6

A L O N G J O U R N E Y

1923 - 2003

Dick Bonouvr ie

For Barbara.

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H o l l a n d 1 9 2 3 - 1 9 5 0

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Some facts about Holland:

Capital: Amsterdam Seat of Government: The Hague.

Population: 16 million.

Area: 41.160 km2. In comparison Tasmania 67.800 km2.

Greatest distances : North-South 313 km.E a s t - W e s t 2 6 9 k m .

More than two fifths of the land was once covered by water.The drained areas are called polders and provide rich farmland.Amsterdam is on such a polder.

In 1953 a severe storm breached the sea dikes in SW Holland,Flooding 151,000 hectares and drowning 1800 people.To prevent a similar disaster,the new Delta Plan holds back thefloodwaters by a system of massive closing doors across fourmajor river outlets.

Some historical data:

1581 The Dutch Republic founded.

1652 - 1672 Holland fought three wars with England and keptthe leadership of the sea.

1795 - 1813 France controlled the Netherlands.

1815 The Netherlands become an independent kingdom.

1914 -1918 Holland remains neutral in WW I.

1940 - 1945 Holland occupied by Germany.

!948 Holland,Belgium and Luxemburg form the BeneluxU n i o n .

1973 Holland joins the European Community.

R o t t e r d a m 1 9 2 3 - 1 9 3 2

The house where I was bom was a typical three storey apartmentbuilding close to the centre of the city .In those days a baby was usuallybom at home with a midwife booked,hot water on the stove and fatherpacing the floor of the living room, not allowed to enter the bedroomduring the critical period.A doctor was called only when things wentwrong.I was packed off to my grandparents when my sister Willy wasbom in 1932.After four years we moved to a better flat in a city suburb.,close to thestadium of the well known Sparta soccer club.Our playground was thestreet where we played with tops,hoops and scooters .The street was theterminal for a tram line.A favourite pastime was to hop on the tramcoupling and ride to the stop.The apartment was on the third floor without a lift. Many things weresold by street vendors, bread,milk,groceries ,even kerosene. Some timesmother went down and bought things,other times a basket on a string waslowered from the window with the order written out, the basket pulled upand send down again with the money .Once a week the street organ wouldcome by ,with a little monkey rattling his money tin.The basket wentdown with a few cents ,the monkey quickly transferring them into hislitt le t in.The flat was heated by a combustion stove in the living room,using coaldelivered by the coalman who struggled up the stairs and dumped hisbags in the coal bin on the small balcony .There was no bathroom. A quickmorning wash with cold water and soap was it.Once a week a shower atthe public bath house restored a measure of personal hygiene for thefamily .When small I had a weekly bath in a tin tub in front of the heater.The great depression had started during our time in Rotterdam,Fatherworked in the central post ofEice.As a Government employee he couldnot be dismissed, instead his salary was cut a number of times.Meals were quite simple, as they had to be to stretch the meagrebudget.Porridge for breakfast,sandwiches for lunch with sausage,cheeseor chocolate sprinkles.Occasionally meat for dmner,sometimes ahare.Chicken and fish were luxuries.Boiled rice with butter and brownsugar and left over bread soaked in warm milk and in winter "stampot"cabbage and potato cooked and mixed with a spicy sausage (knackwurst)wer very popular .A real treat were pancakes with lots of syrupWe had one holiday in these years, a week in the Noordwyk beach resorton the North Sea.in 1929..

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With my sister Willy

A

Winters always seem to be cold,with lots of snow and rivers and canalsfrequently frozen over .With snow on the streets ,it was fun by to make asnow slide by taking a long run and then slide on the snow .The resultwas a long icy strip on the pavement,allowing kids to slide along at greatspeed , much to the chagrin of the older pedestrians.Snow ball fightswere equally popular.Since all men wore hats,great joy was had when asnowball scored one.

^ Winter was also the time for the 200 km. "Eleven Cities" skating race inthe northern part of Holland.Thousands of skaters covered themselveswith grease and newspapers against the cold..Skates then had a woodenbase with leather straps as binders.The real skaters bound their skatesdirectly on woollen socks without using shoes or boots.The race tooksome 8-10 hours and was not for the faint hearted Sometines even the bigrivers and the Zuiderzee froze over.St.Nicolas evening on December S' '.was the occasion for presentgiving,rather then at Christmas time.There was not always money for real

2 presents.Instead we tried to make make-believe ones from paper, cardboard and matchsticks.One memorable day was St.Nicolas 1928.1n the afternoon mother wentshopping,leaving me alone in the house. The story goes that I played withmatches and set alight a table cloth in the kitchen.Lucldly mother cameback in time to put out the fire ,packing me off to bed with dire threatsthat Black Peter - St.Nicolas' helper- would put me in his sack and takeme away.That night father played St.Nicolas for the children of theneighbouring flats J still got a present.." Christmas was a quiet time,with a real Christmas tree and a familydinner.The tree was decorated with lighted candles ,carefully placed inthe branches.It was a miracle that the trees did not catch fire.On New Years eve mother used to make "oliebollen" fried dumplingswith lots of raisins.I went to primary school in Rotterdam One of the things I remember wasthat schools closed when the summer temperature went above 80 F.(27C)which did not happen that often.

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Nykerk 1932 -1936

In 1932 father was transferred to the small village of Nykerk,about 80km NE of Rotterdam ,where he served the public at the counter andlooked after the telephone exchange board at other times.We were fortunate to be able to rent a newly built two storey house withthe living/dining room and kitchen downstairs and three bedroomsupstairs No batiu-oom but a nice garden. We grew carrots,beans,and,Strawberries, enough for mother to preserve some for the winter time.Nykerk was a pleasant little village with a large church at its centre. Asmall river ran for about four kilometres to the Zuiderzee,with a littlebeach and a swimming club.I had lessons and learned to swim.In 1932 the Zuiderzee was transformed into the Ysselmeer,an inland seaformed by the building of the 30 km. long Zuiderzee dike.Over time thewater in iie Ysselmeer changed from salty,to brackish and eventually tofresh water After that large areas of theYsselmeer were reclaimed intofertile polders.The IQ level at the village school was not all that hig^ and coming fromthe big city I was looked on with suspicion.One afternoon a group of kidsgave me a good hiding with their clogs as my initiation to the village.In1935 I went to the high school in Amersfoort, 10 km from the village bybus.In those day it was necessary to pass an exam to gain entry to a highschool . .In the time in Nykerk father started to write his book,a boys adventurestoiy.Every Sunday morning he read me a chapter in what was quite anexciting tale.It was difficult in those times to d a publisher.After manysubmissions of his manuscript, it was finally accepted by Van Nelle alarge coffee and tea distributor.The book became a prize for collectinglables from packets of tea and was published.Fatrher had many talentsamongst them black and white pen drawings. I still have his drawing ofthe Nykerk church.The four years in Nykerk were certainly the happiest for our family .Bythen we had bikes and often cycled in the beautiftil country sidesurroundings.Saturday evenings we walked to the village centre andlooked at the shops as many other villagers did.We made good friends.It was a real wrench to have to leave the village as father was once againtransferred,this time to a place called Dordrecht.

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Father 's drawing

A primary school play

D o r d r e c h t 1 9 3 6 - 1 9 4 0

Dordrecht is an old industrial city.situated at the junction of Holland'smain rivers, the Rhine and the Maas (Meuse).It has been an importanttrading centre since the 13* . Century.The change from the rural village of Nykerk was difficult.The loss offriends and familiar surroundings were hard to take for a while.

5 Father was becoming more and more morose and introverted.This wasnot helped by his decision to rent another house on the outskirts of thecity,before the previous flat was relet, resulting in many months ofdouble payments,placing further strains on the budget and therelationships at home.With friends and visitors father was the charminghost,but with us he was sullen and always finding fault with everything.One day mother in desperation tried to cut her wrists with a broken pieceof china,fortunately not seriously.I started second year at the Dordrecht high school,! joined a swmmung

5 club and became a member of the waterpolo team.I made good friends.The school lunch time break was rather long and allowed us to go homeA good friend Henk Romers lived in a village outside Dordrecht andspent every lunch time with us.Li turn I was often invited to his home onthe river.In simimer we swam to the river barges while they were goingupstream and floating back on the tide.Henk*s father managed a shipyardbuilding big dredges.Henk and I lost touch at the outbreak of the war.I learned later that towards the end of the war he rescued shot downallied pilots,taking them in his canoe across the rivers to the allied army

" t h a t h a d l i b e r a t e d t h e s o u t h o f H o l l a n d .

Already the skies were darkenng over Europe.Hitler had assumed totalpower in Germany and had started the rearmament of his army ,navy andairforce in defiance of the 1918 Treaty of Versailles,which had imposedharsh penalties on the German people after losing World War 1. In 1935his army crossed the Rhine and occupied the Rhineland given to Franceafter 191 S.Germany invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938.The League of Nations founded in 1920 to maintain peace amongst

^ nations,proved powerless in the face of Germany's aggression.As youngsters we were aware of these happenings ,but not greatlyworried.The high school years were good years.In the holidays I wentcamping with friends near the beaches on the North SeaOne incident stays in my mind.Playing a late waterpolo match inRotterdam I missed the last train home and much later caught a freighttrain and running the 6 km from the station to home.Father was worriedand angry and as punishment took my bike off me for two weeks.

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The European war began on September 1939 when Germany invadedand overran Poland,the event that made England and France declare waron Germany .Poland fell within a month.For eight months after that,untilthe spring of 1940,not much happened,but all the while Germany waspreparing for its great push through Europe,starting on April 9 whenDenmark and Norway were attacked and invaded.In World War I the Germans had toyed with the idea of invading Hollandbut eventually abandoned the plan.Holland had remained neutral with itsarmy mobilised.By 1938 in planning for a new European war,theGerman high command decided that this time,invading Holland was animperative.With memories of the trench warfare in France in WWI,adirect assault on France with its mighty Maginot defense line was to beavoided.Instead a lightning strike across Holland and Belgium would bethe opening gambit to the defeat of France.When the war started in 1939 Holland declared its neutrality once againA few weeks later Hitler proclaimed that Germany would leave Hollandalone.The next day Hitler held a secret meeting with his generals wherehe was quoted as saying; "I will attack France and England.The violationof Belgium's and Holland's neutrality is without importance.Nobodywill question that after we have conquered"Many Dutch people were apprehensive.The might of the German armedforces was be now well known .The **Blitzkneg*'with massive armouredtroops and overwhelming airpower seemed able to crush any opposinga r m y .Holland always had strong commercial and cultural ties withGermany,assisted by its proximity and similarities of the languages Therewas a sizable minority in Holland, ( and a majority in Germany )admiringHitler's Germany and praising his efforts to shake off the dreadfuldepression and unemployment.ravaging the coxmtry.After the fall of Denmark and Norway Holland declared martial law,waiting for the inevitable By the second week of May '40 the weatherwas good and the Germans had decided to launch their attack on the LowCountries.The Dutch military attache in Berlin send a warning note tothe Dutch Defense Ministry: "Tomorrow at dawn,hold tighfThe nextmorning Friday May 10* . at 3 am.the German troops crossed the Dutchb o r d e r.

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A damaged village in the centre of Holland

The bridges over the river Maas in Rotterdam,scene of heavy fighting

Early that morning we were woken by the noise of a large number ofplanes and the sound of anti aircraft guns. Hundreds of black parachuteswere falling from the sky from what we recognised as German bomberplanes. This was part of the paratrooper attacks all over the Western partsof Holland that morning ,directed to take strategic targets as forerunners ofthe armoured troops that were already rolling at great speed acrossHolland. Later in the morning the tanks started to appear in the city

5 accompanied by the paratroopers .There was fierce fighting in the city andaround our street .A large number of houses were damaged by tank fire..On the first day the German Luftwaffe destroyed much of the Dutchairforce .Paratroopers had taken control of the airfields around Rotterdamand The Hague. Elsewhere the Germans were gaining ground, butencountered fierce resistance in the centre of the country and on thebridges in Rotterdam where Dutch marines fought an heroic battle.The Germans has envisaged that the conquering of Holland would be a oneday operation. It was now stretching out into five days. The Germans

9 issued an ultimatum for the army to surrender, otherwise major citieswould be bombed. Although the army agreed to surrender, a mix up incommunications caused this to reach the German army too late. Withinhours much of the city centre of Rotterdam was levelled, with the ensuingfires burning for days. 78.000 people were made homeless, 900 killed andmany more wounded. My four grandparents all lived in the centre ofRotterdam near the river. They escaped their burning apartments with onlyminutes to spare.On May 14" . the royal family fled to England .The Queen proclaimedLondon to be Holland's capital and the site of the Dutch government inexile,declaring that Holland would continue to fight on the side of theA l l i e s .The surrender was signed the next morning on May IS"'. The city ofUtrecht would have been the next bombing target. Some 2100 Dutchsoldiers had been killed with 2700 wounded. Civilian deaths were similar.Holland was now defeated. The unthinkable had happened. It would takefive years before we were free again.

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THE OCCUPATION May 1940 to May 1945

In the early days the German soldiers were polite and quite friendly,enjoying their role as occupiers and basking in the successes of theirarmies. The papers printed only German victories ,nothing about the heroicretreat of the British troops from Dunkerk..That kind of news we had toleam from the BBC broadcasts. Listening to the BBC was strictlyforb idden.All German decrees were printed on large posters displayed in the city,with warnings of severe penalties if ignored.Life was slowly returning back to normal .With a group of friends wehelped clear rubble from some of the damaged houses. We collectedfurniture and other household items for those that had lost theirbelongings.

It also had become time to start thinking of the final high school exam setfor the end of Jime 1940..At that time every high school in Holland had theidentical written and oral examination, taken at each school .There had notbeen much opportunity to study during the last six weeks .After all thathad happened the exam was a strange experience. I passed in third place ofmy year. I vividly remember the farewell speech from the principalDr.Prins,a stem disciplinarian .He unlike us, realised the difficult timesthat lay in store for us. With tears in his eyes he wished us luck and askedus always to remember we were Dutch and never to forsake our country.

The question what to do after high school was settled earlier. Father hadalways worked for the public service ( the post office) and was keen forme to have the security of a public service career. .He suggested for me toapply for entry into the Taxation Academy . I was really interested inchemistry and physics and did not want to become a tax inspector. Ipersuaded my parents to let me attend Technical College to study for thediploma of Chemical Engineering .There was no money for a universitye d u c a t i o n .

In August 1940,father was once again transferred ,this time to Hilversum,amodem, small city about 40 km. from Amsterdam ,surrounded by woods,lakes and fields of heather The year before my sister Willy had contractedtuberculosis and the better air of Hilversum was thought to be good forher. Luckily she made a full recovery.

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The 200 km. eleven cities skating race

The nearest Technical College was in Amsterdam .1 was admitted to theStar Class,allowing me to skip the first year of the four year course.Yearthree was a practical year working in industry .Lectures were six days perweek. I left home at 7 am., by bike to the station ,by train to Amsterdamand a 20 minute walk to the College.This was fine in summer,but prettytough in winter.

o. In 1941 after their defeat of France, Germany wanted to invade England.One plan was to commandeer the Dutch river barges to transport theirtroops across the North Sea .The long flat barges were not suitable tocope with the sea waves .During a large sea trial,most of the barges brokein half across the waves,drowning the crews.Germany's next move wasthe bombing of English cities .hi the ensuing Battle of Britain Germanylost 2600 planes.In the end Germany abandoned the idea of conqueringEngland.In 1941 Germany invaded Russia,with the objective to captureMoscow. 3.2 million troops were sent in to battle. The 120 divisions

? spread across a.2300 km. fi*ontline.By November 2 million Russians hadbeen captured and three hundred and fifty thousand killed.The Germanpeople were jubilant about the successes of the soldiers,not knowing thediasters that lay ahead in Russia.

The Nazis had no intention of respecting Dutch laws ,wanting to imposethe Nazi ideology upon the countiy.Step by step and decree by decree theGermans were setting out to transform Holland into a German vassalstate .The Dutch parliament was abolished and the Dutch court systemreplaced by German justice,which meant the justice of a police state.Theonly political party allowed to exist was the "NSB" the Dutch Nazi partyof black shirted thugs ,informers for the Germans and their henchmen inthe persecution of the resistance and the Jewish people.Newspapers were censored,radio and film were all under German controlIn schools children had to learn German as their major foreign languageAny street bearing the name of a member of the royal family waschanged.Display of the Queen's portrait was forbidden.The Germans directed that more and more of the Dutch industrial andagricultural production was to be chaimeled to Germany to assist in theirwar effort..Slowly all sorts of goods were becoming scarce. Coffee,teatobacco ,chocolate and other imported food itenu were no longeravailable,replaced by surrogate products.It did not take long for aflourishing black market to start up.A new decree demanded that allradios be confiscated.

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The College was close to the Jewish district of Amsterdam .We oftenwalked there at lunchtime.In Febmaiy 1941 the Germans were beginningtheir campaign against the Jews.First came the order for them to wear theyellow Star of David.Their shopping time was limited to a few hours perday. Businesses were not permitted to employ Jews. The Dutch Nazithugs enjoyed damaging Jewish shops and offices.In a fight with Jewish youths a member of tiie NSB was killed. .In

? retaliation 450 Jewish men and boys were arrested. We learned later thatall of them had perished in a concentration camp.Later in the year all Jews were called up for what they thought was workin Germany .Few of them and us at the time realised what was reallygoing to happen to the Jews.All throughout the war the Germans wereable to conceal the existence of the concentration camps.It was not untilafter the war when pictures of the camps, liberated by the allied troopsshowed the immense horror of what had happened.It became a Nazi obsession to rid Holland of all of its Jews.By the time

- war ended 110.000 Jews had been deported. Only 5000 returned. Alongwith the Jews who had gone in hiding or had managed to save themselvesonly 30.000 survived ,in other words 75% of all Jews in Hollandperished.This figure constitutes the highest percentage of Jews to die inany Nazi occupied country with the exception of Poland were 3 millionJews were murdered..

From an underground newspaper in September 1942.:^ " In the quiet streets of South Amsterdam you hear suddenly the noise

of many cars,the hated Green Police vans in which the Germansfetch their Victims They descend from the vans The GreenPolice and their Dutch henchmen .In a short time the streets havebeen occupied And then it begins: on each comer standGerman agents,rifles slung across their shouldersAnd then they noisily climbed upstairs: "Are there Jews living here? "And then the Jews of Holland are driven on the street comer. Men,

g , w o m e n a n d c h i l d r e nFrom the fourth floor a Jew leaps to his death,rather than fall in thehands of the Germans. The Germans followed him up on the roof afterthey has searched closets and cellars,attics and toolsheds.A dog whodefends his master .... Is shot down ,the only shot fired that night.Everybody walking through the neighbourhood is stopped at eachcorner and has to show his identity card. If he has the fatal J on hiscard he is lost.Ifnot he can walk until another German policemanhas to be satisfied.

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Then comes the end.The big green vans start their engines and begin tomove. The engines keep roaring till a quarter to twelve The vansbring their load to the Gestapo building, to the Jewish theatre andelsewhere.And then the transports start leaving the cityJt breaks yourheart to see people like yourselves hauled away, calm, hopejul andoften dignified ,the old nation of Israelites.Crying women andchildren, everybody enters the train and departs "

It happened and must never be forgotten.

