Last days in Tain

The summer of 1959 was a strange and mysterious time for me. Transient, suspended in disbelief, waiting. I seem to remember it was unusually warm and bright.

After the Highers exams there is that glorious period when the pressure's off, when socialising is much more important than school work, when it's OK to have a day off, where nothing much seems to matter (or happen).

But... my parents had applied to emigrate to Australia and, early in 1959 we were accepted for departure in August. I took the news to school and was mildly embarrassed by the reaction of many of my friends who seemed genuinely sad that I would be leaving. As is my nature, I made the best of it, refusing to show much emotion other than to brag about how great it was going to be, how I'd write to everyone, planning reunions. Inside I was dying. I hated the idea of leaving. I just wanted to stay.

So the period between knowing we were going away up until the day we left was an eerie, bittersweet time for me. I remember getting very drunk at a dance (I sneaked out of the bedroom window at home because my parents refused to let me go to it); I remember bringing a guitar into school and singing a few songs in room 9 with Mary, Frankie and David; I remember sitting around Pieracinnis drinking coffee endlessly; I remember taking Lily to the pictures; I remember sitting around David's house listening to records and nattering away, playing cards and philosophising about life with lots of people ­ Frankie, Lily, David...and many more; I remember a number of dances, socials, various events and being gormlessly in adolescent love with lots of people...ah, those were the days. And there is so much I don't remember, but would love to. I'm sure that's the main function of a school reunion...to reflect on those days when it all seemed so possible.

Eventually, our family packed up and left. No big farewells, just...left. Dad had accepted a teaching job with the South Australian Education Department, so on 23 July 1959 we left Tain for a few weeks in Whitley Bay in the North of England. At the station at Inverness I looked out for Lily and Frankie, who'd said they might be there to wave me off. But they weren't. Sigh.

On 18 August 1959 we left Tilbury docks on the Stratheden bound for Adelaide, Australia.

Arriving down under

I enjoyed the trip on the boat, met some people, made friends, saw interesting places. Adelaide was cold when we got there (surprisingly...we expected eternal golden sunny weather...we hadn't appreciated that there are seasons in Australia as well!)

We moved into a wooden house in an unmade street (dirt road, flooded whenever it rained, which it did, frequently). Mum found it hard to settle, but the rest of us adapted reasonably well.

I resisted going to University in Adelaide. My parents were relieved, because it would have been expensive for them and they were not at all well off in the first few years. I worked for a year or so in a government department, meaningless clerical work that paid a modest wage, and wrote lots of letters to folks in Tain. And received lots of letters as well (thanks folks). Looking back, I was lonely and homesick. My letters must have been tedious for the recipients, glowing reports of the wonderful life in Oz, and not-well-hidden yearning for the life in Scotland. And for the friends I'd left behind. Adelaide wasn't a good time for me.

Growing up

In 1961 I seized the chance to move away from home and went to stay with some people we'd met on the Stratheden in a place called Whyalla, about 5 hours drive north of Adelaide. A medium sized industrial town in the middle of nowhere, Whyalla became the place I grew up. I worked in the office at the BHP Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, boarded with a family, and made friends easily. It was that sort of place. I even bought a car, a 1937 Chevrolet coupé, for the princely sum of £60! The young tearaway!

I gradually matured (well, sort of). Many of the people I met of my own vintage were working at BHP and were studying part-time as part of the BHP trainee scheme. So, being something of a follower, I enquired about the opportunities, was told to go to night school and get a subject or two and come back with some good results then they'd consider me. Which I did. Through the approved student scheme I studied accountancy and commerce part-time and ended up with an accountancy qualification (degree equivalent) over the next few years.

Settling down

And in the meantime, I'd met Ursula Murphy, a nice local lass. We courted, got engaged, and married. I was 21! Who knows what they're doing when they're 21? By the age of 23, I was the father of three children, Duncan and twins Andrew and Kathleen. We lived in a small semi-detached rented house in Whyalla and had what we thought was a good life. I studied part-time, worked full-time, Ursula stayed home and brought up the kids. We had little money, but were absorbed in suburbia. That was how it was and how it was meant to be. That's what young people did then in Australia.

Life went on through the sixties. I don't think there were many more letters to and from Scotland, although David and I occasionally exchanged missives.

I was still keen on music and kept playing the guitar during this period. I subscribed to 'Sing Out' (an American folk magazine) and watched from far away as the folk boom erupted in the US (remember Peter Paul and Mary? Bob Dylan? etc?). And then the 60's music boom in Britain. The Beatles, the Stones. Exciting music and social revolution seemed to sweep the world. But suburban Whyalla seemed strangely untouched. I listened to the radio, learned songs out of books and sang them at home.

Eventually I got my qualifications, was promoted, bought a better car, moved to a bigger house, and settled in even more.

But there was change on the way...

