BACK IN AUSTRALIA

 

 My forced stay in New Zealand had meant my absence from the birth of my daughter Irma which was upsetting.

 

A mini economic depression had commenced and jobs not as available as freely as they had been.      The Australian company had no management positions available so, as I was  determined to get a house built, I took a position as Field Consultant again which gave me a much better salary than I could have obtained elsewhere.         Land prices were cheaper the further you went from the city and we finally settled on a block in Frankston.   The cost left me with insufficient cash to pay a deposit for a house to be built so I had to take out a second mortgage.  

 

We moved into the house in August 1959.    It was on a sloping block and I was faced with the task of building a retaining wall before tackling the garden.   This I did during the 8 week break in Dec/Jan.      Travelling to many places in all States and living out of a suitcase was boring but I had to stick it out.     Early in 1961 I was well advanced with a plan to start my own business in Western Australia.     My wife flatly refused to be part of it.    In a fit of depression I resigned from Wells and took a job as a Salesman with a firm selling small items of machinery and parts.      I didn’t like the job as I am not mechanically minded but when I resigned in June 1963 I was surprised to find I had been top Salesman.          I had kept looking for a more suitable job and finally became Melbourne Sales Manager with Victa Telecommunications.     A new subsidiary of the well known Victa Mower Company it had obtained permission from the P.M.G ( a Government monopoly) to rent payphones to businesses.      The business grew and I grew with it becoming State Manager of Victoria and Tasmania.

                      

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My office to start with was in a northern suburb of Melbourne which meant over an hours travel each way so, coupled with a job often requiring me to work late,  I didn’t see much of the family except at week ends.    A year later I moved into the city but increasing traffic still meant a long day.      My son Peter was not academically minded and had no intention of working indoors.      He obtained a position on a farm when he was 16 and was happy enough but soon realised that the poor pay would never allow him to save enough for his own place.

Helga was uncertain as to what she wanted to do and when she left school I arranged for her to take a Secretarial course.      Helga married in 1968 and Peter in 1969.

 

Dedicated to my job to make sure I provided a better life for my family I had lost sight of the fact that I was losing touch with them to a certain extent although my intentions were different.

 

I was never fully happy with the house I’d had built in Frankston    The country was still recovering from the war and a lack of choice of building material with cream bricks  the only ones available.   Improvements had taken place and in 1969 I bought a 1¼ acre block in Mount Eliza.     Designing a house myself the builder did an excellent job.    I did the landscaping myself and was well satisfied with the result.      It was the sort of home I wished  Peter and Helga had  grown up in but now they had left to start their own life.

 

Irma had always been interested in horses and I bought her a mare.    We had it serviced and it was obvious we needed more land when the birth took place.    I bought 10 acres at Pearcedale and had a house built similar to the one at Mount Eliza.    We then sent a lot of time building stables and erecting fences.    A colt was born and ovcer the years we used it to service mares we bought.  

http://usera.imagecave.com/Rainy/Riding/

 

 Something of those times can be seen on the following videos