What it’s like to be a trauma cleaner

Sandra Pankhurst is the Melbourne woman known to many as “the Trauma Cleaner”, cleaning up crime scenes, hoarders homes or abandoned buildings. And she has some great stories.

Sandra Pankhurst is known as the trauma cleaner.

SANDRA Pankhurst was shell-shocked when she read the back-cover blurb of her life story a few years ago.

‘Before she was a trauma cleaner, Sandra Pankhurst was many things: husband and father, drag queen, sex reassignment patient, sex worker, businesswoman, trophy wife …’

“I was floored by that at first,” Pankhurst says.

“The reality of what my life had been was a shock to me because I’d never seen it in black and white like that.

“In my head, I’m just Sandra.”

The 2017 publication of The Trauma Cleaner outlined Pankhurst’s extraordinary life story — from her abusive childhood to lost years when she faced prejudice because of her sexuality, to being one of Australia’s first gender reassignment patients. There was also a horrific rape, with Pankhurst identifying the offender and seeing her rapist jailed.

Amid the darker times there have been the silver linings of finding love, finding herself and finding success.

Pankhurst has had a colourful life. Picture: David Kranostein

Today, Pankhurst runs a Frankston-based business specialising in cleaning up scenes of deprivation and tragedy.

She heads a team of 24 and has the respect of the police, the Department of Justice and the many local councils and authorities that use her services.

But in the two years since her life was laid bare in Melbourne author Sarah Krasnostein’s award-winning book, Pankhurst has continued to navigate twists and turns. Most recently she learned the identity of her birth mother.

Pankhurst was adopted by a family with one child who were told they could have no more biological children. But two more biological children did follow and Pankhurst was moved out of the family home in Footscray and into a backyard shed.

So began years of physical and emotional neglect.

Pankhurst knew nothing about her biological mother until a few weeks ago.

“After the book came out, Vanish contacted me. They help people search for their parents and they asked me if I’d like them to find my mother. I said I’d be delighted,” Pankhurst says.

“A few weeks ago, they told me they’d found my birth mother. Because she named me, I felt she must not have wanted to give me up. She was young and unmarried and I feel she probably had no choice. I know her identity but I won’t approach her — she’ll be told about me and if she wants to come forward, I’ll be there with open arms.”

Pankhurst is also in demand as a public speaker. Last month, she shared the stage with ABC chair and magazine queen Ita Buttrose at the 4th National LGBT&I Ageing and Aged Care Conference in Melbourne.

“I don’t really see myself as being a big mover and shaker in the LGBTQI community because I think you just need to live your life your way,” she says.

“But I was thrilled to the back teeth to share a stage with Ita. She’s so composed and eloquent — and I don’t believe she’d take any shit. If I could be one iota of Ita, I’d love it. But I can be a little bit of a bogan at times.”

This month, Pankhurst will be the focus of an Australian True Crime Podcast event at St Kilda Town Hall.

“Having the book come out has been the most liberating and cathartic experience of my life. I’ve only had positive feedback and I feel freer than I’ve ever felt. Now I don’t feel threatened by anything or anyone,” Pankhurst says.

“Everything now is laid out on the table and I take ownership of it all because it made me who I am — and I actually like who I am now. I’m caring and compassionate and coming up through the school of hard knocks made me realise that everything you do in life is meant to teach you something.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Pankhurst even describes surviving rape as “the biggest blessing in disguise”. At the time she was working in a brothel. It was a busy Saturday night when a man literally crashed through the door and then subjected Pankhurst and another woman to a protracted and vicious ordeal before they both escaped.

“After that there was no way known I could ever go back and prostitute myself again.”

She started working at a dry cleaner’s, then a taxi office and there were a few more career changes before Pankhurst ended up in the funeral business.

It was there that she came up with the idea of a trauma cleaning service decontaminating properties affected by hoarding and squalor as well as scenes of murder and suicide.

“We can see people at their worst and help them move to the next level — that’s what I enjoy most. Not so much the scrubbing and lifting trash but changing people’s lives.”

That’s also why she’s become an ambassador for Dress for Success in Melbourne.

The charity offers clothing and support for people rebuilding their confidence as they look for employment.

Clients are given smart clothes to wear and can get coaching on interview and work skills.

Pankhurst keeps busy despite a chronic lung condition that required surgery two years ago.

“I can only walk about 60 metres at a time and then I’m out of breath so I always get to places early so I can stalk the good parking spot,” she laughs.

AUSTRALIAN TRUE CRIME PODCAST, THE TRAUMA CLEANER: SANDRA PANKHURST – IN MY WORDS, NOVEMBER 23, 6PM AT ST KILDA TOWN HALL.TRAUMACLEANER.EVENTBRITE.COM.AU