A Living Chronicle
Updated: 18/08/26 (added new hyperlinks)
This is a living chronicle of my life, assembled not from official milestones alone but from the smaller moments that have remained luminous: a particular tree root in a schoolyard, the texture of a gravel driveway, a sentence overheard on an oval, a room filled with plush toys, or the feeling of walking home carrying fish and chips. Dates sometimes remain approximate.
Where documentary information gives me a month, I use it; where it provides only a year, memories are placed provisionally within that year rather than being left detached from the chronology. Those placements can move whenever photographs, records, family recollections or other memories narrow them down. The purpose is to give every fragment somewhere to live.
1988
January — Waratah, New South Wales
The chronology begins in Waratah, NSW. Pre-Memory. You can read all about it here.
1989
January — Dapto, New South Wales
By January 1989, the family was in Dapto, NSW. Pre-Memory. You can read all about it here.
1990
January — Figtree, New South Wales
By January 1990, the family was in Figtree, NSW. Pre-Memory. You can read all about it here.
1991
January — West Ryde, Sydney
By January 1991, the family was living in West Ryde, NSW.
1992
January — Frankston, Melbourne
The surviving residential record places our family in Victoria by January 1992.
1993
January–February — Rockhampton area, Queensland
At the beginning of 1993, the family was in the Rockhampton area.
This substantially narrows my memory of attending Frenchville Primary School and my childhood friend Natalie. Rather than floating somewhere across 1993–94, Natalie now belongs most plausibly to January or February 1993.
I remember her curly blonde hair more clearly than almost anything else about that brief period. There is no elaborate story attached to the memory. I liked her, she seemed special to me, and her face and hair became part of the emotional landscape of my earliest school years.
March — Stirling, Western Australia
By March, the chronology moves abruptly across the country to Stirling, Western Australia. How long we remained there within March is not yet known.
March onward — Gordon, Canberra
Also during March 1993, the family reached Gordon in Canberra. Gordon then became the stable residential base documented across 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1996.
This means my Yarralumla Primary School memories should now be concentrated primarily within the March 1993–1996 period, rather than described broadly as belonging to the early 1990s.
Approximately 1993–1994 — Mr White and the Early Yarralumla Years
One of my earliest collections of Yarralumla memories concerns my teacher Mr White, a remarkably thin man with a ponytail. Among the children, it was accepted as an astonishing fact that he had once been stabbed. None of us seemed to know when, where or under what circumstances it had happened, but the story surrounded him with an aura of mystery.
There was also a frequently troublesome student—possibly Malaysian, although I no longer remember with certainty—who repeatedly climbed onto the school roof. His name has disappeared from my memory, but the image of him above the rest of us remains.
The school grounds felt like their own little country, governed by the games, rumours and inventions of children.
Approximately 1993–1994 — Gum Nut Lane
During recess, some of us created a miniature commercial world among the bushes and hedges of the school grounds. We called it Gum Nut Lane. Gum nuts became our currency, while spaces within the vegetation became shops, counters, kitchens and places of business.
We made mud pies and arranged objects to sell to one another, taking our roles as tiny merchants with complete imaginative seriousness. It became a functioning economy built from whatever the Australian schoolyard provided: dirt, leaves, gum nuts and sheltered spaces between branches.
1994
January–December — Gordon, Canberra
The family remained based in Gordon through 1994. Yarralumla Primary belongs within this period.
1995
January–December — Gordon, Canberra
Gordon remained home through 1995.
Approximately 1995–1996 — The Tree with the Exposed Root
During the later Yarralumla years, a particular tree with a large exposed root became the setting for many games. Some of my friends brought Warhammer figurines to school, including little Terminator models, and we used the ground around the tree as a miniature battlefield.
I also remember a die-cast X-wing being flown through the exposed root as though it were some enormous obstacle in space—a narrow canyon, tunnel or hostile piece of alien terrain. A patch of dirt could become a battlefield and the shape of a root could determine the course of an interstellar flight.
That tree survives in my memory as a piece of childhood architecture.
Approximately 1995–1996 — Acrobatics, Flexibility and My Body
I had two friends who seemed unusually acrobatic to me, and their abilities made an impression. I became interested in being extremely thin and flexible, eventually reaching the point where I could place my leg behind my head.
At the same time, I had begun to feel uncomfortable about the size and shape of my hips. I remember wearing my belt painfully tight because I wanted them to appear smaller, something I continued doing for several years. The memory combines childhood experimentation with an early awareness of my appearance and an impulse to change it.
1996
January–December — Gordon, Canberra
The family remained in Gordon during 1996.
