05 1976-96 Melba

1976: Finding Lois

I left Canberra on 03 January on this epic adventure, the first time I would have been further than New Zealand, first time I would be in countries where English is not the normal language and uncertain as to whether I would find Lois within my time frame. I left on a Lufthansa DC-10, not sure if my German from school would be needed and throwing myself into the deep end to some extent in the middle of a northern winter.

I realised I would not be seeing Lois for some time so I decided to focus immediately on travel and after arriving in London I immediately invoked my Eurail pass and headed for Germany. I was fascinated by the possibility of visiting East Berlin and had heard that one-day visas were possible, so I headed first to Hamburg and purchased the extra ticket I needed to pass through from Buchen on the border through to West Berlin.

I checked into a West Berlin Youth Hostel and found a young German who wanted to accompany me to East Berlin. This was an interesting day but the overall theme was of extreme hardship and low morale. We were continually asked for help from people who said we were their brothers. I don't know how they identified us as Westerners as we were just wearing jeans and old jumpers, but they did for sure. It was quite different than the rather glitzy image portrayed of a successful example of communism, best economy in the Communist bloc, winning Olympic Gold Medals, as seen in the West, so a few years later when the wall came down, I was not that surprised.

I then went down, via Munich, to Rome, where I found a room in a family's house near the main station. Rome was a revelation, I stayed in the forum all of a day, was overwhelmed by the Basilica, and many of the other iconic features like the Coliseum.

I also traveled through Paris, Madrid and Barcelona before eventually returning to London, where I set up base in a Youth Hostel in Hampton. I quickly established myself in the system there and in those days Australians picked up their mail from Australia House.

I did get a positive letter from Lois, who was arriving in Nigeria, and would head up shortly. I still had a few days to go and started preparing for a return via Egypt (getting a visa) which seemed what we were likely to do.

She arrived after just a few more days and we looked around, heading up to Scotland, across to Wales, and around London, before traveling to Athens, where we stayed for a day before heading to Cairo.

We stayed in a hotel in the Khan El Khalili region of Cairo, certainly not a Western influenced area in any way at the time. Here we are having breakfast on the roof.

If I was freaked out by non-English countries of Europe, that was nothing compared with what I felt here the first morning when we walked out into the town. Cairo was much different then than what it is now. The country was not influenced by Western standards at all except for about four five-star hotels. There were many people in the street, a continuous noise, people hanging to the outside of trams and people all the time coming up to us and offering services like taxis and expecting bakshish. I have never experienced anything like this since. The pyramids and sphinx were also impressive.

We walked all over Cairo. Here is Lois by the Nile.

Towards the end of our stay I got quite sick and the trip home was for me quite uncomfortable, not helped by the fact that Egyptair missed a 7-hour connection and we were not on our Qantas flight home. Instead, a day later we were put on a Czech plane which took many stops on the way to Jakarta, including Beirut, where we could hear gunfire.

We then joined a Lufthansa DC-10 home. It took me a few days to recover. Lois and I had not discussed marriage through this period but when we had settled down we sorted it out. We decided to get married on 03 July in Canberra, giving all relatives and friends a chance to attend.

1976: First Squash Premiership

On the Thursday night before the wedding there was some other business to conclude. My team had made the Canberra first grade squash finals and this was another, but more serious, chance to me for a first premiership.

We weren't favourites. We came second in the minor round but qualified for the double chance and in the semi final I had a protest from my opponent for wearing a pastel blue shirt. Coloured shirts were just coming in but it was controversial. However an official chart was available. When the referee decided to take some time to check my shirt with the chart, and I could see he was uncomfortable about having to make a decision, I decided to change shirts anyway, but it did lift my adrenalin. It doesn't make it clear in the article but I needed two games for the team win and did win the first two. We were in the grand final.

So we did win the grand final, my first pennant and first in first grade also.

This was Thursday 01 July. The wedding was to be just two days later.

1976: Our Wedding

The wedding was a very happy occasion.Set on a typical Canberra July day, starting with frost, basically all our families attended, except Lois' older sister Betty, although this was not so bad as we would honeymoon at Cairns, where Betty and her family lived.

The wedding itself was held at the Canberra registry, in Civic, with the reception at the Canberra Racecourse.

The above photo shows my parents Jim and Betty at left and Lois' parents Wal and Phyllis at right. Parent reaction was interesting. Wal did not like leaving home and this was the only time he left Melbourne in the last decades of his life. My parents had been always hoping I would be married in my school chapel in Adelaide, and whereas this was unrealistic for a number of reasons, my father told me late in the evening it was the best time he'd had in his life.

Here is the cake being cut and below is my family with sister Susan and brother John.

Here is the bridal party with my friend Bob Alexander at left and Lois' friend Anna Hammil at right.

Bob had been a friend since Intervarsity squash days, where he as a law student played for the Australian National University. He lived nearby and often dropped in after work for a drink. In Canberra he was a squash rival and teammate. He appears elsewhere on this page in photos and news clippings in the first ACT squash team (1972) with me and also in first grade premiership teams in 1976 and 1977. He went on to become the chief solicitor in the Trades Practice Commission, which later became the ACCC, and he and I still see each other regularly for lunch and other things, in retirement.

1976: A second squash pennant

After the hyperbole of our autumn pennant we lost our number 4 player and the replacement, while a very good player, was not at that stage experienced. To win we generally relied on our first three players and only made the knockout semi. In this game I was on third and had to beat Don Price (in 2013 one of the CSIRO physicists to be killed in a helicopter accident) in straight games and I was fortunate to get us up.

