Owen Martin, a very short history.

I was born in Perth in 1955 and went to primary school at Kelmscott Primary.

High school was at Armadale Senior High School, then the only high school for many miles. Now there are 3 or 4 in the suburb of Armadale alone.

Attended WA Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) for a year doing Civil Engineering but my heart wasn't in it.

1974 I went to Canberra for a holiday and ran out of money so I stayed. I had an application in for an Air Traffic Control course and worked a few jobs while I was waiting. The last was at the Patent Office in Canberra. 1975 saw me head to Melbourne for the course, returning to Perth in 1977.

Married Julie Huxtable in May 1980 and we bought our first house in Lesmurdie. Lauren was born in 1983 and Russell in 1985. In 1986, having planned to spend 2 years in Karratha, we sold there and bought in Floreat. Julie's family are from Floreat, so she had more support at hand with 2 young children. 1987 to 1989 we lived in Karratha in the north west of WA, working in the regional control tower. A relaxed lifestyle. 1989 gave us an opportunity to move to Sydney, all expenses paid, working in the tower there, so we took it. Sydney was a bit of a culture shock, going from a town of 20,000 with no traffic lights, to Australia's largest city, of, then, about 3 million people and more traffic lights than you could poke a stick at. Hayley was born in Sydney. Returned to Perth in 1990 and besides a 5 month secondment to Canberra, we have been settled in Perth since.

Recently in Melbourne. Ultimately was at Avalon Airport, working gentleman's hours, earliest start 7am and latest finish 8pm. I decided to make the move to exend my working life as the 24 hour rotating roster at Perth was quickly killing me, along with the plummeting morale in the tower.

July 25 2011 was my last operational shift as an Air Traffic Controller. I didn't know how much it was screwing up my physiology until I stopped. Life is wonderful now.