Brian

"I was born a fourth generation Australian in 1940 in an enclave of German farmers in brigalow country off the edge of the Darling Downs in Queensland in a district called Downfall Creek near the railway siding of Guluguba. I went to the University of Queensland, picking up degrees in Arts and (later) Education. My studies included English, German, philosophy, and educational sociology, psychology and administration. I qualified as a librarian and worked for a few years in the tertiary sector in Adelaide. My substantive career was in the Department of Education in Queensland, as the first Supervisor of School Libraries in 1969, and later with broader duties covering all curriculum materials and associated services. In 1991 Goss's boys turned the public service inside out. There was a 20% survival rate in the senior executive service. I left and took up mowing and gardening, also investing directly in the share market. I meet a wide range of people on a regular basis from pensioners to the moderately rich. I'm plugged into capitalism all over the place, but I'm not a fan. I'm not a philosopher or a sociologist, just someone who is trying to sort out his ideas"