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After finishing the first year of College I got a traineeship for a year at alarge chemical factory in Amsterdam: the Electro Oxygen Company,makers of industrial gasses ( Oxygen nitrogen and acetylene) andcalcium carbide which was produced from coke and limestone in largeelectrical fumaces.Carbide and water react to form acetylene gas.I worked mainly in the laboratory checking the quality of raw materialsand products of the factory .Every month the College required a writtenreport on the work done and a description of the factory processes.Thedays were long from 7am to 7 pm. First by train to Amsterdam ,then byferry across the river and a 20 minute walk to the factoryIn September 1942 it was back to college for the final year.Slowly thetide was turning against the Germans.In January '43 some 94.000German troops surrendered at the end of the savage battle forStalingrad.In March 1943 Hitler declared that Germany was now in astate of total war .Almost all German men were drafted into the armedforces and more people were needed to work in the German armamentfactor ies.When Holland capitulated in 1940 the Germans did not intern the Dutchsoldiers, hoping to create a better feeling amongst the Dutch peopleabout the invasion and occupation.This early show of benevolence didnot last all that long.In 1943 a decree ordered all Dutch ex soldiers toreport for work in Germany .Many refused to go.From then on any Dutch male between 18 and 60 years of age was indanger of being picked up by the SS , Gestapo or the Dutch Nazis.Thepick ups were random at first but later extended to house to housesearches.Our house had rather large spaces between floors.We made a trapdoorunder one the beds and put a small mattress in the space

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Sometimes we were warned of a coming search ,other times there was anunexpected knock on the door .In any case I quickly disappeared in myhiding place .It was a bit scary to hear the heavy German boots stampingthrough the room.It was strange to see that so may men obeyed the German orders andreported for work in Germany .Many were unemployed and needed themoney,others were scared for their families in case they were caught.Bythe end of the war some 350.000 Dutch men were at work in Germany.The other side of the coin saw the increasing efforts of the resistance.Jewish people,people suspected by the Germans and shot down alliedpilots were found "underground" hiding places and assisted in theirescape to England.Stolen ration cards and forged identity papers weregiven to those in hiding.The resistance kept in radio contact withEngland and facilitated the arrival of allied agents.An important part was the printing of underground papers with the newsof the allied progress and warnings on future German measures ,The Germans and the Dutch Nazis were constantly tiying to infiltrate theresistance groups,resulting in betrayals and savage torture by the SS.Many resistance fighters lost there lives in the notorious Scheveningenprison near The Hague .My resistance was limited to the distribution ofunderground papers.

After the final College exam in June 1943 I retumed to the Electrocompany,this time in a real job as a laboratory technician (at 25 guilders-per month) I was given some production problems to solve and enjoyedthe experience of working in the factory.

The winter of 43/44 was severe.By now the supply of coal had dried upwith most of the output of the Dutch State coal mines going to GermanyHomes,schools and trains were no longer heated..The daily trip to workin a cold train and an icy ferry was quite tough.

D-day On June 6 . 1944 the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches inFrance. After weeks of heavy fighting the Allied forces broke tiirough theGerman lines.I had built a little crystal radio set and could listen to theBBC reporting on the progress of the allied armies. Meanwhile tiiesituation in occupied Holland continued to deteriorateFood - whatever there was - was dismal.The Nazis reported to Berlin thatthe country was now "Jew- fi-ee"

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The only remaining Jews were the ones who had managed to go intohiding and stay safe. Early in August 1943,acting on a tip off fromneighbours ,the Gestapo arrested eight Jews hiding in an Amsterdamwarehouse,amongst them 15 year old Anne Frank.After D-Day the resistance grew ever bolder.Prominent Nazis officialsand their Dutch sympathizers were singled out for assassination .As theresistance became stronger ,German coimter measures became more andmore brutal.For every German killed several Dutch people would bepicked up and shot. .On the main road to the North of Holland ,close tothe village of Putten a high ranking officer was killed by the resistance.600 men of the village were sent to a concentration camp as retributionThe assassination of General Rauter ,head of German security in Hollandwas followed by the execution of 250 innocent people.ii all 3000 Dutchpeople were executed,many more sent to camps.It must always remain a question what these assassinations achieved,considering ie brutal reprisals and loss of Dutch lives.

After D-Day and the initial heavy fighting ,the German armies were inretreat as they were also on the Russian front.The Allied troops hadliberated much of France, including Paris and steadily made their waythrough Belgium. On September 4 1944 the city of Antwerp (30 kmfrom the Dutch southern border) had fallen to the Allies.For the Dutch people liberation now seemed only days away..The Alliedarmies had crossed the Belgium-Holland border and liberated a numberof southern cities .Maastricht and Nymegen amongst them .All over thecountry people put up the Dutch flag and orange banners.The Allies were ftilly intent to continue their northward thrust throughsouth and cental Holland and from there into Germany .After successfiillycrossing a number of rivers ,the advance was halted at the bridge over theriver Rhine at the city of Amhem After many days of fierce fighting theAll ies had to wit i idraw.The Germans had strengthened their troops in Holland. Dislodging themwould be a difficult operation .British Field Marshall Montgomerydecided that the Allies would have to undertake a bold military strategyif they were going to have any chance of defeating the German forces inHolland..He devised operation Market Garden ,a massive airbom assaultinvolving three parachute divisions and 4500 planes and gliders.Thelanding took place on September l?*' '44 at a large field of heather about8 km. from Amhem north of the Rhine river. The plan was for the Alliedforces to fight their way to the northern approaches of the Amhem bridgeand take the bridge to allow the main armies to cross the Rhine .

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Unknown to the Allies, a German tank division, resting in the east ofHolland ,was directed to Amhem. After three days of house to housefighting and large losses to the Allied troops and the civilian population,the remainder of the English and Canadian forces crossed the river atnight, back to their main army.Had the operation succeeded, Holland would have been liberated in weeksand most likely the European war would have been over in 1944.,Butoperation Market Garden failed, through bad luck, bad weather and badplarming. The story is told in book and film "A bridge too far"At this time the Dutch Government in exile called upon the men of therailways to go on strike .This would make it more difficult for theGermans to transport troops and supplies. The strike infuriated theGermans. A decree was issued prohibiting the transport of food to the westfrom the eastern provinces, where most of the country's food was grown.A cordon of German troops separated the western and eastern areas. Thismeasure would have a particular adverse effect on the cities of denselypopulated western Holland.Because of German exploitation food had already become scarce and nowa bad situation became even worse. Rations were cut and cut again.As the food shortage in the cities grew worse ,the Germans relentedsomewhat and people were allowed to bring in food from the east usingtheir bicycles and handcarts. The winter of 44/45 was one of the mostsevere in many years. By January 1945 the food situation had becomecatastrophic .The misery was compounded by the intense cold.There wasno coal, electricity or gas.Schools were closed, businesses put their employees on indefinite leave.The factories were too cold and had no materials. People began to die. Theelderly fi'oze to death in their unheated apartments and the children startedto come down with diseases unknown in modem Holland.And so the Hunger Winter had started for us. Eight harrowing months ofcold and hunger. The only heating was with wood burned in a slowcombustion stove in the living room on which we cooked whatever foodwe had. .First the trees in the parks and woods were cut down, followed bythe trees in the streets .By the time the war was over, there was not a treeto be seen in the city..All this was done by fathers, mothers and kids withsmall and large handsaws .1 remember one day going out with mother, mybike and a saw to a small wood nearby. We cut down quite a long tree, tiedit to the bike and got it home.

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Rations cards for butter and sugar.

Electricity and gas were turned off. I had a glass laboratory vacuumpump which when connected to the gas outlet ,was able to draw the gasleft in the pipes..A lamp with a cotton mantle connected to the gas,gave abright light,which lasted for a number of months till there was no gas leftin the pipes.After that we took a bike into the living room ,put it upside-down and by turning the wheel the dynamo produced some light We allhad to have a turn .It was pretty miserable.

^ Rations were getting smaller and it became necessary to go out and seekfood in the eastern parts of Holland that were not affected by the foodrest r ic t ions.I went on many of such trips ,sometimes alone, other times with myfriend Paul.,always by bicycle.The normal inflated rubber tyres had longbeen worn out.A popular replacement was a wooden tyre about 3 cm.thick with a series of small springs connecting the wooden tyre with therim of the bike wheel, very noisy.. Another solution was a strip of rubbermotor car tyre folded over and held with metal clips.and fitted on the

5 wheel rim. Both types were very uncomfortable to ride on.Some of thetrips were 30 -40 lan.Coming home with a hessian bag ftill of potatoesand grain on a bike with the surrogate tyres was no picnic.SometimesGerman soldiers confiscated the food. I discovered some long forgottenrelatives on a farm who gave us food and shelter.As the welcome fromthe relatives wore out we called on other farms often trying to barter forfood with valuables we topk from home.My sister Willy was not well and her doctor recommended herevacuation to the north of Holland through the help of the Red Cross.Sheleft by truck with a group of other children and was placed with a nicefamily in a little village near the north of the Ysselmeer called Maldcum.In February 1945 father and mother decided to visit Willy .They took offon their bicycles (with wooden tyres) and stopped with friends along theway ,arriving four days later in Makkum.After a week spent with Willythe return trip was made by boat across the Ysselmmer at night time(80 km.) Arriving in a small harbour near Hilversum they chartered ahorse and cart to bring home food,mail and presents for the parents of

^ the other chi ldren also evacuated to Makkum.Willy came home shortly after the end of the war .We hardly recognisedher ,looking tanned and having put on a lot of weight.

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In December '44 the war took an unexpected turn .The German armystaged a desparate counter attack in Belgium which became known as theBattle of the Bulge.After fierce fighting and heavy losses the Germanswere defeated and the Allies resumed their eastward progress .crossingthe river Rhine at Remagen on the way to their final destination : BerlinThe war in the air was getting more intense. Every day and night groupsof bombers crossed Holland on their way to bomb German war targets

^ and cities, always accompanied with the anti-aircraft shooting at themand searchlights criss-crossing the skyThe RAF missions were mainly at night time with the American planesflying during the day, releasing their bombs from high altitudes,notalways that accurately My grandparents home was hit again when abomb meant for a railway station .missed and hit their house .Fortunatelythey escaped unhurt.Many targets in Holland were now being hit .German trains were strafedharbours and factories bombed. The harbour of Hilversum was hit and® s e r i o u s l y d a m a g e d .At this time Germany's new weapons appeared, tiie V-1 and V-2 rockets(flying bombs) .launched from German and Dutch sites.They came overat night time with a loud drone, destined for London.Danger came whenthe noise stopped and the rocket started to fall..There were many anxiousnights ,hoping the noise would not stop.Sometimes it did with the rocketexploding somewhere, fortunately never close.The food trips continued together with other means to get some food.One

^ of them was go over potato fields that had been harvested .Some potatoeswere always left in e ground .It was hard work for very little.Anotherwas to find sugar beets ,boil them to a thick syrup as a substitute forsugarAs the weather deteriorated, the trips for food became more and moredifficult and scarce to the point where in the last few months of the warthere was very little to eat .People ate flower bulbs .1 tried to cook grassto see if it was edible ,which it was not.Another problem for the food trips were the increasing attempts by theSS and Gestapo troops to arrest the men looking for food and send thento Germany. On one occasion when Paul and I were coming back fi^om atrip,we were told the SS was manning a post further up the road.We hadto make a long detour to avoid them ,made worse for the fact that ourbike tyres had given up,making us walk.

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On one of the trips we were caught in a strafing attack by an RAFTyphoon fighter plane aiming its missiles at a German convoynearby .We ran into a house and laid on the floor against a wall ,as wehad been told to do in the event of an attack .My legs must have beenacross the door opening When a German soldier came rushing in, hestumbled over my legs and started yelling that he had been hit.Returning firom yet another trip on Christmas eve ,a German truckstopped and offered to take me home.Helping me getting my bike and thefood on and off the truck they took me right to the front door,.With the younger soldiers all withdrawn to the fi*onts, the occupyingarmy were now mostly old men ,waiting for the war to end .It was up tothe SS and Gestapo to keep order.One aftemoon a German officer was shot in our city .When nobodyowned up to the shooting ,25 citizens were rounded up not far from ourhouse and shot in a nearby park.At one stage I made a bike ride to see my employer and collect somewages. To avoid being picked up I dressed as a girl with wig andskirt.,successfully so as a passing German gave me a wink and a smile.By April 1945 we knew the end was very near .The allied armies wereapproaching the eastern Dutch border.With the food situation beingcritical the Swedish Red Cross had been given permission to make afood drop near our city to provide every citizen with a loaf of whitebread.,something we had not had in ages The drop was made from lowflying aircraft over a large field surrounded by German soldiers ,anastonishing sight. The loaf of bread was a precious gift. I heard offamilies where each member had his or hers own little flag put on theloaf so making sure that no one pinched another's bread. Another fanulyhas a set of scales on the table to identify one's loaf of bread.We started to hear the canon fire of the advancing armies.On my little crystal set we heard that Germany had agreed to surrenderOn May 5* 1945 the Canadian tanks rolled into Hilversum .Our joy wasimmense .Flowers to the Canadian heroes .chocolate bars from thesoldiers.The relief was immeasurablyFive years of occupation were over But at a heavy price.

270.000 Dutch people lost their lives. 100.000 Jews did not come back,together with countless others who perished in the camps.Victims fromthe bombings,the soldiers killed in 1940 and those that died from hungeror disease.

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Holland was left in ruins.The harbours of Amsterdam and Rotterdamwere destroyed.Major industries were ransackedXots of valuablemachinery was looted by the Germans ,even electrical conduits wereripped from the walls and sent to Germany .A seventh of the country wasflooded when the Germans breached the seawalls in an attempt to haltthe allied advance.

Having talked food non stop during the hunger months,and dreaming of acellar M\ of potatoes and wheat ,it was amazing how soon the memoryof it faded ,when the Canadian soup kitchens started to operate and foodappeared in the shops again.On the day of the liberation two Jewish teenage boys appeared from ahouse across the street.They had been hidden for three years by a familywho had two boys of their own.To have kept this secret and to have fedthem in the years without rations when there was little or no food wasan act of heroism that has stayed in my mind forever.We started to comprehend the enormity of the Jewish tragedy when soonafter the war pictures of the concentration camps were published.We knew the war was really over when the Canadian tanks rolled intoHilversum,everybody singing and dancingMost of the Dutch Nazis had fled with the retreating German armies.Those that were left were chased out of their homes and businesses.Girlswho had fraternised with German soldiers had their hair shorn offMy friend Paul ,with whom I had made many food trips in the hungermonths,all of a sudden disappeared.His family had knowingly rented ahouse belonging to a deported Jewish family. They were put out of thehouse and left the city.Father's dark moods increased.He did not share in the feeling of joy andrelief at the liberation ,instead believing that Russia would soon start awar against the West. The atmosphere at home became very strainedThe Queen returned from England amongst much rejoicing. She had beena source of inspiration for the people at home and for the many Dutchpeople that had fled to England and joined the allied forces.Her correctdecision to flee to England stands in contrast to the fate of the Belgiumking who stayed and was intemed by the Germans .

The family and I had been lucky to survive the war years without hurt orl o s s . .

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1945 - 1950 The last five years in Holland.

In 1944 I was working at the Electro company .They had set up a pilotplant for the production of vinyl acetate,an early plastic material,thatlater as PVA would become an important ingredient for paints nadother products . This was my first introduction to the world ofplastics.In July '44 I read an advertisement .seeking a technician withexperience with plastics to participate in a research project.1 appliedemphasising my "plastic experience" and was employed by Mr.Dykwho was the owner of a business called "Divo", importers of anacrylic powder fi"om Germany used for the making of dentures andfalse teeth.The source of the German acrylic material had dried up,as it wasneeded for the production of synthetic rubber ,essential for theGerman war effort. Mr.Dyk wanted to find out if the material could bemade locally .To that extent he had appointed a graduate engineer towork on the project at the Technical University of Delft .1 was to behis assistant.Once again the travel to and from Delft was long.with aone hour train trip each way.A laboratory pilot plant was set up and produced quantities of theacrylic powder.One of the materials used was hydro cyanic acid .Onone occasion an experiment went wrong with lots of that acidescaping .causing great panic and evacuation of the laboratory.By September the work had to be stopped as the whole of Hollandwent on strike in anticipation of the coming liberation.When the war was over, Mr.Dyk asked me to continue the researchwork on the plastic dental material in a small laboratory in Hilversum.The new Dutch government was concerned about the large amount ofblack money .circulating in the economy.Li a sudden action itdeclared that all existing bank notes would be cancelled and could beexchanged for a new issue of notes, providing the owner of the blacknotes could demonstrate that they were earned legally.One day Mr.Dyk came into the laboratory and lamented his losses as aresult of the government's measure.Having no black notes myself 11was not very sympathetic.Another setback came in the form of a letter from ICI UK ( ImperialChemical Industries) claiming that the Divo company with its work onthe acrylic material ,was breaching patents held by ICI.We wereadvised to cease the activities forthwith.

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I made the decision to go to London and seek a meeting with ICI to see ifthe situation could be saved..! took the ferry from the Hook of Holland toHarwich and from there by train to London where I booked into the smallBedford hotel in Bloomsbury Square. England was quite an experience,with the traffic on the wrong side and finding my way around with myschoolboy English.My first morning's breakfast was cornflakes and kippers,both new to me.

e Starting to crunch my way through the cornflakes, a guest pointed outthat cornflakes go better with milk. I gave the kippers a miss.By underground to Id's head office on the Embankment along theThames .The commissioner at the entrance in full uniform with manymedals .directed me to an official inside. Having told my story, he calledthe ICI Plastics Division in Welwyn Garden City and made anappointment for me the next day.Welwyn Garden City is about 40 minutes by train from London .A carwas waiting for me at the station and took me to the office of Andrew

- Thompson ,the general manager of the plastics division..After somediscussion Andrew indicated that ICI would be prepared to give Divo theexclusive selling for the ICI dental powder "Kallodent" in Holland..Thiswas confirmed by ICI to Mr.Dyk, who was pleased to have a virtualmonopoly in the market..The company was to receive the ICI material inbulk,to be repacked in small cartons for distribution to the dental clinicsand techniciansThis first trip to England in 1946 was a real eye opener .It was amazing

^ to see that the country ,that had sacrified so much to win the war,was stillsubject to severe food rationing in '46.The ICI offices were the Nissenhuts left over from the war.I also had my first look at television at a smallset in the Welwyn Garden laboratory.This first contact with ICI was the beginning of a long association withthe English and Australian ICI companies.As a reward for the ICI deal, Mr.I k invited me to accompany him on atrip to Switzerland ,by train to Zurich.The first walk along Ae famousBahnhofstrasse ,with Ae luxury shops full of chocolate,fruit, watches and

^ shoes we had not seen for so many years, was overwhelming..My suitcase was stolen on the night train to Zurich.I was given a wholenew Swiss wardrobe .After Zurich we travelled across Switzerland tothe Italian border at Lugamo for some sightseeing.The entire country,spared from tiie war ,was breathtaking ,beautiful villages withpicturesque houses and spanking new factories ,all with a backdrop ofspectacular mountain scenery.

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Back in Holland Mr.Dyk had rented a quite large factory building inOosterbeek near Amhem. Oosterbeek was in the centre of the failedMarket Garden operation in 1944.Many houses in Oosterbeek were stillbadly damaged.The factory walls were full of shell holes ,reminders ofthe fierce fighting.Part of the factory accommodated the packing and distribution of theimported ICI Kallodent powders..Being such a simple operation I hadtime to start looking for other applications for the acrylic material.On atrip to Antwerp,the main harbour city of Belgiimi,! was introduced toPolva NV a company engaged in the extrusion of plastics.The machines used by Polva were the R.C.Colombo twin screw extrudersinvented in Italy for the manufacture of pasta products. The GermanZiegler company took over the manufacture of the extruders and usedthem for the extrusion of PVC products.As part of wartime reparationpayments by Germany to Belgium ,the rights to the Colombo machineswere given to the Polva company ,which built the machines in Belgiumand used them to extrude a range of products such as plastic belts,stripsand small tubes.The Colombo extruders were the forerunners of later more sophisticatedmachines.Today the entire world production of PVC pipes is producedon twin screw extruders.The Belgium Polva company was owned by Maurice Herbosch, the heirto a Belgium inland waterway transport empire..Maurice lived in a smallcastle in the centre of Antwerp with his wife and eight children ,whom henamed with Christian names in alphabetical order.Maurice liked his drink.In moming discussions in his office the jeneverbottle appeared quite early.At lunch time we went to the swimming pool(it was midwinter) and took a plunge in the ice cold water.,sobering upvery quickly. I have an Ice-Bear certificate to prove it.Maurince consented to Divo having the Dutch rights to the Colomboextruders .Two were ordered and installed at the Oosterbeek factory .Thenew extrusion venture was to be called Polva Nederland,It was decided to start with the production of PVC electrical conduit .The process included the mixing of the PVC powder resin with thenecessary ingredients in a standard baker's mixer.The mixed powder wasthen placed on trays in a heated oven ,to ensure the absorption of theingredients by the PVC resin..The resultant powder was then ready forextrusion.The two intermeshing screws were housed in a heated barrel,causing the powder mix to plasticise and exit the extruder through a pipedie as a hot and flexible tube,that when cooled became a rigid pipe.

