Dancing with Demons
Page 29
Her Honour Margot Stubbs.
Judge Robert Sutherland QC.
Judge Robert Toner SC.
The late Jim Kennan SC (former Attorney-General of Victoria).
The late Right Honourable Edward Gough Whitlam AC QC (21st Prime Minister of Australia).
Noel Ackman QC, Keith Boulton, Stephen Dewberry, David Galbally AM QC, David Grace QC, Con Heliotis QC, Costas Kilias, the late Lillian Lieder QC, Mark J. Rochford QC, Robert Richter QC, Jim Stavris, Michael Tovey QC, Bruce Walmsley QC, John Walsh of Brannagh.
Paul Galbally, Robert Galbally, Alastair Grigor, George Defteros, Michael Gleeson, David Edwardson QC, Wayne Toohey.
Richard Payne (call me), the late Professor Isaac Schweitzer, Robert and Vicki Smorgon.
Jacqueline Pascarl. You continue to inspire.
Glen Coburn, David Hedgcock, Peter Waterfall, Michael Pagonis, Ivan Storey.
Carl Synnerdahl . . . a genius.
Bridget Donovan, Geraldine Doogue, Graham Geddes, Senator Derryn Hinch, John Jost, Dr John Buchanan, Dr Elise Julien, the late Joe Lamberti, John Laws, Paul Lynch, Neil Mitchell, Ian McMinn, the late Joseph ‘Pino’ Acquaro, the Karpin family, the late Robert ‘Bluey Bob’ and Carol Mather, Keith Ridgway, David and Jenny Stanley, Richard Phillip Smith, Allan and Yvonne Walker, Doc Woods, the late Detective Sergeant Mark Wylie, George Muskens and Bruce Davey.
Bond University
Professor Paul Wilson and Dr Robyn Lincoln.
The Sydney Crew
All extraordinary and loyal.
Chris Murphy, Sue Ellen Roffey, Adam Houda, Brett Galloway (Jock), Abigail Bannister, Martin Ricci, Matt Lorkin, Doug Marr, Richard Cummins, Paul Hardin, Margaret Cunneen SC, Dr Robert Webb, Elias Tabchouri, Michael Croke, the late Les Connelly, Joe Weller, the mighty John ‘JD’ Weller, Richard Kozanecki, Tom Hughes.
Cameron Smith (Trainer), Paul Bodisco, Phillip Bolton SC, Pierre de Dassel, Geoff Harrison, Julieanne Levick, Ian Lloyd QC, Rory McCrudden, Nicholas Poynder,
Ali Abbas, Dion Accoto, Stephen Alexander, Hugo Aston, Brian Cash, Patrick Conaghan, Michael Cruickshank, Bradley Deacon, Andrew Dikha, Chris Ford, Rosemary Freeman, Terence Grundy, Nick Hanna, Justin Hanby, Eidan Havas, Victoria Havryliv, Kate Hertzog, Chase Hope, Leigh Johnson, Simon Joyner, Omar Juweinat, Moustafa Kheir, Kiki Kyriacou, Gareth Lewis, Andrew Leung, David Lock, John Maitland, Anthony Malkoun, Elias Matouk, Christine Nash, Damian McNally, Rob Melasecca, Paul and Simone Quinn, Alen Sahinovic, Ivan Sayad, Abbas Soukie, Rochelle Trimmer, Kris Berman, Maree Carey, Joanne Clarke and Mark Schlosser, Neil Creswick, Dr Albina Della Bruna, Dr Michael Zacharia, Joe Lynch, Professor Henry Debinski, Phoebe and Miles Innes-Wilson, Kim Wilson, Nicki Lefkovits, Helen Toner, Mark Fitzpatrick, Bruce Conway, Nige Younes, Chris Sullivan.
And a cast of so many more . . . thank you.
Family
My parents, Charles and Yvette Watson-Munro.
Jesse, Tom, Gabby, Laura, Nick and the late Billie Watson-Munro.
Carla Lechner, former wife. You survived us all.
The late Hans and Trudi Lechner.
Brian and Jennifer Mitchell (Sue’s parents) and Helen Wagschall (Sue’s sister).
Jay Diamond, Joan Evans.
My Other Family
Marie Brereton and my beloved ‘brothers’ Michael Brereton and Shayne Brereton.
Bernie Johnson and family.
And finally, in loving memory of Susan Watson-Munro. ‘You took my breath away . . .’
The view from my childhood home in San Francisco; if you look closely, you can see Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in the distance. The security light would cast moonbeam shadows across the bay in a rhythmic pattern through the night.
A treasured newspaper clipping: my father, Charles Watson-Munro, and thirty-six other nuclear scientists from around the world attended a conference at Balmoral Castle with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. In this photograph, Dad stands directly behind the Queen.
Lift off: Dad starting the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor with then Prime Minister Robert Menzies on 18 April 1958.
Playing with Rico, Evelyn Einstein’s German shepherd, at Berkeley circa 1960.
I survived at Sydney Grammar through my athleticism. Here I am, winning the 200 metres in 1967.
Aspiring rock stars: as a teenager I played in a band with my late friend Wayne Garstang (right). Friends would later warn that my artistic temperament made me ill-suited to gaol psychology.
Total freedom: flirting with death on my Triumph Bonneville in 1971.
I loved music and playing my beloved Maton guitar. When I took on the Parramatta Gaol position, my friends worried I might lose my creativity.
Lecturing days: a great crew at Phillip Institute, 1984.
Reliving my appearance on The Mike Walsh Show at home in South Yarra, 1984.
‘She took my breath away.’ With Sue and Charles (my dad), on our wedding day in January 1984.
With Tom in 1987: his character was already apparent, mischievous and loving.
My mother Yvette fell over herself in her haste to nurse Tom.
On a Gold Coast holiday with Jesse and Tom in 1988: I wish I’d devoted more time to my family back then.
‘He couldn’t run a corner store.’ Andrew Fraser and I walking Bondy to hospital on the front cover of The Bulletin, June 1995. Fraser’s arrest would come in September 1999. Mine quickly followed.
The ‘snow’ was always best at Aspen. Here I am with Carla on a family holiday in 1994.
It was a high life of fast cars, expensive lunches, fine art, media attention and international travel.
Me and Carla, at the peak of my success, attending another well-fortified A-list function.
Suicide by stealth: I had lost so much weight that it was rumoured I was dying from undeclared cancer. Looking back at photographs like this one, taken in 1999, sends a chill down my spine.
All smiles with Carla, Laura and Gabby. This photo was taken mere months before the bust.
With Nick on a desert holiday in 2016.
I’ve been to hell and back, but my dances with demons have made me a better practitioner and helped me to forge an unbreakable bond with my amazing family. From left: me, Nick, Carla, Gabby and Laura.
Reflecting on a life in the headlines.
First published in 2017 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Tim Watson-Munro 2017
The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
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Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
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EPUB format: 9781760554361
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The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked should contact the publisher.
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