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Photo gallery

• My life
• Homes
• School portraits
• Me over the years
• Photo catalog

A small selection of photos from my life. Most of the earlier ones (to the 1990s) were taken by Dad (he took hundreds of photos over his lifetime!); the later ones by me. So far I don’t have any video recordings featuring myself or my family; videoing or taping were not a part of most people’s lives when I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. (More photos of old favorite memories are mentioned in some Journal entries: 2/4/2021; 23/8/2022; 1/10/2022; 19/7/2023; 13/9/2023.) More topical photos are on other pages.

My life

Homes

As of 2025, I have only lived in 2 places throughout my life so far. I get very attached to places and objects, and find change upsetting. Sometimes I feel I would like to move if I had the means, but leaving the place I have resided in since I was born would be very difficult as so many memories are embedded here. But the uninsulated weatherboard house is by now very old and deteriorating, and very uncomfortable to be inside (freezing in winter, boiling in summer). If time travel were possible, I would like to go back and revisit the places of my past.

School portraits

Single portrait photos.

Year class group photos. I note where I am for each, using the viewer’s reversed perspective (looking at the photo, not from the subject’s viewpoint).

• St. James Kindergarten, 1974. I am seated in the second row from the left.
• Kilvington Baptist Girls’ Grammar, 1977, Years 1 & 2. First row, seated third from right. All subsequent photos are at Kilvington, where I spent all my school years. (Teacher in photo: Mrs. A. C. Flowers.)
• 1979, Years 3 & 4.. First row, seated third from right. (Teacher in photo: Mrs. D. E. Morgan.)
• 1980, Grade 3-4. Second/middle row, standing second from left. (Teacher in photo: Mrs. D. E. Morgan.)
• February 6, 1981, Grade 5. Second row, seated at right end. (Teacher in photo: Mrs. J. R. Clough.)
• Sovereign Hill school camp, 1981. Period dress photo. Third row, standing second from left. Teachers (left to right): Mrs. Clough, “Ma’am” (Mrs. Rowland), Mrs. Flowers.
• 1982, Year 6H. First row, seated third from left. (Teacher in photo: Mrs. B. Hargrave, deceased – not a teacher I liked and was afraid of: she smelt of cigarette smoke and was quick to anger and yell.)
• 1983, Grade 7A. Second/middle row, standing on right at the end.
• 1984, Year 8C. Second/middle row, standing second from right.
• 1985, Year 9B. Third row, standing on far left.
• 1986, Year 10C. Second row, seated second from left. I was in a contrary mood and decided to not smile!(Teacher: Mrs. C. U. Delaporte.)
• 1987, Year 11B. Second/middle row, standing at far right. (Teacher: Mrs. H. J. Kirkland.)

Me over the years

Taken with a digital camera.

Photo catalog

• Photo negatives
• 35 mm photos
• Michele’s photos

I have a lot of film photos stored in albums, so below are descriptions of each batch. From 2005 I moved to taking digital photos.

Photo negatives

I regrettably threw out my photo negatives from my teenage years in the early 1990s, so most of the negatives listed here date from the late 1990s. I began taking photos again, most from 1997 onward after a hiatus. These are stored in 300-page albums.

1981 Year 5 school camp at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

Some blurry photos of Clydesdale horses and a classmate, Melinda Hansen! I borrowed Dad’s pocket camera; these were among the first photos I took.

1990

Photos taken for a Moorabbin TAFE Secretarial Studies course; Michele, Mum and myself one evening at home.

October 1997

3: Me on the veranda of my parents’ home. 6-15: A last visit to Gran’s home in Elsternwick with Mum and Uncle Brian to have the electricity disconnected on Friday 17/10 before the new owner-developer took possession. 16-17: My bedroom. 18-24: Photos of my parents’ home.

19/4/1998

Gran’s 100th birthday; photos of my parents’ dog, Sasha. (Note: all photos up to here were taken with my old red Konica Pop, a 1984 Christmas gift. Dad then gave me his Ricoh Shotmaster.)

