MEMBER PROFILE

Tony Reading

I was born in Jerusalem in 1946, the first son of John & Eleanor Reading. Dad was a British Policeman serving with Palestine Police Force trying to keep the Jews & Palestinians apart. My adventurous (and still is) mother enjoyed her first couple of years in the middle-east, but when things soured between the Palestinians & the Jews, Mum and I were evacuated back to England. Sadly, Dad was killed shortly after. After a stay in a refugee camp, Mum, the adventurer packed our bags and we moved to New Zealand. We lived on my uncle’s tobacco farm near Nelson. We led an idyllic life in a very beautiful part of the world. However, a flood almost wiped my uncle out & with itchy feet once again saw Mum pack our meager belongings and head for the wide-brown land of opportunity on the good ship Dominion Monarch.

We arrived in Fremantle in 1957 and my conversion to an Aussie began. In the early 60’s the adventure gene took hold and with Mum’s help I joined the Air Force as a young apprentice. It wasn’t till the day I was sworn that I discovered that I’d signed on for 15 years. Life took off for me again when I was posted to Newcastle and went back to tech to get my Leaving. There in a Math class at Tighes Hill Tech I met the super model, Nurse Julie McIlwaine who, after two years of constant pursuit gave in and married me. Together, we enjoyed a very satisfying Military life serving overseas and all over our wonderful country. Along the way we had three children, a handsome son Craig, born in Malaysia and two beautiful daughters, Megan & Emily both born in Australia. The highlight of a very varied career in the Air Force was project managing the rebuilding of the Air Force’s Air Defence Radar facility in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy and then my subsequent appointment as the Units Senior Engineering Officer.

The Reading’s left the Military family after 22 years service when I accepted an offer to join AAP Reuters to build its major city satellite earth station in Brisbane. There have been a number of rewarding jobs since then in technical roles and over the last 10 years, in sales & marketing. I suppose working as a division manager of an international microwave communication manufacturing company would be rate as a career high, but these things always take second place to the Reading dynasty.

Since establishing ourselves in Brisbane we have been very fortunate. Our kids have blessed us with four delightful grand children, three boisterous boys & a princess. Sadly, two of the boys live with their parents in Scotland; we can only hope this is temporary. We have been able to move our aging parents closer to us so we can care for them (two of them only 10mtrs away) which gives us great peace of mind and we have someone to look after the pool & dog when we’re away. We have also been able to cement close and lasting friendships and to be included in a wonderful caring community. As a bonus of living in such a beautiful area, I have been able to watch the love of my life, Julie, develop into a very passionate and hyper talented artist. Sadly the sales of her works haven’t come close to paying for the money I’ve spent on my hobbies, tinkering with cars & 4WDing.

What else, oh yes there’s, the odd punt on the GGs, rugby, the Geelong Cats, Cronulla Sharks, Willy Nelson, surfing, cricket, Shiraz and more recently MMC Lions. Not a bad life really.