Celebration of inorganic lives: Interview with Alan M. Sargeson

✍ Scribed by Leonard F. Lindoy

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 310 KB
• Volume: 249
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-8545
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2005.04.015

✦ Synopsis

Q. Let us start at the beginning: Where were you born and what was your early childhood like?

I was born in Armidale, northern New South Wales, in 1930 and I had two older brothers. My father was an officer of the court, clerk of Petty Sessions, and my mother came from a grazier's family at Wentworth in the far west of NSW near Mildura. We left Armidale after I was about 6 months old and went to Cessnock, a poor coal-mining town and lived there for about 4 years. I am told as a child I was very busy and inquisitive which brought me a lot of strife but I was not unhappy. We then moved to Taree, near the coast, and this was an especially nice place to live for the next 4 years. This total period covered the depression but it did not seem to bother my parents unduly. We were not wealthy and we always had food but not many material possessions. My parents were interested in many things. My father was a keen fisherman and a scratch golfer as well as being trained as a lawyer and my mother was also an excellent golfer. In Taree, there were two notable events ca. 1936. Zane Grey landed a sea-plane on the Manning River on one of his big-game fishing expeditions and Babe Didricksen, the USA professional womens' golf champion, played an exhibition match with my father and the local professional because the local women's competition was not strong enough.