So, who am I?
I was born in the North Cornwall, UK, town of Wadebridge on the 18th March 1947.
At an early age, the family moved to Seaton, a small village on the South Coast of Cornwall some 5 miles from Looe and 9.4 miles from Plymouth. My childhood in Seaton was nothing short of delightful, the beach, though gravel and stones, stretched away, East toward Downdery and West toward Looe. Caves provide hiding places for the treasures that the sea provided, emergency rations including chocolate, discarded from ships, fishing floats and all manner of interesting things. In Downdery, there was the World War 2 radar station and it’s attendant power station, buried in the hillside, a source of lead for sinkers. Either side of the Seaton River was a marsh that provided endless joys. From the age of seven I would venture out on the fishing boats with Billy Hocking learning the ways of the sea.
School was at Plymouth College where my father was teaching. There I remained until the sixth of January 1959. On that cold and rainy day the family was poured into the family Austin A40 and driven to St Germans railway station where the faithful family car was left and we boarded the train to Plymouth. Here we shuffled aboard the London train arriving at Paddington Station in the afternoon. Here we boarded yet another train to Tilbury docks where, as a family, we boarded the, “RMS Orion,”
Exactly one month later on the morning of February sixth 1959, the ship arrived in Adelaide. It was hot, far more so than I had experienced and the view from the upper deck of the ship was less than inspiring. As far as the eye could see was sand and saltbush, away on the horizon, buried in heat haze, industrial chimneys pointed skywards.
Despite the dismal first impression, Adelaide proved to be a great little city nestled on a plain, encircled by hills on two sides with the sea on one and plains that stretched away to the north. The beaches were magnificent, long stretching for miles, yellow, soft, but oh so hot.
Here at the age of 12 it was back to school, no longer the sea and boats, but a more mundane life of a city boy. I was no scholar and although I excelled in some fields, science, art and photography, my endeavours on matters academic were sadly lacking.
At the age of 16 my parents felt that a career in Commercial Art was a dead end, a trade was the best options and so, I became an apprentice motor mechanic at Chrysler Australia, whilst it was interesting and I learnt a great deal, it was less than inspiring.
From the age of 22 my life blossomed, I worked as a commercial photographers assistant, as a camera assistant and gaffer for a documentary producer, drove trucks, buses and tour coaches, television floor manager, boom operator and sometime cameraman. As time changed and technology improved I found myself moving into the feature film arena doing special effects, as this too became the realm of technology it was back to commercial photography in a large well equipped studio, occasionally stepping back into film. The world changes faster than most of us would like and as I grew older, there were younger people eager to take your place.
At the age of 60 I somehow won a Job as a cameraman at an indigenous broadcaster in Broome, a pearling town one the far North West coast of Western Australia. This would be my final job and without doubt the most enjoyable and rewarding.
At 12:30 on the 4th of July 2012, I retired, boarded a plane in Broome and returned home.