19/4-June 1998

0-5: Gran’s 100^>th birthday. 6-8: My bedroom. 9: Sasha on his favorite place – my parents’ bed! 10: New lounge room curtains. 11-15: Last photos of Mum’s old 1975 Renault 12 on Tuesday 2/6 before its departure for the wrecker’s. 16: Looking out my bedroom window. 17-19: Mum collected her new Toyota Starlet on Wednesday 3/6. 20: Dad’s Mazda 626. 21-22: The ugly townhouses – 4 on the block – which replaced Gran’s old home; a depressing sight. 7/6. 23-24: Sasha after a visit to the dog groomer!

13/9/1998

Home – 93 Tucker Road, Bentleigh.

16/10-December 1998

0-7: More photos taken around my parents’ home. 8-11: Playing ball with Sasha. 12-15: Me on my 28th birthday. 21: The McHale family crest – “County Mayo, Ireland.” 22-23: Mum’s heirloom cameo brooch.

25/12/1998-21/1/1999

Christmas Day lunch at Michele and Chris’s home. 22-24: Mum and Dad’s last visit to 8 and 17 Midland Highway, Clarendon, where Gran’s parents’ cottage once stood. They sold the block of land in this year.

22/1-10/2/1999

9-25: Day trip to Inverloch with Mum and Dad on Wednesday 10/2.

15/3-2/4/1999

14-22: Good Friday 2/4 morning drive to the Cardinia Reservoir and through the Dandenongs with Mum and Dad.

25/4-23/6/1999

1-5: A visit from family friends Bill and Pam Waters. 7-10: Mother’s Day, Sunday 9/5 – a visit to Gran at Siesta Nursing Home with Michele and Mum. 12-14: Views of Port Phillip Bay. 15-24: Daytrip to Clarendon and Buninyong on Wednesday 23/6 with Mum and Dad, including views of the former ASTA hangar where I lasted only 2 months in my ill-fated apprenticeship there.

23/6-19/9/1999

0-2: More views of the ASTA hangar (the aerospace company went out of business in 1996). 3-6: Drive to Flinders with parents on Friday 2/7. 14-16: Lunch at Bill and Pam Waters’ Frankston home. 17-19: Timothy Perona’s 1st birthday on Saturday 4/9 (photos taken by Dad).

2/10/1999-5/1/2000

0-2: Dad’s RAF General Service Medal, Malaya, 1957. 3: Confrontation, an oil painting I did in 1987. 4: Journey to the Ice Mountains, of a U-Boat (!), acrylics, 1986. 5: My Year 10 Art Folio, submarine painting by me (a bizarre interest of mine then!), copied off a book cover. 6-7: 1962 photo portraits of Mum by Broothorn Portraits on Collins St. 8: Dad’s RAF memorabilia. 9: Mum’s school and nursing badges, and my Kilvington beret badge. 10: Sasha! 11-16: Margaret Perona’s 3rd birthday, held a few weeks early on 4/12 (born 25/12/1996). Photos by Dad (I didn’t attend). 17-20: Mum, Michele and I visited Gran at Siesta on Wednesday 5/1 (Gran’s false teeth had gone missing). Gran, at 101, had made it into her 3rd century! 21-24: Family portraits (Mum, Dad, myself, Michele, Sasha) taken 5/1.

2/3/2000-17/3/2000

Cloud and sky photos. 1-2: Clouds – altocumulus. 3-5: Skywriters practising for Melbourne Grand Prix day, 4/3. 6-7: Cirrus, 6/3. 8: Cirrocumulus. 9: Dissipating jet contrail. A high-altitude, 4-engined jet passed over occasionally from west to east, between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. or p.m. 10-12: Skywriters, Grand Prix, Sunday 12/3. 13-14: RAAF F/A-18 Hornet and F-111 on their way to the City for a GP flyover. 15-16: Cirrocumulus – mackerel sky. 17-20: Qantas 747 flyover for the GP; it circled the City and suburbs 4 times. 21: Gooney Bird sightseeing flyover. 22: Cool change and rain racing in from the west, Monday 13/3, 8:00 p.m. 23-25: Jet contrail, Friday 17/3, 7:15 p.m.

