As the last blurry images faded…a number of apparently dead bodies strewn over my folks’ lawn…that was the Year 12 after farewell party, hastily relocated from Coppins Crossing to suburban Hackett because of impending rain.

If it seems a long time ago, that’s because it was.

A break of a few days and then I joined the Department of Immigration on 8 December 1969 as a base grade clerk and it’s been all downhill since then…nah, just joking.

I kicked around Canberra, there was a predictably debauched (Pimms and water, anyone? Tasty!) early attempt at a group house with Peter Fremantle, Jimmy Moyes, Paul Kwasczinski and me.

Some years later I ended up living at Gowrie Hostel, met some people and a few of us started a group house on Belconnen Way in Page. We had a few changes of personnel, as you do, and eventually David Moss joined us. As I recall David was a keen amateur cook, he would have gone well on Masterchef had such a thing existed then. I liked my steak unadorned, he liked to fiddle, that’s how you (sort of) learn to get along together.

In early 1975 I met Margaret, the eternally young lady who became girlfriend and then wife: I wonder whether Tuija Uotila remembers that night?

I also shifted from Immigration to Foreign Affairs, which was where I’d wanted to go in the first place (I must have failed the Public Service entrance exam, evidently Foreign Affairs didn’t want plain speaking folks I guess).

The group house broke up early the next year when Margaret and I bought a unit just down the road in Hawker. Margaret and I got married and we left for our first overseas posting (Algeria) in early 1977.

Over the next decade we had a succession of postings with little time in Australia in between. Our son David was born in Canberra in 1979 and our daughter Karen in Singapore the next year. We came home for Australia’s bicentennial year in 1988 after three very interesting and eventful years in Burma and settled down in Torrens so that the kids could learn about their own country.

I did various jobs in Foreign Affairs and eventually went to uni courtesy of the Dawkins reforms to the higher education system, which allowed people who had misspent their youth to belatedly atone for their sins.

In the mid 90s a few things were happening, there was going to be a change of government (with all that brings for public service people) and also one of the kids didn’t want to go overseas again. Marg and I agreed we’d had a great time on our overseas postings but we didn’t want to retire in Canberra either, so we decided to make the move while we were still working. From my work at the time I had lots of contacts around the States and Territories and from that network I landed a job in Brisbane, where we moved in mid 1996.

I did various jobs in the Queensland public service’s economic development agencies until late 2007 when an opportunity arose to fill a temporarily vacant position based in Rockhampton as Director for our many and varied activities in Central Queensland. The job then opened up permanently so in mid 2008 Margaret and I moved here, with Margaret able to continue her career as an occupational therapist with Queensland Health.

Mine’s a very busy job, particularly because my region spans from the industrial port hub of Gladstone through Rockhampton and all the way to the border, so I find myself driving to Gladstone and out west to Emerald, Barcaldine and Longreach quite frequently.

However coming home to our house in Yeppoon, overlooking the water to the Keppel island group, makes it all worthwhile. Karen is in Brisbane and David lives in Melbourne so it’s a pretty sweet life, just us and the cat, and a glass or two of wine on the verandah.

Over the years Kim Rennick is the only one from Watson days with whom I’ve kept in regular contact. I did see Dolores and Salli in Brisbane after the 30 years reunion and, a couple of years ago, got accosted in a Brisbane CBD street by a bloke who turned out to be Paul Kwaszcinski.

I’m sorry I won’t be able to join you this time but hope everybody has a great night.

Phil Henry