Temptation

In the early 1970's I learned of the existence of the Whyalla Folk Den, a weekly gathering of singers and audience, held in the cellar of a church hall. I went along one night and was hooked. Nice people, not bad singing, and a few weeks later I was up on stage singing songs and getting involved. Ursula usually stayed home, but came along to the Folk Den occasionally. I started singing with others in various combinations and groups and gradually, without realising it fully, started to fall in love with one of the singers, the gorgeous Lesley Silvester. After months of agonising about life, the universe and everything, I finally left Ursula and the kids, stayed with friends for a few weeks and eventually moved in with Lesley.

Neither of us believed that the romance could last (there was a lot of anger and bitterness in the town about my awful behaviour...we both lost a few friends), but we stuck it out. Maybe I finally grew up. After a year of living together we decided to leave the small town of Whyalla and see a bit of Australia, so Lesley quit her career position of Sister in charge of the Operating Theatres, I quit the shipyard, we pooled our cash, bought a VW Kombi campervan and headed off around Australia.

A new life

What a great trip. Freedom! We'd roll into a town, set up camp somewhere, decide to stay for a night, or a week, wake up and head off again. Sometimes we'd seek out a folk club and sing a few songs. Sometimes we'd just sit round a campfire in the evening. The sheer joy of discovering the landscape that is Australia has stayed with us forever and shaped our view of this land. There is more variety in Australia than you can imagine...snow-scapes in the Snowy Mountains, wonderful river country in Victoria, tropical rainforests in Queensland, and arid yet fascinating desert all through the country. And of course we met some wonderful people.

Eventually, we ended up in Perth in Western Australia, and shared a house with some mates from Whyalla who'd moved over to the West the year before. We became involved in the folk scene in Perth and fell in fairly quickly with a large network of friends (many of whom still remain our best friends here). I got a job in one of the Mining companies in Perth (Mt Newman Mining), and Lesley was working at a Doctors clinic. We became heavily involved in the music scene and led a fairly hectic social life. We were involved in concerts, festivals, recordings, various groups and a lot of carousing and festivities. There are times when it's all a blur. I seemed to be making up for lost time as a quiet youth!

Going bush

In 1978 I accepted a transfer to the company's mine site at Newman, 1200 Km north of Perth, for a six to nine month secondment to oversee the financials of some major construction work up there. We decided to have a farewell party 'at which there will be a wedding'. We'd been living together for more than five years and some of our friends were curious...why get married now? It just seemed the right time. Lesley kept her own name, so there wasn't much difference to the way we lived.

The party was great...some of our friends secretly clubbed together and bought us a twenty minute performance by the Perth Pipe Band which was spectacular as they came marching into the hall completely taking us by surprise!

Our planned six months in Newman turned into six years. I was offered a significant promotion while we were up there and we decided to take it. So we lived in one of Australia's remote desert towns from 1978 to 1984. And enjoyed it. Again, we became involved in music and other social activities, started a folk club, kept active, and became interested in flora and fauna. Lesley got a job locally and also started studying for a science degree, which was fascinating, because we both found that we were hungry for knowledge in those areas (much more so than when we were all learning about science from Sniffy and Gardiner). And I think I remember giving David a call on 5/5/80...the 25th anniversary of "5.5.55. A memorable date 1A, a memorable date." Was it Miss Young? Or Sniffy? Can't recall.

We brought my kids over to Newman a few times to visit, which was great, although the last time they came wasn't so hot. Kathleen, one of the twins, was 14 at this stage and she asked to stay because she wasn't getting on with her mother (what 14 year old girl does?) So, the two boys went back, we sorted it all out with her mum, enrolled her in school, set her up to live in Newman and thought we'd become a family for a while. Uh oh. Kathleen was as much of a tearaway as I was...breaking out through her bedroom window, generally pissing about and getting into scrapes. After a few months of this, we all decided she should return home, which she did. Lesley and I felt we'd failed. Incidentally, Kathleen has turned into the sweetest lovingest daughter one can imagine. She's happily married (for the second time) and has two lovely daughters, Shannon and Sarah, and often says to me, how did you put up with me at that time? Shannon's coming on to 14 now...and she is remarkably like Kathleen in many ways. Good luck, kid.

Back to Perth

After five years in Newman we were ready to come back to Perth. A funeral of a dear friend who died at a folk festival near Perth was the trigger event...the funeral was packed with people we hadn't seen for years and it reminded us of the network of people we knew and wanted to be back with. It took us some time to organise our extraction from Newman, but eventually I was transferred back to our Perth office. At the same time I'd been talking to a management consultancy in Perth called PA Consulting. I'd asked them to find me a job through their recruiting arm, but they said come work for us as a consultant.