19/4/2000-16/7/2000

0-5: Gran’s 102nd birthday at Siesta nursing home, Wednesday 19/4. This was the last time I saw her. 6-7: Rainbow, Tuesday 9/5. 8-10: Me in the backyard (after a haircut!), 9/5. 11-17: TV stills from 2 videos (Seven Days in Space and Higher and Faster). 18-20: Sasha lazing about, Sunday 9/7. 21: Distant contrail (out of focus). 22-24: Photos taken by Dad, Sunday 16/7, on a daytrip up to Trawala (near Beaufort).

3/8/2000-17/9/2000

0-3: Cirrus clouds, Thursday 3/8. 3-4: Mum and Sasha, Saturday 5/8. 5-11: My bedroom, Sunday 17/9. 12: Mum in the laundry, 17/9. 13-24: Photos of backyard and around home, 17/9.

19/9-27/12/2000

1-3: My bedroom, 19/9. 4-7: Photos outside home. 8: Over the West Gate Bridge to Clarendon, Wednesday 29/11. 9-15: Dad scatters Gran’s ashes at Clarendon cemetary. 18-20: Mum and Michele with Trinity Jane Perona, born Wednesday 13/12. 21-23: Christmas lunch at Michele and Chris’s home (Dad took these as I didn’t attend). 24-25: Views of parents’ home from across the street, looking south down Tucker Rd.

10/1-14/5/2001

0: Mum and Sasha, 10/1. 1: Sunset, 20/1. 2-3: Altocumulus, 21/1. 4-6: Sasha. 7-8: Dad’s new Mazda 626, 21/2. 9-16: Inverloch daytrip, Wed. 7/3. 17: Dad renovates the kitchen, 12/4 (he last did it in 1975).

20/5/2001

0-1: The completed kitchen, by Dad! Done in around 5 weeks. Its second renovation since my parents bought the house in 1969 (first done by Dad in 1978).

19/9/2000-27/12/2000

1-3: My bedroom, 19/9. 4-7: Photos outside home. 8: Over the West Gate Bridge to Clarendon, Wednesday 29/11. 9-15: Dad scatters Gran’s ashes at Clarendon cemetary (Mum, me and Uncle Brian were there, too). 16-17: Sasha! 18-20: Mum and Michele with Trinity Jane Perona, Michele’s 4th child, born Wednesday 13/12. 21-23: Christmas lunch at Michele and Chris’s home (Dad took these as I didn’t attend). 24-25: View of #93 – home – from across the street; looking south down Tucker Rd.

2002-May 2003

1: Sasha on parents’ bed. 2-3: Dad’s shed. 4-5: Me with some spaceship models I made. 15-16: Michele and Chris’s Cavalier, Caspian. 17: Mum with Michele and kids during a visit to Rochester, circa December 2002. 18: Christmas tree, late 2002 (I did not record detailed dates from this batch on). 19-20: Bushfire smoke, looking east out of front yard, circa January 2003. 21: Sasha on bed. 22: Sunrise.

June 2003:

0-2: Me at home. 14-18: Beach views from St. Kilda Rd during my Sunday morning bicycle ride. 19-24: Photos of me at home.

August 2003-April 2004

Aunty Hilda and Uncle John visiting my parents on Wednesday 20 August 2003. They were moving from Townsville in Queensland to Launceston in Tasmania. 5-9: Me at home. 6-7: My 1988 acrylic painting, Cloud Warrior. 12-16: Sasha the dog at home. 17: My computer in my bedroom. 18: Sasha on Dad’s chair. 19-20: Sasha begging off Mum. 21-22: Me at my computer. 23: Sasha at front door.