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The Divo - Polva factory in Oosterbeek

Kunstharsfabriek „DIVO*

Ing. D. W. BONOUVRie

B O S B O O M T O U S S A I N T L A A N 2 0Hl lversum (Hol land)

. Z w e i ^ c i U b D H I J S B H R H Nde X>'6;2. .1t B. ♦ ErevoorxtHef i Mr. Fr^'VyiTTEMANS ,

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The Polar Bear Membership.

It was difficult to keep the hot and pliable extruded pipe round whilecooling off .At the time we were not aware of pressure or vacuumcalibrating sleeves that were developed later to keep the pipes round. Toovercome the problem a 4 metre hole was dug in the ground,fitted with asteel liner and filled with water. The pipe die was put on a 90 degree castiron bend, with the pipe extruded downwards into the water, keeping thepipe round. There was a slight decrease in diameter as the pipe travelleddown, due to the PVC being heavier than water. However the diameter waskept within acceptable tolerances..The conduit was submitted to the testing authority KEMA and approvedfor general use.To convince the electricians that PVC conduits would dothe job as well as the traditional metal conduits, meetings with groups ofelectricians were organised throughout Holland to demonstrate its specialproperties and ease of installation.A range of drainage pipes were added to the production programme whichattracted the attention of Dr. Keller, head of a provincial water authority,who was interested to market the range of Polva pipes through hisorganisation. The negotiations failed and in time Dr.Keller decided to starthis own PVC pipe company "Wavin" which over the years grew into alarge international pipe and fitting company.The pioneering production of PVC pipes attracted quite a lot of attention.On one occasion a delegation from BF Goodrich USA, a PVC resinproducer, visited the factory. One of their experts claimed that PVC couldbe extruded without stabilisers ,which are used to prevent the PVC fromdecomposing at the high extrusion temperatures .When this happens thePVC breaks down and releases hydrochloric acid fumes. The expertinsisted we try the experiment. Very quickly the PVC started todecompose with the escaping gasses blowing the die off the machine like acannonball,narrowly missing the bystanders.I met my ex wife Hetty in 1947 and married her in Amhem in November1948.At that time there was still a severe housing shortage and it wasdifficult to find accomodation.Finally we could rent two ground floorrooms in a large villa in Oosterbeek..Our first son Tony was bom in June1949 in the nearby Amhem hospitalAt this time other people became involved in the financial and marketingactivities of the company, leaving me isolated in the position of productionm a n a g e r .

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In retrospect this was perhaps understandable as I did not have thefinancial means to participate in the growth of the company. But it was adisappointment that my efforts in getting the company off the ground werenot recognised. I was ready for a change and thinking about Australiabecame part of the change. I had a penfriend in Lismore before the war andI remembered the stories and pictures she send me.Around that time I saw an article in the British Plastics Journal reportingon an Australian company "Diecasters" in Melbourne planning theproduction of extruded products on Colombo twin screw extruders. .Thearticle mentioned that the company was looking for a production managerfor their new venture. I applied and the reply came back with an offer forthe position at a salary of 17 pounds per week plus a house for us.The manufacture of the Colombo extruders had changed from the Belgiancompany to R.H.Windsor ,a large English engineering company nearReading ..Diecasters in their offer requested that I spend some time inNovember at the Windsor factory to commission the first extruder withsome special products.The formalities to gain permission to leave Holland and to emigrate toAustralia were formidable. We needed certificates of good behaviour formthe police and city, job references and medical certificates as well aconfirmation that a position and accommodation would be available to uson arrival in Austral ia.To find a ship to take us to Melbourne proved difficult. Finally we couldbook passage on the "Misr" an Egyptian liberty ship, converted forpassenger use ,chartered by a French shipping company, with Frenchofficers and a Sudanese crew.The ship would leave from Marseille in France towards the end ofDecember 1950, making it necessary for us to travel by train fromAmsterdam to Marsei l le .At that time my wife's parents had friends owning a building companyinterested in selling prefabricated housing to Australia. On the conditionthat I would seek introductions for them from interested parties inAustralia ,the in-laws were to pay for the costly train and sea trip.To keep the time table for the shipping of the extruder, I had to be inEngland sone time in the middle of November. It was a difficult decisionto make, as that was the time that our second son Joep was due. He wasbom on November 17'''. at home., while I was away in England.

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At Sea. Holland to Australia December '50 - February '51.

Our furniture was to be packed in a large wooden crate for shipment toMelbourne ,hopefully to arrive there at the same time as we were .To come with us on the trip was a large trunk with mainly our clothingand personal things and two suitcases with clothes and nappies for thebabies: Tony 18 months and Joep 6 weeks.There was one last hiccup.The Australian Embassy required an X-ray ofJoep, as small as he was. I remember taking the X-ray to The Hague on acold day trudging through the melting snow ,with the icy water gettmginto my shoes.So on a cold morning in late December of 1950 we travelled toAmsterdam from where our train journey to Marseille would start .Ourfamilies had come to say farewell .Everyone was quiet ,I thinkoverwhelmed by the thought of us leaving to the other side of the world.It was the last time I saw my father.Finally the train started to move and after waving goodbye ,we settled inour compartment for the trip to Marseille in the soutii of France.Had weknown what lay in store for us in the next few months we probablywould have pulled the emergency cord and jumped off the train.The first part of the train trip ended at the Paris North station and we hadto go by taxi to the South Paris station to continue the trip.On arrival inMarseille ,tired and frazzled ,we made our way to the harbour to get afirst glimpse of the "El Misr"our home for the next five weeks.Access tothe ship was by way of a long and narrow staircase alongside the ship.AFrench seaman was kind enough to carry the bassinet with baby Joep upthe stairs. Being so narrow he dangled the bassinet over the rope railingfrightening us to death.Coming on board we were told to our horror that women and childrenwere to have separate cabins from the men.Luckily a nurse travelling toSydney offered to share her cabin with all of us.She was a great helpthroughout the journey ,baby sitting and looking after us as well.The next disaster came when I went looking for our trunk which wassupposed to be delivered to the ship, but I could not find it anywhere .Ina panic I raced back to the train station in the hope the case mi t still bethere.A railway man suggested the trunk might have been left behindsomewhere between the two Paris stations.We now had to travel throughthe Mediterranean and the tropics with the winter clothes we had on.After its departure from Marseille ,the ship sailed to Cyprus for a briefstop at the harbour of Limmasol .From there through the Suez canal toDjibouti on the Horn of Africa,where we were allowed to go ashore.There was little to see and less to do.The next landfall was Colombo,thecapital of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon).Finally we had an opportunityto buy some summer clothes there

MISR The Egyptian migrant ship.

Built in 1943 in USA with 7372 tonnes and service speed of 14 knots.

Launched as Cape St.Roque ,completed as a landing ship ,transferred tothe Royal Navy as HMS Galteemore and taking part in the Normandylandings. Sold in 1947 to an Egyptian shipping company and renamedMisr, serving the pilgrim trade to Jedda, as well as transporting migrants.Misr made six voyages to Australia from 1947 to 1951, the last one beingour trip.Whereas on pilgrim voyages the ship would carry up to 1100 passengers,for the journey to Australia the accommodation was altered to54 first class and 117 second class.In 1980 the Misr was laid up and sold to Millwala Sons Ltd. of Pakistanand arrived at their ship breaking location at Gadang Beach on Januaryso"'. 1982,

Life on board was not very exiting.Caring for the little ones, reading andlooking forward to dinner with French cooking and a bottle of red wineevery night. After dinner the Sudanese crew drank what was left over inthe bottles and most times got drunk. They were a fearsome looking lotwith deep scars on both sides of their face. We never saw the officers,obviously they did not want to mix with us migrants.After Colombo came the long trek across the Indian Ocean to Perth.Sometime during the crossing the fresh water ran out. Showers andlaundry had to be done with seawater. This was not very good for theendless number of nappies to be washed. After a while they became verystiff, much to the discomfort of the babies.Finally we reached the harbour of Fremantle and had our first walk onAustralian soil. From there to Melbourne only took a few days and at lastour "cruise" came to merciful close at the Prince's Pier in Port Melbourne.We were met by Ron Dearie, the personnel manager of Diecasters ,my newemployer. We had tried to make Tony as respectable as possible, but whilewe were waiting on the pier, he found a luggage trolley with freshlygreased wheels. He managed to look a real mess. Ron took one look at usand decided we needed a holiday and took us to the company's orchardnear Pakenham, which had a number of "sleep-outs" to accommodate theitinerant fruit pickers. We spent two weeks in beautiful sunshine ,taking iteasy ,sometimes picking pears. It was a simple but great introduction toAus t ra l i a .

M e l b o u r n e 1 9 5 1 - 1 9 5 4

Rested and in much better frame of mind, we left Pakenham for Donvalewhere we were going to live. Another disappointment awaited us. Thehouse promised to us was taken by the sales manager of the company.Instead we were given a small two room bungalow nearby .Our furniturecrate had arrived allowing us to furnish the little house .A few weeks laterthe missing sea trunk turned up ,so we had finally all our belongingstogether.I was given a car to drive to the Diecasters factory in Collingwood. Beforethe war Diecasters was a small factory making machetes. They did verywell out of the war, developing the diecasting process using zinc andaluminium to cast products for the war effort, including the manufacture ofbombsights.

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The company operated a cool store next to our little house, for the storageof fruit,mainly pears. Donvale at that time was surrounded by orchards. Alarge compressor was used for the refrigeration of the cool store. I wasasked to watch over the running of the compressor in the evening aftercoming home from work.The Colombo extruder was installed in the Collingwood factory and I wasto produce the so called polythene lay flat tubing, like a thin sausage skinused for packaging. The owner of Diecasters Roy Newton was a strangeperson ,a gifted engineer and inventor of the oscillating water sprinklerOn one occasion when the extruder was running the lay flat tubing,Newton appeared and started fiddling with the extruder controls, with theresult the extrusion went haywire. In trying to restart the process themolten polythene got stuck on Newton's gloves and when he started towave his arms around it got stuck in his hair, it was a weird scene. Next Iwas ordered to run the extruder 12 hours a day for five days a week for thesame salary.After about two months of this ,Newton called me to his office and gaveme a strange story of how his mother lived in a tent making metal pots andpans .According to him Australia was a land of pioneers and migrants likeme did not belong. He raved about some more and finally told me my paywas made up and to leave Diecasters immediately. It also meant giving upthe house and the car.We found an empty house along the road where we squatted for a fewweeks, finally able to rent a permanent house nearby. I had bought a littlecar ,a Standard convertible ,which we used to move our furniture ,first to the empty house and again to the rented place .The Diecasterspeople had abandoned us completely and we were feeling pretty low andquite desparate. there seems little we could do, other than accept what hadhappened. At that time many Australians resented the migrant influx. I hadbeen called some names then, none of them flattering.Being without a job gave me some time to do some work for the Dutchbuilder of prefabricated homes. I visited the Victorian Railways andHousing Department and made a train trip to Sydney and Brisbane to callon Government offices. There was enough interest for the directors of theDutch company to travel to Australia and continue the negotiations. I amnot sure if the company eventually obtained orders.

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At that time there was a Melbourne recruiting office for seniorappointments that recommended me for a job at the Monsanto ChemicalCompany as a shift chemist to supervise the production of 2-4-5-T, apesticide also known as Agent Orange ,as well as the production ofChloromycetin, an antibiotic used for the treatment of typhoid anddysentery .The latter was a complex process that took six weeks tocomplete and in the end produced a precious 100 pounds of the drug.The shift work was pretty tough, a morning shift from 7 to 3 pm, theafternoon shift from 3pm to 9pm. and a long nightshift from 9 pm to 7 amthe next morning. Sleeping in day time was not easy with two little boysrurming around .Benzedrine pills helped to stay awake during the nightshift The trip to work was long, by car to Mitchell station ,by train toFlinders station, change trains to Footscray and finally by bus to thefactory. During one of my first night shifts I found the crew playing cardsin the canteen and told them to go back to work. At the next morning shiftI was called to see the general manager ,who told me the crew called methe Flying Dutchman, advising me to accept the Australian way of doingthings and to take it easy.We had a bad accident at home. I was dismantling the timber furniturecrate, when one of the sides fell down on Tony, breaking his little leg. Ishould have been much more careful. I raced him to the Children'sHospital on St.Kilda Road, where he was left for hours in a corridor beforebeing attended to .Fortunately his leg healed properly.I was employed by Monsanto from May '51 to April '52,missing the worldof plastics and when I saw an advertisement for a technician with aSydney extrusion company I applied and as a result met Mr.Fred Stevensof Dunlop Plastics who offered me the job.Acceptance of the job meant us moving to Sydney. Over Easter '52 I drovethe little Standard ,overnighting in Gundagai. The family followed a fewdays later by train.Fred Stevens had secured a house for us in Canterbury Road Bankstownwith a weekly rent of one pound .It was a pretty awful place .Timber wallin and outside, a combined kitchen and laundry with a chip heater bathand a wood fired copper for the washing. The dunny in the yard topped ita l l .The house was next to the Dunlop rubber factory complex with lots ofnoise and bad smells.Those were the darkest days for us since coming to Australia .The move toSydney had used up what savings we had. With the lower wage of 13pounds per week we struggled for quite some time.Not withstanding all this ,we really did not give much thought of giving upand returning to Holland Perhaps stubbornness or faith in the future?

Stevens Plastics

The Dunlop Plastics factory was in Regents Park ,not far from Bankstownwhere I was an extruder operator.Six months later Fred Stevens decided toform his own company Stevens Plastics and asked me to be his productionmanager at a rented factory in Silverwater.Fred was a gentle and understanding boss.Everyday we sat down togetherfor lunch ,where he patiently explained many facets of Australian life,culture and history. Without his teachings my knowledge of Australiawould have been a lot poorerI told him of my dismissal from Diecasters. He took up the case for mewith a firm of solicitors ,who were able to obtain a settlement of 600pounds from Diecasters for unfair dismissal .With the money I bought ourblock of land in North EppingStevens Plastics operated two Colombo twin screw extruders ,producingPVC garden hose for the Goodyear Tyre Company. Every Saturday aGoodyear employee came to inspect the week's production ,setting asidecoils of garden hose he rejected. We felt he was overzealous in hisrejections and every Monday we put the rejected coils back with theproduction. This certainly improved productivity. It became necessary tostart making other products. With extrusion technology still in its infancy,there were many problems. Without a phone at home Jack Macfarlane thefactory foreman had to come out to the house to tell that I was needed atwork. This happened often and I spent many long nights trying to fix theproblems.During this time we had our first holiday in Australia, a week in a house inPearl Beach on Broken Bay. We enjoyed a real kitchen and bathroom for achange.Jackie was borne on October 29 ''. 1952 with Geoffrey on July 5^ . 1954.Life was hectic in these years .Four children, doing the shopping andrunning the factory did not leave a lot of spare time.In 1954 my father died at the age of 56 from complications due to highblood pressure, after months in hospital. .Mother told me later howdifficult this time was for her. .The hospital was a long way out of town, itwas winter with snow on the roads and very cold. Father had becomeabusive and rude during her visits. She recalled waiting at the bus stopgoing home with the snow falling and crying in her misery.I thought then about life with my father .He was a strange man, unfulfilledin his work .he was charming in company but often miserable and criticalat home .Always pessimistic, one cloud in the sky meant rain to him. Atthe end of the war ,instead of being excited with us about our liberation, hegloomily predicted that Russia would attack Western Europe any times o o n .

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Throughout my years at high school and college father showed littleinterest in the Aings that were important to me. I could not recall himever coming to a swim or polo toumement. Going to Australia I did notmiss him ,there was little feeling left.In 1956 mother (now Gran) came to Australia by boat for the first timeand stayed with us for some six weeks. .After fathers death she feltliberated and started to enjoy life again.In the same year building started on the house in Norfolk Road in NorthEpping .The house was designed to have large rear windows looking outover the bushland. ,with the asbestos roof sloping downwards to thestreet ,which the council did not approve.They felt people should nothave to look at such a large expanse of asbestos from the street..Theslope of the roof was reversed which spoiled the look of the house.While we were living in Bankstown, Tony became seriously ill.It startedby him being very sleepy.In the end we could not wake him up.Thedoctor diagnosed encephalitis and had him admitted to an isolation wardat the Prince Henry Hospital.It was very scary.He was asleep when theambulance came for him .1 was sitting with him when the ambulancestarted its siren,which woke him .From then on he recovered and we gothim home a few weeks later.Another scare happened when one night Jackie woke up and could notstand up.At that time polio was prevalent and we thought the worst,butall was well.On August 5''';1957 Thea was bom at the Epping Poplars Hospital.It was with an enormous relief when finally the new house was readyafter the years in Bankstown.Work in the garden was quite hard as therewere more rocks than soil.The boys enjoyed playing in e bush.In 1958 my sister Willy got married and I was given my first overseastrip to be at her wedding .It was a very long trip of 9 weeks .visitingmany countries looking for new plastic products.I spent two weeks inEngland getting familiar with a process making larger polythene fittingslicensed to Stevens Plastics.I has a first class ticket on a Boeing Constellation aircraft .stopping andovernighting in Singapore,Karachi and Athens..On board was theAustralian Army General Staff,making the trip very comfortable.Iremember arriving in Athens early in the morning and visiting theAcropolis.I was there on my own,an unbelievable experienceIn retrospect it was very selfish to be away from home and leaving mywife and five children on their own for so long..

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C O M M O N W E A L T H O F A U S T R A L I A

^'• i i« i««l i^ MW CUwfui i f A<*.

^ C E H T M F M C AT E O F N AT U R A U Z AY i O N

A S A A A U S T R A L I A N C M T I Z E A— wi i , / t H £ . < s - M r k n U l M L f i P W V V H i h M

•ppliei) lor H CertiRettc of Nitunlizilioii w an Au*tr«li»n citii«n> tlleging uiih retpect to hitntdfthe )>ai'lickili» tet out on tlte reverie «i(le of thU Certificate, and liw taiufied me thai lie liu fulfilledthe contJitioiu tor llie grant oC tuch a Ccrlilicate prescribed by the Nationality and Citizenalifp Act1948-1955 :

.VMM THEUttOttE I, ibe Miniiter of State for luuiiigration, hereby grant, in ]>uriunnceof the Nationality and Ciriieiwkip Act 1948*1955 , tltis Certificate of Naturalixation, whereby, tuiijeci10 the provitiooi of that Act and of any. other law ad'eciing (lie rightt of naturaJixed penoiu,the abovenained applicant ihati, at from the date upon ^vhich he stvear« or afliniis allegiance toHer iMajeity <^een Elizabeth the Second, her hein and tucceatort, and «wears to or airirini that he>tiJl olMerve faiilifull) the law* of Australia anil fulfil hii dutie* at an Aiutialian citizen, becomeentitled 10 all political and other rightt, po«veri and privilegei, and become subject to all obligationt,.<luiiei and liabilities to which an Autiralian citizen or a Britiib lubject ii entitled or tuhject, andhave to all intents and purpose! (he atatu* of an Australian citizen and Brititb fubject.

u n s T a i i . E l | h t l i o * r o r , K a y

o n T B O U t A K B m u x B I M P a t P I W

O F S T A T E F O B I M H I C B A T I O N

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J , . . H A R P I P . C E O fl C E H B A I g t t . b e r e b y c e r t i f y t b i t o a t h e L S fi t l d a yo f . — J i J N E « . . . 1 9 . 5 B _ , t h e g r a s t t e o f t h U C e r t i f i c a t e G i j l S . -

a p p e a r e d b e f o r t n e % i ^ 0 H K S 9 y ^ . i v r o t e a U e g i a A c e l o H a t M a j e s t y Q u a a o C U s a b e t h t h e S e c o n d *

her bein and tucceMor^^ndt^^pff^o observe faitbCully tbe lawi of Aujtralii and fulfil bu dutiee as ao Auetralian cititen^

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NylexWe enjoyed North Epping ,at that time there was still a lot of bush around,which was an ideal play ground for Tony and Joep. The house needed a lotof work ,making a garden on top of the sandstone rocks was not veryrewarding nor successful, hi the first few years we still had an outdoortoilet. When the sewer was finally connected we built a new bathroom andanother bedroom.

