Covid retreat back to Coffs becomes a permanent thing

“We only had four bags with us so we’ve been shopping at Vinnies constantly.”

You might recognise her face from the stage and screen - but she's also the voice behind literally thousands of cartoon and video game characters.

And now Dianne Weller, who was born and bred in Coffs Harbour, is living back in the region permanently with her two daughters Farrah and Grace.

She's married to Belgian film production designer Frederic Delrue who can't be with the girls at their Emerald Beach home at the moment, as he's currently working on a HBO series back in his home country.

"So we are fatherless by ourselves for eight months - you just do what you do, don't you," she laughed.

They had always planned to return to establish a life here but COVID-19 hastened those plans.

"We decided to come over in March because the schools in Belgium were closing for five weeks. That was when Covid was just starting. People didn't know what was happening from one day to the next."

 

Then as the situation worsened she realised it was time to make the move permanently.

"We left our whole house back in Belgium - everything - we only had four bags with us so we've been shopping at Vinnies constantly."

Farrah is 14 and attends Jetty High; and nine-year-old Grace is at Sandy Beach Primary.

Dianne's parents are in their 80s and still live in Coffs.

"They met in Grafton and raised our family in Coffs. Mum is from Grafton and my father is from Glenreagh. My grandmother planted the pine trees in Moonee - we have a long standing history in the region."

After completing year 12 at Orara High she went on to graduate from the University of Western Sydney at Nepean where she studied with the likes of Joel Edgerton before moving to London in the late 1990s.

 

She has performed and directing in the UK and in Europe and worked in the USA as a respected voiceover artist; appeared in the Disney TV production of Find Me in Paris; was cast in The Missing: Season 2 and Casualty with BBC One TV in the UK; and featured in three significant BBC Radio4 drama series.

Since returning to the Coffs region, Dianne has landed a role in a new Australian feature film playing a character called Karen in the comedy No Harm Done.

"It starts this month and I will be coming and going between Emerald and Sydney over the next few months.

"Karen is a bit of a Karen - I haven't got the whole script yet. I play the tennis club lady and she's a bit of a b**** - I always seem to get cast in that kind of role."

Diane recently played the hard-nosed stage mum and cabaret club owner in the local production of Rouge - An Adult Cabaret at the Coffs Regional Conservatorium.

She is working with local politicians and potential donors to establish a local arts festival - starting with a two-day event to prove its worth to donors, and eventually growing it into a 10-day festival covering the region from Woolgoolga to Bellingen.

"I have established my career; but what I really want to do now is bring something back to the region and I have been working solidly with a team of people since I have been back to set up a Coffs Harbour Arts Festival.

"We can offer something of international renown in the local region - we are slap bang in the middle of Brisbane and Sydney so we are in a great spot to do that."

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