I was still playing at 2 and some of the other 2s were really very good and should have been playing at 1. In the preliminary final I had to get a game off Graham Wurtz, which I rarely did, but managed it this time.

In the grand final I was on last and had to play another very good player in Tim Hassett (nephew of former Australian cricket captain Lindsay Hassett). I was on last and had to get 6 points to tie and 7 for a win. He was expected to win 3-0, and did, but it is difficult to hold someone so low, and I did get the points during the second game, eventually winning 17.

1977: Gregory, first child is born

Having the first child is a turning point in one's life. Both Lois and I were nervous, and Gregory refused to be born. Almost two weeks late Dr Grahame Bates said he would have to be born by induction and Lois and I reported to the Canberra Hospital at 0900 on Friday 27 May for the process to begin. For a long time nothing happened and Dr Bates told me about 1145 I should use the quiet time to have lunch.

As it turned out it was the only time I ordered a meal and never ate a mouthful. As soon as I put the fish and chips on the table a nurse came rushing in to tell me the head had appeared. I left the plate intact on the table and followed the rushing nurse back to the delivery room.

Being present at the birth, as I also was for the following two births, was an incredible experience. I was very impressed by the professionalism of the doctor, who passed the baby to the nurse and focused on stitching the mother, who he regarded as his principal patient. And there is a definite role for the father in helping in the pushing process.

Things were fine in the next few days with the resources of the hospital. But the time comes to go home, and parents, especially parents of the first-born, feel particular responsibility and stress when they get home and discover they have to do everything themselves.

Certainly Lois felt this with the first child and unfortunately Gregory did develop a mild infection before the age of two weeks. Lois said he was also my child and I had to take him to the Melba Health Centre. So I took him there one evening and found myself with Dr Tan,who was aghast at the site of me with such a small baby and wanted to know where the mother was. In time we developed a good family relationship with Dr Tan.

It was a rather cold winter, with snow on the ground for a few days about Greg's birth. Here are the three of us in the back yard in August.

Later in the year we travelled to both Adelaide and Melbourne with Greg. Above is Lois with her parents, older sister Betty with her husband Gordon visiting from Cairns and three of their children Susan and twins Wally and Lisa.

1977: A third squash grand final win

As it happened, the spring season of 1977 was to see a third squash premiership for us, and one in which I won my own rubber.

Squash was a big sport during this time with hundreds of people crowding the gallery to watch finals. It was difficult for us to get our own views. The Canberra Times sent photographers to these matches. Those who have read the reports of the two 1976 premierships will see familiar names perennially appeared in this games at the time.

These included Don Price, the CSIRO physicist who died in a well documented 2013 helicopter accident with three other high profile CSIRO physicists, was alluded to in the 1976 report above. Also Terry Donnelly, who I played in a number of these matches, had been a member of the strong Melbourne University teams in intervarsities and whereas now past his best was a former Melbourne first grader in the days of Geoff Hunt. There were many intervarsity players now in Canberra, and in this match Graham Pollard played for Sydney University, Don for Monash, Bob Alexander for ANU, me for Adelaide University, and Terry, and there were many others in other teams.

1978: Living in England

This is such a big topic I made it a separate chapter. See Chapter 6: Open University.

1979: Arrival of Stephanie

This was a very complicated year. I first found the return to normal work at CCAE very traumatic after an absolutely stimulating year of work in Britain, although there was the challenge of putting what I had learned into practice. I had got very fit at squash, and had a real lease of life for some upcoming period. I found myself though in a 5-man team which meant I missed the regular match and my form was not eventually helped by this environment. Whereas our team was strong we didn't win another premiership in the first grade.

We returned from England also to find our house had not been treated with respect by the tenants, who we thought would be OK. As an example, our good dining table had been used as a carpentry bench. This led to annoying legal battles which I only partially won, but learned some good lessons, not only about how the small claim system worked in Canberra, but also that there may be better ways of investing money rather than via leasing.

But there was more to the year than this. Shortly after returning home I received an offer of contract to write a further unit for the Open University, although this would require me returning to England for about 3 weeks in the following summer to sign it off. I also bought a non-refundable ticket there, when I managed to find a good excursion fare.

Then we learnt of the arrival of a second baby, due just before I would be departing. This turned out not quite so tight. Stephanie was determined to see the 70s, and there were even two false alarms before she was successfully delivered on 18 December. I was OK to go in late January even though I did leave Lois with sole responsibility for two babies for this time, which was difficult for her.

1980: Gregory and Stephanie grow well

So 1980 became a year of consolidation with now two babies to grow into the family.

Those who know Stephanie much later may be surprised to know she was quite a chubby baby, as had been her Auntie Susan.

Here she is in mid year with big brother Gregory.

And here she is September with her Auntie Susan.

Deep into the backyard I had arranged for a stone retaining wall to be built, with a barbecue and wood box as an integral part. This area became part of family life for several years, especially for Sunday lunches, and is seen above in action in September when Susan and her family visited, with her sons Matthew (left) and Andrew (right) as part of the gathering, and third son Thomas due in the following months.

By November Stephanie was happy to share a laugh.

1980 Promotion at CCAE and Mathematics Courses

In 1976 the Federal Government restructured CAE salaries so there were more steps in the Lecturer and Senior Lecturer scales and each was split in two with a major promotion step at that point. Senator Carrick said this was to provide flexibility to CAEs where staff were not university qualified and should not slow a well qualified lecturer down. But with one exception all CAEs took advantage of what they could do to the maximum, which meant the nexus between University and CAE salaries, originally intended, had been broken.

