Tell me about your family.
I met my wife Cara in New Zealand in 1998 – she’s a nurse working in the Royal Melbourne Hospital in intensive care at the moment. We met and a year later went on a big trip, where we travelled half the world. We travelled through Nepal and India, Pakistan, Iran, eastern Europe and London, where we lived and worked for four years.
At that point I was in catering … we did quite high-profile, inner-city London catering. We served the Queen on a couple of occasions. I got to hold a tray and see if she wanted a drink, and she didn’t. She has her own butler to actually serve her at tables, but I was within reaching distance.
Cara and I have two sons – Harry, 13, and Harvey, 9 – and a dog, Swoozie, who travelled with us from New Zealand.
What’s your connection to Wyndham?
We immigrated from New Zealand in 2010 and we were looking for a place with good high schools, where you could get a house with a bit of land, and good access to sports. We moved to Werribee in 2012.
Why did you leave New Zealand?
For a job. I came over here to work for Bionic Vision Australia at the time, I now work for myself and have my own research group. We’re building a bionic eye for a company called iBionics.
Why have you chosen to dedicate your career to developing the bionic eye?
It’s scientifically interesting, we’re using diamond as a medium to make a biomedical implant, and I’ve never had a chance to work with diamond before. Blindness is a really emotional issue, it’s easy to engage with.
What stage is the project at?
We are five years in, we’ve got a developed prototype and so we’re in what’s called the pre-clinical development phase – proving that what we made works. The step after that will be a clinical trial. It’s about as good as science gets, to be honest.
You and your family are heavily involved with the Werribee Giants Baseball Club. How did that start?
Harry at that point was at Manor Vale primary, and one of the dads there told us to go to the open day. We did that, and they were in teams within a couple of weeks, and we haven’t looked back.
It’s a great family club, very social, and it’s been the hub where we’ve made all of our Werribee friends and become part of the community. I think I like it because it’s so cerebral.
Where do you like to go for coffee or a good meal?
Black Seed for coffee, everytime. If we’re going for lunch, we’ll typically go to The Park Hotel, and for dinner, our two favourites would be Fresh Chilli on Ballan Road, or Ghazal Indian Buffet on Watton Street.
