Author Jesse Fink shares first picture of AC/DC's Rosie

SHE was a whole lotta woman – but not as much as Bon made her out to be.

AC/DC biographer Jesse Fink has published what is believed to be the first widely available photo of the character from the Aussie legends’ 1977 staple, “Whole Lotta Rosie”.

Fink explains on his blog JesseFinkbooks.com: “Sometime after the first edition of my book, Bon: The Last Highway, was released in 2017, I was contacted by an individual who said Rosie died young. I was given a name too: Rosalie (alternately Rosalea or Rosalee) Garcia. This person said they were trying to sell an article about Garcia (including a photograph of her with Bon), but nothing ever eventuated: I never saw a photograph or an article.

“(In) 2021 … I was contacted by an Australian woman (she will remain nameless) who’d heard me talking about the song. She’d known Rosie personally and her story checked out.

“(She said of Garcia) ‘she died of a heroin overdose back in 1979, which is why she’s never come forward.

“‘Rosie had a very sad life. She was born in Tasmania but lived and died in St Kilda. I’m not sure if she met Bon in Tassie or in Melbourne. St Kilda was known for having bands stay and play there and many lived there as well. I know she went back to Tasmania for a while. Rosie became a heroin addict and prostitute to support her habit.

“‘She saw Bon for about six months before he went to England… she was a big girl: tall and heavy. She was part [Pacific] Islander on her dad’s side and her mum was tall, if I remember correctly. Very probably around the size Bon wrote about before she was ravaged by drugs. I couldn’t tell you if it was exact. I never weighed or measured her and no, she wasn’t pretty’.”

Journalist Dean Goodman subsequently tracked down her death certificate which can be seen HERE . She was only 22 at the time of her death.

And Fink has published now a picture of her with a man called Graeme Fry, taken in Jackson Street St Kilda the previous year.