Don Kinsey: 1945-1958 School and Early Career

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Previous 1935-1945 - Early Years, Sydney and Townsville

Castlecrag

Dad’s family finally moved into the Castecrag house after returning from Townsville after the war. His younger brother Peter was born then. However, due to complications at birth, Peter was severely intellectually handicapped. He was well loved, but if he lost his temper he became violent, which was impossible to manage as he got older. So he had to be moved to a care facility. We rarely saw our Uncle Peter because he didn’t handle “strangers” well - and we were all (apart from his parents) strangers to him really - including Dad to some extent. Dad looked after his affairs in later years after their parents died and we heard about him sometimes from Dad. It was obvious from the eulogy at Peter’s funeral that he was well thought of at his home in Sydney. Dad was too ill to attend the funeral, as Peter died from pancreatic cancer only months before Dad died.

Castlecrag was a magical place for us kids and was magical for Dad and sister Barb too. It had broad views across Middle Harbour, but also fun secret places like the bamboo grove and miniature cascades and ponds filled with duckweed and goldfish nestled amongst the outcropping rocks. There was also a rock which to us seemed to be several storeys high which dominated the front yard. Below the house was a steep path with many hollows in the sandstone walls that looked like grottos filled with ferns and moss. Dad told us about how he and Barb used to make up “fairie plays” in these grottos. Dad was very practical and a skilled craftsman, but was also tender and loving and had a wonderful imagination. He always talked about these early days with Barb very fondly.


Dad and Barb at Castlecrag

School and University

Dad was very intelligent and loved learning. And was thrilled to be accepted the selective public school North Sydney Boys High School. It was then, and is still now, a prestigious school of high academic standard. Not only did he achieve good finishing grades, but he and a fellow student were both also the youngest members of a local amateur orchestra (possibly the Philharmonic Orchestra ?). Dad played brass instruments of all varieties in the orchestra.

Dad went to university and undertook at Bachelor of Science in microbiology and biochemistry. His Bachelor’s degree was conferred in 1955 when Dad was 20 years old. Mum was also finishing her science degree around the same time at ThHe same University, although they hadn’t met. The following year he completed a Masters qualifying (equivalent of an honours year).

MG TC

Dad's first car was an MG TC. It was red (of course). He tells the story of going over the Harbour Bridge and being stopped by the police for speeding. He always claimed that he was not speeding. The police took him home and told his father. Grandad believed that Dad had not been speeding (there is just something about a red MG), but decided to not fight the speeding ticket as it would teach dad a valuable lesson.

Dad's TC


Working on Dad's MG TC

Polio

During his first year of work Dad suffered a setback when he contracted polio. He was relatively old compared to many sufferers and he was one of the last recorded cases of polio in Australia. He had intense fevers for a month and was not expected to live. When he finally recovered, it was realised that he got off very lightly indeed, with only slight paralysis in the muscles on the back of arms.He never recovered the strength in those muscles and had to develop alternative strategies for lifting things.

Fishing

Cate: As a young man, Dad fished regularly and his favourite sports fish were blackfish. He used to climb down the cliff face of Blue Fish Point and fish in the sewer outfall. One of my favourite family stories is of the time one of dad’s blackfish was being served to guests at my grandparents house. Dad proudly told them where it had been caught and all conversation stopped. I cannot recall if they finished eating it or not.

Dad’s blackfish rod has recently been donated to the NSW Amateur Fishing Association. In his own words here is the story he provided them…

“I ..wish to donate a 61 year old William Southam Balmoral #2 handmade and signed rod and its associated European made salmon reel which I bought with my first week's professional salary (all of it! -- 13 pounds ten shillings for the rod itself) when I was twenty in 1955.

I became an addicted luderick fisherman at about 16 years of age. I almost always fished off the rocks in Sydney -- mostly Bluefish Point, Dobroyd, and the Grotto. The Southam rod was used regularly from 1955 to about 1962 and less regularly from then to 1976 when my family moved to the USA. It may look almost new but it has caught a very large number of fish. The largest fish it ever landed was a 4lb 8 oz luderick. It lost many of the inevitable and larger "pigs" as it was much too light to handle those. I mostly used 5lb line, #8 suicide (cabbage) or flatted sneck (weed) hooks, and fixed floats made from porcupine quills with a small slide-off cork. Most places I fished at depths from 5-8 ft. That gorgeous reel has an adjustable strip drag which was ideal for strip casting off the rocks without the stripped line needing to touch the rocks if you got it right...“

Marriage

After University, both dad and mum got jobs with Mauri Brothers and Thompson (MBT) Research Labs. MBT formulated most of the commercial yeast in Australia and developed bread mixes used by commercial bakeries, among other things. It is where mum and dad met. Dad was involved with yeast research. Mum and dad met in the lab over a microscope. Dad was the chemist and mum was the microbiologist. Their work involved working closely side by side. Both were very shy and the first time dad took mum out, it was to watch the albatross at the sewer outfall at Malabar. The second time they went out was to watch the albatross at the sewer outfall at North Bondi. It must have impressed her. We don’t know the details but in 1958 they were married. The service was in St Peter’s Presbyterian Church on Blues Point Road in North Sydney. They honeymooned in the Snowy Mountains and on the South Coast over the Christmas and New Year holidays.