A Brief History

Originally from the UK I came to Australia in 1981 and spent 10 years in Perth, WA. Back then was the golden era of Alan Bond and friends when money was thrown around like confetti and I like many others learnt of the America’s Cup for the first time! Those were fun days with hotels being built all over the place and culminating in the Fremantle based America’s Cup in 1987. That was an exciting time and I even managed to go out to watch one race on a tall ship. I actually married my wife in 1983 in WA and she was a long-time supporter of the British America’s Cup team so we followed it closely. In fact we were in a motel in South West WA on our honeymoon when the 1983 Cup was won by Alan Bond’s boat Australia II.

We listened to the race through the wall of our neighbours room as we didn’t have a TV! And yes, before you ask, we did have colour TV back then!

In those days I still worked in corporate IT, a career I had started back in about 1978 in the UK. In WA I worked for Alcoa and then Woodside Offshore Petroleum. In 1991 we decided it was time to move on and moved to Sydney into a house with my brother overlooking Iron Cove and the Balmain Tiger’s rugby league ground. Still working in corporate IT I worked for Otis, Telstra and Ord Minett. In 1993 our son was born and we decided it was time to get out of Sydney and moved to Bowral, NSW where I scored a job with a mining software company as an IT administrator. This turned out to be a great move both due to the fact that Bowral was such a fantastic place to live but also because of my job. The nature of my work meant I travelled a lot to mine sites and customers offices to install computers. I visited sites in QLD & NSW but also had two trips to Tokyo and one to Jordan and boy, were the last two an experience!

Now I run my own small IT consulting company (HighComm) helping local people and small businesses with their computers.

Apart from HighComm I also have interests in investment property and Internet Marketing and spend a lot of time on these two subjects. But my real passion is centred around the environment and particularly in clean, renewable energy and the ideas of the transition movement and peak oil. I am also a member of Climate Action Now Wingecarribee (CANWin) and head up their Energy Working Group.

Some find it a paradox, but I am also a member of the local Rural Fire Brigade where I do my bit in preventing and fighting fires as well as being an air base operator supporting the RFS’ aircraft at major incidents.

I almost forgot music. Having two very talented musicians in the family, actually 3 now, I have spent a lot of time involved in the music scene with concerts and workshops with the ACO and Wollongong Conservatorium to various folk music festivals such as the Illawarra Folk Festival. The folk festivals are one way I manage to relax!