Debates Day 2 - Wednesday 17 May 1995
Parliamentary Record 10
Debates for 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 7th Assembly 1994 - 1997
1995-05-17
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/281696
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/413973
DEBATES - Wednesday 17 May 1995 Darwin Higher Primary School, Cavenagh Street, and then at the new Darwin High School at Bullocky Point. As a young teenager, he was a troop leader of the 4th Darwin Scout Group based at Berrimah. Many friends influenced his teen years and most are still associated with Darwin and the development of the Territory. They include Don Fuller, Bob Richards, Peter Whelan, Evan Nicholas, Tom Fong, the Clarke brothers - Kevin and Brian - Mike Poulter, Billy Boustead, Barbara Larcombe, Kay Withnall, Keith Glaister, Jimmy Sing and Laurie Kirwan. A memorable annual event was the NT News 15-mile walkabout initiated by that eccentric ex-patriot Englishman, Walking Jimmy Wadsworth. Ted recalls competing in the early 1960s, with Don Fuller, Norm Hawthorne, Ali Muir and others, and one year coming twelfth out of a field of several hundred. At Darwin High School, Ted became a prefect and captain of Todd House in his senior years, and he participated in many drama activities associated with the school and the annual Darwin Eisteddfod. At these events, Ted and his sisters were competitive drama contemporaries of Ros and Judy Brown-Beresford. Ted was an A grade tennis player in the Darwin Tennis Association in the early 1960s, playing for Darwin High with teachers, Don Muller and Peter Turnbull. He also played Aussie Rules, mainly reserve grade, for the Nightcliff Tigers. Don Fuller, Kelvin and Brian Clark and Alan Smith also played for the Tigers. The 1965 grand final, won by the Tigers, was particularly memorable as was the inspirational coaching of Don Bonson. Other football and school friends of those years included John Bonson, Billy Muir, Brian Dixon and Ken Bonson. Ted and all who played football with him during this era feel they owe a debt of gratitude to the famous Territory football families such as the Bonsons and the Muirs. Ted felt that local families like the Ahmats provided enormous encouragement and support both on and off the field. Other influences on Ted were the wide circle of Chinese friends from the Fong Lims and related families - Alec and Norma Fong Lim and Richard and Dale Fong. Most of his fond memories of Darwin are pre-Cyclone Tracy. He spent 9 years at Adelaide University, from 1967 to 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, with friends Don Fuller, Barbara Larcombe, Bob Richards and Peter Whelan, Ted would return home, often by road up the track, each year for Christmas holidays. These were the years of old Darwin with many of the houses built on stilts, a design ideal for tropical, social living, particularly during the Wet. He has particularly fond memories of fishing trips led by Tom (Jnr) and David Fong. After matriculating in 1966 from Darwin High School with leaving honours, Ted enrolled jointly as a trainee high school teacher at Adelaide Teachers College and for a bachelors degree in science at the University of Adelaide. That was on a South Australian government teaching scholarship. However, it was science that excited Teds interest. He resigned as a trainee teacher and did post-graduate research at the University of Adelaide, graduating with a Batchelor of Science degree with honours in 1970, and with a Ph.D which was conferred in 1976. He had studied under Professor Derek Rowley of the Department of Microbiology. The research related to the means of establishing immunity to diseases such as cholera. In January 1976, Ted moved to Canberra to begin an 18-month post-doctoral fellowship at the prestigious John Curtin School for Medical Research at Australian National University. He then spent 3 years in Canada at the Ontario Cancer Institute attached to the University of Toronto, and a further 15 months in England in the transplantation biology section at the