'Lucky all my life', Malcolm Nankivell turns 100

The eldest of four children, he was born in Broken Hill where his father had a Post Office and General Store. He also had heaps of cousins and other friends to play with and he loved school and was a pretty good student.

When he was 14 he went to a scout jamboree in Sydney and wanted to return to the Big Smoke, so he sat for an exam with the P.M.G department (forerunner to Telstra) and won an apprenticeship to become a Junior Mechanic (technician). Five years later he decided this wasn't good enough and, while working, also studied for another exam and was rewarded with an engineering cadetship.

In the early fifties Mal was sent to Parkes with Divisional Engineer Bill Carter and together they opened the first P.M.G. engineering branch here.

In those days many people did not even own phones and, if you wanted to call say Sydney or Melbourne, you had to book a time later in the day or evening.

So there was much to be done and one of the early jobs he did was to put in a line from Orange to Molong, then on to Parkes and Dubbo. Today that line has disappeared, replaced by fibre or radio, but it made a tremendous difference to our communications at the time. Mal was indeed lucky.

He loved his work, he loved life in Parkes and he loved people.

He joined the Apex Club (a service club for young men) and through that he was one of the volunteers who helped build the original Parkes Pre-School Kindergarten which has now morphed into our excellent Early Childhood Centre.

Then came 1954 and two momentous things came about in his life - Bill Carter, his boss, was appointed Director of Posts & Telegraphs in Papua New Guinea and he met his future wife, Pam.

When Mal became an engineer his ambition was to become a Divisional Engineer by the time he was fifty, but in 1955 he and Pam were married and just before the wedding they received the news that he had been appointed Divisional Engineer here at Parkes, aged thirty-one. What luck!

Mal has four sons, Jeff, Bob, Richard and Tom, so although he had played AFL in Broken Hill, he threw himself into soccer wholeheartedly.

When they acquired the space at the Eugowra Reserve he helped lay it out, then taught and coached and refereed as required, and particularly loved looking after the Under 6s. The under 6s spot was over near the train line. There were lots of steam trains chugging along in those days and when one came along the game would stop, as the youngsters found watching trains far more exciting than playing soccer.

When Mal had to move from Parkes in later years the Soccer Association honoured him with life membership.

Mal and Pam together also helped reorganise the Swimming Club's Learn To Swim Free lessons. More instructors were needed so they put their hands on people's shoulders and asked the to help, and it worked.

It worked so well that the numbers of children to be taught increased too and they had to have two sessions each Saturday and Sunday morning to cope.

Mal was also lucky that having started work with the P.M.G. at 15 and accrued a lot of long service leave, so in 1968 he could take his family around the world for a year.

They travelled by ship around the Pacific, finally disembarking at San Francisco for two weeks touring by plane across the States and then on to the U.K.

A new Valiant station wagon accompanied them and it stayed on board to Portsmouth, arriving a couple of days after they did.

Then they acquired a caravan which was their home for the next nine months. This family adventure yielded many unusual and often very funny or rewarding experiences.

There were few trips to magnificent churches for instance, but stone circles and ruined castles were eagerly explored, and when they drove past Loch Ness four sets of eyes never left the water.

Adding to the interest for Mal and Pam was that when Pam had baby brain fog after her third child, she and Mal had done three courses at U.N.E. together, including Ancient and Pre History, and Geography which added immensely to their enjoyment and understanding of the places they visited.

Mal continued to do very well at work.

He was an excellent man manager, highly respected by his staff. When there was a reorganisation in the department he was appointed to one of the new top jobs of Area Manager.

This was one of the few not so lucky happenings for when Gough Whitlam came to power shortly afterwards, he cancelled it and Mal was stranded - his old job and the one above it and the one above that had all been filled, so eventually he moved to Wagga.

Here too he again earned the support and respect of all his staff, one of them describing his coming as like a breath of fresh air, and two of those then 'young engineers', one now from Newcastle and the other from Canberra, came to Parkes to say thank you and celebrate his 100th birthday.

Mal has had a marvellous birthday with letters, cards and calls from so many friends, a delightful visit from the Mayor and some Councillors, and he wishes to say thank you to you all. He just loves living in Parkes.

Of course his family was here to celebrate the occasion and they found him some wonderful, imaginative gifts, the most practical and appreciated being a lifetime membership of the Parkes gym.

He has certainly had a most fortunate life.