This did slow me down a little but by the end of 1980 I was eligible to apply for promotion to Senior Lecturer, and in this tightening environment was successful. With the tight job market which limited mobility and with CAE policy to not allow promotion beyond Senior Lecturer on merit I thought this would be the last promotion I would ever get. Warren Atkins lived just a couple of doors away and my sister was in town, and we had a real party with several bottles of Grange Hermitage consumed (it was still the highest priced wine then but not as expensive as now).

Mathematics was still to go strongly at CCAE through the 1980s but we had reorganised our courses, basically making them harder, and numbers did decline slightly. We still had three majors in mathematics possible, and a degree structure in which students could choose one major from us and another elsewhere, or a double major with us, but this tradition of choice was declining in other courses. What really kept mathematics strong during the 1980s was the development of a course in electronic and communications engineering. This was the only engineering course in Canberra (with another in Computer Engineering starting also at CCAE) and it attracted fantastic students, so good that in the 1990s ANU set up a course in competition and closed ours down.

1980 and thereabouts: Proteas and the Garden

From moving into the house I had taken the garden seriously, first starting to specialise and become quite knowledgeable with native plants, but then further specialising in the banksias and other members of the Proteacea family, and then after an inspiring visit to a nursery in the Dandenongs the South African Proteas themselves. I was also very interested in the spread of the family across Gondwanaland, the way it worked and curious as to why the Western Australian banksias did not grow in Canberra.

The general theory was that the Canberra frost was the difference but I was not convinced. I arranged for a truckload of sand to be delivered and rotary-hoed into our clay soil and planted Western banksias, dryandras, etc, and they thrived. One day I saw some men walking through this part of the garden and asked what they were doing. They said they were from the government and had heard about these plants and were coming to have a look. I explained what I had done and they seemed quite interested.

The proteas did not seem to need the drainage as much as the western banksias and I had them elsewhere. A number of species would flower, but my main aim was to get king proteas flowering, and I did succeed, as the above photo shows.

Gregory later took up this interest, especially through his agriculture class at school, but I had to dig up the WA garden as it was where the carport was going to be built, and I didn't get back to it.

1981 and 1982: Arrival of Benjamin

With the impending arrival of Benjamin, Lois and I decided we needed to extend the house. The house did have four bedrooms and two living areas, but all were rather small, and we needed to stretch out. So we put in train two tranches of extensions, which involved a large extension to the family area, study, carport and rear balcony extension. In those days interest rates were very high, nudging 18%, and living was tight during most of the 80s, but this was not possible by moving to a more central suburb, where Lois would have preferred, as land there was much more expensive.

Lois picked me up from work on a September Friday night, and said the birth was coming, and I had a short sleep before taking the call to Royal Canberra hospital. Ben was born at 0430 on 12 September, with Dr Bates attending for the third time. His birth was the most normal of the three, pretty close to on time and by now we were veteran parents, confident about the whole thing.

This is Benjamin at 6 months on the back lawn.

Here is Benjamin at 7 months with Stephanie and Gregory.

And a family shot, this time Benjamin 8 months, with Lois also.

Towards the end of 1982 I bought a unisex bike, ultimately for Lois, but which I rode to work for a while before buying my own road bike in the following year. Bicycle riding, such as here around Lake Ginninderra, was to become general family recreation on weekends. Stephanie now has the above unisex bike in Adelaide, whereas the road bike I bought, also with Japanese high tensile steel, still services me well in retirement, so both bikes proved good long-term investments.

We would have occasional visits to grandparents in Adelaide and Melbourne and occasional visits from them. This is the only photo taken which has Ben and my father. It was taken at the popular tourist attraction at the time, Canberry Fair, in December 1982.

1983 and 1984: America, but otherwise business as usual

1983 was a rather quiet year, although it started with me overseas. Peter O'Halloran noted that the big American Mathematics Conferences coming up in Denver were ones in which Jo Edwards and I could get a lot of experience, as we would be able to join their problems committees meeting at the same time. I am seen below walking in Denver, my first time in the US, after their big snow of late December 1983.

Jo just went with her husband for the Denver part of the trip, which was fantastic being able to essentially work and live for a week with such noted mathematicians as George Berzsenyi, Sam Greitzer, Walter Mientka and Steve Maurer. I traveled first via Tahiti, where the AMC had become well established using the French language, and Pierre-Olivier Legrand took me on a couple of flights in a Piper Cherokee, one around Tahiti and out to Tetiaroa, and the other across to Moorea.

And I finished up in the Canadian winter, where the temperature fluctuated between about minus 30 to minus 15, at the University of Waterloo, where the Canadian competitions are based. It was my first time in North America, so it was a fantastic experience.

The children were growing up. Greg had started school in 1982 and they were all doing well. Above is a family excursion to the Ginninderra Falls, a quite beautiful place where Ginninderra Creek meets the Murrumbidgee, just across the ACT border, but on private land and no longer accessible.

1984: My father dies

Over the last few years I did not think my father was that well, especially on my last visit in October when I had taken Gregory and Stephanie with me.

In February he celebrated my brother John's 21st birthday, at his golf club (above). But in late in March he was suffering movement problems and was admitted to Royal Adelaide Hospital for investigation. By late April it was pretty clear there was nothing the doctors could do. Basically although he had undetected lung cancer, he had a secondary cancer in the cerebellum, which is apparently a common place when the primary is in the lung.

I went over for a few days essentially to say good-bye. He passed away later in the month.

