Chapter 17

At the start of the year 1949, I was preoccupied with the search for a job. The first port of call was the West End Brewery where a vacancy existed on the brewing staff. I had achieved a high mark in Bacteriology 2 (2 marks off a credit) and was placed second in the class, being beaten only by a medical graduate on the staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Our lecturer, the redoubtable Nancy Atkinson, had asked me whether I was interested in a job in the laboratory of a brewery. I had expressed interest and Nancy had recommended me for the job. However there was another candidate applying for it. At the time there was a law giving preference in employment to ex-servicemen, and the other applicant, Peter Osborn, had not been a serviceman. The job was offered to Peter. I was encouraged by several friends, against my "finer" feelings, to use the law to obtain the job. I did so, and lo and behold the job was offered to me. By this time, the result of an interview with Geoff Simmons from the Queensland Department of Agriculture arrived offering me a position as Assistant Bacteriologist at the Animal Health Station, in Brisbane. (Today with large numbers of unemployed queuing up for the few available jobs it must seem that it was a different world in those days, with the only problem being which job to choose). However, I did have a dilemma, and I spent some time wrestling with the possibilities so that I could come to a decision.
Around this time an old school buddy came to visit us, during a vacation from studying Medicine at the University of Queensland. I do not remember Stan Glover having any influence in my decision, but I did finally decide to accept the Queensland job, leaving the way open for Peter to get the Brewery job. In it he prospered and was financially well off. I heard of him again in a report in the Age that he was heading up the opening of a new brewery, Courage, in opposition to the Carlton Brewery. Although it operated for a while it finally succumbed to the stronghold that the established breweries had on beer production leaving Peter to seek another job. I think he went to manage Tom Piper Foods in WA. Reverting for a moment to my dilemma, I felt that working with animals and agriculture would be more satisfactory than working with beer, although I know that many would think that I was barmy turning down the opportunity to have free beer for life.
Another friend, Colin Stubbs son of a Cable and Wireless friend of Dad's came to visit and we played several games of golf together. I had met him in Suva several years earlier. Another Suva friend Kathleen Steadman, by this time living in Adelaide, married a friend of Brian Coulls, by name Roger Freeman.
I accepted the job in Veterinary Microbiology in Brisbane and left by train for Brisbane in early February. As well as Mum and Dad attending at the station to see me off, many of our graduating class were there to say good bye-- I was very touched by this and it was a happy moment for me.
It was of course rather sad to leave home again, as this time the family had been together for just 3 years since those years lost to war service. Leaving Mum and Dad was much harder because Dick had not returned from the war, and thus Mum and Dad were without children in the house again.
Settling in to Brisbane was relatively easy, as it was fairly familiar to me. By now I had had some years of experience of living alone or at least away from home. After several years of war service followed by three years of studying at the University, starting "real work" was a new challenge. Not only was the daily work intense, but there was a lot to learn. Veterinary Bacteriology was a large field that had not featured in our largely medically oriented Bacteriology course.
After arriving in Brisbane I boarded at Highgate Hill with a Mrs.Spode and her daughter who was disadvantaged. While my room at Mrs.Spode’s and the general atmosphere were satisfactory, the meal situation was not. After a period of providing meals Mrs. Spode decided not to make the evening meal. This required me to travel to town after work each day for a meal at a café. The choice of affordable cafes was very limited. Also the fare was barely tolerable as a regular source of food and was probably deficient in nutritional content. Certainly the bullet-hard peas at the North Quay café were a constant source of annoyance especially as they were mated with chips. Have you ever tried to help the peas on to the fork using not mashed spud but hard fried chips? I would not recommend it at any time let alone every night. Boarding houses can be very dismal, lonely places. Fortunately there were two other chaps, both professional at Mrs. Spode’s and they provided company on some nights and weekends.
One of the two was Jim O'Sullivan of the firm of Jackson and O'Sullivan Stationers and Printers who had been in the Navy. I mention him only because it transpired, in yet another example of "It's a small world", that he was very friendly with my 1938 Grade 7 schoolteacher, Lawrence Grulke who with his wife had befriended me in Southport and frequently asked me over for a chat. At this time, some 11 years later, he was the Teacher's Union secretary, and his wife had died. He and J.O'S read poetry together and they invited me to a riverside picnic to get together again. However the mood was such that they read poetry to each other while I was alone, left to ponder why their friendship was just so exclusive. The other occupant of the boarding house was a Dr. Appleby, who claimed to be a medico, but worked in Mineral sands at Stradbroke. His wife was French and also a medico according to him. However I suspect it was all a pose as there were many occasions that he did various things that set out just to impress, like the time we borrowed books from the local library. On returning to the boarding house, we started to read a book each in the lounge room. When I had read a few pages I noticed he was turning a page about every two seconds. He continued to do this until some thirty minutes later when he announced that he had finished the book and that it wasn't a bad story. At this stage I was at about page thirty. He confided that he had been in the British War Office during the war and then proceeded to speak, using all the jargon that was common in speech during the war, in an attempt to show that he was "genuine".
