Bill Davis

From the past:

"Michael Ramsden wacked out his pecker for Miss Smith to view. She burst into tears and was last seen running from the classroom. I think she reviewed her vocational aspirations after that episode.”

2004

Born January 1948, Brisbane Qld. I don’t remember much of my really early Brisbane days with the usual exceptions, Christmas and birthdays. However I do remember the thrust of the mighty Douglas Dakota as we hurtled down the runway at Eagle Farm on the way to a new life adventure in Sydney in 1954. By today’s standards the poor old DC3 would struggle to pull the skin off a rice pudding.

The old man had picked up a gig as sales manager for a cleaning chemicals company called Nightingale. As I recall it was a household name at the time. The new family home at St.Ives wasn’t finished so I was billeted out with my paternal grandmother at Cremorne. She had a house overlooking Mosman Bay (wish I knew then what I know now).

Finally moved into the new St. Ives digs, which much to my horror, was in the middle of a paddock, but I soon got used to the freedom that the location provided. In fact I remember being quite pissed-off some years later when the developers moved in. I had to find new (free) agistment for my horse.

In Feb 1954 I was packed off to St.Ives Public School to start 3rd class. My recollections primary school years are fairly hazy with the exception of a notable incident in Mrs Saunder’s 4th class when a new boy named Colin Henson arrived. I think Col was fresh off the boat from the old dart (Col please excuse me if some detail is a bit off line). A day or 2 after his arrival Colin’s brother, who was a few summers older than Colin and afflicted with the fashionable bovver boy/bodgie culture of the day, arrived in the classroom, suitably attired, with a mate informing Mrs Saunders “weeze want Col”. As 7 year olds we were a bit concerned that our new mate was being kidnapped. I don’t accurately remember the outcome on the day however Colin remained a member of the class. I’m sure Colin’s brother matured into a fine upstanding community member. I think Dick Coates and Timmy Gibb (has he been located) were also in that class.

In 1960 it was off to the concentration camp at Hornsby (apologies to Goldstein who I recall spent time, or his family did, in these facilities during WW2). I recall Goldstein’s distaste for the flatulence delivered by a bunch of 13 year olds - poor prick he didn’t stand a chance.

I was told, as we all were that this was the beginning of a new school. . . What!!! when we arrived at the temporary Hornsby location some bastard had already burnt it down - no chance for us. The new facility at Asquith was, as I recall, good however the walk from the station to the school was the least fun part of the experience. Another notable example of classroom high jinx was in 1C (in the new facility) when a student teacher, Miss Smith (she must have been all of 19/20) made an error in judgement and invoked a global detention of 1C. I can’t remember the reason for the punishment but I’m sure it was justified. Justified or not, detaining IC after hours was still a bad judgement call. The class gave the poor woman buggery (not literally but it may as well have been). The final straw was when the ring leader and school artist, Michael Ramsden wacked out his pecker for Miss Smith to view. She burst into tears and was last seen running from the classroom. I think she reviewed her vocational aspirations after that episode. On reflection, fairly bad behaviour on our part but I still get a chuckle out of it. ABHS holds hundreds of these memories for me.

Its only 1960 and this is becoming a tome. I’d better go into précis mode, if that’s possible.

I was only a mediocre student, not because I didn’t want to do well, but things always seemed to get in the way of my education. Things like, under aged drinking at the Pymble pub with Dick Coates, Bill Webb, Wayne Miles, John Horsburgh et al. My old man was also an avid boatie and if not building boats in the St.Ives backyard was sailing. I spent a good deal of my weekend time on the water, I still do, however more of that later. I always scraped through english, history, art, DGD but was shit at maths. In 1964 my old man sent to a really old guy named Baggot, (yes B not F) who taught him maths at Shore in 1926, for maths coaching. This was so successful that I became a closet maths junkie achieving high marks in the 1964 LC general maths. Such a score was unheard of for Davis. Sadly, because all energy was directed to Maths, the other non maths based subjects suffered. Science and DGD were OK.

In 1965 I had no idea what to do so under the advice of my good mate John Horsburgh I joined that National Bank. Horsburgh left not long after I joined. So much for the referral. It was not much of a job and fairly ordinary pay but it kept me off the streets.