I briefly introduced him in Chapter 1. Basically because his mother had contracted tuberculosis, he was separated from her at birth and she had died a few months later. He had a difficult first few years, while his father was working he was passed around various relatives in the Norwood area, sometimes sleeping on back verandahs. But when old enough for school he had established with his father, and his new wife in Gawler, and went to Gawler Primary and High Schools, before getting a job in the Commonwealth Bank, where he met my mother.

This was before the war but he volunteered and was placed in the 2/9th Armoured Regiment, which would have gone to Tobruk if Pearl Harbour had not happened first. His regiment spent much of the war preparing for the eventual landings up north. He was a corporal in a troop of three Waltzing Matilda tanks, and as such commanded one of the tanks, the others being commanded by an officer (with corporal attached) and sergeant.

He took part in the big landings in Borneo one day of June 1945, where 20,000 Australians landed in each of three places in Borneo. He was in the Labuan landing.

After the war he rejoined the bank, while my mother had to resign as did all wives, and I was born a year or so later. He worked early in the Bonds and Stock section of the Bank's head office in King William street and sometimes I would see him as a teller in the banking chamber there. He founded the bank's South Australia office of the Migrant Information Service in Rundle Street. One night he came home and told us that a migrant was unhappy with his advice and would come back to kill him the next day. Police intercepted the fellow the next day as he entered the building with a revolver.

He founded the Findon Branch, where he was known as "Findon Jim" and worked for many years as Manager of Felixstow Branch. He finished more than 40 years of service as Chief Inspector for South Australia, and was presented with an Omega Gold Watch, which I still have, in recognition.

Other than family his main love was golf, which he played at Mount Osmond. You don't think about it at the time, but we had a very fortunate upbringing and he was an outstanding role model.

He only started to smoke as a soldier, and the Department of Veterans Affairs accepted smoking as cause of death and my mother was granted a war widows' pension. He was only 63 and had only retired for a year or so, ironically having successfully given up smoking.

1985: Lois goes missing in Africa

Towards the end of 1984 Lois planned another trip to Africa, this time wanting to take Greg, who was now 7 years old. Bearing in mind the balance of parent responsibility with adventure, she chose a stable part of the world (at the time) in The Gambia and Senegal. In the picture below she points to these places on the map.

We saw them off at Canberra Airport on Boxing Day 1984 and I now had the responsibility of looking after the two younger children, then aged 5 and 3, for a month. A day or so later we had a call from them saying that they had arrived safely in London on their Olympic Airways flight via Athens and were headed for their flight to Banjul on Caledonian Airlines, which did the run twice a week. All was well.

Three weeks had gone and I knew the scheduled return flight was now due and waited for a call. A day after landing there had still been no call so I called Lois' nephew Peter, who was in London and she said she might contact. But he hadn't heard. So I called Caledonian in London who said they don't give information on passenger lists. After some discussion they accepted my concerns and undertook to check and ring back.

In the middle of the night I was in fact woken up by a call and a Scottish voice advised "Sir, I have to advise you that your wife and son were not on that plane, nor did they present themselves for check-in". I asked whether the next flight was possible, and was told it goes in three days but is fully booked.

After not sleeping the rest of the night I presented myself next morning at Foreign Affairs (now the Gorton Building near Old Parliament House). I was directed to a desk in an open space labelled "Africa Desk" with a bright young public servant seated behind waiting for a customer. He conscientiously took down all the details, and asked for a recent photo. I was able to show him the one above with Lois pointing to Africa on a Globe. He said this was a dangerous part of the world and an Australian had just been killed on a beach in Sierra Leone in an incident over the weekend and such incidents were not uncommon. He said this would go on report but I should also see the police.

So my next port of call was the Canberra police station, where I was taken to be interviewed by a middle ranking officer. He took the details down conscientiously also and asked if there was a recent photo. I produced the same one again. He looked at the photo, pondered over it for some time, seemed to be somewhat emotional, then got up and started walking around, circling me around his office. Then he declared that this would all go to Interpol immediately and if she identified herself at any border in the world she would be identified and we would know.

There was now not much more I could do. I went home where the Atkins had been minding the children and they had me for dinner. For a couple of days my mind was going through all extremes, sometimes phases of optimism as well as an underlying pessimism.

We went home and this time I got another call in the middle of the night. Caledonian Airlines said Lois had presented herself a day late, and due to the circumstances which were now known, basically the interest created by her reports of being missing, they had found a way of putting her and Greg on the next plane, three days later, even though it was booked out.

Lois and Greg would be safe but the saga was not completely over. She lost more days on the way home due to storms in Greece which diverted her plane to Corfu. It may sound attractive to be in Corfu but the weather was not good and by that stage Lois just wanted to get home, albeit it would be about a week later than scheduled.

It turns out Lois and Greg had had a good holiday. With shades of Phileas Fogg, but with the opposite result, apparently Lois had miscounted the days and genuinely thought she was presenting herself in Banjul for the flight on the right day.

Well after Lois had returned we got a call from the Canberra Police Office asking if anything had been heard of her. Obviously they had not received any information from Interpol.

1986: With Gregory in New Zealand

In January 1986 I took Greg for my own holiday in New Zealand. I had hitch-hiked from Auckland to Invercargill and back on different sides of the country in 1968. This time we did a similar thing but took a tent and camped for the whole trip, which took most of the month. We started in Christchurch and went across to Mount Cook, before heading down to Dunedin and Invercargill.

This is Greg at the top of Bluff before we depart for a day trip by ferry to Stewart Isand across Foveaux Strait.