Tony and Joep went to the little North Epping primary school around the« comer. I can remember when I took Tony for his first day at school ,he

tugged my coat and said "Dad, will you please no longer speak Dutch tome". From then on we became an English speaking family ,speaking Dutchonly with friends who insisted talking Dutch.It is strange after all the years, I can still hold a conversation in the Dutchlanguage ,even read a book. The children however cannot speak or readDutch.,it is a difficult language and other than in Holland and Indonesia itis not spoken anywhere else.Things at home became more difficult with Hetty coping less and less withthe five children. One day she claimed money left lying on the fridge haddisappeared. Lining up the children, no one confessed to the deed and inanger Hetty declared that from that day onward the children would be myresponsibility ,no longer hers. We had increasing help n the house, startingwith a lady doing the ironing ,finally having Maria as a daily domestic.In 1958 Fred Stevens sold his company to Nylex, Australia's largestplastic business. He gave me a cheque for 2000 pounds which laterbecame the stake money for starting Vinidex.At Nylex I was put in charge of the Stevens Plastics factory ,as well as theNylex polythene pipe factory in Perth. A new factory was built in Silver-water, that also accommodated the manufacture of so called biscuits forthe production of vinyl records. The biscuits were made on a large millfrom PVC with lots of carbon black ,making it a fairly dirty process. Therecord companies pressed the biscuits into long playing records.Nylex in those days was quite an exciting company. It produced anamazing range of plastics products .Many of the bright young staff weresent overseas with the order to bring back the rights to a new product. If

g, they failed ,it would be there last trip. Staff entertainment was very liberalwith many parties at the Nylex staff house on the banks of the Yarra river.I made many trips to Perth, staying in the Esplanade Hotel overlooking theSwan river. One morning sitting down at breakfast ,the old waiter told methat I was sitting at Mr. so and so's table, please move. The next morningabsentmindedly taking the same seat .the old waiter said in a loud voice"didn't I tell you not to sit there"

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V i n i d e x 1 9 6 0 - 1 9 8 4

Ever since leaving Holland I had some hope that one day I mightagain become involved in the manufacture of PVC pipes.On thatbasis I made a proposal to the Nylex board to establish theproduction of PVC pipes and fittings..It was strange with thecompany embracing so many new products,that the proposal wasrejected,much to my disappointment.1 never found out the reasonfor the refusal.

? I ta l ked a l l th i s over w i th Jack Mac fa r lane , my p roduc t ionsupervisor ,who over time had become a good friend .He said"Dick ,why don't you start your own business extruding pipes"The more I thought about it, the more exciting the venturelooked.Jack said he could convince five of the best Nylexoperators to join the venture, which we decided should be calledVinidex Pty.Ltd. ,the name incorporating "vinyl extrusions"The next step was to secure the funding for the company .Nylexsupplied flexible PVC electrical conduit to Madeley Pty.Ltd, a® company owned by Shem Boyle.After some lengthy discussionsin March 1960, Shem agreed to take a third share in the companywith 5000 pounds and place his business with us.It was a goodfeeling to Imow that we could start with orders on hand .Karl Sorensen was ICI's NSW manager at the time.He was alsoprepared to invest 5000 pounds in the company,on the strictcondition that his shareholding would remain anonymous whilehe worked at ICI .It was his long term plan to eventually retire

^ a n d t h e n j o i n V i n i d e x .I only had 2500 pounds with little opportunity to find 2500pounds to match the other shareholders' investment.HoweverShem and Karl agreed that I could have an equal amount ofshares .1 could repay the difference out of my earnings at laterd a t e .

By May 1960 Vinidex had issued 15.000 shares of one poundThe initial plan was to acquire two extruders on hire purchase ,aRC 100 twin screw extruder for the production of rigid PVC

« piping and a Johns single screw extruder for the production offlexible conduit and polythene piping .The RC 100 twin screw extruder came from the Windsor factoryin England and would arrive in August 1960 which would be ourstart up time.The Johns extruder would come from the Johnsfactory in Melboume.The machines were bought on hirepurchase through the Commonwealth Bank.At that time the localbank branch manager could approve all hire purchases andbusiness loans.

The first factory in Derby Street Silvenvater.

The original crew

Don Robinson, Clyde Glynn, Bunny HermanDB, Dick Prior, Jack MacFarlane.

In May 1960 I sought a meeting with George Jennings,the technicaldirector of Nylex, to tell him of my plan to start my own business.He and I were quite close and I thought giving three months notice wasthe correct thing to do.George was very angry,calling me all sorts ofnames,telling me to get my things and leave there and then.1 was prettynaive thinking he would be pleased for my sake.I now had three months to wait before production could start. I used thetime to find the items of equipment we needed, such as a mixer,pipe dies,water tanks , compressor and water pumps..Most were second hand. Thepipe conveyers were converted from carton packing equipment.Bob Young who owned a toolmaking shop in Silverwater was of greathelp.He made the extrusion dies and put together most of the pieces ofequipment.The operators who agreed to join Vinidex were:

Jack MacFa r l ane Fo reman

Clyde GlyraiBunny HermanDon Rob insonDick Pr io r.

It was agreed with them to start with two 12 hour shifts.The weeklyearnings would be 15 pounds,with 20 hours overtime and a night shifta l l o w a n c eI found a small factory in Derby Street Silverwater.The two extrudersand the ancillary equipment just fitted with some room for stocks ofmaterials and finished product.The three months went by very showly,but finally by August 17''' .'60all the equipment was installed and production could begin. It was afantastic feeling.First off was the manufacture of the grey flexible electrical conduit. Thiswas based on the use of flexible PVC offcuts from the manufacture ofplastic raincoats that were popular at the time. We had a man goinground the raincoat factories ,picking up the offcuts in sufficient quantitiesto keep the production going.The offcuts were cut into 4 mm. small pieces through a granulator.Thesepieces were than fed into a second hand extruder we had been able topurchase.

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The offcuts were plasticised in the extruder and forced through aperforated plate,resulting in the extrusion of a type of spaghetti,which inturn was cut into small pellets by a rotating knife in front of the dieThe pellets were fed into the Johns extruder to male the flexible conduit.Jack MacFarlane,before leaving Nylex,had taken a spare die and cutterfrom the factory as a kind of contribution to our new venture.Unfortunately it took only a few days for the police to visit us and

o retr ieve the uni t . . I d id not want MacFar lane to take the blame and in the

ensuing court case I was accused of stealing.My solicitor was able to getme off on a technicality .1 can still hear the boos from the Nylex staff atthe hearing when the outcome was announced.lt was a sobering exercise.We had a new die and cutter made and once again we were in thebusiness making conduit.As a second string on our bow we had dies made for the extrusion ofblack polythene pipe that could be extruded on the single screw extruder.At that time the PMG (postmaster general's department - now Telstra)

- started to use polythene piping ,replacing galvanised iron pipes,for theimderground installation of telephone cables..The PMG issued a tenderfor 1500 tonnes of polythene piping in six sizes from, '/a" to 2" diameter.To our surprise we won that tender which gave us a sound loading forquite some time. The tender was the start of a long association with PMG/ Telstra, that is continuing today.We had received an order for the supply of polythene irrigation pipe for alarge Fairfax property. Some of the joints were leaking.Dick Prior and I

^ went to fix the problem.In doing so we knocked over a blowlamp settingthe grass and some of the pipe on fire While this was going on a tall manon a large horse came by It was John Fairfax.,very polite, telling us to getthe mess fixed, which we did..We also started to prepare for the production of rigid PVC conduit assubstitute for the metal conduit used at that time.At Nylex there had beenan approach by BICC Australia - an electrical cable distributor - for thesupply of PVC conduit .We took up contact with BICC after ourproduction had started.At this stage I need to explain the structure of BICC and its subsidiaries,as all of them played a major role in the progress of the Vinidexc o m p a n y .BICC (British Insulated Callender Cables) was a large international cableproducer with factories in Britain and most Commonwealth countries

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BICC had a controlling interest in Metal Manufactures Ltd ( MM )producers of copper and aluminium wire and copper tubing.at their factoryin Port Kembla. Broken Hill North and South were the other shareholdersin MM. BICC also controlled Cable Makers of Australia (CMA)MM made the cooper wire, CMA converted the wire into electrical cablesdistributed by BICC Australia to the electrical wholesalers.The initial contact with BICC Australia eventually led Vinidex to becomea member of the MM / BICC group of companies.After only a year the little factory in Derby Street had become too smalland in August 1961 we leased a larger factory with upstairs offices in VoreSt ree t Auburn .It was around this time that we had our first contact with the Anger twinscrew extruder company in Vienna Austria.Lacking many materials after the war,European countries started to useplastic products in large volumes,including PVC piping,replacing scarcesteel piping.A consequence of this was the development of specialisedequipment for the extrusion of PVC piping .The Anger company headedby Willy Anger became the leader in this field.One evening,quite late,I had a ring from Warren Elliot,an engineer withICI Melbourne, who had just returned from a trip to Europe, where he hadbeen to see the Anger works. His words: "If you want to be in rigid PVCextrusion,the Anger equipment is a must."The 2 '/2 single screw and the RC 100 twin screw extruders were put towork in the new factory ,together with improved ancillaiyequipment,producing polythene piping and PVC conduit.Some funny things happended in the Vore Street factory:In the production of conduit it is important to keep the pipe round after itemerges from the extrusion die.We solved this by blowing air into the pipethrough the die,forcing the hot pipe against a cooling former .It wasnecessary to crimp the pipe at the end of each length to keep the air in.Thefactory was not long enough to accommodate the two lengths needed tocomplete the process.One night the crew made a hole in the wall adjoiningthe premises next door allowing the conduit to go its full two lengths.Theplace next door was a food packaging company with girls working on longtables. There was great surprise the next moming,when the conduitappeared along one of their tables,to be cut and withdrawn ,with anotherpipe coming along. The food people allowed this to go on till we found abetter way.

A

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The next factory in Vore street Auburn

'■"*-?" rt j

Crimping the conduit, before it disappeared next door.

Plastic extrusion uses a lot of water to cool the products after they leavethe extruder. The Waterboard gave notice that the cooling water had to becirculated, which required the installation of a cooling tower .As there wasno land to put the tower on, it had to be installed inside the second rollerdoor opening. We found a suitable second hand unit that worked quitewell. However soon the operators developed skin rashes from what hadbecome polluted water. An anti-bacterial solution was added to the waterto overcome the problem. One night one of the operators overdosed thesystem with the solution., resulting in an ever increasing cloud of foam,slowly covering most of the factory. It took quite awhile to clean up them e s s .

The crew ,by now risen to 25,were a happy ,often mischievous lot,working well together. My salary at that time was 4500 pounds per year.Company profit in 1964 was 18.500 pounds.I had a company Holden station wagon ,needed to transport the childrenNo garage ,a concrete block in the front of the house..

S We enclosed the back verandah with large picture windows .It was in thisroom in 1962 that we learned of Kennedy's assassination. I can rememberso well the announcement of that awful event.Our social life revolved mainly around our Dutch friends.In 1963 I made a trip to Vienna to visit the Anger extrusion machinefactory. The company was owned by Willy Anger, who by then had builtup a flourishing business making and selling the Vienna line of highfashion spectacle frames ..Willy and his brother were refugees fromBohemia, part of what was then Czecho Slovakia .They had bought armysurplus acetate sheets, from which they cut the spectacle frames., Theyprogressed to fully moulded frames which were sold around the world.Willy had married Gretchen ,an Austrian beauty queen and lived in a largemansion in the Vienna Woods. The dining room featured a number ofmurals painted by Hitler in his early days. The paintings were not thatgood.Willy Anger had visited the Dutch Polva pipe factory in the early days,seeking a license to copy the design of the Colombo machines which was

^ refused.. He then set out to build his own ,using a group of giftedengineers to achieve his goal.

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A

The company had a small single engine plane that flew me up and throughthe Austrian Alps.It was breathtaking, flying amongst the snow cappedm o u n t a i n s

Anger employed a group of plastic engineers ,among them Peter Heilmayrand Rudi Zaradnik .This group were the designers of the modem twinscrew extruders and world experts in the technology of PVC extrusion.Over time this group established itself not only in Austria but also in USA

» a n d G e r m a n y .I placed our first order for an Anger A-2/80 extruder .From that time onVinidex maintained a close association with the Anger company and thecompanies that became the successors to the anger technology.In the first years there were times when we were close to running out ofmoney to pay wages and suppliers. Having spent most of the originalcapital on equipment and stocks, there were few funds left to cover leantimes. Although a silent shareholder Karl Sorensen, in his position ofNSW Manager for ICI, helped us by allowing us 90 days to pay for the

® PVC we bought from ICI and gave us access to so called off-spec PVC,cheaper in price but fine to use. We also found BICC Australia alwaysprepared to pay invoices early or place extra orders, so we could battle on.Sometime in 1963 we had a visit from Len White, Managing Diirector ofMetal Manufactures Ltd. (MM) to inspect the factory, followed by myvisit sometime later to the MM factories in Port Kembla.Len outlined his thoughts that over time PVC could become a competitorto MM's copper tubing and raised the question if Vinidex would beinterested in having MM as an equal shareholder.An important point was his assurance that MM would not interfere in therunning of Vinidex, accepting that PVC and copper pipes would competein the market place. Len always kept that promise.I put Len's proposal to the other shareholders, stressing our need forfurther expansion. By this time the joint guarantees for the shareholders tothe Bank had risen to $ 300.000 resulting from the equipment hirepurchases and the overdraft... This fact more than anything else, made theshareholders agree, albeit reluctantly to the MM proposal.

^ Personally I was pleased to have MM as a powerful partner that wouldgive Vinidex the resources to expand. I was conscious of the fact that overtime I would not be able to match the investment MM would need to make.

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A

At best I would stay as a small shareholder.Running the company andmaking it grow was to me an acceptable altemative.The decision was madeeasier by the relief of being freed from the debts of the company and bythe fact that Len White was a very special person ,who gave me theconfidence that our association with MM would be a long term benefit, asit indeed has been.

® Smi th f ie ld February 1964

MM was now an equal shareholder, with Len White and Laurie Potter(MM's secretary) as new directors on the boardAs a first step of the MM association ,we were able to purchase a 5 acreblock of land in Woodpark Road Smithfield for the sum of 15000 poundsMM agreed to fund this purchase as well as the construction of two factorybuildings and an office.Building started early 1964 and was completed bythe end of the year with production commencing in February 1965.^ Another important development was the decision by the PMG/Telstra toswitch from Polythene to PVC pipes to house their telephone cables bothabove and below ground.Vinidex was able to win the first national PMGPVC pipe tender in sizes 'A" to 4"..Since then, the company has been ableto win at least a major part of every yearly tender.The quantities requiredfor this first order were well in excess of our capacity at the time andneeded the purchase of three further Anger extruders. I made another tripto Vienna to order the equipment,as a result of which Vinidex was given

A the exclusive rights to the Anger extruders for Australia,an agreement thatstayed in force with the successors to the Anger technology until 1984 andserved the company wellAround this time Gerard Industries of Adelaide.manufacturers of theClipsal range of electrical fittings started to purchase our PVC conduits,which they distributed with their fittings to the electrical wholesalers.This agreement lasted until my retirement in 1984 when Gerard's decidedto make the conduit range themselves.Barbara and I have been long time fnends with the Gerard family .While

5 Geoff died many years ago Elsie Gerard is now in her nineties.Son Robertran the company until recently when he sold out to a large German firm.We now had a factory with some 6 extruders producing PVC andPolythene piping.The manufature of flexible conduit had stopped. ShemBoyle an initial shareholder and customer for the flexible conduit hadresigned and sold his shares to Sorensen and myself...

-36-

Sunshine Vict.

M e l v i l l e W A

T o w n s v i l l e

A new development was the purchase of our first plastic mouldingmachine to manufacture conduit fittings such as couplings and junctionboxes.Later on production of pressure,waste and sewer fittings wouldf o l l o w .

By 1984 30 moulding machines were operating in a separate mouldingfactory with a large adjacent fitting warehouse ,storing the thousands ofdifferent fittings that were distributed to our interstate factories as well asto distributors and end users.To join PVC pipes together the heated end of a pipe was formed into asocket.A pipe joint was made by pushing the end of one pipe into thesocket of the next pipe,PVC glue made the joint watertight.At first the sockets were made by a slow manual process.and we werelooking for a more automated system..We found Jim Mason who owned afactory that produced steel bolts and nuts on equipment that Jim haddesigned and built himself..He made us an automated socketing machinethat was put in line with the extruder and could handle pipes up to 2"Later highly sophisticated socketing machines became available fi-omoverseas suppliers that could socket pipes to 12" in diameter.Jim Mason was a well known sailor who had won the Sydney to Hobartrace twice.He took me out on his boat Achemar .One early morning wewent out on the harhour to welcome the Chilian tall ship "Esmeralda"Itwas a beautiful sight to see it fully rigged emerge from the fog that coveredpart of the harbour.This was the start of many sailing ventures. Somewhat later I boughtAchemar from Jim and started to learn to sail with a few early mishaps.Sailing on the harbour on a Saturday, I got among the 18 footers who donot take kindly to bumbling amateur sailors .One of them went flyingbetween our boat and dinghy cutting the dinghy adrift accompanied bysone choice language.Achemar was first moored at Castle Crag. Finding the harbour toocrowded we moved to Pittwater and became member of the Royal PrinceAlfred Yacht Club.Sailing and racing in Pittwater,Broken Bay and theHawksbury river was always a great pleasure.The Smithfield factoiy kept on growing with more extruders and mouldingmachines .Pipe sizes increased to 30cm diameter ,with increasing demandsfor all pipe systems ,in particular sewer and pressure piping.Competition fi-om steel and clay pipes was gradually diminishing.Howevercast iron pipes remained the preferred choice for watermains„althoughnew inventions such as oriented PVC pipes are now making inroads in thatm a r k e t .

A -37-

The Perth factory.

The first interstate factory was established in Perth in 1965. WallyBlackburn had been appointed as our agent in WA and had built up quite agood market for our products,giving us confidence to start local productionMM operated two factories on a large site in Melville,a copper wire plantand a CMA cable making factory,using the copper wire made next door.MM agreed to lease us part of the site and pay for the construction of thepipe extrusion building. The arrangement was good for Vinidex,paying arelatively low rental for the land and building.The factory started producing in October 1965 after the official opening bythe WA Minister for Industry .1 remember a conversation at the openingwhen Wally Blackburn and the Minister discovered that both flew with theRAF in Britain during the war,Blackburn as a pathfinder pilot,the Ministerflying a Lancaster bomber. .They politely asked what my war experiencewas. I told them that I copped the bombs the RAF dropped by mistake onHo l l and .Following Wally's retirement, Neil Mahoney took over (later promotedto Vinidex' marketing manager).Tony Bonouvrie was works manager from'71 to '73. Vic Middleton joined the company as a fitter,became worksmanger and finally state manager,a position he still holds today.The factory grew a lot over the years .It was always a pleasure to visit thePerth factory.One thing though ,the endless discussions about football andSubiaco at lunch time were a bit hard to take.

