WEBVTT - Peter Norris: Son of a gun. Part 3 0:00:01.400 --> 0:00:04.200 That changes the directory of my life, and no doubt 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:08.200 without that choice, my feeling is I either would have 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:10.399 been in jail or Dad, I think. And for Dad 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.880 it was, you know, he'd kept his promise when he'd 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.680 come back to get me, and he just looked me 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.680 in the eyes, and obviously the expectation was that we 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:22.360 would just go and I didn't answer him straight away. 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.599 When we continue to just stare at each other across 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:26.759 sitting on different couches. 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.479 I'm Andrew Rulis's Life and Crimes. This is our third 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:39.240 final episode of the reminiscences of Peter Morris, whose book 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.600 The Bank Robber's Boy is the basis of three episodes 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.080 of Life and Crimes. In this final episode, Peter is 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.199 going to talk to us about how he ended up 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:53.800 being reunited with his sister in Sheperdon and then embarking 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.760 on a bit of a crime spree which led him 0:00:57.000 --> 0:00:59.680 to a fork in the road. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.080 Andrew, great to be back, and yeah, let's get this 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:03.720 going again. 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.600 Peter. When we last spoke, you'd worked at a kmart 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.600 and you become a manager at the ripe old age 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:15.480 of eleven nearly twelve. Then you were with a group 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.200 of homeless kids in Perth living on the streets. But 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:23.480 that didn't last either. You'd got back to Victoria and 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.160 was reunited with your big sister Tina in Sheperdon. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.080 Tina enrolled me into Sheperdon High School, did you. Yeah, 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:33.280 tried to do the right thing, and I went for 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.120 a day one day, and then I day two, I 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.559 decided that I would just start breaking into houses wish 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.039 I had. Oh And the reason for that was that 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.640 I knew that Dad would come back, so I was 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.000 collecting as much money as I could to ensure that 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:52.160 we had some money when Dad arrived, that we could 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:56.200 just go back on our adventures. So at that start planning, 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:57.480 I was planning. 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.000 You weren't as keen on going because he had been. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.440 Nah, Look, I didn't think you know that. Certainly my 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.720 sister at the time felt like going to school was 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:11.280 was probably a better path, rightfully. 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.280 So, and funny your dad had been keen for you 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:17.320 to work in port Headlands, Yeah, rather than embarking a 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:18.000 life of crime. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.720 Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that wasn't always 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:23.560 the case, you know, if you go into sort of 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.880 earlier life in you know, certainly we were in Melbourne 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:29.639 and we stayed at a flop house for a short while. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:31.080 At Gordon House. 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.760 He'd encourage me to commit a few crimes back then 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:35.040 just to get us out of there. 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:39.839 So what sort of stuff the teachers teacher things he did? 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:45.440 Yeah, so Melbourne baths, if anyone remembers that. So he 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.200 had told me that I would be able to go 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.440 into Melbourne bars, and he was spot on, and that 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.679 the suits of the time would put all their belongings 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.280 able to locker and they would connect their locker key, 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.200 which was on a safety into their towel. Right, so 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.080 while they were swimming laps, I could walk along and 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.519 just rip these rip these safety pins off the towels 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.200 because I had a locker number on it, Yes, and 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.839 go in and all their wallets and all their belongings 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.200 were in there. And in a matter of five minutes 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.720 I got out with would have been about eight wallets 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.200 that I had any little backpack goal and just walked 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.760 back out and yeah, said good a to the lady 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.640 out the front, walked out the door, brought the wallets 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.720 back to Dad, and we had a heap of cash 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:33.960 which helped a bit. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.960 Longer, I see. So it was a mixture of motives 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.000 and motivations. So life, we've teen up school last one day. 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.000 There's a couple of things here. You've ended up being 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.880 a reader. You were a reader who's written a book. 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:49.720 At what point did you sort of learn to read 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.160 and become that person that likes to lose themselves in 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.040 a book and to read. Where did that happen and 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:57.080 who influenced you? 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:02.280 I think it was the gift, Well, certainly the use 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:03.960 of the never ending. 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:07.160 Story, right, the one that that lady gave. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.200 Yeah, the one that she'd let me let me use, 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.920 which is one of her son's books that had never 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:13.440 been touched. 