By day Princess Amber, born Prince Frederick, loved to dress to impress and receive a diverse range of guests in the palace. While she kept her mask of respectability firmly in place on formal Royal occasions, and was the perfect hostess, events invariably took a turn when the dignitaries had departed. Some housemaids were shocked by what they deemed to be disgraceful behaviour as she and her friends enjoyed what can only be described as Dionysian revelry.
Princess Amber was welcomed most nights at very stimulating establishments and mixed and performed with with transgender icons like the Sydney based Carmen Rupe.
Born in Taumaruni in 1935 as Trevor Rupe and one of a family of thirteen, Carmen moved to Sydney to bcome a sex worker in th e1950’s. It was while working in Kings Cross as the first Maori drag Queen that Carmen took on her name and went on to become a heroine of the gay community.
Waltzing With Matilda's 