The Melbourne factory.

In 1964 Alan Jacobe was appointed Vinidex' representative for Victoria .Alan's previous position had been with the Humes irrigation division.Thefirst step was an office with some stocks at an MM warehouse in Burnley.However trading conditions were difficult and the stock was brought backto Smithfield.For a while Alan worked from home,until we tried again andleased an office and warehouse in Inkerman Street St.Kilda at a rental of91 pounds per month'Barbara was helping Alan often at the warehouse,even when expectingAndrew, unloading pipes and fittings sent from Sydney and packagingfittings for postage to customers.

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In 1966 Vinidex acquired the plastic pipe and fitting business fromYorkshire Imperial Australia (YIA),subsidiary of Yorkshire ImperialMetals,a owned by ICI UK..By now the shareholding in Vinidex hadbecome: MM 51% YIA 33% and 8% for Sorensen and myself.An ICI anda YIA director joined the Board.The acquisition of the YIA business wasnot that significant .However the direct link with ICI, our main supplier ofthe PVC raw material was important.In August 1968 when visiting the plastics exhibition in Milan Italy, Ireceived a call to return home as soon as possible..Len White, theManaging Director of MM had received an approach from Tubemakers ofAustralia (TOA) to consider a merger between Vinidex and the plasticspipe business of TO A,called the Stewarts & Lloyds plastics division.Stewarts & Lloyds was an old established steel pipe maker in theUK,while Tubemakers of Australia was owned by HHP Ltd and Stewarts& Lloyds in UK..TOA was the leading producer of steel and cast ironpipes in AustraliaThe origin of Stewarts & Lloyds plastics was the purchase in 1955 ofParfrey Plastics ,the sole producer of knitting needles during the war .Withthe advent of polythene piping Stewarts & Lloyds Plastics became a majorsupplier of these pipes ,followed by the production of PVC pipes forconduits and pressure pipes.in a newly built factory in Sunshine,an outersuburb of Melbourne.The merger took effect from January 1® 1969.The name of the companywas changed to Vinidex Tubemakers Pty.Ltd. witii the followingshareholdings: Vinidex Holdings P.L.67 % ( controlled by MM with 62 %and YL\ 38 %) and TOA 33 %Tubemakers were able to have a clause accepted in the company's articles,requiring all decisions by the Vinidex Board to be unanimous,notwithstanding TOA having only a 33 % interest.Over time this decisionmade my task as MD a great deal easier.The board now comprised the managing directors of MM and TOA and amain ICIANZ board d i rector.I was left with the task to effect the integration of the TOA plasticsoperation into those of Vinidex ,a task that became increasingly difficult.The TOA factory was equipped with large bore single screw extruders,suitable for polythene piping but not for PVC pipes.To enable single screwextruders to produce PVC pipes ,it is necessaiy to use PVC granulesas material

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Twin screw extruders can produce PVC pipe direct from powder blends,whereas granules need an extra process to convert the powder intogranules, which makes the process more expensive and less competitive. In1969 the PMG (Telstra) was making up its mind to order large quantitiesof PVC pipes for its underground cabling. Stewarts & Lloyds (S&L) couldnot compete with the granular process and attempted to extrude PVCpowder blends direct on their single screw extruders.

^ It is possible during short runs with PVC powder blends on single screwextruders to produce a PVC pipe with acceptable properties .However overlonger runs the quality deteriorates rapidly.During the initial inspection of the factory it was found that S&L hadcarefully selected samples from their runs that met the specifications andsubmitted these to the PMG ,who approved themIt took a lot of effort to convince the TOA directors on the Vinidex Boardthat the Sunshine extruders were alright for polythene pipe but useless forPVC pipe production, requiring new twin screw extruders to be purchased.

5 The PMG had become aware of the quality problems at the Sunshine plantand were no longer interested in offers from S&L.Another problem was the large quantity of scrap PVC pipes generatedduring the ill fated experiments. It would take a long time to use up thescrap..All of this caused a lot of acrimony at the Board. The ManagingDirector of TOA at the time was Mr.Gibbs, an aggressive and intolerantperson. He suffered from throat cancer and it was difficult to argue withhim knowing he was so ill. However this did not stop him from suggestingthe appointment of a consultant to look into the claims I had made. This

' was re jec ted by the o ther d i rec to rs .Unable to accept the criticisms ,the management team of S & L resignedwhich allowed the appointment of Alan as manager of the SunshinefactoryWhile TOA acquired a 33 % interest in Vinidex, the company gained littlefrom the merger. It took some time to gear up the factory with new twinscrew extruders and train new staff. Alan built up a core of loyal staff thathas served the company well to this day. Under his leadership the demandfor our products increased substantially.

' In 1973 A lan became i l l w i th cancer. Severa l opera t ions were no tsuccessful and he died on January 7*. 1974. It was a tremendous blow .Wehad gone through so much together to make it all possible. The Sunshinefactory was never the same for me again without Alan.

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During Alan's sickness I wanted to give Barbara as much support as thecompany and I could give. After Alan's death our friendship grew closerand I fell in love with her.We were both happy to start new life togetherwith our nine children.A year earlier Barbara had built a grarmy flat onto her house in TramwayParade in Beaumaris for her Mum and Dad. Having them close by allowedher to visit Alan in Hospital and continue working at the haematology

^ laboratory at the Women's Hospital.After years of an unhappy marriage I left home and rented a unit inChatswood early 1974.1 was able to be with Barbara often during businesstrips to Melbourne. On occasions Barbara came to Sydney, once bravingthe train trip when the airlines were on strike.Barbara agreed to move the family to Sydney ,a very big step consideringthe ties that she and the children had to Beaumaris,fnends, and schools.We decided that we would drive to Sydney in the Christmas holidays of1974 .1 had rented a house in Pennant Hills for our arrival in Sydney. Laterthe Beaumaris house was sold and Barbara's Mum and Dad came toSydney to live with us.The house in Pennant Hills had four bedrooms and a garage under thehouse that had been converted into a rumpus room and an office which weused as our bedroom.

By then we had Barbara's Mum and Dad, the two of us and five childrenliving in the house.It was a busy household ,with lots of tensions as we alltried to settle down and learned to live with one another in a new world.

A Our bedroom was very noisy ,with the kids using the rumpus room andstaying up late .Sometimes it got too much and we escaped for a night inSydney ,booking a top floor room at a hotel,so there would not be anyheavy footsteps above us, and getting a good night's sleep.Sue found the year 12 curriculum at Cheltenham Girls High School toodifferent form her Melbourne school and changed to a secretarial Collegeat Homsby.Bruce and Stephen joined Pennant Hills High School .Andrewwent to Pennant Hills Primary. Thea had move in with us and attendedCheltenham Girls High School

? Midway in 1975 we began looking to buy a house.After we had seemmany places we found 25 Wayfield Road in Glenhaven, a five acreproperty with a four bedroom Cape cod style two storey house with aseparate cottage that would be ideal for Barbara's Mum and Dad..The cottage had a large garage underneath

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The front garden had a circular drive .The present owners had plantedmany dozens of different trees in the front and rear of the house, making avery attractive garden .A creek meandered through the property ,whichwas mainly grass and trees, including a cricket pitch..The kitchen lookedout on 13 metre in ground swimming pool with a diving board.Wayfield Road was a pretty street with large houses all on 5 acre blocksThe owners of our house were moving to the country and wanted to stay inthe house for a further six months .That suited us as the lease on the housein Pennant Hills expired at Christmas 1975.We finally settled with theowners for a price of $ 139.000Having committed ourselves to the purchase, we needed to find what wasthen a large amount of money.We did not have much ready cash withrental and alimony payments.The sale of Barbara's house was a big help. Next we sold my boat, a 27foot Swanson, named Simon de Dancer.( A Dutch pirate, who had thefemale slaves he captured, dance around the mast of his ship) FinallyVinidex gave us a $ 40.000 loan at interest only of 4 %„which allowed usto scrape the purchase price together.We were all exited and happy to finally move into the new house inDecember '75 .

By then my divorce had come through.The newly no-fault divorce rulesallowed for a 12 months separation after which the divorce could begranted.The settlement included my ex wife getting the Epping house, halfthe remaining shares in Vinidex and no further alimony payments.Barbara and I were married on December 19*. at the Homsby Registryoffice,a quiet ceremony with two friends as witnesses.Maintaining the five acres was a big job for us, taking up most weekends.We bought a sit-on mower which was the fun part of tiie gardening.Aftermany years of this hard work we got a gardener "Joe" who came once aweek on Saturdays and stayed with us until we left Glenhaven.The children loved the house and the garden We had converted the garageunderneath the cottage into a rumpus room with TV. which they and theirfnends enjoyed.In 1976 Barbara's father died having had a stroke earlier .Nan stayed in thecottage and often looked after the children, allowing us to go on tripso v e r s e a s . .

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<9

Andrew was nine when we married and wanted to have the Bonouvriename and for me to be his Dad. The older children decided to keep theJacobe name.The first attempt to adopt Andrew failed ,as the court said his brothers andsister would become his step siblings and his step siblings would becomehis brothers and sisters and Ihis would cause problems in the future.We sought help fi-om our solicitor and provided him with a strong letter of

5 support from Richard McGarvie , then a judge of the Victorian Supreme* Court and a long time friend of Alan and Barbara. The adoption was

approved .Andrew and the rest of the family have always been happy thathe became a Bonouvrie.We had 15 happy years at Glenhaven .In the end the upkeep of the houseand the gardens became too much for us. When we received a good offerfrom a developer we accepted. The offer allowed us two more years rentfree occupation until the final payment was made. We then moved toB e e c r o f t .

A

In 1973 we had a disastrous fire in the fittings factory at Smithfield. I wascalled in the morning ,when the building was well and truly alight with 12brigades fighting the blaze. The building housed the moulding machinesand the storage of hundreds of cartons filled with fittings. The fire hadtaken hold of the storage area with the cardboard boxes burning fiercelyThe firemen concentrated on saving the moulding machines as best theycould. Although waterlogged , the machines could be repaired and put

^ back in service after the factory was rebuilt. The clean up and rebuildingtook many months .It was a terrible mess .Insurance paid for most of therepairs and rebuilding.When PVC bums it releases hydrochloric acid fumes. As result of the fire,large clouds of the acid spread over the neighbourhood .Lots of metal partsin the pipe factories were badly corroded. We received reports that clothehoists ,miles away, had been rusted by the acid. We did not receive anyclaims or fines. I am sure that today we would have been in serious troublewith the damage we caused.

A

As the demand for PVC pipes increased, we were able to support furtherinterstate production facilities .In 1972 the Brisbane factory was opened inCoopers Plain. Today Brisbane is the largest division of Vinidex.A polythene pipe factory was started in Townsville in February 1975.Whilst visiting the factory we discovered Magnetic Island,a 45 minute boatr ide f rom Townsv i l l e

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We used to fly up on a Friday morning ,spend a few hours at the factory,then took the ferry and enjoyed the weekend at the island with itsbeautiful beaches.In 1975 production commenced at the Adelaide factory ,occupying abuilding at the large Tubemaker site,with Mike Avery as manager.Even atthat time the downturn in Australia's manufacturing industry was evidentin Adelaide. A large railcar plant stood empty. Many of the Tubemakerbuildings were no longer in use.Finally in 1982 a warehouse was opened in Darwin.,by the Chief Ministerof the Northern Territory .We had first visited Darwin shortly afterCyclone Tracy destroyed the city.Darwin was a real fi-eewheeling place. Our manager shared his job withrebuilding a pearl lugger, making frequent trips to the Philipines forpleasures apparently not available in Darwin.

Head Offices:

The first office at Smithfield was a newly built small brick building infront of the factory buildings. The next move came when we acquired 3acres of land next door ,which had a timber cottage on the site.it wasadopted as our head office and for some unknown reason namedChristine's cottage by the factory crew, in honour of Christine Keeler, thenotorious UK prostitute in the news at the time as the Profumo affair.As the business grew and more interstate factories were established, it wasdecided to move head office away from Smithfield into a rented office inParramatta. When this office became too small ,the construction and leaseof a new head office building in Gordon was approved. With two floors,spacious offices ,a board room and a dining room it was a very pleasantplace to work.

The Management of the company, by 1980:

H e a d O f fi c e D . B . M a n a g i n g D i r e c t o rDavid Summer General Manager OperationsNeil Mahoney General Manager Sales and MarketingJohn Facey General Manager FinanceJim Mackillop General Manager Corporate DevelopmentTony Bonouvrie General Manager Manufacturing and Engineering

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Management

DB Cec Dennis Fred Colboume John Facey ? Neil MahoneyMaxLockhart JimMackillop David Sumner Ron LawsStuart Harris. Mike Avery

S m i t h fi e l d R o n L a w sSunshine Dennis Thompson.B r i s b a n e C o l i n M a c f a r l a n eP e r t h V i c M i d d l e t o nAdelaide Mike Avery

NSW Sta te ManagerVictorian State ManagerQueensland State ManagerW A S t a t e M a n a g e rS A S t a t e M a n a g e r

Management of the company was organised through the General ManagersCommittee (GMC) with the above members meeting once a month.I had joined the Managing Directors Committee (MDC) of MMcombining the management of the copper, cable and plastic subsidiaries.Reporting to the Vinidex Board was extensive ,with production, sales,costs and forecasts itemised for each of the factories, resulting in a heavymonthly report, that also went to the MM and BICC Boards.The meetings and paperwork took a lot of my time, but the attention todetail and the discipline of correct reporting served the company well.In my 24 years with the company Vinidex never made a loss.

The Vinidex shareholders:

In 1984,the year of my retirement, the shareholding of Vinidex was:

Vinidex Holding 62.5 % of Vinidex with Tubemakers 37.5 %In turn MM owned 60 % of Vinidex Holdings and thus controlled Vinidex,ICIANZ owned 40 % of Vinidex Holdings.

m

All of the shareholders have undergone major changes since then:MM has lost all of its cable companies. Left are the copper and aluminiumwire and tube factories and the merchandising divisionEventually MM was bought by the Cobum company of UK., a privateworld wide electrical and merchandising business. Vinidex is now awholly owned subsidiary of MM.Tubemakers has disappeared ,absorbed into BHP . ICIANZ severed its tieswith ICI UK and changed its name to Orica..ICIANZ sold its Vinidex

a share to BHP,which in turn sold out to Cobum.BICC the giant cable company, which controlled MM. is no more.All of itscable factories have been sold.The only thing left is the Balfour Beattyengineering subsidiary.It is with some satisfaction that while the giants tumbled,Vinidex hasremained the leading PVC pipe and fitting company in Australia and doingwell.In 2003 its turnover was $ 300 million with 700 employees inA u s t r a l i a

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The battle of the Boards:

BICC controlled MM and MM controlled Vinidex. Budgets ,monthlyreports and major capital expenditure projects had first to be approved bythe Vinidex board,followed by the MM board and finally by BICC. It wassometimes difficult and painful for the other Vinidex shareholders toaccept that their approvals could be overridden by MM or BICC* Twice a year Jim McCleery ,the BICC director in charge of BICC'soverseas operations would come out to Australia to audit budgets andperformancesOn one occasion David Stewart the MD of MM and I had to front theBICC board in London to present a $ 2 million project to purchase acomplete set of moulds for the production of sewer fittings .The proposalwas approved only after McCleery commented that in his opinion the claypipe people would never allow their clay fittings to be replaced by PVCfittings. Today not one clay fitting is used anymore.

A l l i a n c e s :

A major contribution to the success of Vinidex have been the alliancesforged with prominent overseas producers. The most important of thesehas been the connection and Wendship with the group of Austrianengineers who pioneered the development of the twin screw extruders andthe PVC pipe extrusion processes ,starting with the Anger company in

ft Vienna. Some of them changed to the Krauss Mafei company inGermany,a huge engineering company that is still a major manufacturer ofthe extruders.The original Anger company was taken over by Cincinatti Milicron,fromthe US A..The remainder of the engineers left Cincinatti and started theMaplan company in Vienna.The bulk of the extruders at the Vinidex plantsare Maplan machines.The Maplan company was managed by Dr. Peter Heilmayr an outstandingengineer with two degrees from the University of Vienna. The present

0 technology of PVC extrusion, screw design, material formulations and diedesigns has its origins in Peter's work.. Eventually Peter and somecolleagues moved to the United States to take charge of the PVC pipebusiness of the Certain Teed company in Valley Forge near Philadelphia.Valley Forge was the site where George Washington battled the Britishtroops during the War of Independence.

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CertainTeed was a large manufacturer of building products and operatedfive PVC pipe plants across USA. We entered into a technical assistanceagreement with CertainTeed at an annual fee of $ 30.000,giving us accessto their factories and technologies. Many Vinidex staff visited CertainTeedthrough the years ,as we did. In his time at CertainTeed Peter developedthe PVC siding (weatherboard cladding) that rapidly replaced the timberweatherboards used on American homes.Leaving CertainTeed Peter established his own company, AmericanMaplan in MacPherson near Wichita in Kansas, producing extruders andpipe dies for the American market.Eventually the European and Americam Maplan companies were takenover by Battenfeld ,a large German plastic machinery manufacturer.Further strengthening our overseas contacts Vinidex was invited to join theCICAP club ,an informal association of prominent PVC pipe producers.Members included two companies from USA,and one company from UK,France, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and Australia.Each year a different company hosted the meetings where technical andcommercial matters were discussed. .As we all supplied productionfigures, the meetings gave us a comparison how we performed.We had memorable occasions in Paris, Fort Knox, Helsinki and Frankfurt,as each host company tried to make their meeting more entertaining thanthe last. .We made many friends and the meetings were a great opportunityto travel and see new places.Vinidex benefited greatly from the experiences and knowledge gainedfrom the overseas alliances. It broadened the outlook of our employeeswho made overseas visits. Often a trip was a well deserved award for a jobwel l done.Late 1978 I sold my remaining shares in Vinidex to the other shareholdersfor $ 6.00 per share. ,a price determined by the MM auditors.I believed theprice was too low and complained to the Board,considering that my longservice with the company entitled me to a more generous price. TheChairman said now is not the time for generosity ,that will have to wait toyour retirement.!! 18 months later when ICI sold some Vinidex shares toMM the price was $ 11.77 per share. .The affair left a bitter taste.

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o

Three di fferent ventures.