The landlady was an extraordinarily lucky woman who had won many prizes in the lottery current in Brisbane at the time, called the Golden Casket. She had won almost every "major prize" that is, second, third down to about sixth, and many of the small $10 (5 pound) prizes. People from all around the district came to ask her to buy tickets for them, hoping they might share her “golden touch”. The day I left her establishment she won first prize in the Golden Casket, giving her about $12000. Another boarding house further away from work was my next “home”. Mrs. Eldershaw, who had known my mother, ran it. By the way, at this stage, Mum and Dad were still in Adelaide, and it was only after Marcia and I married in 1951 that they decided to return to their home town of Brisbane. On the personal side my move to Brisbane turned out to be very fortunate.
Although I was now a University graduate with a job, my bank account held little and travel was still restricted to public transport. In today's words, I did not have "wheels". For that matter no one else among my friends had transport either, unless they had worked and saved during and since the war. Metropolitan transport was adequate for most outings, as Brisbane still has its trams, trains and buses.
The appearance of the Department of Agriculture and Stock’s Animal Health Station at Yeerongpilly was familiar to me, as it was plainly visible from the train to Southport. In the years I spent at boarding school at TSS we made the train trip to Brisbane at the end of each term and the return trip at the beginning of the next. The facade of the main building as seen from the road or the train was an imposing single story brick building of substantial size, flanked by 2 houses on the south and a large paddock containing a clump of bamboos and some cattle on the north side. It was conveniently reached by car, bus and train. Inside it was light and cheerful, but it lacked any cooling for the summer and heating in the winter.
At work I was very keen to learn and so I threw myself into the job. The course I had done at the University of Adelaide in Bacteriology had been slanted towards human disease whereas the work I was undertaking was on the diseases in domestic animals. Far more diseases occurred in animals than in man and hence knowledge of a greater number of causal agents was required. My immediate superior was Geoff Simmons. He also was an Adelaide graduate, and had had some 3 years experience in his position. He had set up the media section, kitchen and bacteriology laboratories well, so that we were well organised. The staff generally consisted of young people and a good atmosphere prevailed. The work was exciting and I looked forward to going to work each day. The six years that I spent at the Animal Health Station (later renamed Animal Research Institute) provided very good experience.
The main work was laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases of domestic animals. This involved the growth, isolation and identification of bacteria present in lesions and the assessment of the importance of each organism in the overall disease. In addition there were some conditions in which diagnosis depended on demonstration of specific toxins, or of antibodies to bacteria by serological techniques. Other techniques involved the use of laboratory mice, guinea pigs and rabbits. Later on I was given the responsibility of breeding and raising the laboratory animals. All of this was new to me and required much learning and almost daily reading of current scientific journals. There was much new information being added each year to our scientific knowledge. It was challenging as there were many different bacteria and viruses involved in animal diseases. There was always the possibility of an organism new to the State or to the country being present, and more rarely, the possibility of an organism, never previously discovered, being present. Although in Queensland sheep and cattle formed the greatest proportion of the animals involved, pigs, poultry, companion and zoo animals with disease were occasionally brought in. The work carried out over this period resulted in eleven scientific publications.
Exhilarating as I found the work, there was a negative side. This was the administrative and political aspect of the job. The State Public Service in Queensland had some drawbacks as an employer at this time. Salaries for professionals were lower than those in CSIRO and in some other States. The superannuation provisions were poor and last but not least, promotion was by seniority rather than by merit. Starting work under a boss who was competent and had some seniority meant a slow rise up the ladder for me. I could be forever one step at least behind the same boss person. This was not an enchanting prospect, particularly as we did not always see eye to eye. Admittedly such a person might leave for another position. At this time there was little expansion occurring, and hence no opportunity for promotion up a different ladder. When vacancies occurred in the hierarchy, all who considered themselves suitable could apply, but the rule was that, with other things being equal, the one with the greatest seniority got the job. This decision could be challenged on grounds of greater ability or suitability but this was often borderline, subjective and difficult to establish. This rigid system seemed not to be in the interests of getting the best man for the job. To some degree it benefited those who did not want to move away, feeling comfortable with a system that would give them a chance at the top job in time. Security in the job was an attraction. However those aged in their 20’s were not so concerned with security or superannuation. In my situation I felt somewhat stuck. It seemed to me that I would always be subject to rulings of my immediate boss, and probably always doing the same job. Added to this, there seemed to be no plan of allowing people to take out higher degrees that were becoming necessary for progress upwards or for seeking other opportunities. In the years after my departure some rules were changed and it became easier to complete the requirements for higher degrees while still having the great benefits of being employed and being in a laboratory suitable for work on the thesis topic. One of the chief requirements that had been a sticking point in my time was eliminated soon after I left. This was the need to be working on a University Campus. Colin Ludford and David Mahoney were among the first to take advantage of this, and one can see that it did them no harm in their careers.
Overseas trips had not been considered at this early post-war stage, nor did it ever become a feature of life for those at ARI. I understand that Des Connole had to pay all costs for his first trip and Geoff Simmons made only one overseas visit in a long career. CSIRO was little better than this when I first went there, and it took me ten years to get my first chance to visit other laboratories overseas. Subsequently the opportunities came rather more quickly, but few were from CSIRO itself.
My published papers will show something of the results of work done during the time at Yeerongpilly. Although these never show the struggles, the day to day personal feelings and interaction with others and with the animals or the highs and lows. These aspects could make a better story.
