."
She recalled never being allowed a day off school, "whether it was raining or hailing".
"We had to walk to school as we never had cars," she said.
Sea foam was sometimes "knee deep" as they walked.
"The water would go from the sea, across the breakwater to the river," she said.
She lived at Nobbys until 1959, when she left to get married at age 18. She had five children.
Her dad worked at Nobbys as a signalman from 1945 to 1967.
Her dad was in the Navy in World War I. He tried to serve in World War II, but was rejected because he had too many children. Plus he was born in 1900.
"We were a family of seven children. My elder brother had an apprenticeship, so he didn't move in with us," Ms Attkins said.
"There were six children and two adults in that three-bedroom house.
"It's only myself and younger brother still alive from the family."
Ms Attkins was only four when the family moved from Coffs Harbour to Newcastle for her dad's new job.
"Back then it was a very safe world. You didn't need to lock doors or anything like that," she said.
Her dad lived on Nobbys from his arrival in March 1945, but "there was no accommodation for us there then".
"When we first came to Newcastle, we lived in the three-storey terraced houses opposite Fort Scratchley on Nobbys Road.
"There was a lane out the back where we played with other kids.
"It was August 1946 when we moved into the Nobbys house, after it became vacant."
