Roger Merrell

2004

I was born in Brisbane in 1948,moved to Townsville in 1954 and spent a very happy childhood there with my 2 younger brothers until 1958 when my Father died from melanoma cancer. We then moved to my Mother’s family home in St John’s Ave, Gordon to live with my grandparents.I went to Gordon Primary with David Wilson, Bill Whitting, Chris Moran, Jerry Cahill, Rayner Henstock, Bruce Kneeves, Harry Wirth and David Carver—all ABHS pioneers. David Wilson was also school captain then, a natural leader and someone I admired then and even more in recent years after a memorable speech at the ABHS 40th anniversary dinner in 2000 and the revelations he shared with us in his recent emails. David, its a shame you won’t be able to make it on July 31 but I hope it will be possible to catch up with you in Melbourne in the near future.

Does anybody know what has happened to Rayner & Bruce ?  When told we were going to a new high school at Asquith, I had no idea where it was. My strongest memory of the first 6 months at the burnt-out  shell that had been Hornsby Tech is that there were no text books or very few to go round, so we seemed to spend most of each class period writing down the questions for that night’s homework. The first time I actually went to Asquith was the day we marched up to our brand new school surrounded by a sea of mud in approx 1960.

I was in 1A, 2A &3A and struggled to keep up with “elites”. Michael Bell and Graham Simmons were star performers academically. Fondest memories of that time were Mr Goldstein’s daily performances and the gorgeous Mrs Timmins. Goldie had an arsenal of canes and often had one down his trousers tucked into a sock which he would whip out at the the slightest provocation i.e. a fart, burp, snigger etc. He really struggled to pass on his knowledge to us due to the constant  distractions in the classroom which was a shame because he was so highly qualified—a doctorate in French, Latin & German from memory. I regretted it later on visits to France when the locals would wince at my tortured attempts to speak French. Goldie also had the hots for Mrs Patterson. He seemed to be always hanging around her and was always available to cane any boy she nominated. He also reeked of garlic which I had never smelt before let alone eaten. Of course now I enjoy garlic in food. 

I didn’t learn much maths in Mrs Timmins class  for different reasons. We didn’t muck up in Mrs Timmins’s class. She was too classy for that. There would be a hush when she sashayed in to the classroom in her high heels and tight skirts. I found it hard to concentrate and at the age of 12 started to feel very peculiar. I guess testosterone had started to kick in. I caught up with Mrs Timmins at the ABHS 40th Anniversary open day in 2000. She was helping Merv Brown down some steps. Her red hair had turned grey but she looked great and was very friendly. During our conversation, I blurted out that I and many of my classmates had had a crush on her. She blushed, then laughed and seemed pleasantly surprised. Later that day, I bumped in to Ray Kench and told him the story and his reply was ”you weren’t the only ones son”.  

I ended up failing the Intermediate Certificate and had to repeat 3rd year in 1963. After that I lost contact with the pioneers and had to start all over again and try to become accepted by the younger boys. Fortunately I met David Hartnell (ex Newington) who had just joined the school and was repeating 3rd year as well. We were both equally academically challenged. David took me under his wing ,taught me how to ride a surfboard, included me in his surfing trips and things started to look up. He was also a very good photographer and a number of his action shots ended up in “Surfing World” magazine. I mention David because a lot of you would remember David from his Rugby exploits in the ABHS firsts and Bilgola Surf Club. David and I remained the best of mates for the next 37 years until he was tragically struck down by a brain tumour in 2000 at the age of 52.

I didn’t spend much time actually at ABHS in 4th and 5th year except for the weekly roll call on Fridays and scraped through the last official Leaving Certificate in 1965.

I started work as a clerk at the Union Fidelity Trustee Company and studied accountancy at night. Hated accountancy and moved on to another clerical position at the PMG for 2 years before joining the sales department at Columbia Pictures which was a lot of fun. Worked for Coca Cola and Berri Fruit Juices as a sales rep in the early 1970’s, married Anneke (Dutch) and went to Europe In 1974. We spent the next 2 years having a great time travelling around Western and Eastern Europe in a campervan as far as Turkey. Memo toJohn Dawes—I also saw Australia play their 3 matches in the 1974 World Cup in Hamburg and Berlin.

Returned to Oz at the end of 1975 absolutely broke but rich in life experiences. Went back to sales with stints on the road with Orlando and Wyndham Wines before going into a partnership in a liquor store in the Haymarket in 1979.The timing wasn’t good as random breath testing came along in 1980 and killed the city business (drinks after work) market stone dead. 

I cut my losses and spent the next 6 years selling Austral project homes off the plan on commission mainly on the central and south coasts of NSW. Lived at Burns Bay on the Lane Cove river until 1985 when I left Austral just before they went bankrupt and moved to Grose Vale near Kurrajong to live. 

I got a start with Tony Grieg at Lion Insurance Brokers as a life insurance agent. 19 years on and I am still in the life insurance industry running a consultancy from my home office in the Hawkesbury.  I played and coached soccer in the Kuringai district until the age of 38 and represented NSW in the national vets tennis championships in my early 50’s. I’m still happily married to Anneke (32years), we have not been blessed in the offspring dept and these days I try to spend any free time sea kayaking, bushwalking and occasionally canyoning in the Blue Mountains.

I’m looking forward to catching up the ABHS pioneers this Saturday night. It should be a lot of fun.