Blue Meanies, Pepperland, the Sea of Green... fans of The Beatles' legendary psychedelic picaresque, the animated movie Yellow Submarine (1968), will be instantly familiar with these colourful terms.
And it so happens that one of the key figures in its making, Anne Jolliffe, was a much-loved resident of Blackheath until her death at the age of 87 in August.
A true pioneer of animation, Tasmania-born Jolliffe is regarded as Australia's first female animator. After studying and working in Melbourne during the 1950s, she ended up in London in the 1960s and worked on two series of The Beatles' animated cartoon, The Beatles. This led to her involvement with the cult feature-length animation Yellow Submarine. Jolliffe was particularly involved with the creation of the character Jeremy Hillary Boob (the "eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist" as he introduces himself in the film), and the hallucinatory, kaleidoscopic sequence for the song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
In 1976, Jolliffe went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the film Great! Back in Australia in the 1970s and 80s she established her own studio, Jollification, which yielded more series and films.
But to her friends in the Blue Mountains, her illustrious and groundbreaking career was secondary to the active and passionate role she played in the community. She moved to Blackheath in the early 1990s, and passed away at Leura on August 27.
"She was almost always part of any community event," said friend Wayne Kelly, "full of energy and life and prepared to make her positive contribution to town life."
Jolliffe was involved with a dizzying number of community projects, including helping the Katoomba ALP, the Rhododendron Festival, campaigns limiting truck sizes in the mountains, saving the rocket in Blackheath Memorial Park and supporting Blackheath Pool. She often provided posters and banners for these initiatives and causes.
"My knowledge of her is the positive artistic contribution she made to Blackheath," said Kelly. "If she said she would do something, it was done and done with style."
Jolliffe was also a keen and knowledgeable gardener. Kelly said: "After living in a flat in London, she wanted a garden, which Blackheath gave her. She always produced good crops of raspberries, potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb and sweetcorn. Lupins in the front yard and broad beans on the footpath."
Another friend, Lis Bastion, first met Jolliffe in 1994. Bastion went on to establish the art gallery Stop Laughing This is Serious (which later became Hat Hill Gallery).The gallery opened in 2002 with an exhibition titled Yellow Submarine to Searching for Felix, showcasing much of Jolliffe's most significant work.
Bastion is also the founder of Blackheath Community Farm - another local organisation that benefited from Jolliffe's generosity and imagination.
"She gave us the parsnip seeds we still grow at Blackheath Community Farm," said Bastion. "They're only viable for 12 months but we've kept them growing now for over 20 years."