I arrived in Melbourne the first week in October 1958, a few days after the VFL Grand Final. To the uninitiated, the VFL Grand Final is by far the most important event of the year for almost every red-blooded person living in Victoria, even more important than the Melbourne Cup, which comes in second. Consequently my arrival was totally unnoticed.

The year would have been about 1932 and my parents, who were pioneer wheat farmers at Natya in the Victorian Mallee, were having tough times. Wall Street had collapsed and my parents had four children in four years - all drought years - when there was little rain, crops were poor and little money.