In 1967 I got a gig with the bank in PNG. That was in the days when white fella was king so I had a great time. It was also the first time I owned a boat that was mine and not my old man’s. In 1969 I was offered a gig with the bank in London. My plan was to go there with my girl friend at the time however her mother was so against the idea that I didn’t go. Dumb move in hindsight.

In 1972 I worked out (slow learner as I’ve mentioned previously) that I would never get rich working for the NAB and accepted a role with (Sir) Paul Strasser at Parkes Developments. This was quite an experience that taught me a lot. Parkes failed in 1977, not due to bad management but as a result of the poor economic legacy left by the Whitlam government and the failure of Malcolm Fraser to do anything to improve the position. My job at Parkes was to finance the various developments. The company’s major funder was Citibank and when it all went wrong at Parkes I received a call from the Citibank Australian country head saying, “you helped cause this mess, you don’t have a job, so you had better get over here and fix this mess for us”. Smooth talking bastard. Overnight I became a Citibanker. Overseas travel, big bonuses yippee!,and plenty of hard work - not so yippee!. The Yanks loved VB and our wine so they were OK.

Its now 1980 and the tome is getting bigger. I had better go to bullet points.

· Step back to 1978 - married my wife Kerry - the union is still going well. No kids but a beaut 11 year old basset hound named Bea (B - for Basset).

· Left Citibank in 1980 to join a fledging property finance business owned by Mercantile Mutual. It was a highly profitable company which made plenty of money for all stake holders for about 15 years and grew to assets of circa $1b. I ended up deputy CEO.

· In 1994 - Mercantile Mutual, which by then was owned by the global > (Dutch based) ING - was instructed (by the Dutch) to obtain a banking > licence for the property finance company. This sounded like a good > idea at the time (streakers excuse) and I was part of the team dealing > with the licensing process, RBA et al. The application was successful > and I was a banker again (yes b, not w)

· Woke up one morning in late 1995 and worked out why I had left Citibank 15 years earlier - I didn’t like being a banker - slow learner. I liked working for the Dutch. Similar to the Yanks they enjoyed our beer and wine. I also went to Europe often.

· Left ING bank Christmas 1995 and did nothing for 18 months but rip up a quarter bar. - Kerry wasn’t happy but shit I had a great time.

· Started an independent loan administration company (AMM) in 1997 and sold it to the listed Qld based company Devine Ltd in 2000. Stayed on as the CEO until Feb this year when Devine wanted their company back - bugger.

· Was unemployed for about 2 minutes when I was approached by the Commercial Mortgage Originator, Balmainnb (no! I’m not stuttering, nb > = non bank) as the reinvention and product guy. This business writes > circa $2b p.a. and needs restructuring. I have a 5 year plan with the > shareholders. This should see me done.

Boating:

As mentioned I am a boating freak

Since 1974 I have owned 8 proper boats, 7 called Wings *, you know, fridge, toilet, steering wheel etc. 5 have been yachts and 3 have been power boats. I’m in power boat mode at the moment with Wings 7 (a 3 year old Riviera 34). Wings 8 will probably be a large cruising yacht.

The pool room (apologies to “The Castle”) is full of sailing trophies and there are a few perpetual trophies in the cabinets at the RPAYC Newport with Wings (something or other) engraved on them.

I’ve sailed thousands of miles up and down the NSW and Qld coasts, been to Lord Howe Island, Middleton Reef etc.

I’ve raced in the West Indies ‘93, ‘94, ‘95 and ‘96 Antigua Race Week, finishing 3rd in the Eastern Caribbean Bareboat Championship in ‘96. Cruised may parts of the Med, Hawaii and Asia.

In 1987 delivered a new 40 ton, 60 foot, ketch from Keelung (Taiwan) to Aberdeen (HK). A 4 day job which turned into 3 weeks. Lucky I had a Dutch boss who was also a sailing freak. In those days the communists were fairly twitchy. Closing on the China coast with communist gun boats on each quarter was, to say the least, exciting. However that’s a whole other story.

Update 2016

It's now August 2016. My 5 year time line has come and gone. I remain associated with BalmainNB however the business has changed and we are now mainly engaged by US and European investment banks (IB's) with interests in Australia doing the nitty gritty work that IB's feel is below their station or where it's more economical to engage us than to create their own infrastructure. At 68 years of age I can quite easily earn more than ten times the Australian minimum wage. I've become quite addicted to the lifestyle that such an income provides. I now have a career review date of December 2018.

The current boat is called Wings 10. I think this one will see me out.