A Little Bit of My Life as a Civilian - Part 1

After I left the Navy I was out of work for about 10 days and then secured a job as a postman at Crows Nest, a northern suburb of Sydney. It was a bit of a shock having to start work at 0530 and often worked through until 1600 every day, including Saturdays, at that time. All the posties were "walking posties". No bikes, just a bag on your back starting off with about 40 pound of mail. The average run was about 14 miles long.

I enjoyed my time as a postie at Crows Nest. We made a lot of friends and very often had bar-b-q's at home on the weekend. The old place we lived in was very much on a lean and the doors wouldn't close properly, but it was definitely an experience.
This is me in postie rig with Katrina sitting at the front door of that house. As you can see, it was badly in need of a lot of TLC, but it was somewhere to live!!!


All the time I spent in the Navy and as a postie in Sydney, I remained a member of the Naval Association Launceston Sub Section. I transferred my RSL membership from Mosman RSL to the North Sydney ANZAC Memorial Club at Cammeray. That is where I learnt to play bowls. I had a lot of mates there, mostly blokes from the Second World War, as Vietnam Veterans were not recognised as such then. That was another battle which I won't go into either.
Mum came to visit us and Mum really got a surprise when I came out in my bowling whites and invited her to join me for a game of bowls. We had great fun too!!!

Mum, Katrina and your's truly.

Early 1974 I had ideas to go back into the Navy, but my wife at the time, Gaye, wanted to go home to Launceston. So we decided that I would apply for the Navy and also a transfer home and whichever came first we would take. I was my own postman so I had to sort my own mail. I received a phone call from the Postmaster one morning and he told me my transfer home had come through. I rang Gaye and told her and she was very happy about that. I went back to my desk and the third letter I sorted was from the Navy informing me that I had been accepted and to contact them for medicals and re-entry examinations. Well .... was I MAD!!!!! If that phone call had been 3 second later I would have had the letter from the Navy in my hand and I would have rejoined. But that is life.

We went home in June 1974 and Gaye was about 7 months pregnant with Brett. They nearly weren't going to let her fly, but the Doc said it would be OK. So there we were, back home in Launceston with a four year old daughter and a son on the way looking for a house to live in. We stayed with Gaye's family until Brett was born and then started really looking.

The Naval Association asked me if I would bugle at the Navy Day celebrations in October 1974 as they had found out I was an ex-Navy Musician, and of course, I said yes, but I didn't have a bugle. I was told the Navy Cadets had one I could borrow and to go and see Alan Cleaver, the skipper. Which I did and walked out of the unit with a bugle, fully uniformed, but in sailor's rig, and my application to become an instructor was almost in the pipeline. I was an Instructor at TS Tamar for nearly 15 years and I carried out bugling duties for all ex-Service organisations and the City of Launceston. I was designated "Bugler to the City of Launceston" by the then Mayor Jimmy Tsingaloo. I carried out this duty for over 19 years, playing the Last Post and  Reveille, when I finally decided to retire undefeated. Nobody made as many mistakes as I did and got away with it!!!!!
I broke a sesamoid  bone in my left foot while delivering mail and the quacks treated me for gout for a couple of years until one decided that it had better be x-rayed. A surgeon finally removed the broken bone and I was eventually pensioned off as "unemployable in my current position". I decided then to go back to the education system and improve myself. The Tasmanian State Institute of Technology (TSIT) in Launceston had a great music programme, so I enrolled as a student in the "Associate Diploma of Music - Studio Teaching" course. I was also employed by them for the first year as an instructor in brass instruments and breathing (and me being a smoker!!!). I was in my last semester when I applied to have my Post Office pension converted to a lump sum payment so I could go out teaching on my own, but they found me a job tearing up and selling stamps in the Post Office. So my final exams looked a bit dodgy to say the least, but I got through them and graduated on the 2nd May 1987.
While I was at the TSIT Gaye and I were divorced and I married Marian and we had two sons, Alex and Nick, who are now grown up fine young men. Marian and I were also divorced!!!

My daughter, Katrina was married around this time and I, as Dad, gave the bride away. She was absolutely stunning that day and was the truly radiant bride. Her husband, Tony, is a fine, hard working man and a great father to their three children and a good provider. Katrina could not have made a better selection in husbands.





That's about as far as I will go with this part, but I will continue this saga later.