Shortly before I left to go to CSIRO in Melbourne in 1955, Geoff Simmons and I prepared a summary of the many contributions we had made to Veterinary Bacteriology in Queensland in the s1x years. I presented this at a seminar of the local branch of the Australian Veterinary Association. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a copy of this remaining. It indicated that a large number of pathology samples had been examined and many bacteria had been isolated and identified. More importantly, several bacteria unknown in Queensland, as well as two not previously found in Australia, had been isolated.
For a person who did not even go to dances before the end of the war, I find that a list of balls attended in 1949 is longer than expected. Included were Negs, Medical, Teacher's College, Legacy, St. Aidan's, Red Cross, St. George, Hospital, Toowoomba PO, Banker's Warwick. I had thought that Adelaide was the home of balls but Brisbane certainly turned them on. They were good fun, providing relaxation from work, the opportunity to get to know people better and of course to flirt with the girls, (which probably is the main reason for having them).
Not long after arriving I started playing tennis on the grass court at the Anderson's at Graceville. Mrs Edna Anderson was a Hadley cousin of my mother. Her two daughters attended St. Aidan’s school. Usually some 8 or ten people were there for social tennis and these changed from week to week. Mary Smiles and Marcia Manson were often there, both being classmates of Joan at St Aidan's. On one occasion at least (21/5/49) some of us including Marcia went to the cinema after tennis. I found Marcia to be a fun girl as well as being one of the prettiest I had ever met. Time passed and we had a few outings together. I should mention here that I had been pursuing long term friendships in Warwick and Toowoomba for some time since my arrival in Brisbane.
A neighbour of Joan's, a dentist named Barwick Porter mentioned a tennis club run by a friend, Nowell Taylor, and that they were looking for players, and that is how I became involved with him and the Argyll tennis club, with whom I played in Hardcourt Fixtures in A Grade. We also played social tennis on Sundays. For a period, Roy Emerson as a 15-year-old played on the Sunday giving me the chance to say that I used to play with one of the "Greats" of tennis. I also played against Ken Fletcher (although I do not like to mention that he was barely in his teens, and he beat me, even though he was not much taller than the net). Both these players were seen by Harry Hopman early in their careers, were coached by him and played for Australia in Davis Cup and at Wimbledon. Emerson won Wimbledon, but I forget how many times. Harry Hopman was the coach of the Australian Davis Cup team and took a major part in recruiting young players. (How then did he miss me?). I am not saying that my tennis improved because of the presence of these soon-to-be greats in the club. We travelled to various suburbs for our matches so had some insight into other living areas. Once we went to the country, to Yandina, where we had an enjoyable day of tennis. I remember one young girl player we had, Francis Wixted, who by coincidence met and married a fellow who had been in my class at State School at Southport, Jim Mowthorpe. I kept playing tennis at Argyll for most of the time in Brisbane. Later on it became less popular within the family for me to go off at weekends to play tennis, particularly if both days were involved.
On a date near to 19/7/50 Marcia and I became engaged. On that date she wrote to my folks in answer to letters welcoming the engagement. The sentiments Marc expressed about us have not faded with time, just been tempered by the recognition of, but forbearance of, my faults. We had known each other for over a year, and had been out together and with groups during this time, and I had been a guest at the Manson's on a number of occasions. A quote from the time was "We both appear to have made good choices so let us hope nothing disturbs that notion". There is not much else in the next few letters until the time of the wedding. At this time we were actively seeking a flat to rent but very few were on the market. Returned servicemen had greatly added to the number of marriages and the need for housing, but building had not kept up with the backlog of demand. Many young couples lived in small spare rooms in homes of parents and others. Miraculously we learned of a vacant flat at Yeronga that was owned by a friend of a relative of Mrs Manson. We rapidly and gratefully rented this flat and I occupied it for some weeks before the wedding.
We bought a vacant block of land at 44 Rhyndarra St. Yeronga. Much of the rest of the street had long been settled. The syndrome of the “only empty block in the street” had been in vogue for a long time and as usual it had become the repository of all manner of rubbish. Tree branches, blocks of wood, bottles and twisted metal all contributed to rendering the site in need of a clean up. One fine day, Marc and I with Nowell Taylor who lived close by in Kadumba St., visited the block to clean up. We moved from the periphery to the centre of the 24 perch block (54 feet X 120 feet) making a pile of the rubbish, or at least of that which was combustible. It seemed that we should be able to burn it gently a little at a time from the outside in. That was the theory. We lit a match and applied it to the edge. The dry material caught alight rapidly, and burned far more fiercely than we had intended. The main pile caught alight and flames leapt high in the air. While there had been no wind before, the fire seemed to create a breeze that wafted the flames rather close to a neighbour's fence. Nowell climbed into the neighbour's yard and put on their hose with the intention of keeping the fence wet. The land was on the highest part of the area. Whether that was the reason that the water pressure was so low, I do not know. Suffice it to say that when I looked through the wall of fire, all I could see was the nozzle of the hose next door peeping over the fence and simply dribbling slowly directly downwards to very little effect. The picture of this David versus Goliath was made more incongruous by the appearance over the top of the fence of Nowell's expectant face as if his helpful efforts might have put out the fire. While I may not have seen any humour in the situation at the time, over the years in retrospect I have had some great chortles when I have remembered that sight. As far as the neighbours were concerned, they were not amused. It was a bad start for our public relations. However this situation altered and we achieved a good relationship with our next door neighbours.
