Jim grew up in the suburb of South Melbourne.
The Hawkins family home was located within a 10 minute walk to St Kilda Rd and “The Shrine of Remembrance”. It was also a 10 minute walk to the Albert Park Lake and the South Melbourne football oval and a 15 minute tram ride into the centre of Melbourne city. Jim had an elder sister Joan (now deceased) and a younger brother Richard.
Upon completing year 11 at Melbourne High school in the suburb of South Yarra, Jim was ready to join the workforce.
Jim’s first job was as a Junior Cost Accountant in the Australian headquarters of the American company Ingersoll Rand (Aust.) Pty Ltd. Jim had followed a path of “Commerce” at High School and in his early working years did the part time evening Diploma of Accountancy course at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Jim spent about 3 years at Ingersoll Rand when someone remarked to him that he should look into the new job classification called “Data Processing”. Jim soon noticed a job advert. in that field as an assistant to the “Data Processing Manager” at the growing packaging group “J. Gadsden Aust. Ltd”.
He was successful in getting that job and on his first day in 1963 - was taught how to operate a punch card sorting machine, given 5 trays of punch cards and told to sort them all into the required sequence.
Within 2 years in that position, his boss fell out of favour and left the business. Jim at the age of 22 found himself as the new DPM for that Australia wide group.
It turned out that 8 houses down Jim’s street in South Melbourne was the residence of the “Bennion” family.
They had two daughters, Lorraine & Pamela. Jim & Pam started “dating” in 1961, were married in 1966 and have now chalked up their 50th wedding anniversary.
They have 3 daughters - Trudy, Kylie & Celeste and now have 5 grand-children.
In 1970, after 7 years working at Gadsden’s, Jim talked his then assistant into leaving their employment & together they started up a business of their own that they called “Specialised Computer Services”.
From tiny beginnings and with only a few hundred dollars in start-up funds, the business was quite successful and in 1978 Jim & Peter sold the business (or rather its customer base and repertoire of software they had created) to the English computer organization known as ICL.
In 1982, Jim decided he’d had enough of the long winters of Victoria and managed to convince the rest of the family that they should try life in Queensland. In January 1983 the migration took place when the family jumped into their Ford Fairlane and headed north.
They had spent the previous 3 years or so living in a nice house in the leafy Melbourne bayside suburb of Sandringham and Pam in particular was very reluctant to sell, so the journey north took place on the basis that they would rent on the GC for a year or so to see how things worked out.
Before the end of January, the family had found a nice villa to rent at “7 Oaks” at the southern end of Campbell St. Sorrento. The decision to relocate was done with full knowledge that Jim had no idea as to how the family would generate future income whilst based on the Goldy.
Regardless, a few weeks after settling into “7 Oaks”, Jim started up a new business, selling “mini” (as distinct from mainframe) business computers, in Gabba Towers – a nice 10 story office tower directly overlooking the ‘Gabba in Brisbane.
As it turned out - 1983, the year of the first IBM PC, was the start of a whole new era in computer devices that totally changed the market for computers & IT for small to medium business globally.
Jim closed down his Brisbane sales operation after just 2 years after realising that mini computers, starting at the then price of about $25,000 were headed the same direction as the dodo.
After renting for the year 1983, the Hawkins family had settled in quite well with the three daughters all at schools in Benowa. As such a move back to Melbourne was “off the table” so they sold the home back in Sandringham and purchased a substantial waterfront property on the “Isle of Sorrento”.
One benefit of that was a good sized area within to use as a home office.
As such, the daily commutes to Brisbane became a thing of the past as Jim concentrated on converting his repertoire of business systems & programs to suit smaller businesses – so that they would “run” on IBM compatible PC’s.
After a few months of such work at home, Jim was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to supply systems & services to a soon to open McDonald’s restaurant at Capalaba.
Now almost 30 years later, the business of Abcom has expanded to the point where it’s long established as the main supplier of Inventory, Payroll, Accounting and other business systems for McDonald’s owner/ operators Australia wide.
Jim joined the Rotary Club of Surfers Paradise in 1987 and enjoyed the 15 years he was a member of that club - having made many lifelong friends whilst there.
Jim moved onto Broadbeach in 2002, so his Rotary career is now in its 30th year. Jim & Pam have enjoyed further good times as part of the Rotary Club of Broadbeach and Jim was proud to be President of this fine club in the 2012-2013 year.
