Work life

The way Ernie Fonte tells it, he has had more than a few lucky breaks over his 97 years, with the most important one being meeting his wife, Josephine, during a rainstorm when he was 18.

With a life-long passion for aviation and a knack for absorbing information, Alan relishes the opportunity to share his knowledge with others.

Dawn’s life story does not make for easy reading but, instead of dwelling on the bad, she is determined to use her life experiences to help children dealing with family violence.

Jack still ponders how he and his family survived the 1939 bushfires that tore through Victoria and South Australia, killing 71 people and destroying two million hectares of land.

Jean's school time spanned the war years when the threat of invasion was felt so keenly that her mother and aunties learned first aid and her father built an air raid shelter in the backyard.

As a teenage girl when World War II broke out, Joyce Strawhorn found it all terribly exciting.

Neil heard a visiting Minister preach about the importance of using your talents in life. Inspired, Neil applied for a role as a missionary on a remote island in the South Pacific.

Being one of the tallest teens in his youth group turned out to be a great stroke of luck for Bob when he was paired up with the girl who would become his wife.

Linda had a thoroughly international childhood. Born in India, she was only a baby when the family moved to East Africa, where she grew up with Italian as her first language.

Dick Bills didn’t just dream of running away from home and joining a circus; he ran away multiple times and bought his own circus.

Richard Willmott is certain his love of art is in his DNA. From his interest in genealogy, he’s traced his ancestors back to Morocco, France and England.

As a young woman in the 1950s, Marie Golding’s decision to become a teacher was not a hard one to make. ‘Back then girls could go into teaching or nursing,’ Marie says.

They say your first love leaves a mark and Sandy Worboys can show you hers — a scar on her head from the car accident that was the catalyst for her long marriage to Jerry.

Nurse Laurel Mott was working nightshift at a hospital in Sydney on Christmas Eve, 1974, when news filtered through that Cyclone Tracy had hit Darwin.

It was when working under cars as a schoolboy at his dad’s motor body repair business, that young Brian Robertson realised he had to do well at school so he could forge a different life.

The 1980s was an era of flamboyant entrepreneurs who flew too close to the sun; household names like Alan Bond —the biggest fraudster in Australian history — and Christopher Skase

Handling portraits by Rembrandt was one of the highlights of Stephen West’s career as a technical photographer with the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ron McCall’s life could have turned out very differently if he hadn’t been quite so tall.

If Cynthia Cooknell’s mother had her way, Cynthia would have waited another couple of years before marrying Herbert ‘Nobby’ Cooknall and had a church wedding witnessed by her extended family.