I was born in 1957 in a small farming town in rural South Australia. I followed a different path to my future than do most people. Many people, family and friends, helped me on my journey which was characterized by some steep hills and dark pathways, so I am extremely appreciative and thankful for ...more

I was born in 1957 in a small farming town in rural South Australia. I followed a different path to my future than do most people. Many people, family and friends, helped me on my journey which was characterized by some steep hills and dark pathways, so I am extremely appreciative and thankful for those people. However, the road I took, as winding and bumpy as it was eventually brought me to a state of stability and understanding of my personal truth. On balance, now, I am happy and settled, and on reflection may have experiences that I can share with others to help them grow. My working life began as an apprentice in 1974 (about the same time the photograph above was taken) after what basically amounts to dropping out of school, I earned a Diploma of Engineering and worked for 13 years in the agriculture and mining sector. In 1988 I returned to school and eventually applied for and was accepted into a Social Sciences degree which I completed while feeling like an imposter all the way. Unable to find employment through the traditional approach, and because of various personal and cultural development issues, including the fact that I was comparatively speaking – of advanced age, I decided to travel to Indonesia and pursue work as an independent volunteer in international development. I admit that it was also an attractive and adventurous idea to me at the time. I did feel rather “penned in” during that period of my life, and realized that I didn’t look forward to the prospects of doing the “local” thing for the rest of my life. It also took me longer to make the move than most, and that was because for the most part I valued the friendships that I had and still maintain a strong connection with people and friends from my place of origin. At the time Geographical Information Systems and computer mapping and analysis of social phenomena in GIS was just gaining momentum, so I taught myself to operate GIS and trained others to use it to support analysis and present geographical patterns in phenomena that were useful for enhancing understanding for government policy purposes. How did I do this, well I took an introductory course to get some basics, but after that I read books and locked my self in a room and learned it through trial and error. Try this, try that. This led me to my first real job in my new chosen field on a World Bank project in the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower (1997-1998). During this time Indonesia was struck by a crisis which created more international development opportunities and I continued to work on crisis recovery and development projects. If I can do that, I would say anyone can. During breaks in employment I completed an MBA through distance learning from the University of New England. Since then I have worked in strategic positions on more than 10 large development projects in Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, and other short term consultancies. Most of my work has been managing the implementation of crisis and post crisis stabilization and reconstruction projects including in Aceh and Nias after the Tsunami and Earthquakes in 2004 and 2005. Most of these assignments have been in projects related to capacity building, employment and training, and community resilience. Because of my past experiences I am now very interested in helping youth to find employment.less