I was born in Oxford, England, in 1949, where my father was stationed after the war. I had my first birthday in Scotland, in a town called Irvine, in Ayrshire, Robert Burns country.
My father was Scottish and my mother, English.
In 1959, I travelled overnight on a train with my parents and brother from Glasgow to Southampton. We then sailed to Adelaide on a passenger ship, which was very exciting for a 10-year-old lad who had never been outside the UK before. I remember getting off at Naples, which had a terrible smell, apparently because of the wine making; and also stopping at Port Said.
When we arrived in Australia, we all had very Scottish accents, as you would expect, but having a good ear for accents, within a couple of weeks I was talking like an Aussie. So much so, that mum would sometimes get me to “translate” for her when we went shopping.
The first place we lived in was Pennington Migrant Hostel, in a tin hut (much like a Nissan hut) which was freezing in winter and with a bitumen floor, which melted in the summer. There was plenty of incentive to leave, which we did after about 6 months, when dad got a job with British Tube Makers.
My first impression of Australia was very different from our home in Scotland. I won’t go into the details of every place we lived in Adelaide, but when we got out of the hostel, we moved into a house owned by an old guy who worked with dad. The house was on Bay of Biscay soil (heavy clay), and during the summer, had cracks in the walls you could put your hand into.
I Lived in Adelaide for thirty years, also a couple of years in Angaston in the Barossa Valley, unfortunately I was still at school then, so couldn’t take advantage of what the Barossa is famous for. I’m making up for it now though.
I started my working life in the Commonwealth bank as a junior clerk, but left after just over a year. I didn’t get on too well with the manger, as I kept beating him at chess. I guess I should have let him win now and then.
I then worked in a department store; John Martin’s, selling, repairing, and installing lights. As most of you would know, the store no longer exists.
After about eighteen months, I Joined the Public service in the PMG (Post Master General’s department) as a clerical assistant in the printing room of the drawing office. I did a TAFE certificate in electronics, which took several years part time and became a draftsman. I moved through several different areas of drafting, from underground cable reticulation to designing printed circuit boards, to all the plans associated with telephone exchanges, eventually becoming a Senior Technical Officer, providing documentation for the installation of electronic telephone exchange equipment.
In late 1990 I took a redundancy package from what had become Telecom Australia, and moved to Brisbane, where my late wife Penny’s parents lived.
I went to TAFE again, and did a 3-year Diploma of Computing Science in 2 years. I then enrolled at QUT for 1 year, and gained a Bachelor of IT. Before I had finished my degree, I had landed a job with Queensland Rail, as a CADD programmer. After about a year, my manager asked if I would like to learn more about the support side of things, hardware, software, and networking. Well, how could I say no? I was promoted to Systems Analyst, and then became Team Leader of the Systems Support Section, looking after Queensland Rail’s draftsmen and engineers’ computing needs. If ever you have had a message on your PC, telling you to contact your Systems Administrator? Well, that was me.
President Wendy Lippett
Secretary Greg Casson