So I did. Mike the Management Consultant was born in 1985. Another career change, location change, back in Perth, bought a house in the suburbs, settled down again quite happily. Lesley took up a job with the boss of the firm she'd been working for in Newman (not far from where we lived in Wembley Downs). We got back into the music scene and the social whirl, and learned to live with a big mortgage (the recurring theme of the next few years!) I enjoyed consulting work and quickly became quite good at it.

But, more change...

The Hong Kong Plan

'How would you like to go to Hong Kong to live? And run the Hong Kong business for PA?' The head of PA in Perth was also responsible for SE Asia offices and asked me to take over their office there. A prestigious appointment. Swank apartment, lots of travelling, nice offices, a company junk (that's a boat), and a big job. We needed to commit for about 5 years. We thought about it for a little while and said yes, we'd love to go. Just shows how settled we were! One of the conditions was that we had to go to Melbourne for six months for some experience in recruiting (that's what most of the business was in Hong Kong).

So, another farewell party. This time, we had an auction (not a wedding) and sold off most of our accumulated gear, put the rest into storage for shipment to HK, rented out our house (we decided to keep it as a bolt-hole to come back to), hugged all our friends, said tearful goodbyes, promised to write and headed across the Nullarbor to Melbourne by train...which is a great experience that everyone should do once in their lives.

Six months in Melbourne passed quickly...we enjoyed it as a city (great restaurants, markets, bookshops, culture, friendly people but appallingly changeable weather...very British in many ways). The job was fine; I adapted quickly, learned lots and got ready for my new role in HK. We organised all the details, booked the flights, got the tickets, and... Oops. Palace revolution. Trip cancelled!

Sydney, not Hong Kong

A new CEO was appointed for PA Asia Pacific, my boss in Perth was moved aside, someone else took responsibility for Asia, and all previous promises were put on hold. Sorry Mike, we now have someone else in mind for Hong Kong, sorry about that, no hard feelings.

So, there we were, marooned, in temporary digs in Melbourne. Perth option closed off, gear stored all over the place. What would you like to do, where would you like to go, said PA generously. Let's try Sydney, we said. So that's where we went next. Sydney was very expensive to live in at the time (still is, only more so), but PA paid the rent and expenses so we were able to live reasonably well. We rented a house on the North Shore, Lesley got a job in a stockbrokers in the city and ferried across the Harbour and back every day...a magical way to enjoy the beauty of Sydney (and it really is a beautiful city).

We liked Sydney as a city, even more than Melbourne in many ways. Wonderfully scenic, brash, bustling, loud. Lots to see and do. The weather's less changeable, but more humid, almost sub-tropical. And some spectacular electric storms in the summer. We settled down to enjoy ourselves for a few years.

Off to the UK

But, more change...'How would you like to go and live in London for a few months?' Huh? Again? Wary this time, we thought about it and finally agreed. So, in late 1987 we set off for London and a serviced flat in High Street, Kensington. I was there to learn some specific consulting techniques to take back to Australia, so I was kept quite busy, travelling about England. Lesley found a job through a temping agency working for a printer in the West End. We managed to have some time off, though, including a memorable few days in Tain, staying with David and Ray and also Lily and Charlie for a night (great party, Lily!). We also spent a few days in Lewis, the first time for nearly 30 years. It was weird meeting people I'd been at school with when I was nine...they all looked like their parents used to!

Returning to Sydney after about 8 months in the UK, we found a place to rent (we couldn't afford to buy a house because the prices kept rising monthly, and PA kept subsidising our rent!), and settled back again. Lesley enrolled in a Sydney University entrance course (she'd abandoned the science degree when we left Newman...didn't have time to study in Perth...too busy!); I stayed with PA...for a while.

The Quest years...the global traveller

More change...work this time. I left PA and joined a few other ex-PA people to form a small, international management consultancy called Quest. Specialising in large-scale organisational change, with a heavy international flavour, this became my life for the next few years. We sold the house in Perth and bought a narrow terraced house in Balmain (trendy inner Sydney), hugely expensive for a tiny property, Lesley was admitted to Sydney University and studied hard for a BA in Archaeology, which kept her absorbed for 3 or 4 years. I became the seasoned global traveller, working away for weeks at a time in Asian countries, USA, UK and Europe. I must admit I enjoyed the travelling, although it did become wearying at times. Lesley hated me being away, but we adapted to the life.

We found the social life in Sydney quite different from the other places we'd lived in; partly because of our own lifestyle, but also because the people seem to be far less engaging and are much more insular, preferring to stick within their own clique and not let others in. So, although we have many acquaintances from our time in Sydney, we don't seem to have accumulated many friends. And the music scene was different. We did get involved, but nowhere near the extent we wanted to.