The meeting, courting and wedding of Marcia Sinclair Manson, although of the utmost significance, is not recorded on paper to any extent. It was a period of great joy, with some anxieties but with a splendid outcome. Dean Barrett officiated at the wedding in St John's Cathedral in Brisbane on 31st March, 1951 after some 7 months engagement. The attendants were Mrs June Macintosh and Elaine Anne Ellis (Manson) Marks and Noel Stanley Glover and Colin R.McDonald. Dean Barrett, the Anglican Dean of Brisbane, was independently known to each of us. He was a patron of St. Aidan’s School and his two daughters had attended there, both being there when Marcia was, although in higher grades, but with such a small school all knew each other. The Dean visited the school for various ceremonies and knew all the girls. For my part, when I boarded at TSS I was in the Delpratt House, the Vice-Captain of which was Tim Barrett, the Dean’s son, and we got to know each other well. We both played in the First Eleven (cricket) and later when Tim married, he chose me as his Best Man.
Some 120 people attended the reception at Lambert Rd, Indooroopilly and it was a happy wedding. Marcia wore a blue suit for "going away" and Dad had lent us the Ford. We travelled to Glen Innes, Armidale, Grafton, McLean and Yamba over about 2 weeks.
On our return we occupied the flat at No. 10 Christensen St, Yeronga, next door to Jim and Joan Wood who were our landlords, and a few doors down from Jenny and Alan Bell from work. I was keen to grow vegetables and set about having beans, peas, carrots and beet. There was a problem watering the garden as the hose leaked. In those days the hoses were made of rubber rather than plastic and in time they perished and cracks opened up, allowing leaks. When I suggested to Jim Wood that we needed a new hose for the garden and pointed out that the current one was full of holes, Jim suggested that I should tie rags around the hose at the site of each hole to stem the flow. He was a Scot and lived up to the Scottish reputation for frugality. I did as he said but as soon as one dragged the hose along on the ground the rags shifted and from the holes the water spurted out in fine streams, watering everything but the vegetables.
As is usual for a house of the type known as a Queenslander, it was raised up on stumps. Underneath the house there was enough headroom to walk upright and this is where the laundry was located. The floor was not sealed, but consisted of dirt with a sprinkling of ashes to provide a drier walkway when rain made puddles elsewhere. However, the laundry in these days before washing machines consisted of two concrete tubs. Over each was a cold water tap, and nearby was a “copper” for boiling water. The thought was that boiling the clothes in soapy water was essential for adequate cleaning. The boiling action did provide an amount of agitation, which together with the soap or soap powder (later replaced by detergents) managed to get rid of most dirt. In the rinsing process for white clothes a bag of Reckitt’s “blue” was added. This contained a bleaching agent that dealt with residual stains. The water in the copper was boiled by burning wood in a compartment under the copper or in some cases using a gas ring. When clothes had finished boiling, they were removed from the copper with a short stick or by wooden tongs. In the particular laundry of which we speak, the distance from the boiler to the nearest tub was about 5 feet (1.5 metres). As may be pictured, hot clothes that are wet and soapy do not necessarily stay still on the end of a round stick. Commonly a gradual slide begins to occur as gravity takes hold. Despite increasing the speed of transfer, the fate of such washing is sealed. Off it falls onto the bed of ashes just short of the tubs. As a result, Marcia frequently had to rewash items. It was an inadequate arrangement.
My first effort at carpentry since making the obligatory seed label and bench hook at primary school carpentry class was to make a small table. Some 47 years later I am not certain why we needed this particular item. The flat was sparsely furnished, I remember, and occasional tables are no doubt handy. Up till recently we still had this item, which had lost the title ”table” but was known as the “yellow stool” which I am sure the family will remember well. The next item was a set of bookshelves made from good shelving timber discarded at work. A magazine rack of simple design and shocking pale blue paint was the next item completed. Even though I now may scoff at these attempts at making furniture, they were quite adequate for the various purposes. When Dad came to live nearby, we made a very substantial writing desk of silky oak. This had a central well for one’s legs, with a set of 5 drawers on one side and a cupboard on the other side. The drawers, of which we were both proud, are still in use in our garage some 48 years later. Other parts of the desk remain as shelves under the house at No. 6 Olympus Drive, Lower Templestowe. I made many more pieces since, including the computer table in use right now. In more recent times these were made less from necessity and more from the sheer pleasure of creating something.
Diverting back to Christensen Street for a moment, there was very little money in the “kitty”. Now that there were two mouths to feed on the same pay, there was little left over each week after just the basic living expenses were covered. At this time the gross pay was about 12 pounds or $24 per week. Hence the use of scrounged timber for the furniture. At work many cases arrived with equipment and chemicals, and the timber from which the cases were made was often of good quality. My tools consisted of a saw, a chisel, a ruler, a hammer and a screwdriver. They were all bought at Woolworths for a total of about $2.00. The hammer and chisel have lasted these 48 years so far.