Approximately 1996 — The Legendary Yarralumla Oval
The oval at Yarralumla became one of the places where the wider universe of popular culture reached me through other children.
I remember hearing a friend say, “I don’t care what you smell.” I immediately wanted to know where the line came from and was told that it was from Star Wars, which I had not yet encountered.
On another occasion someone said, “When you gotta go, you gotta go.” Again I asked which movie it came from, and this time the answer was Jurassic Park.
Mortal Kombat entered my awareness in much the same way. Children talked about the characters, repeated “Get over here!”, and passed pieces of its mythology among themselves. Before I encountered these worlds directly, they reached me as quotations, rumours, impressions and playground performances.
1997
January onward — Karabar / Queanbeyan, New South Wales
By January 1997, the family had crossed the ACT border into the Queanbeyan area, specifically Karabar. The precise relationship between this move and the end of my Yarralumla schooling remains to be fixed, but this provides a clear geographical boundary for the later primary-school years.
1998
January — Deakin, Canberra
At the beginning of 1998, the family was living in Deakin.
January onward — Montefiore dell’Aso, Le Marche, Italy
During the same month, the chronology shifts dramatically to Italy. By January 1998 we were associated with Montefiore dell’Aso, beginning the long Italian chapter that continued through 1999.
Approximately 1998 — Great-Aunt Lari’s House
Great-Aunt Lari’s house felt enormous to me: a grand Italian mansion surrounded by trees and approached along a gravel driveway. There was a koi pond at the front and peacocks wandering through the grounds. The whole property seemed green, spacious and almost enchanted.
Inside, I remember sitting cross-legged in front of a large box television and playing Super Mario Bros.—probably on the Super Nintendo. My cousin Julia Flavia had a room filled with plush toys, which she proudly showed me. To a child, a whole room of plushies felt like a private kingdom.
The house survives in my mind through its details: the television, the toys, the pond, the peacocks, the gravel beneath our feet and the trees gathering around everything.
Approximately 1998 — Being Thrown into the Pool
One less comfortable memory from Lari’s house is of my father and, I believe, his friend Andrea throwing me into the swimming pool. I think the intention was to make me swim, or perhaps make me less afraid of the water, but I did not like the experience.
It remains a sudden memory of lost control inside a place I otherwise remember with enormous affection.
1999
January onward — Montefiore dell’Aso and the Adriatic Coast, Italy
The Italian chapter continued through 1999. San Benedetto del Tronto also belongs within this period through family visits, shopping and other memories, even where Montefiore remained the principal documented base.
Approximately 1999 — Rogue Spear and the Other Villa
Connected to Lari’s house is a visit to the home of one of her friends. I remember it as another villa, with a warm, distinctly Mexican-influenced quality to its decoration or architecture.
It was there that we played Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear. Around the same period, my father bought a bootleg CD copy of the game from someone selling discs on the street, either in Ascoli or San Benedetto. The precise town has blurred, but the street seller and copied disc remain clear.
The game became permanently connected in my mind with Italy: villas, unfamiliar interiors, street sellers, family visits and the excitement of entering a new tactical world through a computer screen.
Approximately December 1999–January 2000 — Return to Australia and the Tongan Homestay
After returning from Italy, we stayed temporarily with a lovely Tongan family. This should now be placed very close to the transition between 1999 and 2000, before we settled in Curtin.
Everyone appeared much bigger than me, but they were exceptionally kind, and the household felt generous and welcoming. I remember eating a great deal of meat, watching Pokémon, and playing The Legend of Zelda. In my childhood imagination, the family reminded me affectionately of the Gorons from Zelda: large, strong, warm-hearted people associated with food, community and protection.
2000
January onward — Curtin, Canberra
The new residential information moves the beginning of the Curtin chapter earlier than I had previously placed it. We were already based in Curtin by January 2000, rather than arriving there around 2001.
The Curtin residence then continued across 2000, 2001 and 2002.
2001
January–December — Curtin, Canberra
Curtin continued throughout 2001. Earlier versions of this chronicle treated 2001 as the beginning of the Curtin period; it should now be understood as the middle of a longer 2000–2002 chapter.
2002
January–December — Curtin, Canberra
The family remained in Curtin through 2002.
2003
January — Townsville, Queensland
The record contains several Townsville-area locations during January 2003: first Belgian Gardens, then Townsville City, and then the Mystic Sands/Balgal Beach area. These may represent a rapid sequence of temporary and more settled accommodation within the same broader move.