We went on to Te Anau, then Milford Sound and crossed the Haast Pass to the foot of the Fox Glacier, where we are above (on the glacier). I had landed on a ski plane at the top of this glacier in 1968. Approaching the foot there are markers showing how far back the glacier has retreated since first discovered.

In the North Island, here is Greg looking at the Pink Terraces at Rotorua.

1986: Lois graduates

When I first met Lois she was already a student at CCAE. She had not had much opportunity to study in Melbourne and when arriving in Canberra to work for the Bureau of Mineral Resources, living at Reid House, her main part-time activity was to study at night school and matriculate.

On achieving this she wanted to go to University. She wanted to study Anthropology and Prehistory, a course at the ANU (she was particularly interested in African anthropology and prehistory and also primates) but ANU would not admit mature age students. So she enrolled in a science course at CCAE. She had a number of units up before we went to England for 1978 and on return ANU would still not admit her so she re-enrolled at CCAE and one of her lecturers was David Williams, a plant ecology lecturer who I knew from super fund meetings and lives in the same apartment block as me now. His wife died when Lois was in his class.

But by the early 1980s and managing three young children ANU changed its policies and she was admitted. She had a great time attending lectures by interesting academics such as Colin Groves, Wilfred Shawcross and Robert Attenborough and finally in 1986 she graduated with a BA.

She is shown here with family friend Mrs Thiedemann, Stephanie, Gregory and me after the graduation ceremony in Llewelyn Hall.

Her study did not stop there. She wanted to work towards a Masters, but by now working in the Radiocarbon lab at the ANU, eventually becoming part of the Research School of Earth Sciences, it was difficult and she worked very long hours, which was not good for her health. In August 1991 she submitted a Masters Qualifying Thesis entitled "THE EXTRACTION OF DNA FROM STORED HAIRS USING A GLASS POWDER TECHNIQUE: PROSPECTS FOR THE ELUCIDATION OF GENETIC RELATIONSHIPS" and passed. But I think she decided this was too much and did not continue to the Masters and PhD which I have no doubt she would have achieved with more time on her hands. In any case her ANU environment was stimulating and she was able to follow her interests in good company. She had access to all the researchers there, and the School and University resources.

1987: Children at school

Over a number of years the children attended Miles Franklin School in Evatt. In 1987, for the only time, all were at the school together, Gregory in Year 5, Stephanie in Year 2 and Benjamin in Year K. I used to ride with them to school and go on to my work. Occasionally when I could leave early, I might even come back with them.

For secondary school I had assumed, even though I had been to a private school in Adelaide, that these children would probably go to government schools, and I had Greg's name down for Canberra High School, where there was a strong teaching staff. But Lois was concerned about Gregory's organisation. He had been in trouble at Primary Schools where things had not gone as expected, and wanted him to go to Canberra Grammar School, where she felt the structure would be better for him.

Finances had been tough through the 1980s, but the mortgage was getting down a bit and Lois was now in the work force, so I felt we could afford it on my Senior Lecturer salary and Lois'. I was prepared to agree, but said if so the other two had to be treated equally. This was going to be difficult as Gregory was able to get in via an exam, but the Girls Grammar School went strictly on waiting lists and the only way would be to take a year 5 entry. So we did this also.

Gregory is shown here on his first day of school.

Stephanie was not happy about finishing Miles Franklin School as she was well settled in, but it was the only way. Perhaps she does not look so happy on her first day, although it may be more that she did not like the hat which was part of the uniform,and removed it when out of sight.

And here is Benjamin with Lois on his first day at Grammar.

There is a view that these schools are elite and certainly the fees were noticeable. It would also be true that senior public servants who were on very comfortable salaries would send their children there. But Canberra is a much more egalitarian city than the state capitals where there is significant inherited wealth. Canberra parents were relatively battlers, and most of the parents I spoke with were like us and depended on two incomes.

I would also note that the Girls Grammar was certainly not a finishing school for girls, as may have been the case for similar schools in the past. Under the leadership of Principal Elizabeth McKay the Girls Grammar School was fiercely academic. And Stephanie got a very high score which made her joint dux of the school. Here she speaks at a school assembly, with Elizabeth McKay at left, the other joint dux Laura Keating and her parents behind her, to honour the joint duxes after school started again the following year.

I may be naive but I don't know why the question of funding private schools has been such a difficult issue, and apparently continues to be. My feeling is that there should be some way of calculating the cost of public education, and giving parents a voucher to them to cover the cost if they choose a private school, and pay the difference. I think this system may apply in other countries but don't understand the sensitivities here.

Family holidays at Boundary Bend

After our exploits in New Zealand the previous summer, Greg and I wanted to do a similar camping trip in Australia. Lois was not to be left out and the whole family drove off, just after Christmas 1986, with the intention of camping in the region to the south, starting with Tumut. It was in Tumut that Lois cooked a basic camp stew, which became a family legend and I still cook in the same way today.

The next day we went on to Yarrawonga and pitched camp. We never got any sleep. The guys near us were Victorian, basketballers from a club probably near St Kilda, who boasted they were real Victorians who had never crossed the Murray (except for one poor guy who was razzed when he admitted he'd once been to Port Lincoln in a boat). They drank, were loud, swore badly and I didn't think we'd get any sleep. At about 0300 we just pulled everything up and drove off further down the Murray. Lois said she knew a place called Boundary Bend where she had been with brother-in-law Ray and would be very nice.