To March 2005

0-6: Taken during one of parents’ daytrips in country (forgot where). 7-8: Orchid. 9-12: Sasha at home. 13: Mum in loungeroom. 14-15: Sasha. 16-23: Visit to Frankston Pier during a trip with Bill and Pam Waters in early 2005

2005-August 2007

I received a digital camera in 2005, so I began to use this rather than film, of which this was my last batch. 1-4: Sasha at home. 5: Backyard pond. 6-7: Sasha. 8: Evening Moon. 9-10: Me in backyard. 11: Early morning balloons over backyard. 12-17: A long day’s drive on 1/8/2005 with Dad to Rochester to collect Mum from Michele and Chris’s home – a 3-hour drive up there! So 6 hours of driving altogether, covering around 430 km or so. 19-20: Bushfire sky haze, circa January or February 2007. 21-22: Sasha. 23: My computer. 24: Sasha. 25: Blurry view outside front window of parents’ home.

35 mm photos

This list is for 35 mm film photos stored in albums.

1990

Photos taken for a Moorabbin TAFE Secretarial Studies course; Michele, Mum and myself one evening at home.

1996-February 1997

1-4: Sasha in the backyard; 5-9: Christmas 1996; 10: Michele with newborn Margaret; 11-12: Sasha; 13-14: Mum & Dad in backyard, February 1997; 15-22: photos around home. (Negatives discarded for these photos.)

October 1997

3: Me on the veranda of my parents’ home. 6-15: A last visit to Gran’s home in Elsternwick with Mum and Uncle Brian to have the electricity disconnected on Friday 17/10 before the new owner-developer took possession. 16-17: My bedroom. 18-24: Photos of my parents’ home.

19/4/1998

Gran’s 100th birthday; photos of my parents’ dog, Sasha. (Note: all photos up to here were taken with my old red Konica Pop, a 1984 Christmas gift. Dad then gave me his Ricoh Shotmaster.)

19/4-June 1998

0-5: Gran’s 100th birthday. 6-8: My bedroom. 9: Sasha on his favorite place – my parents’ bed! 10: New lounge room curtains. 11-15: Last photos of Mum’s old 1975 Renault 12 on Tuesday 2/6 before its departure for the wrecker’s. 16: Looking out my bedroom window. 17-19: Mum collected her new Toyota Starlet on Wednesday 3/6. 20: Dad’s Mazda 626. 21-22: The ugly townhouses – 4 on the block – which replaced Gran’s old home; a depressing sight. 7/6. 23-24: Sasha after a visit to the dog groomer!

13/9/1998

Home – 93 Tucker Road, Bentleigh.

16/10-December 1998

0-7: More photos taken around my parents’ home. 8-11: Playing ball with Sasha. 12-15: Me on my 28th birthday. 21: The McHale family crest – “County Mayo, Ireland.” 22-23: Mum’s heirloom cameo brooch.

25/12/1998-21/1/1999

Christmas Day lunch at Michele and Chris’s home. 22-24: Mum and Dad’s last visit to 8 and 17 Midland Highway, Clarendon, where Gran’s parents’ cottage once stood. They sold the block of land in this year.

22/1-10/2/1999

9-25: Day trip to Inverloch with Mum and Dad on Wednesday 10/2.

15/3-2/4/1999

14-22: Good Friday 2/4 morning drive to the Cardinia Reservoir and through the Dandenongs with Mum and Dad.

25/4-23/6/1999

1-5: A visit from family friends Bill and Pam Waters. 7-10: Mother’s Day, Sunday 9/5 – a visit to Gran at Siesta Nursing Home with Michele and Mum. 12-14: Views of Port Phillip Bay. 15-24: Daytrip to Clarendon and Buninyong on Wednesday 23/6 with Mum and Dad, including views of the former ASTA hangar where I lasted only 2 months in my ill-fated apprenticeship there.

23/6-19/9/1999

0-2: More views of the ASTA hangar (the aerospace company went out of business in 1996). 3-6: Drive to Flinders with parents on Friday 2/7. 14-16: Lunch at Bill and Pam Waters’ Frankston home. 17-19: Timothy Perona’s 1st birthday on Saturday 4/9 (photos taken by Dad).

