Yesterday, we headed to Bulli beach, as it has a nice even swell when other beaches can be rough. I saw some young grommets surfing off the headland and it reminded me of Shaun at the same age.

The thing is…my brother Shaun was what you would describe as the ultimate ‘Adventure Hero’. Before that, he was ‘Adventure Boy’. He was always up to mischief with Stephen Crundwell, the boy next door. The ‘Adventure Boys’ high jinks were never malicious, they wouldn’t hurt a blue-arsed fly, but nevertheless, they mucked up – got up to things that would make a mother’s hair turn grey overnight. Bev’s did.

They hero worshipped Evil Knievel, the 1970s motorcycle stuntman on telly, who broke almost every bone in his body performing crazy stunts – like revving up and then, full throttle, flying through the air over 10 double decker buses (Wembley Arena). He often crashed and burned. It was painful to watch. The boys were ants in their pants, wriggly worm, kind of boys, but they would sit as still as statues when Evil was on telly.

One day, Shaun and Stephen had a bright idea. They could do one of Evil’s stunts. The Crundwell’s pool was bigger than ours. They had an oval shaped above ground pool with wooden decks on the sides and a thick PVC (plastic) blue lining. The Adventure Boys poured petrol on the water, lit the petrol so there were flames leaping into the sky and then they rode their dragster bikes (shaped like Harley Davidsons) along the decks and launched themselves through the flames. They then swam, unscathed, to safety in the deep end. Mrs Crundwell spewed (blew a gasket) when she saw the post-stunt devastation. The flames had melted the blue lining above water level. The Adventure Boys hid for days.

In his early teens, Shaun climbed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge at night with Wilma’s son, David, from the farm – before it was open to the public.

Shaun was also a scientific geek. He once set up his prized chemistry set in the hall. One day when I ‘hated him’ for not letting me watch my favourite American telly shows, The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family (starring David Cassidy), ‘religion’ to me, I smashed it up and mixed up all the chemicals. He pinned me against the wall and threatened to punch my guts out. Sibling warfare.

When I went to use the kitchen blender, I would sometimes find remnants of gunpowder.  Unbeknownst to my parents, Shaun was working on a canon. He used to strap it to his little stunt motor bike and let it off in deserted canals. The temptation to show off to us grew too strong and when he was about 14 he said to Dad, “Hey Dad, do you want to see how my canon works in the backyard?” Well we all went out to watch the demonstration. The wick sizzled slowly and finally “Kaboom”, the canon ball was released, the garden was alight and the back fence fell over. Stan hollered, “Bloody hell son. What will the neighbours say about the fence?” But under his breath as he walked away I heard him mutter, “That kid is a chip off the old block!”

When Shaun started surfing, the bigger the wave, the better for him. He appeared home one day with a gash between his eyes, where his face had met a reef. He learnt to scuba dive and would descend deep below the surface to the dark depths at places like Jervis Bay, further down the south coast, to explore ship wrecks. He swam with sharks at Manly Aquarium. He was told to keep his hands glued to his sides so that the sharks wouldn’t snack on them.

Stan, Bev and I went to watch him and then we went to the local Greek restaurant for non-Greek food – steak, chips and peas. At the time most of the European immigrants, the Greeks and Italians, owned the diners and served Aussie food. Crazy! The other immigrants, the Chinese, served Chinese food. Not crazy. 

Today we’ll catch up with Rob and Kylie Clarke, who live the Australian dream on the North Shore in Mosman.