We found it, checked in and it was superb, with a swimming pool for the kids and a beautiful view of the Murray. People there were from all parts of Victoria and seemed to know each other through coming here for holidays.

We were instant hits because of our ACT plates, as they were all worried we came from the Tax Office and we played it along a bit.They also had a sensational New Year's Eve Party with pig on the spit and we got to know the local farmers as well through this, making a number of friends.

We kept returning here every year until about 1999. While most Canberra residents traveled east to the coast for New Year we traveled west. The following year we were washed out and Lois insisted we upgrade to a caravan, and soon after we had further upgraded to a cabin with a regular booking each year.

Here is in fact the HQ parked in front of a later cabin with Lois in front.

The river is wide in front of the camp and here are Benjamin, Lois, Stephanie and Gregory in 1996.

There were many day trips. Just nearby is the Murrumbidgee Junction (above), but further afield was Mildura, Swan Hill, Wentworth and Tooleybuc on the river.

Family holidays at Jervis Bay and Tabourie

I first became aware of the CCAE Field Station at Jervis Bay in the early 1980s when I was appointed to its management committee. It had been used by the ACT government to house construction workers, but had become redundant and offered to CCAE, which used it as a field station for ecology students and useful academic retreat generally.

So our family started using it until it became our regular Easter holiday base and sometimes at other times. Our friends the Campbells often went at the same time.

This is John Campbell eyeing the Pigeon House Mountain from the car park before we climb it.

And here we are at the top with son Gregory in 1988.

There were many things to do in the region, including many interesting nature walks, going round to the rather remote and wild Steamers Beach (above), and to places like Huskisson, Sussex Inlet and Nowra.

We in fact went on many other holidays. The only other regular one was a short while in the early 1990s when we would go to Lake Tabourie for the October long weekend. But we went on a number of others, such as to Dubbo to visit the Zoo, Wellington (where Lois forgot to load her suitcase), Coonabaraban, Katoomba, and even Sydney (Lois and Ben above at Luna Park in 1995).

1987: Lois takes Stephanie to Sarawak

In 1987 Lois took Stephanie on a holiday to Sarawak. Lois' main aim I think was to find Orang-utans in the wild and she did see some.

The highlight I found though was this photo of Lois and Stephanie having breakfast with an orangutan at the Singapore Zoo.

Children Sport

Gregory was proficient in a number of sports. Probably the main one was soccer.

He liked his several years in the mini soccer on Saturdays with Belnorth, but when they moved on to adult rules for the Under 11 competition Greg was selected in the Division 1 team. They had not intended him to be the goalkeeper, but when the goalkeeper withdrew he took over the role. He is shown here in the goals during a game in the season when his team was ACT runner-up.

Gregory also played T Ball on Sundays, playing with Wests. He also survived into at least one year in the adult rules of baseball and used to like pitching.

He was also a keen little athlete. As with his Aunty June his main event was probably the sprint hurdles, where he won a Silver Medal in one ACT Championships, but he is shown above leading a field during a 1500m school race.

Later his main event was squash. He played in the Canberra Grammar School first team and won a premiership. He also played pennant and even played in the same team as me one night.

The sport in which all three participated was athletics, and they are shown in their uniforms after registration for the 1989/90 season. This sport was Stephanie's forte. When I first saw her running I was impressed by the efficiency of her style with knees always completely high and straight.

Stephanie was good at all sprint races, jumps and hurdles. She still holds today some records in these events at the Ginninderra Little Athletics Club and held ACT records in each of the three jumping disciplines as well as winning ACT Championships. She is shown here on the dais as runner-up in the 1989 U9 girls high jump at the former Bruce Athletic Stadium.

She represented ACT in the 1993 Australian Championships held at Melbourne's Olympic Park. He is shown here at the start of the 200m race there.

Whereas she was highly competitive in getting the best possible exam results, she regarded sport as fun only and when athletics got more serious she stopped competing.

Benjamin was also a regular little athlete where his favourite event was the high jump. Whereas all learned to swim, the other two were normal free-stylers while Ben liked the breaststroke and would go up and down the pool like this for long periods of time. He also played soccer and T Ball for several years.

But his main sport was basketball, which he played as a junior, was basketball. Just as Gregory made the first team in squash at school Benjamin was for his last three years a member of the school's first basketball team. Here he is resting during a school game while in year 7.

And here is a photo of the first team in 1997, when he was still in Year 10. Incidentally Guy Shepherson, in the photo later became a Wallaby. Rugby was his first sport.

Later (after the time covered by this chapter) Benjamin took up Australian Rules football for Eastlake Juniors in Canberra and even later he played for the New York Magpies.

1992: End of a family legend

I had bought the light blue HQ in 1971 when I learned I had the Canberra job. It had become a legend and in recent years I had added bucket seats and a floor shift. It wasn't completely reliable, but when it misbehaved, it was so basic that I could normally fix it myself.

Whereas I was used to getting some stick about the heat on the long drives to and from Boundary Bend, the 1991/1992 trip had been pretty hot and it was time to move on. I traded it in on a white VN Commodore in a sale and the family here prepares to say goodbye to the HQ.

1992: Lois and Osteomyelitis

In the first week of May 1992 Lois started receiving pain in the lower spine and went to see the family doctor. The doctor's reaction was to diagnose it as muscular in origin and suggested exercise, etc.

The problem though got increasingly worse. We visited the doctor on the afternoon of Friday 22 May as an emergency. The doctor was now convinced this could not be explained as simply as muscular, accepted the high degree of emergency, and sent us to the emergency ward of Calvary Hospital with a frenetically worded request to admit her to hospital immediately for detailed tests. He told us he recognised the severity of the situation and would be available to help that evening and over the weekend to help further if needed.