2/10/1999-5/1/2000

0-2: Dad’s RAF General Service Medal, Malaya, 1957. 3: Confrontation, an oil painting I did in 1987. 4: Journey to the Ice Mountains, of a U-Boat (!), acrylics, 1986. 5: My Year 10 Art Folio, submarine painting by me (a bizarre interest of mine then!), copied off a book cover. 6-7: 1962 photo portraits of Mum by Broothorn Portraits on Collins St. 8: Dad’s RAF memorabilia. 9: Mum’s school and nursing badges, and my Kilvington beret badge. 10: Sasha! 11-16: Margaret Perona’s 3rd birthday, held a few weeks early on 4/12 (born 25/12/1996). Photos by Dad (I didn’t attend). 17-20: Mum, Michele and I visited Gran at Siesta on Wednesday 5/1 (Gran’s false teeth had gone missing). Gran, at 101, had made it into her 3rd century! 21-24: Family portraits (Mum, Dad, myself, Michele, Sasha) taken 5/1.

2/3/2000-17/3/2000

Cloud and sky photos. 1-2: Clouds – altocumulus. 3-5: Skywriters practising for Melbourne Grand Prix day, 4/3. 6-7: Cirrus, 6/3. 8: Cirrocumulus. 9: Dissipating jet contrail. A high-altitude, 4-engined jet passed over occasionally from west to east, between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. or p.m. 10-12: Skywriters, Grand Prix, Sunday 12/3. 13-14: RAAF F/A-18 Hornet and F-111 on their way to the City for a GP flyover. 15-16: Cirrocumulus – mackerel sky. 17-20: Qantas 747 flyover for the GP; it circled the City and suburbs 4 times. 21: Gooney Bird sightseeing flyover. 22: Cool change and rain racing in from the west, Monday 13/3, 8:00 p.m. 23-25: Jet contrail, Friday 17/3, 7:15 p.m.

19/4/2000-16/7/2000

0-5: Gran’s 102nd birthday at Siesta nursing home, Wednesday 19/4. This was the last time I saw her. 6-7: Rainbow, Tuesday 9/5. 8-10: Me in the backyard (after a haircut!), 9/5. 18-20: Sasha lazing about, Sunday 9/7. 21: Distant contrail (out of focus). 22-24: Photos taken by Dad, Sunday 16/7, on a daytrip up to Trawala (near Beaufort).

3/8/2000-17/9/2000

0-3: Cirrus clouds, Thursday 3/8. 3-4: Mum and Sasha, Saturday 5/8. 5-11: My bedroom, Sunday 17/9. 12: Mum in the laundry, 17/9. 13-24: Photos of backyard and around home, 17/9.

19/9-27/12/2000

1-3: My bedroom, 19/9. 4-7: Photos outside home. 8: Over the West Gate Bridge to Clarendon, Wednesday 29/11. 9-15: Dad scatters Gran’s ashes at Clarendon cemetary. 18-20: Mum and Michele with Trinity Jane Perona, born Wednesday 13/12. 21-23: Christmas lunch at Michele and Chris’s home (Dad took these as I didn’t attend). 24-25: Views of parents’ home from across the street, looking south down Tucker Rd.

10/1-14/5/2001

0: Mum and Sasha, 10/1. 1: Sunset, 20/1. 2-3: Altocumulus, 21/1. 4-6: Sasha. 7-8: Dad’s new Mazda 626, 21/2. 9-16: Inverloch daytrip, Wed. 7/3. 17: Dad renovates the kitchen, 12/4 (he last did it in 1975).

20/5/2001

0-1: The completed kitchen, by Dad! Done in around 5 weeks. Its second renovation since my parents bought the house in 1969 (first done by Dad in 1978).

