INTRODUCTION
After reaching the dizzy heights of an invitation to the White House where I was in the same room as President Nixon, I later spent 15 years behind prison walls.
Guests invited to the White House are unlikely to also spend years in prison. Fortunately for me, my time in prison was as a volunteer who visited the notorious Pentridge prison several times a week either as a government appointed official visitor or as the director of the Chuck Colson inspired Prison Fellowship.
Mine is an extraordinary story of an ordinary boy raised in the Great Depression of the 1930's, who joined the factory force at 14 years of age. How then did Dr. Nugget Coombs’, Prime Ministerial adviser, make me his choice of bureaucrats to lead a national Aboriginal initiative? How did I come to know and respect Sir Douglas Nicholls?
Following my appointment by the Victorian Government as the Director of the newly created Aboriginal Affairs Department, I spent 13 weeks travelling the globe seeking a solution to the vexed problem of indigenous land rights. Subsequently I persuaded the Victorian Government to introduce the first genuine land rights legislation in Australia.
Awarded the Order of Australia medal for my work in the rehabilitation of prisoners was the climax of a career based on the biblical principle of ‘always do good’. Yes, in retirement, I took on prison visiting via leadership in Prison Fellowship for fifteen years.
A loving husband, happy father of five, delighted grandfather of thirteen, amazed great-grandfather of fifteen (at last count). Yet I still see my introduction to Jesus Christ as the pivotal point in my life.
QUESTION
How did this child of the Great Depression of the 1930's with such an inauspicious beginning go to University; travel the world; establish Australia's first Aboriginal land rights; obtain international invention rights and became a friend and colleague of notorious Watergate figure, Charles Colson? Read on to discover the strange path my life took.
Guests invited to the White House are unlikely to also spend years in prison. Fortunately for me, my time in prison was as a volunteer who visited the notorious Pentridge prison several times a week either as a government appointed official visitor or as the director of the Chuck Colson inspired Prison Fellowship.
Mine is an extraordinary story of an ordinary boy raised in the Great Depression of the 1930's, who joined the factory force at 14 years of age. How then did Dr. Nugget Coombs’, Prime Ministerial adviser, make me his choice of bureaucrats to lead a national Aboriginal initiative? How did I come to know and respect Sir Douglas Nicholls?
Following my appointment by the Victorian Government as the Director of the newly created Aboriginal Affairs Department, I spent 13 weeks travelling the globe seeking a solution to the vexed problem of indigenous land rights. Subsequently I persuaded the Victorian Government to introduce the first genuine land rights legislation in Australia.
Awarded the Order of Australia medal for my work in the rehabilitation of prisoners was the climax of a career based on the biblical principle of ‘always do good’. Yes, in retirement, I took on prison visiting via leadership in Prison Fellowship for fifteen years.
A loving husband, happy father of five, delighted grandfather of thirteen, amazed great-grandfather of fifteen (at last count). Yet I still see my introduction to Jesus Christ as the pivotal point in my life.
QUESTION
How did this child of the Great Depression of the 1930's with such an inauspicious beginning go to University; travel the world; establish Australia's first Aboriginal land rights; obtain international invention rights and became a friend and colleague of notorious Watergate figure, Charles Colson? Read on to discover the strange path my life took.
Reg Worthy |
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