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:14.880 Do you remember the son's names? 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:23.680 No? I don't know her husband, No, not really, but yeah, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.880 so anyway, she'd let me read this story. 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:26.479 Yeah. 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:32.040 And I do remember that when Dad turned up to 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.080 get me out that window, that I had considered taking 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.120 that book with me. And this is another moment, because 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:38.719 I had that in my hand because I'd loved it 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:42.680 so much. But then I had her enough respect for 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.600 her for her to put it back on the bed. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.200 Good boy, but ignited something in you? 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:49.120 Yeah, it did. 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.080 Yeah, since the story could be written and Jesse, you 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.599 could lose yourself in that in that infected you. It did, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:57.200 and it never really got disinfected. 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.920 No, no, And this is why, you know, the only 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:01.760 thing that I wanted to you know, when I was 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:03.479 working at Game Out, the only thing I wanted to 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.960 buy was something to read. And at the time it 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:06.600 was comic. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:08.360 Book, which is fine as long as you read stories, 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.000 doesn't matter what they And when you were at Shep, 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:13.120 when you're out pinch and stuff, did you pinch books? 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.160 I didn't pinch books, but whenever I had money, I 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.000 used to go to the secondhand bookshop and buy copies 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:25.440 of foot Rock Flats and all those sort of yeah, so, 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:27.760 you know, and at the time they were obviously that 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.720 was a good yeah, but they were great. So I 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.000 was always buying something from the bookshop. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:33.880 I interviewed him. 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.919 Oh really, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:43.039 And how do you sort of negotiate that from twelve 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:44.159 to adulthood? 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.679 Where so I got caught breaking into a detective's house. 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.479 So that was a really great choice. I don't know 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.000 in Shep in Shep. 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:56.400 Not Norm Gillespie, not ken Mansell. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.679 The reason I don't know is because I got caught 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:01.760 by his son. So I got caught in the house, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.919 so there was nobody home and his wife and his 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.800 son came home. So I remember I was in a 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.200 room which was clearly a boys room, and there was 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.280 some martial arts trophies and things in that and it 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:18.880 was strange because. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:20.880 It was a nice house out in the edge of town. 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.039 It was yeah, And I remember Dad had always told 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.880 me to have an escape, make sure you know if 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:28.840 you and that was one thing, you know, always make 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.000 sure you've got a way out before you you know. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:33.960 And this house had a deadlock on the back door, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.520 which I didn't know at the time, and I'd broken 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.200 some louvers to get in in the around the backyard, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.360 and I'd completely forgotten about how I would get out 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:49.400 of someone come home, just just completely forgotten. And anyway, 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.480 a car pulled up in the driveway and I heard 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.479 a front door opening, and I ran to this back door. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:59.239 It was deadlocked. I had no way out, ran straight 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.640 back into the bar room and there was a small 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.120 window which I had to stand on the vanity to 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.599 get out of, and by then this boy had flowing 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.840 into this bathroom. I got out, and he ran outside 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.440 and pulled me down off the fences. I was climbing over. 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.160 But anyway, this lady sat me in the backyard on 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.800 a chair and rather than being angry man that I 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:25.600 think the young fellow wanted to punch me in the nose. 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.160 And she just looked at me and said, you know, 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.360 what's what's a boy? Your what are you doing? And 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.160 I was just probably a little bit defeated at the time, 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:38.000 and just said, look, I'm just waiting for dad. I'm 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.920 just stealing some things until Dad gets back. And then 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:44.960 the way they really police turned up. They called the 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.920 police and they called her by name, oh right, and 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.200 then things started a click, and then they put me 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:53.320 in the police car and they went, yeah, well done, 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:57.760 an idiot. That's a detective's house. And they drove me 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.800 around shepherd In for a bit because they'd been this 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:01.120 breing of breakings. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.840 This would be about eight mid eighties. Yep. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.160 I should look because I've got all these five and 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.560 I haven't actually been through them. So I've got my 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.280 state ward case file, so all the police officers involved 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:17.000 in this will be listed in that. That's amazing, So 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.520 I just need to probably open them up. Man, It's yeah, 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.080 it's all in there, so I will be able to 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.760 know who it was and who interviewed me when I 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.200 got back to the station, and all those sorts of things. 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.560 So it was the son of big strong, redhead sort. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.439 Of black's fair haird I remember that. I don't know 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.160 about red hair, but he was a really strong I 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:38.000 knew I had not all. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.840 These red head, reddish fair head boys, blue eyed, big strong, 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.000 cuugh floks right, and all footballers. And one of them, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:48.079 I'm for murdering Perth. Yeah's doing time over there now, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:53.400 the cropper's bad son. Maybe I was lucky, So you're 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.960 getting the stripe over that. Did you go into an institution? 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.600 No? No, no, I didn't actually, So what happened was 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:06.280 this wife of the detective. She knew of a foster 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.480 family who potentially would take me in for three weeks. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.080 It was just not a predetermined term at that stay. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.679 She just said, I think it's you know, rather than 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.360 being too hard on him, yeah, or rather than go 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.760 back to Tina, let's send him off to this family 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.679 and just see let him cool down. Was a bit 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.839 of a hot head as well, and I yes, I 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.680 was sent to a family on a dairy farm in 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:36.880 a small dairy farming community of Gagary, which is small 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:40.240 small town outside of Abram, not far away from Sheperdon. 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:43.880 How was that look? 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.360 It was meant to be three weeks beautiful family. They 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.880 had six biological children of their own, two girls and 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:56.200 four boys, ready to take another one in. And in 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.920 that three weeks I stole their car. So one night 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.840 wieldered out of the push out of the driveway and 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.200 took it for a driving into Kyabran, which was about 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.160 twenty kilometers away, and took it for a spin and 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.480 was just a need. It got caught doing that by 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.840 the police a few other things in that three weeks, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.880 and so when that three weeks was up, I'd expected 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:18.680 that they would have been pretty happy to see the 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.640 end of me. But Joan Dullard was her name, the 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.320 mother and Jack Dullard and the dairy farmer sat me 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.440 down and said, would you like to stay and go 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.760 to school and start to live a normal life, play 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.600 forty and do all those things? And I think it 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.520 was probably at that time, when my brain was starting 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.640 to tick a little bit differently, that I knew it 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:42.760 was time to make some better choices. So I said yes, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.040 and you did, and I did. You stayed with the 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:46.280 dull Art and I stayed there. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.000 How good is that? How long did you stay there. 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:50.600 For the rest of my childhood? 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.240 That was it? You're still friends? Yeah? 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.120 Oh yeah, absolutely? Ye Jack Dulla my foster father died 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.400 of cancer. She's she's in her nineties and living on 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.880 our own in a little, a little unit in Abram. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:08.720 Blind but still kind. 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.640 Of still says hello when you're got Yeah, it was yeah, 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.960 due to go back. Are you younger than her children? 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.000 I was that she had one child, Elizabeth, younger than me, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.920 so we're all about Yeah. So I went to year 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.760 eight at Saint Augustin's in Kyabram. That's where they sent me. 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.560 The youngest daughter was in grade six at the times. Okay, good, 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:32.600 great family. 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:34.480 And so you went to which school? 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:35.080 St. 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.160 Augustin Agustine? You just said, I'm sorry and you went 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:40.319 there to what level? 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.880 So that that school finished in year ten and then 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.920 we all transferred across to cai Abram High School where 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:52.080 I finished. You Yeah, Kai Hi Kai High played played 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.080 foot you cay Abron Bombers. 0:11:56.760 --> 0:12:01.080 Even though you're from the north, turned into an a play. Yeah. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.959 I hadn't sort of touched a footy until year eight. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:05.360 About that age. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.200 You got the right bill for it, got the right 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:11.160 bill for it, and I played center for it, Kai. 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:16.160 Did you. Yeah, that's the that's the big position. Yeah. 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.960 Now, you know, as a six foot one or whatever, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.240 I wouldn't you wouldn't hold that down these days, you'd 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:23.480 be lucky to be your midfield of it. 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.600 Yeah. Well that's good, Peter. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:30.920 You are managing what CEO of Club Coora, which is 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.040 you know, a licensed club license hospitality venue with poker 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.319 machines and bars and restaurants. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.880 How many staff are you running there? 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:41.000 Almost one hundred. 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.840 So this means that Warren't import Headland had you pegged 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.360 as an eleven year old as that sort of guy. 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:49.559 He did. He worked it out. How many years it 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.880 to take you from eleven to when you got the 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.400 big gig at Coroa y Corral. 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.120 Yeah, took a little while. The Dullard family, who were 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.160 so nice to me, you know, had to take me 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.600 to court for all those break ins that i'd performed, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.679 And I remember the judge at the time said to me, 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.400 I don't know whether you're the worst twelve year old 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.600 criminal I've ever come across, where you're just a kid 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.959 who's had a bad starting life. And again that was 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.719 a bit of a pivotal message for me that it 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.040 was time to make some changes. 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:24.120 Was that in Shep? 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:25.040 I was in Shep? 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.400 Yeah, and that was that Magistrate's caught a ship magic. Yeah, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:30.960 that was a good thing. It was a good thing 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.839 you gave you. I looked at you, and you didn't 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.320 look like a complete reptile. Yeah. 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.679 I don't know. Yeah, I think probably saw something in 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:40.480 me that, well. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.839 You've got us have an open face. Yeah. Yeah, you 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.719 don't look as if you're going to walk up knife somebody. No. No. 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.560 So I received a good behavior bond for that, and yeah, 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.400 and some money that I sort of had to pay 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:56.000 back restitution for the broken windows and things of it 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.520 that I had just stole along along the way, which 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.559 was about fifteen sixteen hundred dollars at the time. When 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.599 I had a job cleaning up a butcher shop on 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:08.600 a Friday night. That gave me ten bucks a week, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:10.600 so I was meant to put half of that away 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:12.319 and gradually pay that. 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.839 You've always been a worker, So the total some lesson 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.440 is that over the journey you've had some very bad 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.360 treatment and awful things happened to you, but you've also 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.560 had these moments where people have been very good and 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:31.360 very kind, the waitress with the muffin. You've had a 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:33.400 few lucky breaks as well as unlucky breaks. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.280 I've had plenty of lucky breaks. And I think it's 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.920 just that ability to see the light in the darkness. Sometimes, 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:44.400 even when I was sitting in Baltara, you know, and 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.560 on the receiving end of some pretty horrific abuse, I 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.200 still manage to know that there were better days ahead. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.480 Is just just in my psyche. Whether they can't really 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:59.080 explain that, but kept constantly finding the positives in any situation. 0:14:59.200 --> 0:14:59.600 I still do. 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.720 Now you're to be sort of bruttal about it or 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.000 practical about it. Your father's troubles to some extent would 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:11.400 probably go back to you'd say, gamling, gamling addiction. A 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.320 lot of people have different addictions. That was his. It 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.680 wasn't a heavy drinker, no, definitely not. You haven't been 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.600 saddled with an addiction, yep, I. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.440 Reckon I have you have? Yeah? Well, and I think 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.240 mine is. It's mine's a different addiction. Mine is trying 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.360 the best way to put to say this, My addiction 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.320 is if I'm going to do something, it has to 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:37.360 be done to the absolute top, maybe not even my 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.120 ability at the time. A good example is I was 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.520 doing some running on a running track and I run past. 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.760 There's an athletics coach there and I'm watching him teach 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:52.720 people how to do pole volt and he says, do 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:53.960 you want it? Do you want to try this? And 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.320 now I'm in my forties at the time, do you 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:57.960 want to crack? And I went, oh, yeah, I'll try. 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.440 And as terrible as you would be, Popot's not an 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.040 easy thing to learn, you know. So I spent the 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:09.600 next year just turning up and pop voting and pole 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:13.160 woding and pole voting until I went to New Zealand 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.320 and competed in a pole voting competition and won a 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:16.760 gold medal. 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:17.640 You know. 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.360 In twenty twenty three, I decided, after COVID i was 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.280 a runner, that I'll try bodybuilding. Yeah, and I so 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:29.280 turn up at a bodybuilding comp in Melbourne actually and 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.200 you know, won some silver medals, and I'm not done. 