19/9/2000-27/12/2000

1-3: My bedroom, 19/9. 4-7: Photos outside home. 8: Over the West Gate Bridge to Clarendon, Wednesday 29/11. 9-15: Dad scatters Gran’s ashes at Clarendon cemetary (Mum, me and Uncle Brian were there, too). 16-17: Sasha! 18-20: Mum and Michele with Trinity Jane Perona, Michele’s 4th child, born Wednesday 13/12. 21-23: Christmas lunch at Michele and Chris’s home (Dad took these as I didn’t attend). 24-25: View of #93 – home – from across the street; looking south down Tucker Rd.

2002-May 2003

1: Sasha on parents’ bed. 2-3: Dad’s shed. 4-5: Me with some spaceship models I made. 15-16: Michele and Chris’s Cavalier, Caspian. 17: Mum with Michele and kids during a visit to Rochester, circa December 2002. 18: Christmas tree, late 2002 (I did not record detailed dates from this batch on). 19-20: Bushfire smoke, looking east out of front yard, circa January 2003. 21: Sasha on bed. 22: Sunrise.

June 2003

0-2: Me at home. 14-18: Beach views from St. Kilda Rd during my Sunday morning bicycle ride. 19-24: Photos of me at home.

August 2003-April 2004

Aunty Hilda and Uncle John visiting my parents on Wednesday 20 August 2003. They were moving from Townsville in Queensland to Launceston in Tasmania. 5-9: Me at home. 6-7: My 1988 acrylic painting, Cloud Warrior. 12-16: Sasha the dog at home. 17: My computer in my bedroom. 18: Sasha on Dad’s chair. 19-20: Sasha begging off Mum. 21-22: Me at my computer. 23: Sasha at front door.

To March 2005

0-6: Taken during one of parents’ daytrips in country (forgot where). 7-8: Orchid. 9-12: Sasha at home. 13: Mum in loungeroom. 14-15: Sasha. 16-23: Visit to Frankston Pier during a trip with Bill and Pam Waters in early 2005

2005-August 2007

I received a digital camera in 2005, so I began to use this rather than film, of which this was my last batch. 1-4: Sasha at home. 5: Backyard pond. 6-7: Sasha. 8: Evening Moon. 9-10: Me in backyard. 11: Early morning balloons over backyard. 12-17: A long day’s drive on 1/8/2005 with Dad to Rochester to collect Mum from Michele and Chris’s home – a 3-hour drive up there! So 6 hours of driving altogether, covering around 430 km or so. 19-20: Bushfire sky haze, circa January or February 2007. 21-22: Sasha. 23: My computer. 24: Sasha. 25: Blurry view outside front window of parents’ home.

Michele’s photos

Selected photos by my sister, Michele, copied from her negatives – stored in a blue 200-page album.

1. 23/3/1985: Heather & Craig Drummond’s wedding.
2. 23/3/1985: Heather & Craig Drummond’s wedding.
3. December 1986: from our then-annual Inverloch holiday.
4. Christmas Day, 1986: lunch at Mario’s on Beach Road with relatives (Gran, Uncle Brian, Heather & Craig).
5. Me, May 1987; Michele in The Mikado (I painted her fan); Michele’s baptism at Bentleigh Baptist Church by Pastor Peter Rutledge.
6. November 1987.
7. Christmas Day, 1987.
8. Christmas 1987-January 1988.
9. 19/4/1988: Gran’s 90th birthday.
10. June 1988: at Gran’s home.
11. November 1988: photos of newborn Dior Drummond; me on my 18th birthday; Gran’s home.
12. Christmas Day, 1988.
13. January 1989: Michele with parents at Mt. Franklin (I was away at my short-lived ASTA apprenticeship).
14. September 1989: anorexic me.
15. September 1989: Michele in her school formal dress (made by Miss Harper); Michele at Kilvington.
16. Christmas 1989. Not happy for me.

Miscellaneous photos, including Michele’s wedding day to Chris Perona, 2/5/1992, and later Michele’s children to 1999.

Last photos of Gran’s home in 1997 by Michele and Uncle Brian, before and after its auction on 21 June 1997.

8:10 AM Saturday, 4 January 2020