A group of teenagers, dressed in glamorous gowns, suits and ties, walk through the streets of Aurukun to the first youth NAIDOC ball in the remote Cape York community.
The young women glow. The young men look sharp.
Cars line the route, as parents and grandparents stop to take photos.
Many of these teenagers would not have had the chance to attend a high school formal, so instead they requested a ball.
"It's their first time ever to wear beautiful gowns, wear suits, makeup, hair — the whole sha-bam," said organiser Norma Armstrong-Ravula, youth support coordinator at Aurukun's PCYC.
"They just fully embraced it and it was the coolest thing to watch — just the confidence, the posture — you know, walking with a bit of sass," she said.
"They decided they didn't want to wear shoes. They just wanted to go barefoot and it was awesome."
Planning the ball took months, and one of the biggest jobs was finding outfits for the teenagers.
"It was never going to be a ball if we didn't have the gowns and the suits," Norma said.
Enter Tammy Robinson, from Logan, south of Brisbane.
Tammy is in the Cinderella business, helping to make teenage dreams of fairytale balls and high school formals come true.
When she pulls up the garage door of her Woodridge home, she reveals an Aladdin's cave of shimmering, sparkling jewel-coloured gowns, boxes of jewellery, suits, shoes, makeup and clutch purses.
Most of it has been donated. All of it is free to students in need.
"It's theirs to keep. It's their memories to keep," Tammy said.
"I want every single student to feel exactly the same.
"Whether you've got a lot of money or don't have a lot of money, no matter where you come from, you're all going to the formal or the ball, and you're all going to feel the same way."
Tammy wanders through racks of gowns. There are hundreds of them.
"We have every colour of the rainbow and we go from size 4-6 to size 30 and a 32," she said.
In the backyard, an ageing Hills hoist is weighed down with freshly laundered suits and dresses.
The laundry has been refashioned into a dressing room with mirrors, lights and curtains.
Recently Tammy has moved to Kingston and created an even more impressive showroom at her home there.
In the past three years, the 49-year-old mother of four and aged care worker, has dressed more than 1,550 Year 12 students, another 450 teenagers for other events and helped 100 schools.
"I'm trying to build people up and empower them and also give them hope that a whole community cares about them," Tammy said.
Usually, she supplies to young people in her local area but there was no way Tammy was going to let the teenagers of Aurukun miss out.
Even if it meant 100 kilograms of excess luggage.
"I said to Norma 'I don't see why I can't help you, it'll just be a little bit harder'," Tammy said.
"I asked 'how many students are you looking at?' She said, 'probably 20 girls and 20 boys'."
"Internally, I was 'oh my gosh!' but I was like 'Yes, OK sure' and we just started."
'It's OK to be beautiful'
Norma collected the girls' sizes and favourite colours, and Tammy sent photos of dresses they might like.
"We just went back and forth until we dressed them all," Tammy said.
"And Tammy, bless her, even got scarves for each girl so that it matched their dress," Norma said.
Then they started on the boys' outfits.
"My daughter and I ended up going to Brisbane for a work trip and we tied in visiting Tammy and picking up the dresses," Norma said.
"We were there for a couple of hours, matching every single piece of jewellery to the dress."
"It was really special because we knew what personality the girls were, so we could match to what their personality was like."
When the girls tried on their dresses, Norma watched their faces light up.
"As soon as they tried the dress on, I said, 'how do you feel?' and there were lots of words like Princess or Elsa or Rapunzel — a lot of fairy tales were coming through," said Norma.
"It's important for them and their culture not to be show-offs and not to stand out, but for me personally, it's important to know that it's OK to be beautiful. It's OK to be proud to be a woman."
After the success of this year's event, they're already planning the next one.
"Tammy gets the biggest shout out ever," Norma said.
"She is amazing — the work that she does and the heart that she has."
Dressing a family for formals
Chantelle Gardner-Hudson lives in Crestmead. Tammy has dressed three of her four children for formals.
"Three times a fairy godmother," Chantelle said.
"Tammy to me is family — someone who goes above and beyond."
Daughter Emily's formal was in 2020. Son Lachlan's was last year, and Britney's just took place in September.
In the dressing room, Tammy is helping Britney try on a magenta gown.
"Oh, that's beautiful!" Tammy said.
The teenager grins as she spins around.
"I didn't go to a formal so I needed to make sure my kids could," Chantelle said.
"I was in panic mode with my oldest daughter two years ago.
"Emily had been given a dress which she planned to wear … but then, she tried it on and it no longer fit. I didn't know what to do because we had nothing."
Then a friend told Chantelle about Tammy.
"I was a bit hesitant, thinking that it wasn't for everyone,"
"Anyway, we contacted Tammy and my daughter was able to walk away with a dress and jewellery for her formal.
"She was so happy. She was so beautiful and just to think — three days before — she wasn't going. I still get emotional now."
The family returned the dress to Tammy's collection, and came back for Lachlan last year.
"My son is quite tall. He's 6 foot 7. His dream was to wear a tuxedo. Again I contacted Tammy, two weeks later, she messaged me and said 'I think I've got the one'," Chantelle said.
"Britney is another milestone, especially close to my heart.
"She was born with a lot of diagnosis — a lot of medical conditions. We were told we wouldn't see her first birthday, let alone her Year 12 formal.
"We went and saw Tammy at Formally Ever After again and oh my God — did Tammy have the perfect dress! [Britney] was our Cinderella."
Chantelle's youngest daughter Maddie is also planning to visit Tammy when her formal comes around.
Tammy's light-bulb moment
Tammy's Formally Ever After service was born in 2019, after she'd been looking for somewhere to donate evening wear of her own.
She'd collected items from others in the area and was going to another city to drop them off, when her light-bulb moment came.
"My son, who was in Year 12 at the time, stood there with the dresses in his arms and I said, 'there's something wrong with this picture'," Tammy said.
"We're about to take eight dresses out of Logan and eight girls in Logan aren't going to go to their formal. So he said, 'well Mum, do something about it'.
"I know the Logan area well. I grew up here, so I knew there was a need.
"I think that it's a rite of passage. When you do 13 years of schooling, you should be able to go and celebrate with your friends."
In 2019, Tammy lost a friend to cancer, a mother-figure to dementia, and an elderly grandmother within two months.
It was also a time of intense grief for Tammy.
"I'd be on the floor crying and I'd say to myself, 'you need to get up and you need to dress those kids because those women that you lost would be saying — 'do this for the kids'," she said.
"It was just really tough but doing this helps heal my heart."
Tammy takes fittings two days a week and works four days, but when it's peak formal season, she'll fit students in around the clock.
She even "talks" to her dresses, particularly the ones that aren't chosen straight away.
"I say, 'don't worry, don't feel like you are rejected, someone will love you'."
The wife of a local school principal helps Tammy with any mending.
Items that can't be fixed are re-purposed and turned into costumes for school plays.
"They just did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I got to see the costumes in it, which was really cool," she said.
Tammy's dream is to have a home with a giant shed in the backyard, decked out with formal wear.
And she plans to have a long future.
"I reckon I've got at least 25 more years," she said.
"It's not just the dresses or the kids. It's made my life much better by being able to help others.
"It makes me happy. It makes other people happy. It just sends a big ripple through the community."
