The Beginning

	As a very young child I had a passion for big cats, fuelled by my missionary uncle's stories of man-eating tigers where he lived in India. This interest continued and when, at thirteen, I started art classes in the city, my first piece was of a lion that I drew from a living creature at the Adelaide Zoo. At the age of nine, I was introduced to the underwater world when my father bought me a face mask and snorkel for Christmas, and I immediately began a ten-year affair with hunting marine fish. I had little interest in what the schools of those days had to offer, and they showed little interest in me. Every waking moment was focused on spearing fish. Then I bought my first rifle. By that time I was sixteen, and we had moved to an Adelaide suburb at the foot of the Mount Lofty Ranges. It was in those ranges that I honed my hunting skills. Even though I was a predator, I had a growing interest in the habits of my quarry, a fascination that often cost me my prey.
Between ages nine and nineteen I was a keen spearfisherman.

At seventeen, I was an avid hunter.