2003 — Townsville and Missing Shelly
We spent approximately a year in the Townsville region. One of the strongest emotional connections I retain from that period is my crush on my friend Shelly.
When we left Townsville, I missed her deeply. The feeling followed me back toward Canberra and became intertwined with the following year. Even while discovering new music, books and films, part of me remained oriented toward the person and place I had left behind.
Shelly later built a life and had children, and I feel happy for her and Richard. The memory is no longer solely about longing. Someone can be enormously important within one chapter of your life and then continue into a future entirely their own.
Approximately late 2003–early 2004 — Trailer-Park Period
After leaving Townsville, we spent a period living in a trailer park before settling again in Canberra. The exact month remains provisional, but it belongs firmly between the Townsville chapter and the homes of 2004.
2004
January — Gordon, Canberra
A documentary address places the family in Gordon in January 2004.
Later 2004 — The Possum House, O’Connor
My remembered geography places the Possum House in O’Connor. Rather than collapsing the two 2004 locations into one, the working chronology now treats Gordon as the January address and O’Connor as a later 2004 residence until the precise move date can be recovered.
Flatheads is associated with the O’Connor shops, which independently fits my memory of walking there from the Possum House. citeturn932890search1
The Possum House was wonderful. It became the setting for an intense season of music, books, anime, films, drawing and family routines.
It was where I first heard Alice in Chains and where I read Eric Nylund’s The Fall of Reach. I drew Alucard from Hellsing, absorbing his red coat, shadowed face, enormous weapons and supernatural presence into my own imagination.
2004 — Bloodlust and Hellsing
My sister and I repeatedly watched a borrowed Pantera DVD—remembered as Bloodlust—alongside the Hellsing anime box set. Pantera brought a physical, aggressive energy while Hellsing offered vampires, monsters, secret organisations and impossible gunfights.
Repeated viewing turned them into rituals attached to the room, the television, my sister’s presence and that particular period of life.
2004 — The Extended Lord of the Rings
My friend Simon Bischoff lent me the extended-edition box set of The Two Towers—and possibly all three extended Lord of the Rings sets.
I watched them repeatedly. Their length made them feel like places one could inhabit for an entire day. The elaborate packaging, additional material and abundance of discs made the world seem almost inexhaustible.
2004 — Walking to Flatheads
I remember walking to Flatheads with my mother and sisters, collecting our fish and chips and carrying the food home together.
It was an ordinary family errand preserved with unusual clarity: walking through the neighbourhood, anticipating the meal and returning to a house we loved carrying hot food.
2005
January onward — Kingston, Canberra
By January 2005, the chronology had moved to Kingston.
2006
January onward — Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
By January 2006, I was at the Army Recruit Training Centre in Wagga Wagga. This marks the beginning of the military chapter in the present chronology.
2007
January — Bandiana / Albury-Wodonga
By January 2007, the record places me at the Army Logistics Training Centre in the Albury-Wodonga military area.
January onward — Moorebank, Sydney
Another January 2007 record places me with 3RAR at Moorebank. The two entries indicate a move during the same month or a closely adjoining military transition.
Later 2007 — Newtown, Sydney
A surviving earlier residential record also places me in Newtown during 2007. Until a precise month is recovered, Newtown belongs later in the year after the military addresses.
2008
January — Rangeville, Queensland
The newer chronology places me in Rangeville, Queensland, at the beginning of 2008.
Later 2008 — Kambah, Canberra — provisional
An earlier residential record associates me with Kambah during 2008. Until the discrepancy is resolved, the cleanest arrangement is to retain Rangeville as the January documentary anchor and place the Kambah residence provisionally later in the year.
Approximately 2008 — First Blood Donation
When Lifeblood contacted me in 2024, I remembered having donated blood well over a decade earlier and thought it may have been around 2008. Until Lifeblood's original donation record provides an exact date, the event remains within 2008 without a fixed month.
2009
January — Kilsyth, Victoria
The new chronology places me in Kilsyth at the beginning of 2009.
Later 2009 — Red Hill, Canberra; Yass region; Queensland — dates to be narrowed
Older residential information also associates 2009 with periods in Red Hill, the Yass region and Rangeville. These now sit within the remainder of 2009 as provisional movements rather than being assigned invented exact months. Their internal order can be fixed later from records.
2010
January — Curtin, Canberra
By January 2010, I was again living in Curtin (for a very brief period, and with a very strange roommate who was big into Glee).
Later 2010 — Scullin, Canberra
A later 2010 record places me in Scullin. An association with Kilsyth also appears in the older records and may represent the tail end of the previous Victorian period rather than a separate long 2010 residence.