We were considered fairly quickly. However the doctor was completely unmoved by the recommendation and refused to believe the problem would be anything but muscular. His response was (to us provocatively in the circumstances established to him by our doctor) to issue the above physiotherapy request and send her home. It was possible also that he was under bed pressure, although one would assume the decision should be made on medical grounds in any respectable health system.

We returned to our family doctor, who was standing by, and pondered the situation. He asked if we were on private insurance. By fortune we were, although only because Lois had only requested me to sign up a year before because of possible impending treatment of a different nature.

The doctor stayed on and was able to arrange referral and admission at John James (Private) Hospital the following Monday morning. An ambulance took Lois to John James on the Monday morning, and neurologist Dr Roger Tuck arrived later in the day for a detailed examination. He left inconclusive, but appeared to agree that it was not muscular but made the observation that the condition had all the symptoms of osteomyelitis, a bacterial infection on the bone, formerly common but these days would have no more than one or two instances per year in Canberra.

On the Tuesday almost every type of test was taken, X Rays, Catscans you name it, it was comprehensive, and we could only await the outcome.

Late on the Wednesday morning I was asked to urgently visit Dr Ray Newcombe, one of the two Neurosurgeons operating in Canberra. He said the tests were inconclusive but he believed that this was a rapidly growing tumour, which could result in death within 2 weeks. He agreed osteomyelitis was a possibility, but regarded the probability of it being a rapid tumour being 99%. He said he would operate tomorrow afternoon and then we should know.

He asked about the family situation and when I told him of the three children he instructed me to tell them of the circumstances when I saw them that evening, which I did. He asked me what I did for a living, to which I answered that I was an academic. His response to my surprise, was to more or less say, Oh dear, it is well documented that academia was the most stressful profession (I did, shortly after, as at other times, get involved in an incident in which there were serious incidents of who should be a paper author, but I thought his own profession would have qualified).

On Thursday Lois' condition had become very low,she seemd to be barely conscious, although I guess pain killers did not help, and eventually in mid afternoon she was wheeled away for the operation. Warren Atkins came into the hospital to be with me. Ray Newcombe told us where to wait and he would come and report when it was finished.

A couple of hours later he came and found us. He said he still stood by his expectation but Dr Moran had come in person to collect the sample and the test would be decided by 1700 tomorrow he hoped. In any case he wanted me to come to his office tomorrow at 1700 and he would tell me what he knew.

The fact that Moran had turned up in person indicated how this case had attracted the attention of Canberra's leading doctors. Moran's name was legendary in Canberra because he was the leading (dominant) pathologist in town, but of course being a pathologist no one ever saw him or knew what he looked like. Later Moran was to retire and start one of Canberra's leading wineries, Doonkuna Winery at Murrumbateman.

I arrived at 1700 Friday, almost to the second, and looked into Newcombe's office, as his door was ajar. He was taking a phone call. He saw me through the door and beckoned me in. As I walked in and took a seat the call finished, he put his receiver down, and paused. He looked up at me, and looked me in the eye. With a straight face he said that this was the call in which he received the result. He paused again and said "The result of the test is", and another pause, before a big smile came on his face and he resumed "osteomyelitis!".

He got up and said Roger Tuck should still be in his surgery. He walked next door and brought Roger in. He went through the same procedure with him. There was relief all round. After some pause there was a long technical discussion between the two specialists, checking hospital inventories of various anti-biotics and discussing the pros and cons of each one.

In any case they said treatment would start immediately and Lois would recover normally, and she did.

Lois responded well and was able to brighten up during the two weeks of treatment. Here she is sharing a light moment with a hospital physiotherapist.

There are a couple of postscripts. Newcombe did not become a family friend as such, but he had a daughter in the same class at school as Stephanie, and she also sat with me on a plane flight once and we had a pleasant discussion. She seemed to be on very good terms with Stephanie and also became a doctor. Newcombe became a disgraced figure, due to some apparent botched operations, and was a special subject on Four Corners a few years later.

The Tuck family did become family friends as Roger eventually had a son in the same class as Benjamin and became a close friend. Roger's wife Leigh, together with Annette Lonergan, another of Benjamin's friend's mothers, became a very close supporter of Lois during her later serious illnesses.

The later illnesses are documented elsewhere but at this time Lois discovered she had a condition aquired genetically called Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia, otherwise known as Osler Weber Rendu Disease, which her mother and sisters had. People with this condition are also likely to have an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), and one of these, later removed, was discovered in one of Lois' lungs.

The main thing was the luck in this case of being privately insured. Australia's Prime Minister at the time, Paul Keating, always boasted that he did not have private insurance because the medicare system protected him, even though he could afford the extra cover. It is a complicated issue and this may have been a rare event, but in our case, private insurance was the lifeline, and the whole experience was so unnerving that I would advise anyone, of any age, to hold private insurance, even though I may have been nebulous to the issue while younger.

1993: Lois takes Benjamin to Europe and Zimbabwe

In 1993 Lois was to take the third child, Benjamin, on an overseas trip. The plan was they would spend the first half in France and Germany, and they would spend the second half in Zimbabwe, we they would see Great Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls.

The first part apparently went well, although Lois had a camera disaster and the pictures of the castle at Carcasonne did not come out. However soon after they arrived in Harare Benjamin contracted appendicitis. The first three days in Zimbabwe were taken up with Lois attending him in hospital, while staying with my friend Erica Keogh and her husband, and they stayed with them in Harare for the remainder of the trip as they were advised that Benjamin should not travel.