Ta i w a n :

Throughout the seventies the local production of PVC raw materials by ICIand Goodrich was not enough to cover demand, with the result thatimports had to fill the gap. In many cases the landed cost of PVC from

» overseas countries were lower than the Australian prices, much to the ireof the local producers.Taiwan was one of the countries able to supply PVC at attractive prices.Having made the appointment with Formosa Plastics in Taipei to discussthe purchase of 2000 tonnes of PVC resin, Barbara and I set off by CathayPacific to Hong Kong. In that time Cathay still had first class beds in theupper section of their 747's , a great way to fly. From Hong Kong we flewby China Airlines to Taipei, where we were met by a young engineer fromFormosa Plastics and his wife Mei-Ling..They were to look after us during

® our stay. Our first call was a visit to the factory, producing Nylon andTerylene synthetic fibres, besides PVC resins.,A remarkable thing wasthat all of the production equipment had been made in Taiwan. As aspecial "treat" we were invited to morning tea with old Mr.Y.C.Wang, thefounder of the company. Our young companions were in absolute awe ofthe old man, who did not speak a word of English.Mei-Ling took her task as Barbara's guide very serious. Everywhere wewent ,Mei-Ling wanted to sit and walk beside Barbara, making me walksome steps behind. We visited Kaoshung on the southern tip of Taiwan,thecity where Mei-Ling and her husband lived. We were invited to stay withthem for a night, which was quite an experience, particularly in the fooddepartment. Mei-Ling showed us the attic of their house, an open spacewith two single chairs. Every Friday evening Mei-Ling and her husbandwould go up to the attic, sit in the chairs and talk about each othersmistakes and slights made during the week ,A recipe for peace andharmony Mei-Ling said. We also visited a well known Taiwanese yachtbuilder. It was scary to see how young boys were polishing the fibreglass

^ in a dusty atmosphere without much ventilation or even a face mask .Aftera few interesting days we flew home again.There was a sequel to our trip some six weeks later, when the ship carryingthe PVC from Taiwan docked in Sydney,2000 tonnes of PVC equates to80.000 paper bags of 25 kg .each ,which were supposed to be neatly andsafely stacked in the ship's holds .It must have struck rough seas .becausewhen the holds were opened, every hold was a big mess with broken bagsand PVC powder all over the place

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The shipment was insured with Tubemakers' shipping department,whichhad a fierce battle with the shipping company over who would pay for thedamage.The ship was arrested,and the arrest notice nailed to the mast.Inthe end the shipping company paid up. We did well out of it with theinsurance money and part of the load retrieved from the ship.

Indonesia .

In 1972 Vinidex received a large contract for the supply of PVC telephoneduct for the city of Jakarta in Indonesia .The contract was part of the socalled tied aid from Australia to Indonesia.There were a number of small PVC pipe extruders operating in Jakarta atthe time. We discussed possible joint ventures with them, but none seemedsuitable partners. During a later visit I was introduced to a Mr.Williams,who was the teacher of English for the children of President Soeharto .Hishouse was next to the Jakarta presidential residence.* Williams use to have a kind of court at his house a few mornings per weekwhen all sorts of people , generals, businessmen and government officerssat around and discussed their affairs, sometimes in English. He invited mea number of times to sit in, which was a rather strange experience. It wasobvious that people came to the discussion to seek Williams' interventionwith the President. When Williams learned of my interest in looking at themanufacture of PVC pipes in Indonesia, he introduced me to the Salimfamily, running one of the most powerful enterprises in the country, with

^ monopolies in cement and flour production ,as well as several otherbusinesses including a bank. The patriarch of the family was Mr.SiemLong ,a migrant from mainland China. As most of the commerce andindustry is in the hands of the Chinese community, there has always beena great deal of resentment from the locals to the Chinese. As result manyprominent Chinese changed their name to an Indonesian sounding one,hence the Salim name for the family.Siem Liong lived with his extended family in a luxurious Jakartacompound .The widespread Salim business was run by a council of elders

^ with Siem Liong making the final decisionsTony Salim was the oldest son, designated to negotiate with us on a jointventure between Salim and Vinidex. He seemed very young ,but capable,(today Tony runs the Salim empire) The next step was to obtaingovernment approval for the venture

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This was a very complex process, requiring many months of analyses andthe preparation of two large volumes of proposal details. During thisperiod it became increasingly clear that the joint venture would be .mainlycarried by Vinidex. All that Salim was prepared to do was to contribute aparcel of land and their name and influence in exchange for a 50% share.Bribery was an ugly feature of life in Jakarta. A friend of mine,representing a large international drum manufacturer, tried to sell his

^ products to the Indonesian oil company Pertamina. The general in chargeof the company indicated that he was expecting a "presemt".When myfriend offered him US $ lO.OOO.the general said he was insulted by thislittle amount and vowed never to give business to my friend's company.On one occasion I needed to collect a parcel from the post office. Theclerk could only find the parcel after he was suitable rewarded.Some time in 1973 I received an invitation from the Salim company toattend the opening of their newest flour mill in Surabaya by PresidentSoeharto.We rode in the presidential motorcade to the new factory where

® together with many others I was presented to Soeharto. Overnight I stayedin a fine house, owned by a cigarette manufacturer .He took me to see hisfactory, where hundreds of Javanese girls squatted on the factory floorrolling cigarettes in their little hand held rolling gadgets,inserting thecloves in the process.We finally received approval for the venture, but I was increasinglyconcerned how little Salim were contributing. I went to see the land Tonyhad earmarked for us It was smaller than I had hoped, but it would do

^ Then an ugly incident occurred. In our submission to the government I hadmentioned the support we had received from Williams, whom I describedin the report as the teacher of the president's children.. This apparentlywas a mistake. Williams was furious and from then on boycotted mealtogether.The matter was not much easier with the Vinidex Board..In Indonesia aforeigner is not allowed to own land, only lease it and then only for 30years.. The Board was really not all that happy for Vinidex to ventureoverseas and demanded that I negotiate a 90 year lease, which of coursewas not possible .1 had enough by then and decided to call off the deal.Barbara and I went to Jakarta to advise Tony of our decision which heaccepted with good grace.

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An attempt to built our own PVC polymer plant.

During the 70's and 80's two PVC plants were operating in Australia , theICI factory at Botany in Sydney and the Goodrich facility at Altona nearMelbourne .The combined output of the two plants never seemed enoughto satisfy local demand and most larger users were forced to import.Australia had a very cheap source of ethylene, the basic raw material forthe manufacture of PVC ,but also one of the highest prices for the PVCresin. It was in ICI's and Goodrich's interest to keep the supply tight so thehigh prices could be maintained.Earlier I explained the technical agreement Vinidex had with theCertainTeed Corporation, one of America's leading PVC pipe producers,CertainTeed had a close relationship with the French company RhonePoulenc a leading manufacturer of PVC resins. Rhone Poulenc haddeveloped a special PVC resin suitable for the extrusion of PVC pipes.CertainTeed had found that the so called mass polymer PVC extrudedfaster and resulted in better quality pipes They decided to build a PVCplant in Lake Charles in the State of Louisiana ,based on the RhonePoulenc technology.PVC is made by combining ethylene with chlorine into ethylene dichloride (EDC) and converting this to PVC monomer,which is thenpolymerised into PVC polymer .Polymerisation is the process changing thesingle monomer molecule into long strands of molecular chains that giveplastics their strength and special properties. CertainTeed purchased themonomer from the PPG company nearby and built a factory tomanufacture 100.000 tonnes of mass polymer PVC ,mainly for their ownconsumptionCertainTeed's success and the ongoing PVC shortages in Australiasparked the thoughts in our minds to investigate the possibility of aVinidex mass polymer venture.This involved negotiations with Rhone Poulenc for the technology licenceand the supply of the major equipment items., seeking a source of PVCmonomer and finding a suitable location for the factory. We engaged theservices of the worldwide consulting company Mc.Kinsey ,who madeavailable a team of three highly competent specialist to help us puttogether a proposal that would analyse the costs and benefits of the plan.The team was headed by Fred Hilmer, presently the MD of the Fairfaxmedia company. It was an interesting and exciting exercise working withthem They were extremely demanding in their search for facts and figures.

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Their report was favourable ,from memory the cost was about $ 26 millionwith an attractive cost picture for the PVC polymer.The Vinidex Board was not all that keen on such a large undertaking. TheChairman Dr.David Stewart decided he wanted to have look at theCertainTeed plant. Pat Stewart and Barbara came with us.We flew fromNew Orleans to Lake Charles in a small plane through wild weather. Thepolymer plant looked efficient and CertainTeed were happy with the PVCresin for their factories. However David was not convinced and it was clearhe would not support the plan.In the meantime ICI had become seriously concemed with our plans anddispatched their Chairman Sir David Zeidler to London to seek BICC's helpto scuttle the planned venture. Sir David's proposal to BICC was that ICIwould be prepared to build a third PVC plant in Laverton near Melbourne ifVinidex were to abandon their plans.And this is how this adventure finished. ICI did indeed build their plant inLaverton which overcame the PVC shortages. David Stewart often told methat our plan would have sunk Vinidex without a trace. May be he was right,maybe not.,but we had a lot of fun putting the proposal together and got agood result in the end.Sir David became Chairman of Metal Manufactures a few years later

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In 1984 David Stewart announced his decision to retire as ManagingDirector of Metal Manufactures and as Chairman of Vinidex.He was to bereplaced by Fred Heinrichs, head of Austral Cables. I was not happy tohave him as my chairman and decided to retire from the company after 24years.The date was set for August 15* . 1984.Before then Barbara and Ivisited the factories and branches .The farewells were very warm andgenuine. It was hard to say goodbye to so many friends and colleagues.

® We were given many fine gifts.I received my superannuation payout of $ 400.000,and had to return the$ 40.000 loan. The total of my golden handshake was the two year oldStatesman motorcar.A farewell dinner was held at the Union Club in Sydney with the Directorsand the company's management teamVinidex head office staff had selected a nice "Andris Jansons" paintingfor us. Shortly before the farewell dinner, David Stewart came to the officeand took the painting which he presented at the dinner.Vinidex head office

^ h a d t o fi n d a n o t h e r g i f t .

Summing up 24 years running a company is not that easy

I loved the manufacturing processes, solving the production problems andthe continuing expansion of new products,equipment and factories.I havealways been conscious of the importance of our people,to make part of theVinidex family .1 believe there was a special bond of trust with many ofthem. I was privileged to have travelled the world on so many occasionsmost of them with Barbara .making many friends in many places.On the other side of the coin were the problems dealing with theshareholders and the control exercised by them.. It was often difficultbalancing their demands with the needs of the company .Perhaps I waswishing for more support and acknowledgements but their was little of thatPeople have asked me often if I was sorry not to have owned the companyor at least have a substantial part of it. If I had had the commercial trainingand experience I now have ,when I started Vinidex.I perhaps could have

^ managed to keep some measure of control.But in no way am I sorry, .They have been 24 exciting and rewardingyears which I would not have missed for the world..

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Sailing

1966 "Achemar" 28 ft. plywood sloop on Sydney Harbour Sold 1969

1969 " Simon de Dancer" 27 ft. Swanson sloop in Pittwater .Sold 1975

1978 " Pipedream" 43 ft. Peterson Cutter, in Pittwater. Sold 1986.

1989 " Hush" 33 ft. Arends sloop in Pittwater and Pt.Stephens. Sold 1993

Sydney - Hobart Race 1980/81

1 0 2 e n t r a n t s .

Pipedream elapsed time 4 days and 5 hours. With 10 crew.

Maximum 13 kt. run in Bass Strait. 35 kt wind east of Tasmania.

71 \ across the line. 43* . on handicap,

Barbara was waiting in Hobart .We sailed back to St.Helens via MariaIsland and Bicheno. Flew back to Sydney.

Pipedream in Storm Bay 198

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Barbara on the helm of Pipedream in Broken Bay.

ROYAL.PRINCE ALFRED YACHT CLUBN 2 i n D I V I S I O N

P I T T W AT E R

SIMON DE DANSER"2 0 - 9 - 6 94 1 0 - 6 9

7 - 3 - 7 0

D.W. BONOUVRIEF I R S T

T H I R D

F I R S T

I did win some races.

Holidays Barbara on moped on Spetsi Island Greece

f t

Not quite retired.

After retirement many new ventures were beckoning,the first of whichwas the Maplan agency.Maplan in Vienna were the producers of twin screw extruders for themanufacture of PVC pipes. Vinidex had the exclusive rights to the Maplanextruders in Australia for many years. At the time of my retirement some

^ Vinidex managers wanted to introduce other types of extruders.Maplan'sresponse to this was to tighten the agreement by demanding a minimumyearly order of machines which was not acceptable to Vinidex. At ourfarewell visit to Vienna, Maplan offered us the agency for the Maplanextruders in Australia, New Zwealand and Fiji .It was an attractive offer. Itincluded a 15 % commission on all sales. All we had to do was to book theorder and Maplan would supply and invoice the customer. Based onVinidex' success in the market place many of the pipe producers inAustralia and New Zealand would have liked access the Maplan extruders,

- but could not. With the market thrown open ,there was a pent up demandwhich we were happy to supply .All of this was not so good for Vinidex,but after the not so golden handshake at retirement I had no qualms sellingthe extruders to whoever wanted them.We converted the garage at our Glenhaven home to an office with atypewriter and a telex machine.Our daughter Sue,who by now occupied thelittle cottage on our property ,with Stefan and Katie,was our secretary .Shewas the only one who could manage the telex.It was a happy time. Baby

^ Katie spent most of the day in the office in her pram,while the ordersrolled in. After three years demand started to decline sharply and whenMaplan reduced the commission we called it a day. Our son Joep helpedfor a while in the office but left to rejoin the computer industry. Heinz andRenate Ratheiser, the then owners of Maplan Vienna are still our verygood fnends.

Next came a directorship of the RibLoc company in Adelaide .BillMenzel, its founder had been General Manager of Iplex Plastics ,Vinidex*

^ main competitor in PVC pipes and fittings. Whereas Iplex specialised infittings Vinidex had the major share of the pipe market .Over tiie years Billand I had built up a good relationship.Having left Iplex Bill started his own company RibLoc to manufacturespirally wound PVC and Polythene piping.When the company was floatedon the Stock Exchange, Bill asked me to join the Board.

A- 5 5 -

Wanda Beach Salamander Bay Port Stephens.

«»>

Bill was an inveterate inventor, using a lot of shareholder money inendless experiments. The most promising product was a process to relinefailing sewer mains ,for which licenses were negotiated with manyoverseas companies. A major order was won for the relining of leakingsewer mains in Abu Dhabi ,a very difficult and costly project. .RibLocmade little or no profits and never paid a dividend to the shareholders.I tried hard to introduce production efficiencies and cost controls ,but Billas the controlling shareholder did not want to listen, I resigned in 1999after 13 years on the board.In his youth Bill had worked with asbestos products and had contractedmesothelioma .He underwent a pioneering gene treatment in USA that fora while seemed to have cleared the cancer.,but not for long. Bill died in2 0 0 3 .

Another appointment was to the Board of Marley Plastics in Auckland NZproducers of PVC flooring and PVC guttering, planning to expand intoPVC pipe and fittings. To assist in this they signed a technical agreementw i t h V i n i d e x .When NZ Forests Ltd., a large paper producer, took an interest in Marleythey asked me to join the board. NZ Forests operated a paper mill inKinleith, some 250 km south of Auckland, surrounded by huge pineplantations feeding the mill. NZ Forests was then a successful companywith many diverse interests. The monthly trips to New Zealand werepleasant, with first class air travel and accomodation..The inefficient manufacture of PVC flooring was scrapped, concentratingon the production of PVC piping, fittings, guttering and siding(weatherboards) which expanded quite rapidly.A major problem occurred with the guttering and siding.A specificstabiliser in the PVC reacted with the hydrogen sulphide fumes from theRotarua region ,discolouring the guttering and siding badly. Thereplacement costs were very high.When I retired fi-om Vinidex I resigned from the Marley board.Since then Marley NZ has further expanded, but NZ Forests has notsurvived. The Kinleith mill and pine forests were sold to Carter Holt Ltd.

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American Maplan 1985.

In 1985 I was asked by Peter Heilxnayr, President of the American MaplanCorporation to become chairman of the company .American Maplan wasformed by a group of engineers from the original Maplan company inVi e n n a .American Maplan operated in MacPherson, a small town not far fromWichita in the middle of the wheat fields of Kansas , manufacturing theMaplan twin screw extruders and a range of pipe dies.The appointment carried an annual fee of US $ 50.000 and required me tobe in MacPherson three times a year for a month at the time. The trip wasquite long. A stop over in Hawaii, then via Los Angeles to St. Louis,a short flight to Wichita and finally an hour's drive to MacPherson. It wasimpractical for Barbara to stay in a motel while I was working, so wedecided to buy a house which is quite easy to do in USA. We found a niceplace for US $ 60.000.A11 we had to do was to visit the local bank ,whoasked me how much deposit we wished to pay and over how many yearswe wanted to pay off the house. The approval took just one day. Wepurchased the furniture in Mac Pherson town.Over time the job of chairman became difficult. The Austrian engineerswere the last big spenders. Everything from groceries ,drinks, laundry andhouse repairs were charged to the company. One of the team virtuallyfinanced the building of his villa at the company's expense.Peter rented an old school building a few miles out of town and convertedit into a genuine Austrian restaurant, with no expense spared. Carved woodwork and imported furniture created a real Austrian atmosphere. Even thechef was brought over from Austria. All of this was financed by thecompany. The "Peppermill" restaurant never made any money as few ofthe locals ever came to dinner. In the end it became an expensive privateclub for the staff and visitors.. All of this put a severe strain on thecompany's finances. I visited Houston and Pittsburg to seek funds fromlast resort lenders without success. I recommended reductions of the highsalaries and stopping the use of credit cards for personal expenses. Thiswas not well received. There was not much more I could do and put in myresignation. Our house was eventually sold for what we paid for it.In later years the European and American Maplan companies were sold toBattenfeld, a large German producer of plastic processing equipment.Peter Heilmayer lost his wife to cancer, leaving him to look after their twosmall children We lost contact after that

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The Plastics Institute of Australia and the Skills Centres.

In 1980, representing the plastic pipe industry ,I became a director of thePlastics Institute ,an organisation comprising most of the companies in theplastics industry as well as individual members .In 1982 I was persuadedto accept the presidency of the Institute, soon finding out why there wereno other nominations for the job. The Institute was in dire financial straits

® with a lot of unhappy members. I spend the next two years putting someorder in the place and was pleased to hand over to my successor (SusanRyan) with the Institute in better shape than I found it. My reward was alife membership of the Institute.

To accommodate the growth of the industry in the 70*s and 80's theprocessing equipment became increasingly sophisticated, which in turncreated a demand for better skilled operators.In 1982 I took on the position of Chairman of the National Plastics® Industry Training Council, which was closely allied to the Plastics Instituteand had representatives of TAPE and Government. The first Skills Centrewas opened in Melbourne with equipment donated by industry andvolunteer teachers and instructors. Following a lot of hard work SkillsCentres were opened in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.Although industry acknowledged the need for a better skilled workforceand applauded the aims of the Skills Centres, it was very difficult to obtainthe contributions from industry needed to support the Centres. I stayed on

^ the Council till 1990.From then on the centres were gradually incorporatedinto the TAPE structure.

Today there are established courses for plastics supervisors andtechnicians at TAPE colleges as well as a RMIT degree course in polymertechnology. There is even talk of creating a plastics apprenticeshipscheme.

The Aus t ra l i an Award .

^ In 1990 Barney French, member of the NSW Upper House and Doug Faye,NSW manager of the Training Council, felt that I could be eligible for anAustralian Award and started working on the preparation. This included apersonal CV and a long list of referees. On October IS***. 1990 I received aletter fi^om the Governor General stating that my name was beingconsidered as a Member of the Order of Australia. Would I like to accept?The investiture was on February 19*. '91 Barbara and Pat Stewart camewith me on this special day.

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Governof'Gentral of th CommontoealihvfAustmliti andChiwcdlor of ike Order of Australia ;,

D I R K W I L L E M B O N O U V R I E <

Gfo/iny'EREAS wOh the approval of Her Majesty Qtuen EJi fibeffi..

I'T.-f-r.

■ ';J /uwe Mrn pU h appoint you io he a Mernberin the Gerurid Dh oh• o f ^ Q r d e f ' O f ^ t m i a - : -

. OJ)jifHuse Profits appoint you to be a Member tn the

; digruiyofiuckappo withMemhenhipxnheMOritrandallpri thmunhappertmnir

mK r t :

A'.; ^-y"''- •-■■ Seenb>^4^0iiert(Aiiknli

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Lift Australia PtyXtd.

In 1988 Geoff and I bought a half share each in a company we named LiftAustralia. The company was the agent for Lift GmbH in Vienna Austria.Lift manufactured display stands for cassettes and CD's in record shops.