2011
January–February — Canberra, previous residence continuing provisionally
The exact opening two months of 2011 remain to be narrowed.
March onward — Torrens, Canberra
By March 2011, I was living in Torrens.
2012
January — West End, Brisbane
The year began in West End, Queensland.
Approximately February–March — Melbourne
An older record places me on Victoria Street in Melbourne during this year. The most logical current position is between Brisbane and Point Cook.
March onward — Point Cook, Victoria
By March, I was living in Point Cook.
Later 2012 — Page, Canberra
The residential history also places the beginning of the Page period in 2012, continuing into 2013. Until the exact move is recovered, Page belongs toward the end of 2012.
2013
January — Page, Canberra
By January 2013, I was living in Page.
Later 2013 — Acton, Canberra
The Acton residence began during 2013 and eventually became a multi-year association in the surviving records.
2014
January — Acton, Canberra
Acton is documented at the beginning of 2014.
Later 2014 — Red Hill, Canberra
An older record also places the beginning of a Red Hill period during 2014, continuing into 2015. The precise transition month remains open.
2015
January — Mawson, Canberra
By January 2015, the newer chronology places me in Mawson.
Other records retain associations with Red Hill and Acton during this broader period. These may reflect short moves, overlapping official addresses or lagging records and should remain attached to 2015 until their exact relationship is recovered.
2016
January — Phillip, Canberra
By January 2016, I was living in Phillip.
Older records also retain Mawson and Acton associations around 2016, but the January Phillip record now provides the strongest chronological anchor.
2017
January–February — Phillip, Canberra
The Phillip period appears to have continued through the opening months of 2017.
March onward — Red Hill, Canberra
By March 2017, I had moved to Red Hill.
2018
Red Hill, Canberra — month unspecified
Red Hill remained home through 2018.
2019
Red Hill, Canberra — month unspecified
The Red Hill period continued through 2019.
2020
Red Hill, Canberra — month unspecified
The Red Hill period continued through 2020.
2021
January–July — Red Hill, Canberra
The chronology presently keeps the existing Red Hill residence through the first seven months of 2021.
August onward — Canberra City / Acton area
A new residence begins in August 2021.
2022
Canberra — same residence, month unspecified
The August 2021 residence continued through 2022.
2023
Canberra — same residence, month unspecified
The same residence continued through 2023.
2024
Canberra — new residence (currency)
TBC
2025
Canberra — new residence (currency)
TBC
2026
Canberra — new residence (currency)
TBC
Chronological Spine — Current Working Version
January 1988: Waratah, NSW
January 1989: Dapto, NSW
January 1990: Figtree, NSW
January 1991: West Ryde, Sydney
January 1992: Victoria
January–February 1993: Rockhampton/Frenchville area, Queensland — Natalie/Frenchville Primary
March 1993: Stirling, Western Australia
March 1993–1996: Gordon, Canberra — Yarralumla Primary years
January 1997: Karabar/Queanbeyan
January 1998: Deakin, Canberra → move to Italy
1998–1999: Montefiore dell’Aso / San Benedetto chapter — Lari’s house, pool, peacocks, plush toys, Rogue Spear
December 1999–January 2000: return to Australia; Tongan homestay
January 2000–2002: Curtin, Canberra
January–late 2003: Townsville region — Belgian Gardens, Townsville City, Balgal Beach/Mystic Sands; Shelly
Late 2003–early 2004: trailer-park transition
January 2004: Gordon, Canberra
Later 2004: O’Connor — Possum House, Alice in Chains, Fall of Reach, Hellsing, Pantera, Lord of the Rings, Flatheads
January 2005: Kingston, Canberra
January 2006: Army Recruit Training Centre, Wagga Wagga
January 2007: Bandiana → Moorebank
Later 2007: Newtown, Sydney
January 2008: Rangeville, Queensland
Later 2008: Kambah, Canberra — provisional; probable blood donation during 2008
January 2009: Kilsyth, Victoria
Later 2009: Red Hill / Yass / Queensland sequence to refine
January 2010: Curtin, Canberra
Later 2010: Scullin, Canberra
March 2011: Torrens, Canberra
January 2012: West End, Brisbane
Approximately February 2012: Melbourne
March 2012: Point Cook, Victoria
Later 2012: Page, Canberra
January 2013: Page
Later 2013: Acton
January 2014: Acton
Later 2014: Red Hill
January 2015: Mawson
January 2016: Phillip
January–February 2017: Phillip
March 2017–July 2021: Red Hill
August 2021–2023: Canberra, later residence
January 2024: Canberra (present)
