Estelle Asmodelle

Estelle Asmodelle, formerly known as Estelle Maria Croot, is an Australian polymath.

She is a model, actress, Belly dancer, musician, activist, abstract artist and physicist.

Estelle was a controversial figure in the 1980s and as such her story has also appeared in books as well.

Estelle Asmodelle was the first-born child of Silvia and Barry Croot.

The father’s side of the family was Latvian and the mother’s side was English.

Estelle has one sibling by the name of Belinda.

Estelle grew up in the small town of Berrima on the Southern Highlands of NSW and attended St Paul’s Primary School in Moss Vale and then Chevalier College in Bowral.

At school, Estelle was considered gifted in science and art and often won school prizes.

At the end of year 9, Estelle contracted meningitis while on holiday in Narooma.

She was in a coma for three weeks and in a wheelchair for three months, then at a convalescent hospital recuperating for nine months.

To the amazement of the doctors, she made a full recovery from the serious infection.

The following year she was enrolled at Moss Vale high school for year 10.

Several IQ tests were performed yet the result was never revealed.

After working briefly in Sydney, Estelle moved to Wollongong and attended Wollongong University where she studied towards two degrees, a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Mathematics, with the hope of becoming a research scientist.

She also worked in music ensembles, such as N-lettes and Miscellaneous Music composing and playing experimental avant-garde music.

At university, she experienced transphobic discrimination from members of the academic staff.

It was a devastating time for Estelle, for the dream of study and perhaps a life in academia seemed broken.

As a result she left the university to focus on art and music.

She became a dancer, believing that dance was the true artistic synthesis of art and music.

After leaving Wollongong University, Estelle worked briefly as an assistant photographer, while attending dance classes at Sydney Dance Company and also with an Authentic Egyptian Dance instructor.

Six weeks after starting Belly dance classes she gained work as a dancer.

As time passed she worked in many shows both in Australia and Asia.

Estelle toured through Singapore, East and West Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan.

She was typically featured as the variety act for such shows as Esma Duo, Paris by Night, Las Vegas Under Lights and Les Girls.

During her time dancing, she also gained part-time work modelling as well.

She returned to Australia and worked as a solo Belly dancer.

During Estelle's dance career she travelled to Asian countries and faced many legal difficulties, especially in Singapore where she was detained and placed under house arrest during her stay in the country, because her passport denoted an M (for male).

She suffered serious problems with various customs officials and became determined to change the laws in Australia.

At that time Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade policy was to deny passports bearing the gender designation F to transgender women even if they had undergone sex reassignment surgery.

Estelle continually sent letters and requests to the Attorney's General's Department of the Australian Government and eventually received confirmation that her requests were answered.

Others had also been lobbying for changes to the New South Wales government for the right to amend birth certificates.

In 1986, she was labelled "Australia’s First Sex-Change Pin-up Girl".

She was said to be the most photographed transgender person in Australia.

She became Australia's first legally recognised transgender person registered with the Births, Deaths and Marriages Department of New South Wales on the 13th October 1987.

Shortly thereafter, she received a newly issued passport under her updated name, featuring the gender marker 'F' for female.

This was the first instance of a passport being issued to a transgender individual in Australia with the revised gender designation.

However, Estelle had written the Attorney-General of N.S.W. so many times, in 1987 they contacted her by phone and invited her to be the first transgender person to have her birth certificate amended.

This amendment made her the first legally recognised transgender in Australia.

Months later, as a result of this action, her passport sex designation was allowed to be amended as well.

A year later Estelle lobbied for anti-discrimination laws to be amended and also for the state hospitals ethics boards to allow research into ectopic pregnancy for sex-change women.