Uncle Harry helped Dad and Mum build the house at Orange Grove (and the original shed). His contacts with Bunning to obtain rare building materials which were still difficult to procure after the war.

When Aunty Nell (Uncle Harry’s wife) died Uncle Harry asked Mum and Dad to shift to Inglewood to look after him. So it came to pass that in 1955 we shifted to 7th Avenue Inglewood. I was in 6th Standard at the time and completed my primary school education at Maylands. I was in fact at the same school that Mum and dad had gone to when they were young.

In 1956, I started high school at Forrest High in Mount Lawley. This was quite a traumatic time in my life. I had moved away from my mates in Orange Grove, spend about eight months at Maylands School with about 600 students (Orange Grove had less than a 100) then graduated to a high school with 800 students. As a result my school marks suffered as I adjusted to living in suburbia.

When I was in 2nd year high school I got a job selling the Daily News in Perth after school. I would catch the bus to Perth, make my way down to WA Newspapers to be allocated a site for the day. My first position was at the top of London Arcade selling about 200 papers a day. Papers sold for 4 pence each and we got 9 pence per dozen. We had to stay on site until 8pm when we all went back to have our sales counted and be paid.

Sites were allocated by seniority and your sales ability. I finished up with the top round (Adelphi Hotel) where I sold 600 per day. The money I earned was split three ways – bank one third, spend one third and board one third.