Q We found a great deal of interest from the record retailers. Myer, DavidJones and many other larger and smaller stores had their shops fitted outwith the Lift stands. Over time Geoff's own record business Mall Musicwas growing to the point where he found it difficult to give enough time toLift. In 1993 I bought out his shareAs the years went by ,the demand for the Lift products started to decline.By then most record shops throughout Australia had Lift stands in theirshop. Firms like Myer, Sanity and others wanted their shop to lookdifferent from the "Lift look" and design their own fit-out .Another

5 problem was the large amount of accumulated stock that was now difficultto sell.

Finally in 1998 we decided to close the businessWe were able to pay off all creditors and liquidate the stocks at fire saleprices .incurring substantial losses. We have kept Lift Australia on as ourinvestment and consulting company, gradually offsetting our incomeagainst the losses.

Allersearch and Dynavac.

In 1992 I became a Director and Chairman of Dynavac Pty.Ltd. , theholding company for two subsidiaries : Allersearch and DynavacEngineeringDynavac was established in 1952 by John Lewis ,an engineer who wasm a k i n g s m a l l v a c u u m p u m p s f o r i n d u s t r y .Allersearch was marketing a range of asthma related products, such asventilators and peak flow meters for asthma sufferers .Ventilators required

^ small vacuum pumps which it obtained from Dynavac. EventuallyDynavac acquired the Allersearch company. By 1992 the Engineeringcompany had expanded into the production of complete vacuum systemsthat were one-off and complicated projectsJohn Lewis, a bachelor without family, had established the John LewisCharitable Trust, that owned all of his assets .including Dynavac Pty.Ltd.He decided to put his employees in control of the company byincorporating Dynavac Nominees Pty.Ltd as the Trustee for his CharitableTrust and making each employee a shareholder of the Nominee company

® Four employees were elected as directors..

This ownership had engendered an almost communistic style of runningthe company .There was no hierarchy ,no titles, just endless meetings.As some employees put it "We are here to support each other and to havefun, not to make profits" It soon became apparent tiiat this managementphilosophy was not working. The first change was made by appointingtwo outsider directors to the board of Nominees. One was Russ McKenziea retired Dunlop General Manager ,who over time became deeply involved

m in the affairs of the Dynavac companies. The next step was to convince theemployees that a more orthodox management structure would benefit thecompany. After some hectic negotiations, the employees ,with a narrowmargin ,agreed to give up their ownership of the Nominee company ,whichwas replaced as Trustee by three individual Trustees ,which were Russ,Ian Roberts, a Hobart solicitor and myself.

In addition to the manufacture of vacuum systems Dynavac Engineeringwere the agents for a number of prominent overseas producers of vacuum

® pumps which were imported and distributed to wholesalers and industryOver time it became apparent that the manufacture of vacuum systems wasunprofitable, the figures obscured by the profits on the trading of importedvacuum pumps. The systems were complex and expensive one -off units.Manufacturing costs were high and often well in excess of quoted prices.Eventually the decision was taken to close the manufacturing activity andconcentrate on merchandising the imported pumps. A number of staff hadto be made redundant.

- Allersearch ,the other subsidiary of Dynavac, also imported its products,mainly fi-om Italy in the form of a range of ventilators, peak flow metersand associated products. Originally the company sold these direct to the5000 pharmacies in Australia. TTiis required an extensive selling andmarketing staff. In addition the Allersearch managers devised anambitious plan to establish an asthma training scheme with the majorchemists. TTie increased costs to make this work threatened the companywith increasing losses.

^ In 1999 it was decided to hand over the marketing of the Allereaerchproducts to an international medical distribution company Becton &Dickinson (BD) in return for a 10 % commission to Allersearch.

. - 6 0 -

e

A major blow was the decision by the Commonwealth Bank, thecompany's banker for the last 27 years to no longer support the companyrequiring the overdraft and outstanding loans to be repaid. An approach tothe Bendigo Bank for funding failed. To avoid the company's downfallRuss and I each provided a $ 500.000 loan to the company. This causedhardship to both of us. Russ had to sell valuable shares resulting in capitalgain taxes, whereas we had to sell the unit in Sanctuary Cove. Even theseloans were not sufficient and we had to sell the building the companyowned for $ 1.6 m in return for the company taking out a 10 year leasefi-om the new owners. Russ and I decided to convert the loans into shareswhich gave both of us a 45 % shareholding in Dynavac with theCharitable Trust retaining a 10 % share.Things at Engineering went from bad to worse. The principals of our twomost important agencies decided to set up shop in Australia, threatening50 % of our sales. Finally we found one of them, Rietschle - Thomasinterested to negotiate the purchase of the engineering company ,with ourcustomer list the main attraction for them .After protracted discussions wewere pleased to have sold this troublesome division. Rietschle-Thomashave done well with their purchase as it fitted in nicely with all of theirac t i v i t i es .Becton Dickinson (BD) started to lose interest in the Allersearch products..Russ and BD were able to negotiate the sale of Allersearh to EBOS a NewZealand company for an attractive priceThe EBOS company is also pleased with their purchase. .It is with somesatisfaction to know that both the Engineering and Allersearch companieshave found a good home.Russ and I have been fortunate to have John Jeffreys ,an executive of theWestern Mining Company as a director on our Board with Ivan Clyne,achartered accountant as our company secretary. Both gave their unstintingsupport and advice throughout the difficult years.One of these difficulties was our misfortune to have a dishonest managingdirector whose lavish use of the company's funds further undermined thebusiness. Getting rid of him was another painful exercise.I have been fortunate that out of these problem has emerged a strongfnendship of Barbara and I with Russ and Betty McKenzie ,John andSue Jeffreys and Ivan and Leonie Cline..We decided it would be nice tohave a reunion twice each year .We have had a memorable get together inBeechworth in Victoria and recently in Gippsland.

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Our Melbourne "Dynavac' friends

Russ & Betty McKenzie

Ivan & Leonie Clyne

Holiday

Barging on the river Lot in France.

7 T H T T P O AHoliday El Questro Kimberleys

Our unit in Sanctuary Cove Queensland

It has been an exciting journey,which has given me many rewards:

30 wonderful years together with Barbara

The joy, love and friendship we have had from our children

The chance to start and lead a pioneering company that is stillgoing strong.

I hope you will read my story with pleasure.

Dick Bonouvrie 10*** April 2005.

A

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B O N O U V R I E FA M I LY T R E E

Jean Baptiste Bonnouvrier Bom StJeanAngely France 1710Died The Hague Holland 1797Married Susanna de la Serre 1709

Pastor El ie Pierre Boimouvrie B o m R o t t e r d a mD i e d Z o e l m o n dMarried Belida Chaigneau

174118061795

Antonie Jan Bonouvr ie B o m Z o e l m o n dD i e d B e u s i c h e mMarried Jantje van Gulick

177818431802

sW i l l e m B o n n o u v r i e B o m B e u s i c h e m

D i e d B e u s i c h e mMarried J. van Batenburg

181118881834

D i r k Bonouv r i e

(grandfather)B o m B e u s i c h e mD i e d S l i e d r e c h tMarr ied Anneke Greve

187119461897

A

Anthonie Jan Bonouvr ie B o m L e x m o n dDied The HagueMarried Geertmida v. DykDied The Hague

1897195419221986

D i r k W i l l e m B o n o u v r i e B o m R o t t e r d a mMarried Hetty DoomemikDivorced SydneyMarried Barbara Jacobe

1923194819741975

e t

O u r C h i l d r e n

Joep (John) Andrew Geoffrey Sterphen Bruce

Jackie Tony Sue Thea

-RKDQQHV�

Susan Jane Flegman was bom on31®* March 1958 at St .Andrew'sHospital in East Melbourne.It is with great difficulty, as hermum ,I am writing Sue's story ,because sadly our beautifuldaughter died on 26 June 2004after a 15 month battle withc a n c e r .

Sue lived her first sixteen years at 194 Tramway Parade Beaumaris withher 3 younger brothers Bruce ,Stephen and Andrew. She attendedBeaumaris North Primary school, with her many friends including JanColquhoun and Anne Reid. The Wrays, Nancy (Mclntyre) and childrenJill, Sue and Lindsay lived next door ,so there was always a friend close athand. She also had 9 cousins - Cliff and Barbara Forrester's children,Clifford, James, Anne, Janet, David and Helen and Ron and BarbaraJacobe's three children John, Helen and Jenny, so there were lots offamily parties and get togethers.Most school holidays were spent with the Sanders ,Marcia, Ron andtheir children Chris,Paul ,Robin and Anne at beachside McCrae. It wasalways a happy place with lots of kids, swimming, bunk beds, a boat andwell equipped boatshed on the beach Sue was the eldest ,so she"mothered" the younger ones, especially Andrew who was 8 yearsy o u n g e r ,Sue attended Mentone Girls High, until year 11. Her best friends Christineand Sharon remained close over the years. They flew to Sydney for aweekend when she was ill and spent some time with her,In January 1974 her father Alan died and a year later the family moved toSydney to live with Dick. Sue found it difficult to leave her friends,but she.was gaining a sister, Thea who Was only 6 months older.Dick also had 4 other children ,but they were all living away from home,either married or studying.Thea and Sue became great friends ,shared a bedroom and lots of fun andadventures.. In 1978 they went to Honolulu for two weeks ,but Thea had tohave her appendix removed in an emergency operation ,so they stayedlonger while she recovered enough to fly home. A business friend ofDick's offered to keep an eye on them and lent Sue a car for a week. Sueat 18,had little driving experience ,but was full of confidence so theytoured Oahu and had a great time.

When Sue came to Sydney ,she did a 12 months AdvancedSecretarial Course at Homsby Tech. and worked as a secretary atSeagrams and AKAI.Dick became Sue's second father and for the next 30 years they wereas close as any father and dau ter could possibly be.At the end of 1975 the family moved into 25 Wayfield RoadGlenhaven ,a large two storey house on 5 acres with a swmmmigpool ,a tennis court and a cottage next door.Sue's grandparents - Nan and Fuff - who were always a veryimportant part of her life ,moved into the cottage. Sadly Fuff whowas not in good health died 6 months later ,but Nan continued toalways be there for the family she was absolutely devoted to.

In December 1980 Sue met Stefan Flegman ,a Qantas flight attendanton a flight to Hong Kong .They married on 18 . May 1985 ,lived inan apartment in Neutral Bay and than bought a townhouse in NorthRyde. Kate was bom on 26% May 1986 by ceasarian. Sadly Nan died4 months before on 17*''. January aged 85.

In 1984 Dick retired from Vinidex to start a business from homemarketing extruders.A log cabin was built next to the pool andbecame a large home office. Dick needed a secretary so Sue joinedthe business ..Kate m her pram or crawling on the floor was a dailyvisitor to the office.As the cottage was empty ,it made sense for Sue , Stefan and Kate tomove in. They lived there for 5 years ,until Kelly was bom ,also byceasarian on February 19* . 1991. The cottage was now too small fortheir larger family ,so they bought a house nearby in Jaffa RoadDural .When the girls were small Sue did some part time work in"Country Lane" a ladies clothing shop in Pennant Hills and selling"Mini Minors" childrens clothes at home parties.For a few years she took up "paper toling" and did some beautifulpictures, some of which she sold very successfully and others that arehanging at home, a constant reminder that whatever she did, she didexceptionally wellIn 2001 she started, what tumed out to be her "perfect job " workingas receptionist for physiotherapists Kathryn and Michael Dessen inCastle Hill,three days a week. She loved the friendly atmosphere ofthe practice and was really happy

Unfortunately she could no longer work because of her illness, but theirfiiendship continued to the end and even now Kathryn shows greatkindness and concern for the family.Travelling overseas was something Sue got a taste for when she was singleAfter she met Stefan ,they went on some great trips, flying with Qantas toEurope, Japan and America. One of the best was in 2002 when Sue ,Stefan, Kate and Kelly went to the USA ,spending three weeks inCalifornia and Las Vegas .They had a wonderful holiday ,which alsotumed out to be very timely ,as less than 6 months later she became ill.Over the years there were also many happy family holidays ,in SalamanderBay,Sanctuary Cove and Noosa.Towards the end of2002 Sue was saying that she was feeling very tired,but unfortunately blood tests were not done by her G.P. until March whenher tiredness was so bad ,she thought she may have Chronic FatigueSyndrome. Her blood test showed problems with her liver function and anultrasound test showed a very large tumour on her liver and another in herspleen. After a biopsy she was diagnosed with a rare primary cancer of theliver and a secondary in her spleen. There was even more devastating newswhen her surgeon said he could not operate as the tumour was too large.Stefan took holidays and long service leave to look after Sue and the girls.Both girls were at Hills Grammar School. Kate 16 .was in year 12 andKelly 12 was in year 7.During the next 15 months, Sue had many different treatments and threestays in hospital ,but nothing seemed to help. Stefan and Sue decided tosell their house in Glenhaven and move closer to Dick and I and the rest ofthe family . They rented a brand new apartment with a view of theParramatta river, about 200 metres from us. It was wonderful to have herso close and we saw each other every day, either at her place or ours andwe were all able to support each other in many ways.Kate had finished high school and had enrolled in a Diploma ofEntertainment Make-up course at the Napoleon Academy in Paddingtonfor 2004. Kelly had to change schools and choose the InternationalGrammar School in Ultimo, where she started in 2004.In July 2003 we had a wonderful family party fro Dick's SO ' .birhtday atStephen and Lindy's house. All 9 children ,their partners and childrenattended and Sue had a great time catching up with everyone.We managed two family holidays to Sanctuary Cove,which Sue chose,one in September 2003 ,the other one in January 2004.. In January she wasvery frail and unable to do much ,but she managed to swim in her favouritepool ,tiie lagoon at the Hyatt and go to the village in the golf cart.

By February her health was deteriorating rapidly and she was admitted tothe palliative care unit of the Canterbury Hospital, where they changed hermedications and she improved enough to come home.During her illness Stefan was her devoted carer and looked after herbeautifully day and night .Kate and Kelly were also a wonderful help totheir mum. A nurse would come every day to shower her and administerher cocktail of drugs .Sue never lost her sense of humour or her beautifulsmile and loved it when her nieces and nephews, Amelia, Ayo. Thomasand Jack visited, because they made her laugh. A special hospital bed wasset up at home ,so she was very comfortable and did not have to go back tohospital.She died peacefully in her sleep at 12.40 am on 26 . June 2004During her 46 years she touched so many lives in such a beautiful andpositive way and will always be remembered for her love of the family ,hersense of fim, calm nature and wonderful smile, none of which she .lostduring her long illness.Kate started working in December with David Jones, as a make-up artist inthe Estee Lauder department at Chatswood and loves her job. Kelly is inyear 9 at IGS and has lots of close friends and is very happy there.Thankfully the family continued to live in the apartment in Abbotsford,and the girls call in at least twice a week,which is great for us, Since JuneStefan has devoted himself to caring for the girls .Kate got her drivinglicence in February and has become very independent and Kelly is verygrown up and capable for her age.Sue would have been very proud of her two beautiful daughters

Bruce Alan Jacobe.

Bom lO**". March 1960 at St.AndrewsHospital East Melbourne.I lived in Tramway Parade Beaumarisand went to Beaumaris NorthPrimary and Beaumaris High Schoolfor the years 7 ,8 and 9.

In December 1974 we all moved to Sydney to live in Pennant Hills for 12months .After Mum and Dick got married in 1975 we moved to our fiveacre property in GlenhavenI had year 10 at Pennant Hills High School, which I left when I was 15 totake a job at Vinidex. At first I worked in the laboratory ,beforetransferring to the sales department including six months at the CoffsHarbour sales depot. I was with Vinidex for five years till age 20.After that I had a number of jobs; being a representative for Candida ,aNew Zealand company making envelopes and for the Yellow Pagescompany. For some years I was unsettled and often at a loose end.

All that changed, when I was accepted in 1984 by Qantas as a flightattendant on their international routes at the age of 24.and promoted tocabin supervisor in 1989.1 have now been with Qantas for 20 years ,having flown to all five continents. I estimate that I have made at least 170return trips to London.Although jet lag and difficult passengers are not always easy to handle Ihave enjoyed and still am enjoying the work, in particular visiting overseascities. One of my hobbies is to browse at foreign markets and add to myc o l l e c t i o n o f r a r e l o c k s -

Competition in the airline industry has reduced some of the benefits staffenjoyed before, including fewer crew members and fewer lay over daysb e t w e e n s e c t o r s .

In 1968 I met Beverly Fox . In time we were able to purchase a smallterrace house in Surrey Hills, where we lived until 2002. We were marriedi n 1 9 9 8

Beverly suffered two miscarriages before becoming pregnant with Ameliawho was bom in 2001 after a traumatic birth that almost cost her life.

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At Amelia's birth something went horribly wrong. She did not breathe andhad turned blue. After CPR and two doses of adrenalin she revived andspend a week in intensive care before spending another week in thehospital.We were very scared that the lack of oxygen during the birth might havecaused brain damage and it took many tests by experts before we couldrelax and hope that she would be fine.

» Amelia is now 3 years old and is a veiy bright, energetic and happy littlegirl.

We sold the house in Surry Hills to find a better place for Amelia to growup in. As a first step we rented a nice unit in Abbotsford, close to whereMum and Dick l ive.

Unhappily our marriage did not last .We separated in November 2004.Eeare now sharing the care for Amelia. I look after her when I am home fi*ommy trips and Beverly does so at other times.

- The last few years with Beverly were difficult and stressful and with asense of relief I can and will rebuild my life.

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Doberman f rom down the road to re

Stephen John Jacobe Bom 12/1/62at St.Andrew's Hospital East Melb.I spent the first 13 years of my lifein Beaumar is Victor ia .

Primary 1976 to 1973 and in 1974one year at Beaumaris High.We kept pet rabbits in a long cagein the back yard, and one day thethrough the chicken wire with his

claws .1 found Licorice untouched but outstretched and as stiff as a boardObviously scared to death..And I remember "crackers" ,not just tomthumbs or sky rockets ,but penny and tuppenny hungers Now therewas an accident waiting to happen (and for a couple of neighbours'letterboxes it often did.)Early holidays that I can remember ,were either with my grandparents,Nan and Fuff at Crib Point, where I was introduced to fishing, or withMa and Pa at Frankston.. Pa had a vegetable garden with huge cabbagesand Ma, an ex rower ,had big flabby upper arms that she let us wobble.Our later holidays were usually spent witfi the Sanders at the beach ofMc Crae ,where Chris, Bruce ,Paul and I would go exploring under thechairlift up Arthur's Seat and undertaking major construction projects inthe Gully that led down to the beach.

Just after Christmas and approximately a year after the death of myfather in 1974 we moved to Sydney, first to Pennant Hills and in 1975 tothe Glenhaven property. I went to Pennant Hills High School from 1975to 1980.and tried to make new friends. We were given a mini-bike andused to go down to the railway tracks, zooming up and down, pretendingwe were cool .My older brother Bruce seemed to look after me and heallowed me to hang out with him and his mates more than was probably agood thing.

I spent a year in 1980 in Bandimg, Indonesia as a Rotary Exchangestudent .it was a great adventure for me and I had tremendous freedomover there. I was able to catch trains and travel independently. I stayedwith three different families.lt really was a parallel reality for a while.I returned weighing about 70 kg's and thought it was OK to go out inpublic wearing a sarong and smoking Gudang Garums (clove cigarettes)Oh dear

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I was accepted into Medicine at the "new" medical school at theUniversity of Newcastle, and migrated there for 8-10 months each yearfrom 1981 to 1985 .Newcastle back then was still a town of limited extracurricular options and most weekends saw me commuting to Sydney inmy VW beetle. Arriving at our home in Glenhaven I remember often bemgmet by Nan who would insist on grabbing my bag of washing and,headingstraight off to the laundry. Bless her.

After Uni my internship and residency years were at the Royal PrinceAlfred Hospital in Camperdown .At the time I lived in a terrace house inPaddington with Julie and Michael .1 moved to the Children's Hospital atCamperdown in 1988 and have.stayed connected with that hospital to thepresent day. I moved from Paddington to live in a terrace house inEdgecliff with Bruce.In 1991,1 went overseas for a year,including 4 months in the UK.

