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| Dad rowing all three kids |
Born in Melbourne to a Tasmanian painter and a CEO, I was a blonde bombshell baby with a bowl-cut. I enjoyed playing with toy sailboats and during family trips to Tasmania could be found perched on the decks of real sailboats alongside my sisters Jennie and Helen.
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| Lowhead - Lagoon with cousin Jamie Bridley |
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| Early interest in the underwater world, aged 5, only one fin available |
Constantly in the ocean at Low Head, just outside Launceston, where the water was freezing even in December, my family slept on a block of land in the bush, in tents bought from a circus. In the mornings Jennie and I walked the 3 km to the neighbours who had a speed boat and a good knowledge of where and how to fish. We were invariably sent home with fresh fish to cook on the campfire.
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| Peter, Helen and Jennie in front of the campfire |
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| Sabo, built by Mum's Dad, Walter Bridley |
There were also family trips to the snow because dad had bought a ski chalet at Mount Buller, (when they were cheap) 3-4 hours drive from Melbourne in the white Ford Falcon 500 station-wagon. A sensible vehicle for a family of five. The 'Flat' had just two tiny bedrooms, each with two skinny double bunks and not much room in-between. Close enough for mum to poke dad with a child-size ski pole when he snored, which was all the time.
All three kids began skiing before turning three and were put in classes for a week each year. Tickets were much cheaper in those days, especially for children. Equipment was 'hand-me-down' where ever possible. We wore helmets, with a white stripe, ahead of our time. I even used mine once when, while riding solo on the Tyrol T-bar, I was looking the wrong way attentively, and hit a pylon with my head, making an embarrassingly long metallic bong.
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| Peter, hand me down clothes and boots |
Stocked during easter, the cupboards contained a large amount of canned food, oats and long life milk to make porridge for breakfast, (rum for Dad) and four-liter flagons of booze for the adult guests. Evenings were spent outside in the snow with the neighbourhood kids making use of all kinds of improvised toboggans. By the age of 9 or 10 we discovered the pinball machines and pool tables at the adult watering holes.
Back in Melbourne the Bucknell family had moved from the old weatherboard house in Campberwell to a new brick house in Spring Road Malvern, designed by an architect. Two floors, a backyard with trees to climb, and plenty of room on the flat roof to explore, we had a fantastic childhood. Dad put in an above ground tin-can clarke pool which was eventually replaced by a 12.5 m cement pool which was painted brown to make the water look a beautiful shade of green. Needless to say we were in that pool constantly.
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| 2 Spring Road |
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| Dragstar for Christmas. Loved that bike |
At Melbourne Grammar School, having had ear training with famous local piano teacher, Nehama Patkin and being in the Suzuki violin system made me the only candidate to lead the junior school orchestra and make a modest solo debut outdoors with an even smaller boy holding my music up above his head to stop it blowing away. I was given regular private lessons all the way through school, and travelled on half price children's fare to Japan in 1979 with a group of 10 to 12 year old kids to perform at Suzuki violin Festivals and to play as a group for Doctor Suzuki.
The Japanese were already filming everything and we were dismayed to see ourselves on the foyer's big screens playing 'Sakura' with dirty knees.
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| Doctor Suzuki 1979 with Craig Mentiplay and Peter Bucknell |
By the age of nine I was learning Chinese. One or two classes a week I think. We were doing a little calligraphy and even learnt to cook dumplings. The younger age group in my class were mixed in to the under 11 football team with kids from the year behind us. We played modified rules, no tackling, but still managed to injure our opponents. We loved our coach, Peter Smith.
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| Football Team with Peter Sith |
At 12 years of age, I was playing tennis, cricket, a bit of squash and in the summertime, athletics. The school had a boat building class one year and the following year we raced the 12 moppets on the lake.
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| Albert Park Lake |
I was a sensitive child, but being fun-loving, I laughed a lot and genuinely liked all the other kids around me. Thankfully I received no bullying, no molestation - despite the fact that we did have a pedophile teaching us for one year when I was 10. He managed to get to two kids before he got the boot. I did not like being told what to do by teachers for whom I had no respect. I still do not suffer fools gladly, which I get from my mother's side. I also preferred the sociology of school rather than the book learning. The teachers mostly just thought I was a bit of a clown and left me alone for some reason, constantly skating on thin ice.
I was very accepting of most kinds, and still am. The result being that sometimes I find myself in questionable company. People, particularly strangers, have always told me the deepest, weirdest stuff happening in their lives. Some of the things I heard as a kid were beyond my understanding but I was able to listen, and perhaps that was enough. It's always been this way. The result has been such that I could always 'see' people, and I could listen not out of pity, but with engagement. I have talked to assassins, bomb makers, pimps and hookers, and most often, people experiencing traumatic loss. I have never fully understood the purpose that I serve, but I do know for sure that it can annoy my wife.
Anyway.
The divorce of our parents seemed to affect only my performance in Math class during 8th grade, so when I arrived, aged 13, at senior school I was placed in somewhat of a low division and it took me all year to work my way back up to the smart kids' classes.
Chinese continued, and that year a large group of us went to China on a mission of anti-diplomacy; 1981, so still very much 'Mao suits' and keep the white devils separate.
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| China 1981with the rough kids |
We were put into the classrooms with the local kids and had an interesting time. Some of us found the local fireworks shop, so we caused a bit of an international incident soon after.
Four years playing in the senior school symphony took up many lunch hours. Eventually I was leading the orchestra at 16, and by the end of school, playing one of Haydn's violin concertos (C). My name is still up there on a board in gold letters, as my Dad's is - but his name is on a different board for Dux of School.
Girlfriends started quite early for me. I was still thirteen when I began to mix in with the girls’ schools on the tram. I had a cheeky partner in crime who was a young and immature fellow, like me, but he had some swagger. This helped, as we egged each other on. Short-lived as they were, the little relationships led to a more meaningful 2 year connection with an interesting girl around about when I turned 16.
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| Diana |
Mediterranean blood made her a little different to the rest. She became my best friend for quite a time. She was a secret night clubber and her brother was a bit of a weed smoker, but thankfully I kept my head until I had passed my exams and finished with high school, despite still not having much of a clue how to study.
Mum poured me a tall beer when I got back from my last exam: Mandarin, and I got to thinking about the Victorian College of the Arts, playing the violin and a year off from boring studies. Best decision ever.