Mum and Dad went back to Adelaide soon after the wedding and did not return until we gave them news of their first grandchild.



We enjoyed company in the flat. Among those who visited were Joe Weger from RAAF 452 squadron, Ted and Ida Watts, Bill and Joan Hall, Alison and Doug Staley, Colin and Beryl, work friends Jenny and Alan, Pat O’Sullivan, the Sutherlands and Geoff Simmons. One night there was a knock on the door and an attractive girl, unknown to me, was on the doorstep. It was Judy Reading who had worked with Marcia in Sydney at the Textile factory. Later on Judy married, but failed to send her name and address to us, so we lost touch.
Maintaining my interest in aircraft, I made a note about an operation "Lethal Blast". Six RAAF Lincolns tried to bomb Brisbane escorted by 6 Mustangs. Eight Vampire jets protected the city. It was great to watch.
Some of my letters to the folks tell of the problems faced by us in these early days, and I would guess that they were common enough for all couples. We were obviously working towards our own home, as we felt that rental money was money down the drain, and I did have the opportunity to tap the loan structure of War Service Homes.
The amount we had to find for the home was 2300 pounds by loan and 638 from personal money (more than we had). Norman Allom, Mum's brother had drawn up the plan for a nice little house, based on one that we saw in the paper. It would fit on our little block of land in Rhyndarra St. however to be able to go ahead we had to cut back on our requirements. The lounge had to go but could be simply added later. In the event it was not added in our time nor had it been added the last time we saw the house.
` Birthday presents had a practical air this year, a line level, a hand drill and a cup and saucer.
At this time I learned that Dad had undertaken to be instructed for Confirmation in the Anglican Church, and I felt very proud of him. He was not a church-goer, but did it so that he could be company for Mum who was a very regular church attender and supporter.
I gave a talk to the Australian Veterinary Association on melioidosis, a disease on which I was working, having been the first one in Australia to isolate the organism that causes this disease and it was the first occurrence ever recorded in the world in sheep.
We wrote to Mum and Dad 14/10/51 giving advance news of our first child. It told of a very happy Mother-to-be and a somewhat uncertain Father-to-be wondering how the budget would stretch to feed three mouths. With hindsight it was a wonderful gift to us as were all our children.
A helicopter flew over at about this time, and it was the first that I had ever seen.
My travel to work was by bicycle but when we moved to Rhyndarra St it suited Sam Hall to pick me up each day as it was on his journey. He had bought one of the first models of the General Motors Holden cars at the price of 500 odd pounds, which was about the same as his income for the year.
We loved the little house that we had helped to plan although it was small and would not have been big enough for our eventual family of 5. We worked in the garden but the ground was unforgiving, a mixture of clay and schist or broken up stones. It was hard to dig and hard to drain, and we were unaccustomed in those days to the idea of introducing garden soil or of having the ground dug up by rotary hoe. I might add that we were forced to do everything ourselves as there was just no money left over each week to hire any help or buy extra articles. As time went on things improved slowly, and we did eventually buy an old car, (a Flying Standard 10) with help from Dad. It was something of a bomb and not very reliable, but did give us some mobility.
The Yeronga flat had been sparsely furnished and we had no furniture of our own. Early on I made the woodwork items mentioned before. Luckily, our wedding presents included a dining room suite in Queensland maple. It looked great in our new home with its polished hardwood floors. The table is still sturdy after 43 years despite having been used daily in that time, and even for dancing on by enthusiastic children.
The house faced the west so the rooms at that end, the lounge and dining rooms, had the afternoon sun and were very hot on summer afternoons, but being high we got breezes that helped to keep down the effects of humidity.

Revised 7/11/96

As the Year 1949 started off, I was preoccupied with the search for a job. The first port of call was the West End Brewery where a vacancy existed on the brewing staff. As I had achieved a high mark in Bacteriology 2 (2 marks off a credit) and was placed second in the class, being beaten only by a medical graduate on the staff of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, I had been recommended for the job. However there was another candidate applying for it. At the time there was a law giving preference in employment to ex-servicemen, and the other applicant, Peter Osborne, had not been a serviceman. The job was offered to Peter. I was encouraged by several friends, against my "finer" feelings, to use the law to obtain the job. I did so, and lo and behold the job was offered to me. By this time, the result of an interview with Geoff Simmons from the Queensland Department of Agriculture arrived offering me a position as Assistant Bacteriologist at the Animal Health Station, in Brisbane. (Today with large numbers of unemployed queuing up for the few available jobs it must seem that it was a different world in those days, with the only problem being the choice of a job). However, I did have a dilemma, and I spent some time wrestling with the possibilities so that I could decide what to do.
Around this time an old school buddy came to visit us, during a vacation from studying Medicine at the University of Queensland. I do not remember Stan Glover having any influence in my decision, but I did finally decide to accept the Queensland job, leaving the way open for Peter to get the Brewery job. In it he prospered and was financially well off. I heard of him again in a report in the Age that he was heading up the opening of a new brewery, Courage, in opposition to the Carlton Brewery. Although it operated for a while it finally succumbed to the stronghold that the established breweries had on beer production leaving Peter to seek another job. I think he went to manage Tom Piper Foods in WA. Reverting for a moment to my dilemma, I felt that working with animals and agriculture would be more satisfactory than working with beer, although I know that many would think that I was barmy turning down the opportunity to have free beer for life.
