At the time of my retirement I was a Federal Court judge. Under the Australian Constitution, Federal Court judges have to retire at 70. Unlike many of my colleagues, who often keep working until the very last day, I retired a year and a bit before the expiry date because I had other plans.
It allowed me to act on an idea I had been sitting on for decades — to start an e-magazine. When I lived in Toronto in the late 1970s, citizens were up in arms about a range of huge developments in the downtown area. A guy started up a regular hard-copy magazine informing everyone about just what was happening.
It helped to galvanise a community and engaged them in urban planning and architecture issues. I thought, “This is what I want to do one day.” So in 2017, I started up the Fremantle Shipping News , an online magazine all about Freo that covers urban planning and architecture, but so much else — breaking news, funky Freo Today shots, our environment, arts, culture.
Even shipping news! We also have an anonymous footy writer called Snaps Truly who has picked up a huge cult following. I also have a regular chat with Notre Dame politics professor Martin Drum and make feature podcasts with Fremantle identities. The Shipping News was an immediate success.
People were fascinated by it. Our readership grew quickly and gathered contributors from many walks of life who had one thing in common: a passion for Fremantle. We have a particular interest in planning, development and heritage issues because they directly impact the community.
And heritage is always a key question around Freo. About three years ago a young woman was busy at work painting table tennis tables in Walyalup Koort, near the Civic Centre. I thought this would make a nice photograph for our Freo Today section.
As a good journalist I introduced myself as from Fremantle Shipping News and asked if she’d mind if I took her photograph. She stopped, put down her brush, stood up and said: “ The Shipping News . Sure.
You’re an institution!” When you get older and have more time to reflect on how things work, you also have the freedom and confidence to say things that you probably wouldn’t have said earlier in life and in your career when conflicts of interest seem to restrict you so much. I have few conflicts of interest now. I also have the confidence, I think you might say, to encourage discussion and reflection in the community on matters on which I have gained knowledge over the years.
I was once, for example, once the chairman of the Town Planning Appeals Tribunal, the first president of the State Administrative Tribunal, was a barrister and a solicitor dealing with planning disputes, so I have the background to deal with development issues. I also did a lot of work professionally in the area of native title, so I was willing to commit The Shipping News to the Yes case on The Voice referendum. And so on.
Before I retired I gave it plenty of thought about what I would be doing. The danger, I sense, is that many people do not give enough thought to retirement. And they are a little afraid of it.
They’re given the gold watch and shown the door and suddenly have no idea what to do. And of course, many people worry about the financial side of retirement. But all the financial advisors say you probably need less money to retire than what you think you do.
As I was thinking about my retirement I remember reading a piece in The New York Times about a fantastically successful and recently retired venture capitalist who said there are only so many days of the week you can play golf and so many months of the year you can go skiing. I suspect I am a little like my father and can’t stand still for too long. But I am learning to give myself permission to do nothing.
And Fremantle is a great place to do that. For years I’ve joked that Fremantle is a sophisticated retirement village. I can see Fremantle Hospital from my home, there are lots of great coffee shops nearby and the cinemas and close by too, and there are plenty of children all around to remind me: the world will go on without me.
I retired eight years ago for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones was to do the things I was too busy to do when I was working full-time, such as bushwalking and gardening and volunteering. Unlike other people who don’t retire because they didn’t know how they would occupy their time, I had things I wanted to do. I’ve always believed there is more to life than doing just one thing.
I was a member of the Friends of Kings Park and wanted to volunteer, but I didn’t want to do bushland caring because I do enough weeding at home. I joined Fixing Friends, who help the Kings Park maintenance crew. We repair and restore the benches throughout the park and painting the children’s playground equipment is another of the things we do.
I was a policy analyst so my job involved a lot of reading and writing and thinking. So one of the pleasures of helping the Kings Park maintenance crew is learning and practising new skills; you have to use your brains, but it is more practical. It’s a different part of the brain.
I’ve learned a lot from the crew who work here and from the other volunteers, many of whom are highly skilled. I don’t believe that volunteers would stick with it unless they got something back. Any modern-day organisation would know their goals are not necessarily the same as those of their volunteers.