In 1992 I bought the terrace house in 38 Arthur Street Surry Hills .From1992 to 1995 I was a Registrar at the Royal Alexandria Hospital and in1996 was appointed as Registrar at the Sydney Children's Hospital and theKogarah Development Centre.I met Linda Durojarye on February 24***. 1995 and married her inNovember 1996From 1997 to 1999 we lived in England were I worked at the GreatOrmand Street Hospital,the last year as "locum consultant" in IntensiveCare. Returned the last four months of 1999 to the Children's HospitalIntensive Care Unit

In 2000 I became a Specialist Paediatrician in Intensive Care and RetrievalMedicine.at the Children's Htfspital in Westmead.. My responsibilitiesinclude the NETS retrieval service.

Our daughter Ayo was bom on 11 . April 2002 at King George's Hospital.

In 20041 was appointed as Head of the Children's Hospital ICU.

We bought a 4 storey terrace house in Georgina Street Newtown thatneeded extensive renovation. It is now a beautiful house with a pleasantgarden and a cubby house for Ayo.

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Andrew Pau l Bonouvr ie

Beaumaris with my sister Sue andbrothers Bruce and Stephen.andwent to Beaumaris North Primarytill the end of year 2.

I was bom on November 18^ 196^at the Margaret Coles Hospital inP r a h r a n M e l b o u r n e .I lived at Tramway Parade

After my father died ,Mum built a granny flat onto our house for my grandfather (Fuff) and grandmother (Nan)In December 1974 we all moved to Sydney to join my future new dad. Welived in a rented house in Pennant Hills for a year. During that year Fuffand Nan also came to Sydney .It was a very busy house.In December 1975 we moved to the house at Glenhaven, a beautiful placeon five acres with a large pool. On the site was a cottage with alounge/dining room, bedroom and kitchen, which was ideal for Fuff andNan. Fuff had already had a stroke ,buOt was able to ride on the sit-onmotor mower, which pleased him no end. A later Fuff died of cancer.We had a great time at Glenhaven .Undemeath the cottage was a largegarage, that Mum and Dad converted into a rumpus room with TV for usc h i l d r e nAt that time my adoption as Andrew Bonouvrie came through .1 was nowpart of the Jacobe and Bonouvrie families.I remember when Mum or Dad roused on me I usually went to my roomand fell asleep. One occasion I hid in a cupboard in Nan's cottage and hadfallen asleep. After some hours Mum and Dad could not find me andpanicked, looking everywhere ,including the swimming pool until theydiscovered me in the cupboard.I attended Dural Primary for the years 3 to 6 and became Dux of the schoolAfter that to Pennant Hills High School until the HSC in 1984,Holidays were really good. I remember going to Noosa with my friendRaymond .Dad had hired a four wheel drive and let us drive tha car on thebeach north of Noosa.After the HSC I was selected as a Rotary exchange student to spend a yearin Tijuana in Mexico, just south of the border of San Diego USA .1 wasbilleted with three different farriilies, went to school there, leamt Spanishand made many friends.

It was a fantastic experience.Two weeks after I returned I found Nan unconscious in her cottage, havingsuffered a massive stroke. She did not regain consciousness and died twodays later. Nan and I were very close and I missed her a lot.I was accepted by the Bathurst College to study for a Business degree, butthat lasted only a year.

I was lucky to travel with Mum and Dad on a number of overseas tripswhile Dad was on business.After a number of casual jobs I was accepted as a flight attendant withAnsett and.in 1993 I became Ansett's youngest cabin manager.1 workedfor the company for 14 years.It all came to a horrible end when Ansett went bankrupt in 2002.1 am stillwaiting for payment of some of my entitlementsIn 1996 I married Karina, at that time also working as a flight attendantfor Ansett. We lived in a terrace house in East Redfem, which werenovated.Thomas was bom on July 22*" .1998 and Jack arrived on 28 . December1999.In 1994 I had a relationship with Leisa Davison which led to the birth ofIndia,who is now a beautiful 9 year old.,living in Mullumbimby innorthern NSW, I had little contact with India until recently, as it was toodi fficu l t fo r Kar ina .After the demise of Ansett we bought a house in Umina Beach on theCentral Coast .1 got a job as a real estate salesman for Wheeler* s RealEstate .1 did well but did not like it all that much.In October 2003 Karina and I opened a photo development shop inTerrigal .We named it Pure Imaging..Unhappily our relationship soured and we have separated .I am working 6 days each week. Gradually sales are increasing and we aremaking a name for ourselves.I have the boys very second weekend .1 miss them tembly all other times.

Anthonie Jan Bonouvrie (Tony)

I was bom on June 22""^ 1949 in thehospital of the city of Amhem inHolland.At the age of 1 Vz years myparents took me to Australia.Welived in Melbourne t i l l 1953.I went to North Epping PublicSchool and Epping Boys HighSchool till the age of 16.

My first job was as an apprentice carpenter at Welch Bros. ,a buildingcompany in Smithfield.. Dad finally convinced me to join Vinidex where Istarted in the laboratory ,testing the company's products and evaluatingnew materials. After a few years I was transferred to the engineeringdrawing office, helping to design tooling and new equipment.The next step was a 12 months working trip through Europe.: 3 months atthe ICI research laboratories in Welwyn Garden City near London,followed by 6 months at Yorkshire Imperial Plastics in Leeds, working onthe factory floor .and finally some months at the Anger companyassembling extrusion equipment.Upon my return I was given my first supervisory role at the Smithfieldplant under the management of Ron Laws, with whom I worked in variouscapacities until I left Vinidex in 1998.Working in a company where your father is the boss is never easy and Ilearnt early on that there was a certain way to behave and become acceptedas "one of the boys" and this was never more so the case when taking on amanagement role. Being subjected to and accepting the same demands andpressures as every one around you gave me the opportunity to work withinVinidex as an equal.Two weeks after my marriage to Pat in September 1971 ,I was posted tothe Perth plant for two years as works manager .As this factory was smalland consisted of only 5 or 6 extrusion lines ,my duties covered manydisciplines such as purchasing, production planning and supervision .Beingnewly married ,having to work long hours and be constantly on call forbreakdowns was not the smoothest way to startb a marriage.After Perth I returned to Sydney to work on a new joint venture project inIndonesia,designing the plant and preparing the "green book' which was amanual required at the time by the Indonesian Government.

The book included every individual item that was required for the projectfrom major equipment to the last nut and bolt. After preparing a documentthe size of a phone book, the project was unexpectedly cancelled.My next appointment was as Works Manager of the Smithfield plant, thecompany's largest factory at the time and also where all new developmentswere taking place.After a number of years I moved to Head office in Parramatta to take up

- the role of Manufacturing Manager with responsibility for working withthe Works Managers in plant expansion, new factories ,equipmentselection and upgrade. During this period Vinidex joined an internationalgroup of companies that met annually to discuss commercial and technicalmatters. For some 10 years I attended these meetings as the company'stechnical representative.In 1984 Dad retired and David Sumner was appointed CEO. Myaspirations were never to take over from Dad ,as my capabilities werepurely manufacturing driven and I did not possess the other skillsnecessary to consider this role.In 1992 David transformed the company structure into Business Units andI was appointed General Manager Manufacturing with responsibility forall manufacturing ,engineering and techmcal matters. .Dunng this periodthe company expanded overseas with factories opened in Hong Kong,Shanghai China and Kuala Lumpur in MalaysiaKevin Irwin became CEO in 1996 and when in 1998 he was embarking onfurther management changes, I decided that after 32 years my time had

A a r r i v e d t o l e a v e .In reflecting on my career at Vinidex,I can look back on being employedby a company I was proud to work within,My father's foresight to establish not only Vinidex but pioneering a newindustry in Australia is something that I am immensely proud of. Throughhis efforts Vinidex is recognised as one of the major internationalcompanies in the plastic pipe and fittings industryIn mid 19981 incorporated Intaplas Pty.Ltd. and began another career path,xmdertaking management consulting projects in the plastic pipe extrusion

« business with projects in Adelaide, Perth, Auckland and USAOver this same period I branched out into the building industry where Ibecame involved in project management and minor building activities,which is now my full time work.We have a son Mark bom in 1982Our other interest is our Bermagui seaside home where we enjoy fishinggolfing and beautiful beaches.

Bom Johannes Gerardus Bonouvrieon a cold day at 79 UtrechtsewegOosterbeek Holland at 8 am 17*.N o v e m b e r l 9 5 0 .In December 1950 I left Holland tomigrate to Melbourne Australiawith my familyWe lived in Donvale Victoria till1953 before moving to Sydney.

I went to Epping and North Epping Public Schools from *58 to *63 andafter that to Epping Boys High School till 1969.Worked at VinidexBrisbane for two years Jiving in Mt.Gravatt.,followed by a stint in reale s t a t e w i t h D . F. J o h n s o n .

In 1972 I married Rosalind Milton at the little church in Dural. We hadfour children in our 30 year marriageSimon 28 ,after Knox Grammar,graduated from Sydney University with aCommerce and Chemical Engineering degree. .Employed by ANZ Bank inCustomer Relationship ManagementLindsay 26.following Pymble Ladies College degrees from SydneyUniversity in Literature, Law. and Fine Arts. Worked at the AttorneyGeneral's Department.Richard 23 Knox Grammar and a Hospitality and Administration Diplomafrom Ryde TAFE College. Working as Advertising Manager for Buspak.David 20 Knox Grammar ,now an undergraduate at Sydney UniversityA r c h i t e c t u r a l S c h o o l .

Rosalind and I separated on April 7 . 2001 and divorced in 2002

In 1972 we travelled.to Europe ,accompanied by my sister Jackie and herhusband Jim. We bought a VW Combi and visited many countries .1remember meeting Dad at the Grosvenor Hotel in London. When the notso clean Combi arrived at the hotel front door, the uniformed doorman wasvery reluctant to open the car door for us hippies.At the conclusion of ourtwo year European trip, Rosalind and I spent two years in South Africa andHong Kong.

On our return I studied for a Bachelor Degree of Business majoring inAccounting and Economics ,graduating in 1978..

My career since leaving University has been closely associated with theComputer Industry.From 1979 to 1985 I was employed by NCR selling computers.After that I spent time with Dad's company selling PVC extruders.From 1987 to 19951 worked with the Digital Equipment CorporationIn 19951 founded the Avnet Computer Company, which prospered untilproblems arose with my partner director. It was a harrowing time thatcoincided with problems at home.1997 - 1998 Peoplesoft - computer software sales.1998 - 2000 Luminate -computer software sales2000 - 2003 Sun Microsystems - computer sales.

In 2003 I started my company True Reflections,involved with documentretrieval software and other new software technologies.

My life took a whole new tum when I met Kathryn Wiesener in November2002..We have become close partners ,Kathryn has two children Elliot 10 and Lara 8 years

Most lasting gift from my upbringing:

Free to take risks ,fi-ee to fall, free in making decisions without beingjudged and most of all the freedom of being independent ,bold andsometimes fearless. Should our children be so lucky in this overprotectiveand fearful world.

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Jackie Wright

Bom 29*. October 1952asJacobaGeer t ruda Bonouvr ie

I think I lived a few years inBankstown ,before moving into anew house at Epping. A lovelyplace to grow up in.- a street full of

children our age, not too much traffic and a bush to explore at the end ofthe street .The bush Geoffrey swore he saw a tiger when he was little .Ourneighbours, the Jesse's and Goldricks were particularly nice. It was ahappy time for us children .1 completed primary school at North EppingP u b l i c .

In 1965 we moved to a bigger house in Stanley Road Epping. The Olympicpool was across the road and I spent many happy hours there and could gowhen I wanted to .Also there was a tennis court at home

Happy childhood memories:Day trips to the beach, with fish and chips after.Holidays on the Gold Coast and NoosaGranny coming over fi'om Holland .Spending Saturdays with my friend Jeanette at her grandparents home inMona Vale, when Dad and Theo Hoom went sailing.My first trip on a plane to Melbourne with Dad.

I went to Cheltenham Girls High School and passed my HSC, beforeentering the William Balmain Teachers College, which later becameKuring-Gai College of Advanced Education. ,for a 3 year course andgraduated as a primary school teacher in 1973.I was married to James Hebden Wright on February 3" . 1973 at the EppingCongregational Church with the reception at home. We were divorced 14years later.

In 1974 I travelled overseas with Jim and discovered Europe in a combivan together with my brother Joep and his wife Roslyn.Back in Australia I worked at St.Ives Primaiy for a few months and laterat Normanhurs t .

I resigned from my job in 1978 to have Julian and did not get a permanentappointment until 1995 at Granville South Primary where I worked for 3years. Finally I was transferred to Turramurra North Primary where I havebeen for the last six years.Julian James Bonouvrie Wright was bom on May 25 . 1978 at the SydneyAdventist Hospital .He went to Sydney Grammar School. After completinghigh school ,he attended Sydney University for 6 years graduating with

5 Bachelor degrees of Commerce and Laws with Honours. The last six■ months of his law degree was. completed at Beaucerius Law School inHamburg Germany .Six months at Bond university Queenslandcompleted his Legal Work Practice .Julian now works at Ernst & Young inLondon and resides there.

Emily Frances Bonouvrie Wri t was bom on May 1®^ 1981. At SydneyAdventist Hospital .She went to Ravenswood School for Girls to year 6and to Abbotsleigh High school for girls ,after which she attendedMacquarie University for 4 years and graduated with a Bachelor degree- • of Arts and a Diploma of Education. She has been recently appointed as apermanent teacher at PLC in Pymble.

I have lived in St.Ives since 1980.

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Geoffrey Bonouvrie.

I was bom on July 5*''. 1954 at theLakemba Hospital.in Sydney.Went to North Epping PrimarySchool and spent most of my childhood playing in the bushland atour home in North. Epping.Joined the Boy Scouts and playeds o c c e r u n t i l I w a s 1 2 .

Moved to Stanley Road in 1965. Started at Epping Boys High School in '67Played Rugby and cricket for the school .Main sports during high schoolwere squash, swimming and sailing VJ's at Bayview.I took up surfing inyear 10 ,1971. Completed the Higher School Certificate in 1973 and gainedaccess to Mitchell College of Advanced Education in Bathurst ( nowCharles Sturt University) to study for the Bachelor of Business degree, andgraduated in 1978.

Started the management of the Rock band "Amhem",followed byemployment at "Balmain Artist Bookings",responsible for managing RockBand Mi-sex and in 1979 was appointed agent for the Midnight Oil Band.I started Mall Music in 1980 at the Warringah Shopping Mall in BrookvaleI met Mandy in 1980 at Mall Music. We were married in 1982 at Manly.We purchased our first home at 874 Barrenjoey Road Palm Beach.I first started sailing Etchells in 1984 and became a member of the RoyalPr ince A l f red Yacht C lub .Simone was bom on December 5*. 1985 at Manly HospitalIn 1985 we moved to Central Road Avalon.,close to the beach.Jeremy was bom April 9* . 1990 at the "San " Hospital in WahroongaSimone went to "Maria Regina'Primary School and from there to PLCIn Pymble.In 1994 Jeremy started at "Pittwater House " Schools ,where he still istoday .He is a keen surfer and a good sportsmanSimone started a Science Degree course at Newcastle University and after ayear there, transferred to the University of NSW to study LandscaopeA r c h i t e c t u r e .

When I started Mall Music in 1980. the Warringah Shopping Centre wasquite small, compared with the enormous centre it is today.We started in a small shop which has since disappeared during the many

. changes and expansions of tiie centre. We soon found that we needed abigger shop.With the help of the ANZ Bank and the Centre Managementwe were able to fit out the new shop and increase our stocks.Running a record store is a hard business. Mandy and I worked seven days

« a week for many years. Mandy has been a towo* of strength for thebusiness in the accounts and administrative areas.To enhance the prestige of our store ,we invited many prominent artists

. and groups in cooperation with the centre management, to perform at thecentre in front of our shop.Yet another change followed when we moved to a large store in a newlybuilt part of the Centre. It is a beautiful modem shop with a popular andclassical music department as well as an extensive music instrumentsect ion

- Our strength is not only selling the most popular CD's and DVD's but alsoa very large stock of what are called **back catalogue" recordsMall Music won its first ARIA Award in 1997 for Best Australian Retailerand won again in 2000,2001 and 2004.Mall Music is now Australia's largest Independent Music Store,employing30 staff with a turnover of $ 6 million per yearI am Chairman of AMRA .(the Australian Music Retailers Association)

We moved to our new house in Norma Road Palm Beach ,with a largedeck overlooking the ocean and Whale Beach.

I have now been sailing Etchells on and off for over 20 years..Thehighlight has been the 4 . Etchell World Championships in July 2004 inMooloolaba Queensland ,where we came 4*"*. beating world championsD e n n i s C o n n o r. .

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Thea Wilhelmina McLeanBom August 5* . 1957 atPoplars Hospital ^ing

Home was Norfolk Road inNorth Epping.being theyoungest of a large familywas bliss. I had many

protectors.When I was seven we moved to Stanley Road in Eppmg ,a largehouse with a tennis court and later a pool.My father, when I was young travelled a lot due to work comnutmentsWhen he was at home he loved to sail and I would often go with him ,theboys and a friend of mine. ,I remember sitting at the bow of the boatenjoying the large waves.My friend in those days was Bobbie, living around the comer .One yBobbie and I decided to catch the train to Wollongong to see my surfieboyfriend .1 knew this would not be allowed, so I told Dad we were goingto Manly Beach. The train back from Wollongong broke down .getting mehome by 11 pm. I was in real trouble .The boy for whom I had nsked allthis, would eventually become my husband Ian Mc.Lean

I swam a lot in the Stanley Road pool .and became a sixth year swunmmgchampion .Gymnastics was my next love at the local YMCA.After that ,1 got my first horse Dandy, kept at a property in Castle HillI learned to ride Jump and do dressage on the docile pony .J grew out ofDandy, sold him and found a rather handsome looking sixteen hand highbrown /black gelding ,two years of age 1 named him Sian.The horse was a handful as I found out many bites later .Forgetting hislittle psychological problems ,we had many exciting times together, whichinvolved training, three day eventing and show jumping.These were some of the best years of my life. on th»We were still at Epping .all of us growing up. But all w -marriage fiont between my mother and fether and sadlyAfter my mother remarried and relocated to theand Barbara, first to a house in Pennant Hills and m 1975 to Glenhaven.Sue and I had some great times together, the most <™We to Hawaii .first at Club Mediterranee at Maui and after thagot appendicitis and was in hospital for some days.,while Sue inou).edaround the island of Oahu in a borrowed car,.

I left home at 19 to live with Geoff for a few years at Avalon. Geoff wasmanaging the Midnight Oil band at the time ,so I became a sort of Geoffgroupie.I decided to go overseas ,quit my job and headed for Europe, did a Kontikitour for three weeks and then worked for the Anger company in Vienna.I used Holland as a base where I stayed for a while with Gran and WillyAfter Vienna I went to the Greek islands for some weeks and finally toAustria where I stayed until the next spring, skiing and working in hotels.All up I was away for 11 months.

Upon my return home Ian and I became engaged and married the followingyear .First came Andrew and later Daniel.We first lived in Mt.Colah, then to Pennant Hills and another move toCherrybrook ,where we still live.Andrew (21) has completed his degree in Environmental TourismManagement . Daniel (19) is studying Event Management at TAPE andwill transfer to university to do the same when he has finished at TAPE.The four of us always have the best time together, sailing, camping,surfing and many four wheel car trips.

My husband Ian is the National Business Manager for a company calledBronson & Jacobs, now owned by Orica. .He has been with the companyfor 23 years. Lucl<y it was not me that had to be the breadwinner. Thosethat know my track record with work will understand.

I presently work for a local bed & breakfast place and doing a photographyc o u r s e .