Norman Cheale

Story

I grew up in the south of England, in a village called Mytchett (Surrey). It was an unremarkable childhood in a cash poor home but with no shortage of food. Dad worked as a market gardener so we always had heaps of veggies on the table. Childhood was pretty good with hundreds of acres of woodlands to play in, right on our doorstep.

The main features of the area were the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough (home of the famous Air Shows), the military town of Aldershot (Headquarters, Southern Command of the British Army) and Pirbright (World Reference Centre for Foot & Mouth Disease and source of the recent FMD outbreak in southern England). I later worked at the Animal Virus Research Institute in Pirbright, so beginning 25 yrs of work as a veterinary virology technician. At Pirbright I studied part time at Guildford and Ewel Technical Colleges and obtained an Ordinary National Certificate in Applied Science. Unfortunately, I failed my final Higher National Certificate just before leaving England.

I was the youngest of four sons spread out at roughly five year intervals – with that spread, I had little to do with my older brothers – espcially the oldest two. However, during my teens I grew closer to Alan, the second of the four sons. Alan served his National Service in Nairobi and got itchy feet for warmer weather. In 1964 he migrated to Australia.

Following Alan’s visit home to England in 1970, I started procedings to migrate myself and on April 1st, 1971, I departed England for sunnier climes.

The 40 hr flight to Australia, in the back of a BOAC VC10, was long and tedious. Stops in New York, LA, Honolulu, Fiji and Sydney sound romantic but mostly we either sat in the plane or in a transit lounge. It was a relief to arrive at Tullamarine and be met by my brother and family. I immediately felt comfortable in Melbourne and determined to make a new life for myself there.

My experiences and references from the AVRI were well received in Australia and I quickly found work in a similar field. With family support on hand, it was not difficult to get started and settle in. I quickly embraced the less formal approach of Australia and found I was judged on my abilities rather than a bit of paper I may or may not have had.

After working at Melbourne University and the Federal Government’s National Biological Standards Laboratory (the precurser to TGAL [Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratory] ) I commenced work in Geelong with CSIRO. Working on the tail end of construction and helping to bring the world standard AAHL (Australian Animal Health Laboratory) into operation has clearly been the highlight of my working career. This is a fascinating laboratory with an amazing range of safety features to ensure that scientists are able to work safely with dangerous and exotic viruses. I still look back on my job of proving the safety features of this laboratory with pride and pleasure.

I then hit a mid-life crisis and dropped out of science to work with Australian Bicycle Events. For two years I helped organise and run a range of bicycle tours in Australia and, although the company eventually went broke, we had fun doing it!

I returned to science / microbiology but in the pharmaceutical industry. I worked with CSL, helping build and validate its new blood fractionation plant in Broadmeadows. CSL then gave me the opportunity to travel including a seven month stint in Vienna. This again demonstrated Australia’s willingness to give someone a go and alowed me to work myself into a middle / senior managemet position despite not having a tertiary qualification.

In 2000, when the European project I was working on collapsed, I was offered and accepted a retirment package. Since then I have had the good fortune to travel Australia and the world with multiple trips to the USA, Europe and New Zealand and three years of travel around Australia with 4WD and caravan. I have also had the good fortune to be able to pick up casual consulting to the pharmaceutical industry during “rest periods” back in Melbourne. Good friends from my CSL days have been willing to give me work for short periods to suit my travelling life-style and this has helped finance futher travels.

On the personal front, I have been silly enough to let two marriages fall apart but was blessed with two wonderful sons from the second marriage. However, my lovely wife Margaret of nearly 20 years now, has given me a third chance and together we have travelled the world.

The future? We look forward to further travel, to enjoying our grand children (from both sides of our marriage) and to growing old together. Thanks too to Australia of course – it’s been really wonderful to me. Migrating was the best decision I ever made.

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