Kerri grew up in Queenscliff and is proud of her family history of living and working in this lovely seaside town, forged over 6 generations through her mother’s family. Her first ancestor to arrive on the shores of Queenscliff was John Wells in 1854. He was a fisherman who worked the waters of Port Phillip and Bass Strait as have the generations since then.

Kerri remembers sitting on the knee of her great-grandfather Joe Wells as a small child listening to him telling his stories and singing his songs. He was a lovely, happy old gentleman always with a smile for his family.

Kerri’s father’s family were latecomers to Queenscliff arriving in the 1930s with her grandfather Augustus Erler serving in the navy on Swan Island.

You could say the sea runs in her veins; however, she is a very poor sailor but loves the sea just the same and all it brings to those who truly connect with it.

Kerri served as the Mayor of the Borough of Queenscliffe in the 1990s and has also been involved with many community organisations. Kerri has recently stepped away from a 20-year history as a public servant and is currently building up her consultancy practice preferring to be her own boss.

She has recently become a member of the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum Committee and it was this connection and the memory of the story of Bozo being told down through the generations that inspired her to write this, her first book.