Another friend, Colin Stubbs son of a Cable and Wireless friend of Dad's came to visit and we played several games of golf together. I had met him in Suva several years earlier. Another Suva friend Kathleen Steadman, by this time living in Adelaide, married a friend of Brian Coulls, by name Roger Freeman.
I accepted the job in Veterinary Microbiology in Brisbane and left by train for Brisbane in early February. As well as Mum and Dad attending at the station to see me off, many of our graduating class were there to say good bye-- I was very touched by this and it was a happy moment for me.
It was of course rather sad to leave home again, as this time the family had been together for just 3 years since those years lost to war service. Leaving Mum and Dad was much harder because Dick had not returned from the war, and thus Mum and Dad were without children in the house again.
Settling in Brisbane was not so difficult, as it was not unknown to me, and by now I had had some years of experience of living alone or at least away from home. However, after several years of war service and then three years of studying at the University, starting "real work" was something to get used to. Not only was the daily work intense, but there was a lot to learn. Veterinary Bacteriology was a large field that had not featured in our largely medically oriented Bacteriology course. The work was very interesting and even though some of it became routine,on the whole it held my interest, and I was not sorry to have to rise in the morning and go off to work. (Sad to say, there would be times much later on in life, when I was sorry to have to rise and go off to work). The main work was laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases of domestic animals. This involved the growth, isolation and identification of bacteria present in lesions and the assessment of the importance of each organism in the overall disease. In addition to the demonstration of bacteria, there were some conditions that depended on demonstration of specific toxins, or of antibodies to bacteria by serological techniques. Other techniques involved the use of laboratory mice, guinea pigs and rabbits. Later on I had the responsibility of breeding and caring for these animals. All this required much learning and reading of current scientific journals almost daily as there were so many articles being published each year. It was challenging as there were many different bacteria and viruses involved in animal diseases. There was always the possibility of an organism new to the State or to the country being present, and more rarely, the possibility of an organism, never previously discovered, being present. Although in Queensland sheep and cattle formed the greatest proportion of the animals involved, pigs, poultry, companion and zoo animals with disease were occasionally brought in. I hope to be able to find a paper I presented at a local meeting of the Queensland branch of the Australian Veterinary Association which outlined the diagnostic work we did in the 6 years I was working at the Animal Health Station (later renamed Animal Research Institute). The work was a joint effort with Geoff Simmons and resulted in the demonstration of several bacteria not previously found in Queensland and at least two not found in Australia previously. There was also research work carried out over this period and this resulted in several publications, a list of which will be in an appendix.
Although now a University graduate with a job, my bank account held little and travel was still restricted to public transport. In today's words, I did not have "wheels". For that matter no one else among my friends had transport either, unless they had worked and saved during and since the war. Metropolitan transport was adequate for most outings, as Brisbane still had its trams, trains and buses.
I boarded with a Mrs. Spode in Highgate Hill with two other males, one of whom was Jim O'Sullivan of the firm of Jackson and O'Sullivan Stationers and Printers who had been in the Navy. I mention him only because it transpired, in yet another example of "It's a small world", that he was very friendly with my 1938 Grade 7 schoolteacher, Lawrence Grulke who with his wife had befriended me in Southport and frequently asked me over for a chat. At this time, some 11 years later, he was the Teacher's Union secretary, and his wife had died. He and J.O'S read poetry together and they invited me to a riverside picnic to get together again. However the mood was such that they read poetry to each other while I was alone, left to ponder why their friendship was just so exclusive. The other occupant of the boarding house was a Dr. Appleby, who claimed to be a medico, but worked in Mineral sands at Stradbroke. His wife was French and also a medico according to him. However I suspect it was all a pose as there were many occasions that he did various things that set out just to impress, like the time we borrowed books from the local library. On returning to the boarding house, we started to read a book each in the lounge room. When I had read a few pages I noticed he was turning a page about every two seconds. He continued to do this until some thirty minutes later when he announced that he had finished the book and that it wasn't a bad story. At this stage I was at about page thirty. He confided that he had been in the British War Office during the war and then proceeded to speak, stringing together all the jargon that was common in speech during the war, in an attempt to show that he was "genuine".
The landlady was an extraordinarily lucky woman who had won many prizes in the lottery current in Brisbane at the time, called the Golden Casket. She had won almost every "major prize" that is, second, third down to about sixth, and many of the small $10 (5 pound) prizes. People from all around the district came to ask her to buy tickets for them, hoping they might share her “golden touch”. The day I left her establishment she won first prize in the Golden Casket, giving her about $12000. Another boarding house further away from work was my next “home” and it was run by someone who had known my mother. By the way, at this stage, Mum and Dad were still in Adelaide, and it was only after Marcia and I married in 1951 that they decided to return to their home town of Brisbane. On the personal side my move to Brisbane turned out to be very fortunate.