In late1995, wearying of Sydney, we started one of those 'what will we do for the rest of our lives' discussions. After toying with a vague thought of going back to the UK (Lesley's a Londoner and we both have dual UK and Australian passports), we decided we wanted to return to Perth. So I told my colleagues in Quest I was going to leave the business in Sydney and return to Perth. I would try and make it on my own as an independent consultant. Amazingly, they said, let's set up a Quest business in Perth and you run it. So that's we did.

Back to Perth, for good this time

In what we now hope has been our last move, we found a delightfully restored and extended cottage in the working port suburb of Fremantle and moved here in late 1996. And it's been great to be back here. We've fitted in well with the network of old friends, made some new ones and generally had a great life. Fremantle's a very easy place to live and Australia has lots of advantages. We've just returned from a two week holiday in Bali (only 3 hours away) and it's a delight to be back.

Lesley took up the studying bug the year after we came back and did a Graduate Diploma in Cultural History which helped open up two new facets of our lives...song writing and the TimeTrackers business.

Songwriting

First, the song writing. As part of her study year, Lesley had to complete a major project. She finally decided to work with the local Maritime Museum researching their files to describe and catalogue contact incidents between West Australian shipwreck survivors and local indigenous people, going back to the early contacts in the 17th century. (Sounds obscure, but it's an interesting topic).

In vacuuming the files of the museum, she unearthed many dramatic shipwreck tales, some well known, but many not so well known. She'd come home with these great historical tales of triumph and tragedy, heroes and villains, and we both found them fascinating. In fact, we were inspired to try our hand at writing a few songs based on these stories. We'd both been singing other people's songs for 25 years, but had never seriously tried to write anything of our own. And we found that people were interested. We performed them at a couple of festivals and were encouraged to record them.

So we did. Last year we produced a CD of a dozen songs based on the stories of Maritime history that Lesley unearthed, called 'Strangers on the Shore'. It's sold modestly well, and we're happy with it. You can learn more about it here.

TimeTrackers

The second thing that we decided to do as a result of the studying (combined with the difficulty that Lesley found in getting a job...too old, you see) was to set up a genealogy business, offering to teach people how to do their family trees, or alternatively, do the research for them (we'd both been interested in this since my mother died in 1989, taking most of the accumulated family wisdom to her grave!). So TimeTrackers was born. And again, it's been modestly successful. Certainly, Lesley's kept busy. So am I, to a limited extent, helping out with the easy stuff. There's an enormous, and growing interest in the hobby, so we're on to a growth industry!

Life today

And that's where we are now. I decided to retire from full-time consulting last year...the travelling had continued even after we returned to Perth, and it all became a bit boring after a while. So I'm doing the occasional few days consulting on a private, free-lance basis, helping out Lesley with TimeTrackers and doing lots of other little projects that have accumulated over the years. I'm going to film-making workshops to make better use of my video camera.

We did manage to fit in a quick tour of Britain in 1999 (we called it the graveyard tour, visiting places of origin of both of us) and again managed a day in Tain with David and Ray and a memorable lunch and evening in Ullapool (at the Ferry Boat Inn...great singing) with Lily and Charlie. So we've kept a little in touch with the roots. But not nearly enough.

My kids have grown into wonderful adults. I have three grand-children (Kathleen's two daughters and Duncan's son Shaun). They all live in South Australia and show little interest in travelling. Maybe that will come later.

My sister Ann lives in Sydney and has done for about 25 years now. She's happily settled in inner Sydney in an even trendier terrace than the one we had in Balmain. She lives with her partner George and seems very content with life. Roderick, my brother (born Raigmore 1954) lives in Darwin and has recently split with his long-standing partner Dallas. Peter, my younger brother (born after I left home in 1962) lives in Queensland with his lovely wife Wendy and seems hugely contented with his life.

Mum and Dad separated after about forty years together after the final kids left home...the years of arguing and drinking finally took their toll. Mum died just before Christmas 1989, Dad died a few years later on my sister's birthday. Masters of timing until the end.

Lesley and I are happy with our lot. Looking back over this screed, it doesn't seem all that profound. We haven't had to go through a war, like our parents and grandparents did (although the Vietnam War certainly affected life in Australia). We haven't made a fortune, haven't been everywhere, haven't done everything.

But we're pleased with where we are now and what we're doing. We're taking a risk (a little late in life) in cutting off a good income (consulting with Quest) to explore different things and make the TimeTrackers business work. We're feeling pretty positive about what we're doing. And we've got a guest bedroom with adjacent bathroom if any friends want to visit Western Australia.

And we're looking forward to August!

I'm looking forward to catching up with old mates from aeons ago, to see if there's a spark of recognition left. Lesley's looking forward to meeting these characters she's heard about. Based on the laughs we've had with David and Ray, and Lily and Charlie, I'm sure we're going to have a few giggles, tell a few lies, drink a few drinks. Even sing a song or two. Will one night be enough??

Let the good times roll!

Mike

Contact details

Back to "who was there"

Back to the main reunion page