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:33.720 Oh I need to wring gold. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.640 I need to engulf. So went back here, went back 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.920 last year and won six gold medals and bodybuilding and 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:41.160 I said, now I'm. 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:43.400 Done now I'm done. Now I can write books. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:45.600 So that's one thing that I have realized is for 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.520 me years to identify the thing we're not just for me, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.480 for lots of people, to identify the thing that you 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:52.120 want to achieve the most. You know a lot of 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.560 people have these, you know, multiple things floating in their 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:57.560 life that I like to do, and I think I'll 0:16:57.600 --> 0:16:59.480 pick one off and do it. Good good advice is 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:00.440 to pick one often do it. 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.240 Is that right? That's that's what we've got everything out 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.800 of this interview. You know how to be a crook, 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:08.640 can not to be a crook? You haven't forgot the lot? 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.560 Well, someone said to me the other day, it's just again, 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:13.600 not just a lof story. He said, I've been thinking 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:15.520 about buying a muscle card. Peete, He goes, but I 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:17.760 just I've been thinking about it for bloody years. Why 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.440 haven't I done it? And I said, well, is that 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.159 the thing you want to buy? Is that the thing 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:23.800 you want to do the most? Or is there other things? 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:26.160 And he said, well, now it's probably not at the top. 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:27.920 And I said, well that's why you haven't done it. 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.800 Identify the thing you want the most and do it. 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:36.680 Do that you're a life coach. You could something you're 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.280 good for your life coach. Now, we just we mentioned 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.560 the book here and there, but how did this one 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.920 come about? When did you start writing it? How did 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:46.840 you start writing it? Is it two o'clock in the 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.800 morning with a laptop or a notebook on top of 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:52.399 the grandstand or what. 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.320 Yeah, the idea of it came up a few years ago, 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:00.119 and yeah, it was. It was generally just just the 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.040 thought of I could probably write a book about all 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:07.760 this and in the hope of telling my story and 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.400 helping some people around the power of choice and decision 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.720 making because ultimately, you know, I make a huge choice 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.600 in that in my story, in my life that changes 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.679 the directory of my life. And no doubt without that choice, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:24.959 you know, my feeling is I either would have been 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:25.879 in jail or dad, I. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:27.960 Think, absolutely, no doubt. 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.080 So, so the power of choice and the reasoning behind 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:34.240 that is, you know, without thinking about it, we all face, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.440 you know, these multiple choices every day that changed the 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.840 chrectory of our day, of our life, of our journeys. 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.560 Just so powerful of something that we don't always think about, 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.679 you know, we just do. So that was the reason, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.360 the how is a little bit different because it wasn't 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.520 no writer. I wasn't an author, clearly. Yeah. So I 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.159 reached out to I've got a mentor, Mark Dobbs and 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:04.200 who has helped me along a little bit, just business 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.639 stuff and a really good bloke and he seems to 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.440 know everybody. So I reached out to him and said 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.000 I want to write a book, and he goes, yeah, 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.120 I can't help you, but I know someone who can. 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:18.560 So there's an author, filmmaker, doctor Luke Jackson, who linked 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:23.159 me with who helped me plan I think if it 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.280 was just me, I would have just wrote chapter one 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.240 type chapter one and then just started writing. And he said, no, no, no, 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:31.280 we need to plan it out, which was the best 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.639 advice I've ever given. So anyone who hasn't written a 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:35.800 book and wants to you. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.359 Sat down with him and said, chatted about it, and then. 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:43.720 Probably for two months on a few hours, await it, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.960 white ported it. And by the time we'd finished that, 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.200 I had this complete plan that whenever you know, so 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:53.679 chapter one, I knew exactly what stories I was going 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.240 to put in chapter one, chapter two, and so on, 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.280 and every now and again writing and I've writing chapter one, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.760 I would just be sort of morphing into chapter two. 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:05.439 So then i'd go back to the plank. Go okay, 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.240 I was actually meant to finish back there. Okay, so 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.320 I could see it taking shape. Yeah, So without that plan, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.040 I think I might have got there. But you know, 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.879