For a person who did not even go to dances before the end of the war, I find that a list of balls attended in 1949 is longer than expected. Included were Negs, Medical, Teacher's College, Legacy, St. Aidan's, Red Cross, St. George, Hospital, Toowoomba PO, Banker's Warwick. I had thought that Adelaide was the home of balls but Brisbane certainly turned them on. They were good fun, providing relaxation from work, the opportunity to get to know people better and of course to flirt with the girls (which probably is the main reason for having them).

Not long after arriving I started playing tennis on the grass court at the Anderson's at Graceville. Mrs Edna Anderson was a Hadley cousin of my mother. Her two daughters attended St. Aidan’s school. Usually some 8 or ten people were there for social tennis and these changed from week to week. Mary Smiles and Marcia Manson were often there, both being classmates of Joan at St Aidan's. On one occasion at least (21/5/49) some of us including Marcia went to the cinema after tennis. I found Marcia to be a fun girl as well as being one of the prettiest I had ever met. Time passed and we had a few outings together. I should mention here that I had been pursuing long term friendships in Warwick and Toowoomba for some time since my arrival in Brisbane.
A neighbour of Joan's, a dentist named Barwick Porter mentioned a tennis club run by a friend, Nowell Taylor, and that they were looking for players, and that is how I became involved with him and the Argyll tennis club, with whom I played in Hardcourt Fixtures in A Grade. We also played social tennis on Sundays. For a period, Roy Emerson as a 15-year-old played on the Sunday giving me the chance to say that I used to play with one of the "Greats" of tennis. I also played against Ken Fletcher (although I do not like to mention that he was barely in his teens, and he beat me, even though he was not much taller than the net). Both these players were seen by Harry Hopman early in their careers, were coached by him and played for Australia in Davis Cup and at Wimbledon. Emerson won Wimbledon, but I forget how many times. Harry Hopman was the coach of the Australian Davis Cup team and took a major part in recruiting young players. (How then did he miss me?). I am not saying that my tennis improved because of the presence of these soon-to-be greats in the club. We travelled to various suburbs for our matches so had some insight into other living areas. Once we went to the country, to Yandina, where we had an enjoyable day of tennis. I remember one young girl player we had, Francis Wixted, who by coincidence met and married a fellow who had been in my class at State School at Southport, Jim Mowthorpe. I kept playing tennis at Argyll for most of the time in Brisbane. After marriage and the birth of Graham it became less popular within the family for me to go off at week ends to play tennis, particularly if both days were involved.
On a date near to 19/7/50 Marcia and I became engaged. On that date she wrote to my folks in answer to letters welcoming the engagement. The sentiments Marc expressed about us have not faded with time, just been tempered by the recognition of, but forbearance of, my faults. We had known each other for over a year, and had been out together and in groups during this time, and I had been a guest at the Manson's on a number of occasions. A quote from the time was "We both appear to have made good choices so let us hope nothing disturbs that notion". There is not much else in the next few letters until the time of the wedding. At this time we were actively seeking a flat to rent but very few were on the market. Returned servicemen had greatly added to the number of marriages and the need for housing, but building had not kept up with the backlog of demand. Many young couples lived in small spare rooms in homes of parents and others. Miraculously we learned of a vacant flat at Yeronga that was owned by a friend of a relative of Mrs Manson. We rapidly and gratefully rented this flat and I occupied it for some weeks before the wedding.
We bought a vacant block of land at 44 Rhyndarra St. Yeronga. Much of the rest of the street had long been settled. The syndrome of the “only empty block in the street” had been in vogue for a long time and as usual it had become the repository of all manner of rubbish. Tree branches, blocks of wood, bottles and twisted metal all contributed to rendering the site in need of a clean up. One fine day, Marc and I with Nowell Taylor who lived close by in Kadumba St., visited the block to clean up. We moved from the periphery to the centre of the 24 perch block (54 feet X 120 feet) making a pile of the rubbish, or at least of that which was combustible.
It seemed that we should be able to burn it gently a little at a time from the outside in. That was the theory. We lit a match and applied it to the edge. The dry material caught alight rapidly, and burned far more fiercely than we had intended. The main pile caught alight and flames leapt high in the air. While there had been no wind before, the fire seemed to create a breeze that wafted the flames rather close to a neighbour's fence. Nowell climbed into the neighbour's yard and put on their hose with the intention of keeping the fence wet. The land was on the highest part of the area. Whether that was the reason that the water pressure was so low, I do not know. Suffice it to say that when I looked through the wall of fire, all I could see was the nozzle of the hose next door peeping over the fence and simply dribbling slowly directly downwards to very little effect. The picture of this David versus Goliath was made more incongruous by the appearance over the top of the fence of Nowell's expectant face as if his helpful efforts might have put out the fire. While I may not have seen any humour in the situation at the time, over the years in retrospect I have had some great chortles when I have remembered that sight. As far as the neighbours were concerned, they were not amused. It was a bad start for our public relations. However this situation altered and we achieved a good relationship with our next door neighbours.