1994: Stephanie manages to accompany me to China, Russia and Bulgaria

The first conference of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions in Waterloo, Canada, was universally acclaimed by most attending as one of the best they ever went to. The second conference was to be held in August 1994 in Pravest, Bulgaria and I was approved to attend. But I had also been involved since the ICME conference in Budapest in 1988 in introducing and popularising the Moscow-based Tournament of Towns in the West and the Chinese invited me to visit Beijing beforehand and give a lecture on it in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This also gave me an opportunity to visit Moscow again in between.

Stephanie viewed this is something she could join in. The problem is that it meant missing a month of school. I was prepared to pay for her ticket and presumably she wouldn't add much to the rest of the travel. So I wrote a letter to her Principal Elizabeth McKay asking for leave for her, also noting it would be in itself highly educational. Elizabeth approved. So as a Year 9 student accompanied me for most of the trip. Lois joined us near the end, arriving in Germany before the three of us went for the last part of the trip, the conference in Bulgaria.

In this picture at the Summer Palace Stephanie is shown with Professor Qiu Zhonghu, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Head of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad organisation, Andy Liu, from Edmonton, Canada, one of the world's leading problem solvers and Andy's student Daniel van Vliet.

Here is Stephanie at Tienanmien Square.

Stephanie is here at the Great Wall with Daniel and Andy again and a Chinese host.

Here is Stephanie in Moscow with Nikolay Konstantinov, head of the Tournament of Towns, in front of Moscow State University.

1994: Promotions and Appointment as AMT Executive Director

When I celebrated my promotion to Senior Lecturer I thought it was my last promotion, for reasons given above, and also it is what one might call the career level for most academics. However in 1992 the University of Canberra, as CCAE had now become, opened up the possibility of promotion, under quite tight quotas, of promotion to Associate Professor. I managed to break through for this promotion in 1994, about the same time, but independent of, becoming Executive Director of the Australian Mathematics Trust. I certainly celebrated that, and Grange Hermitage was certainly produced that evening.

But the bigger event was the ongoing appointment as Executive Director, which was advertised internationally in about May 1995. I had not originally thought about being Executive Director, as I had assumed Peter O'Halloran would live longer anyway, and thought the position would isolate me academically (which in a sense it does). When this happened David Paget was also in the same position and we contemplated applying jointly, in a way which would keep us more in academia. But Don Aitkin made it clear to both of us in front of the Board that this would not be contemplated and only a full time appointment would be made.

Interviews took place on Friday 13 October 1995 in the morning. Don called me after lunch to tell me I was successful. He went on to tell me something I was certainly not expecting at the time, even though the position was at Professorial salary. He said they had done due diligence on my CV and he said that he could recommend to Council that I be awarded the title of Professor. So it was not only a big relief to get the job, but an unexpected surprise. More Grange Hermitage was found to celebrate this.

Other activities

In fact there are many miscellaneous activities we got up to in this Melba era.

Lois got involved in the Osibi festival, an African based cultural festival held at the Canberra Showgrounds just for a couple of years in the early 1990s. She ran scientific lectures and is seen above introducing a speaker.

I was coopted to help man a bar. Here we are having a cup of tea in between commitments.

After my earlier gardening interests a colleague encouraged me to take an interest in tulip growing in the mid 1990s. In fact I set up two or three tulip beds around the garden in an attempt to emulate the Floreade festival.

1996: Last year at Melba

As it turned out, what was to be our last year at Melba turned out to be quite interesting.

After our usual stint at Boundary Bend, we were not home long before a further break at Mt Beauty, a very nice Victorian town at the foot of Mt Bogong (left backround, just less than 2000m and highest mountain in Victoria, with Gregory, Lois and Stephanie looking over the town) and Falls Creek, probably Victoria's best ski resort. Lois' sister June and brother-in-law owned a holiday house and we stayed there two or three times. Greg was always like a cat with his athletic prowess. One morning we dropped him off at the base of Mt Bogong. He had scaled it and returned just after lunch.

I used to often note that four women, my wife, mother, daughter and sister, had a strong influence on my life. Here they all are together, in various roles, in our Melba kitchen in March 1996.

We had a routine about this time of going to the Taemus bridge, near Lake Burrinjuck, on the Queen's birthday, one of the coldest days in the year, in June. Sometimes we would also go on to Wee Jasper, and sometimes also Carey's Cave, where we are picnicking with a daughter of one of our friends (it doesn't look very cold in this picture).

In July 1996 Lois and I celebrated 20 years of marriage with children at a Chinese restaurant, one of our favourites at the time, in Manuka.

Whereas I was active near the end of living here with tulip growing, here is Lois with her lupins in November.

1996: Time to move on

We had been under financial pressure, first building extensions, then on school fees, and Lois wanted to move. She said she was prepared to consider an apartment if suitable. In the middle of 1996 I felt we could see a way through. I did not expect to have much trouble selling the house, but we saw a very large apartment in Kingston which was in a nice location at a reasonable price.

It was time to move on, to in fact the biggest house we ever lived in. The sacking of large numbers of public servants in 1996 had brought real estate prices well down, enabling this purchase. The same circumstances though made it difficult to sell our house, and this was not achieved until May 1997. However we did move into the Kingston apartment in December 1996, a popular decision with Stephanie and Benjamin in particular, who were still at school and now within walking distance. It was to be very good for development of their social contacts also. In all respects this was to be a good move for us.