DENNIS
Tell us about who you are, where you come from for instance …
I have two lives really. The first was in England where I was born in London on ‘Good Friday’ 1947. The second continues here in Australia and mainly Western Australia, where I disembarked from the Fyodor Shalyapin at Fremantle 4.30pm Friday 4 September 1974. I can still remember that day because there was an issue with immigration as to whether or not I had to be quarantined for three months or sent back to Singapore where I boarded the ship.
No, I wasn’t a suspect terrorist, I had been on an English dairy farm and had handled raw milk within the specified ‘time limits’ requiring quarantine. But after explaining at length that I was a ‘research scientist’ based in London not a dairy farmer working in Wooten Basset I was given permanent residency status and pointed in the direction of the labour exchange in Murray Street. And subsequently I became an Australian citizen. In fact I have been an Aussie longer than I was ever a Pom.
Why did I come to Australia?
I came to Australia for a working holiday and after working six months as a labourer in one of the local dairies I left town hitching a ride along the red dirt roads to northern WA and stayed awhile in Kununurra before Darwin and eventually all the way around Australia back to Perth many, many months later. One thing I had brought with me was my adventurous spirit and a yearning to explore the world. On this adventure though there was no desire to return to England nor to the previous life I had. Instead I enrolled at UWA with the intention of following an anthropology career and instead ended up a clinical psychologist.
Do I identify as gay?
UWA is where I discovered politics, more specifically gender - as in feminism - and then homosexuality politics. Coming from England, where the same sex laws had been updated in 1968, and from a matriarchal working class background, I was intrigued by the fact that these were real issues for people here in WA. Thus came the beginning of ‘my life as a political poof’. I took on the role of President of Gay Liberation at UWA for a year and then I had a year as the Homosexual Information Officer in the student guild. During these two years the gay collective across the university campuses organised political marches through Perth. I was also the compere of Coming Out, a gay student radio programme which aired Friday nights at 10.00pmish on 6NR. Our programme also aired in South Australia, probably just Adelaide, and on one of the Melbourne uni radio stations.
I was also a telephone counsellor with the Homosexual Counselling and Information Service for about ten years, during which time we became the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service. GLCS obtained funding for two research projects. The first came via WACOSS (WA Council of Social Services) and I was employed to research and publish a report on the facilities/services available to gay and lesbian youth in WA; I think that was in around 1980. It was a lot of work for one person in the days before laptop computers and I computed stats by hand! The second project was federally funded and again I was employed as research officer. This time we published the book ‘Homosexual Women and Men in Australia and New Zealand’, a catchy title, although it had precious little content regarding New Zealand.
I also researched ‘The factors influencing sexual behaviour changes amongst men who engaged in sex with men post advent of AIDS in WA’ for my Masters Degree in Applied Psychology at Murdoch Uni.
How did you come to join the choir?
My reason for joining the gay choir was to meet new friends. When my partner Dale and I joined, the choir was called The Rainbow Chorus and if I remember correctly, the choir changed its name to GALS during our first year. The highlight for us as ‘Rainbow GALS’ - singing our repertoire as the WA GALS to a packed auditorium in the Sydney Town Hall and being a member of the massed Australian GALS later at the same major event of the Sydney Mardi Gras. And of course, walking in the Parade.
I am now 72 years old and still with my partner Dale for almost 30 years now. I’m still ‘Gay’ though not politically active, and still singing - to myself mainly - Kimba cat makes a quick exit as soon as I sit at the piano!
I have two lives really. The first was in England where I was born in London on ‘Good Friday’ 1947. The second continues here in Australia and mainly Western Australia, where I disembarked from the Fyodor Shalyapin at Fremantle 4.30pm Friday 4 September 1974. I can still remember that day because there was an issue with immigration as to whether or not I had to be quarantined for three months or sent back to Singapore where I boarded the ship.
No, I wasn’t a suspect terrorist, I had been on an English dairy farm and had handled raw milk within the specified ‘time limits’ requiring quarantine. But after explaining at length that I was a ‘research scientist’ based in London not a dairy farmer working in Wooten Basset I was given permanent residency status and pointed in the direction of the labour exchange in Murray Street. And subsequently I became an Australian citizen. In fact I have been an Aussie longer than I was ever a Pom.
Why did I come to Australia?
I came to Australia for a working holiday and after working six months as a labourer in one of the local dairies I left town hitching a ride along the red dirt roads to northern WA and stayed awhile in Kununurra before Darwin and eventually all the way around Australia back to Perth many, many months later. One thing I had brought with me was my adventurous spirit and a yearning to explore the world. On this adventure though there was no desire to return to England nor to the previous life I had. Instead I enrolled at UWA with the intention of following an anthropology career and instead ended up a clinical psychologist.
Do I identify as gay?
UWA is where I discovered politics, more specifically gender - as in feminism - and then homosexuality politics. Coming from England, where the same sex laws had been updated in 1968, and from a matriarchal working class background, I was intrigued by the fact that these were real issues for people here in WA. Thus came the beginning of ‘my life as a political poof’. I took on the role of President of Gay Liberation at UWA for a year and then I had a year as the Homosexual Information Officer in the student guild. During these two years the gay collective across the university campuses organised political marches through Perth. I was also the compere of Coming Out, a gay student radio programme which aired Friday nights at 10.00pmish on 6NR. Our programme also aired in South Australia, probably just Adelaide, and on one of the Melbourne uni radio stations.
I was also a telephone counsellor with the Homosexual Counselling and Information Service for about ten years, during which time we became the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service. GLCS obtained funding for two research projects. The first came via WACOSS (WA Council of Social Services) and I was employed to research and publish a report on the facilities/services available to gay and lesbian youth in WA; I think that was in around 1980. It was a lot of work for one person in the days before laptop computers and I computed stats by hand! The second project was federally funded and again I was employed as research officer. This time we published the book ‘Homosexual Women and Men in Australia and New Zealand’, a catchy title, although it had precious little content regarding New Zealand.
I also researched ‘The factors influencing sexual behaviour changes amongst men who engaged in sex with men post advent of AIDS in WA’ for my Masters Degree in Applied Psychology at Murdoch Uni.
How did you come to join the choir?
My reason for joining the gay choir was to meet new friends. When my partner Dale and I joined, the choir was called The Rainbow Chorus and if I remember correctly, the choir changed its name to GALS during our first year. The highlight for us as ‘Rainbow GALS’ - singing our repertoire as the WA GALS to a packed auditorium in the Sydney Town Hall and being a member of the massed Australian GALS later at the same major event of the Sydney Mardi Gras. And of course, walking in the Parade.
I am now 72 years old and still with my partner Dale for almost 30 years now. I’m still ‘Gay’ though not politically active, and still singing - to myself mainly - Kimba cat makes a quick exit as soon as I sit at the piano!