The meeting, courting and wedding of Marcia Sinclair Manson, although of the utmost significance, is not recorded on paper to any extent. It was a period of great joy, with some anxieties but with a splendid outcome. Dean Barrett officiated at the wedding in St John's Cathedral in Brisbane on 31st March, 1951 after some 7 months engagement. The attendants were Mrs June Macintosh and Elaine Anne Ellis (Manson) Marks and Noel Stanley Glover and Colin R.McDonald. Dean Barrett, the Anglican Dean of Brisbane, was independently known to each of us. He was a patron of St. Aidan’s School and his two daughters had attended there, both being there when Marcia was, although in higher grades, but with such a small school all knew each other. The Dean visited the school for various ceremonies and knew all the girls. For my part, when I boarded at TSS I was in the Delpratt House, the Vice-Captain of which was Tim Barrett, the Dean’s son, and we got to know each other well. We both played in the First Eleven (cricket) and later when Tim married, he chose me as his Best Man.
Some 120 people attended the reception at Lambert Rd, Indooroopilly and it was a happy wedding. Marcia wore a blue suit for "going away" and Dad had lent us the Ford. We travelled to Glen Innes, Armidale, Grafton, McLean and Yamba over about 2 weeks.
On our return we occupied the flat at No. 10 Christensen St, Yeronga, next door to Jim and Joan Wood and a few doors down from Jenny and Alan Bell from work. I was keen to grow vegetables and set about having beans, peas, carrots and beet. Mum and Dad went back to Adelaide once the big occasion was over, and did not reappear until the attraction of the first grandchild began. We had quite a few young friends, mostly married couples, and started a round of visits although we were not mobile. Some were Alison and Doug Staley, Colin and Beryl, work friends Jenny and Alan, Pat O'Sullivan, the Sutherlands and Geoff Simmons.
Another activity that I started was woodwork, a skill in which I had had very little tuition (a weekly lesson at primary school in the basic use of tools), but which appealed to me. I still have the very first item that I made, the yellow stool. This was followed by bookshelves using timber discarded from work,a magazine rack and later when Dad came up the silky-oak desk that we built together. Part of this remains as shelves under the house at No. 6 Olympus Drive, Lower Templestowe and the drawer section remains with me now.
We enjoyed company in the flat. Among those who visited were Joe Weger from RAAF 452 squadron, Ted and Ida Watts, Bill and Joan Hall. One night there was a knock on the door and an attractive girl, unknown to me, was on the doorstep. It was Judy Reading who had worked with Marcia in Sydney at the Textile factory. Later on Judy married, but failed to send her name and address to us, so we lost touch.
Maintaining my interest in aircraft, I made a note about an operation "Lethal Blast". Six RAAF Lincolns tried to bomb Brisbane escorted by 6 Mustangs. The city was protected by 8 Vampire jets. It was great to watch.
Some of my letters to the folks tell of the problems faced by us in these early days, and I would guess that they were common enough for all couples. We were obviously working towards our own home, as we felt that rental money was money down the drain, and I did have the opportunity to tap the loan structure of War Service Homes.
The amount we had to find for the home was 2300 pounds by loan and 638 from personal money (more than we had). Norman Allom, Mum's brother had drawn up the plan for a nice little house, based on one that we saw in the paper. It would fit on our little block of land in Rhyndarra St. however to be able to go ahead we had to cut back on our requirements. The lounge had to go but could be simply added later. In the event it was not added in our time nor had it been added the last time we saw the house.
` Birthday presents had a practical air this year, a line level, a hand drill and a cup and saucer.
At this time I learned that Dad had undertaken to be instructed for Confirmation in the Anglican Church, and I felt very proud of him. He was not a church goer, but did it so that he could be company for Mum who was a very regular church attender and supporter.
I gave a talk to the Australian Veterinary Association on melioidosis, a disease on which I was working, having been the first one in Australia to isolate the organism that causes this disease and it was the first occurrence ever recorded in the world in sheep.
We wrote to Mum and Dad 14/10/51 giving advance news of our first child. It told of a very happy Mother-to-be and a somewhat uncertain Father-to-be wondering how the budget would stretch to feed three mouths. With hindsight it was a wonderful gift to us as were all our children.
A helicopter flew over at about this time, and it was the first that I had ever seen.
My travel to work was by bicycle but when we moved to Rhyndarra St it suited Sam Hall to pick me up each day as it was on his journey. He had bought one of the first models of the General Motors Holden cars at the price of 500 odd pounds, which was about the same as his income for the year.
We loved the little house that we had helped to plan although it was small and would not have been big enough for our eventual family of 5. We worked in the garden but the ground was unforgiving, a mixture of clay and schist or broken up stones. It was hard to dig and hard to drain, and we were unaccustomed in those days to the idea of introducing garden soil or of having the ground dug up by rotary hoe. I might add that we were forced to do everything ourselves as there was just no money left over each week to hire any help or buy extra articles. As time went on things improved slowly, and we did eventually buy an old car, (a Flying Standard 10) with help from Dad. It was something of a bomb and not very reliable, but did give us some mobility.
The Yeronga flat had been sparsely furnished and we had no furniture of our own. Early on I made the woodwork items mentioned before. Luckily, our wedding presents included a dining room suite in Queensland maple. It looked great in our new home with its polished hardwood floors. The table is still sturdy after 43 years despite having been used daily in that time, and even for dancing on by enthusiastic children.
The house faced the west so the rooms at that end, the lounge and dining rooms, had the afternoon sun and were very hot on summer afternoons, but being high we got breezes that helped to keep down the effects of humidity.