If they don’t acknowledge that and make volunteers do the same task repetitively they are going to lose those volunteers. Some people don’t mind the repetitive tasks because they are in it for social reasons. I like the quiet-social aspect of maintenance work — a bit of talk but not too much.
You don’t hear as much about those who work in maintenance as those who do bush caring, but it plays an important role in making Kings Park what it is. Visitors love that they sit on nice park benches and that the children’s playground sparkles. When I stopped work I knew I wanted to do volunteering, but I wasn’t sure exactly what .
.. I read around and researched various areas.
If I found something that sounded interesting I would try it out. I live part of the time in the country, so I am a member of the volunteer fire brigade. And I do a whole lot of environmental stuff, mainly on behalf of endangered species such as the Malleefowl.
I’m involved in Malleefowl monitoring, which I enjoy because it’s bushwalking. There are all sorts of non-government groups who work on behalf of endangered species. People who finish work should not be afraid to try new things.
So many people are reluctant to take on new challenges because they feel they don’t have the skills or capability. Women in particular are afraid of doing this — fixing things. They will find supportive environments like this.
Women don’t have to volunteer for organisations that keep them in a caring role. They can try new things and learn new skills. I don’t like the word retirement.
It implies that you come to an end and there is nothing else after that. I believe people are multifaceted. When they are busy working they don’t get the opportunity to develop other aspects of their personality and learn new skills.
So retirement for me is the chance to try things that you’ve always been thinking about but never acted upon. Retirement isn’t downsizing. It’s a part of life.
I absolutely loved my career as a visual arts teacher. But when the school started to restructure my department I thought it was the perfect opportunity to retire and pursue my passion for ceramics. I thought I would get into it quicker than I did — life gets in the way sometimes — but I now spend many wonderful hours in my home studio.
My other joy is working as a voluntary gallery guide at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. Just before COVID a friend I would meet at an annual Christmas dinner suggested I should become a gallery guide. “You would love it,” she said.
She was right. But it took a while because when COVID hit the gallery didn’t do an intake. The training was rigorous but really enjoyable.
Once a fortnight for a year we had classes and there were assignments. It is a properly structured course in which you are taught about the gallery and the things you need to know to become a guide. I graduated in 2022, and it is now a stimulating part of my life.
I was attracted to becoming a gallery guide because I am able to communicate my love of art with people who share my passion or are hungry for knowledge. I enjoy learning about the works and doing the research and preparation for the tours. A lot of people volunteer because of the social aspect.
For me it was the opportunity to meet with other people who share my interest in art. The guides are a community of like-minded people. It’s not that everyone has a background in art; they come from all walks of life.
Many just have a love of art. So the training and the research allows us to explore art in more depth and use that knowledge to engage with others. It is an interesting and exciting time to be involved in the Art Gallery of WA because it has changed so much in recent years.
Things are happening constantly, so the guides need to refresh all the time. You are always doing research to keep up with the new exhibitions and the place is buzzing! Just look around. There are people everywhere.
While guides spend a lot of time preparing for a tour they don’t want to be the font of all knowledge. Your role as a guide is to stimulate conversation with the public. You want to find out what they think about the work, then support their insights with factual information.
The idea is the public leads you into an exploration of a work and you help them uncover its meaning rather than delivering a lecture. The beauty of art is the story that the artist reveals to each person, and it’s different for every single person as it depends on their experiences in life. Even though most of the gallery guides are retired they still have plenty of other things going on in their lives.
So the schedules are worked out to give the guides a lot of flexibility. Many people have the idea that when they retire they will be wandering around with nothing to do. That is far from the truth.
It is just a different kind of busyness. I’m not hanging my washing out at midnight, but there is still lots to do. In retirement you have time to reflect, time to really evaluate what you’re doing.
When you’re working you are very busy and time poor. You race from one thing to another, not stopping to think about anything. Teaching in particular is all consuming.
So retirement has allowed me to both reflect on and appreciate what I am doing. Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter .
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