au

John Skinner

Press Service International

John Skinner served as an infantry soldier in Vietnam then the Tasmanian Police before taking up the position of CEO of the Australian Rough Riders Association (professional rodeo based in Warwick Qld). Before retirement to his small farm, he was a photo-journalist for 25 years. He is married with 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

  • Thunderbolt and the family secret

    Thunderbolt the Bushranger, real name Fredrick Wordsworth Ward, was a taboo subject at home when I was a child.

  • County, the Miracle Horse

    I’ve owned, started, trained and ridden Australian Stock horses, thoroughbreds (racehorses), Arabians and old nags of no particular breeding but Quarter Horses have filled the last 45 years of my life and I have no regrets.

  • Eagles

    As a young bloke on the family wool-growing property with my first rifle, I remember being urged by my grandfather to shoot any 'eaglehawks' I saw. The 'eaglehawks' he was referring to is the third largest of all the eagles, the Wedge-tailed Eagle, Australia's largest raptor and often referred to as an Eaglehawk by farmers.

  • Barclays Bank Chooses the LGBT Path

    I read recently how a UK-based non-profit Christian organisation which supports men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in their lives was jettisoned by their bank because of what an LGBT organisation said about them.

  • Monkey Business

    I was lying on my back in a weapon pit. My rifle was across my left arm and my basic webbing – ammo pouches and water – were within easy reach.

  • Diesel the Dog

    I needed a new sheepdog; we’d just moved from the edge of town 25km south and increased our sheep numbers considerably.

  • Sunday Sport

    My family were Baptists and I remember attending Sunday school and church from an early age.

  • Hidden in plain sight – illicit drugs

    By the time I’d finished my military career and joined the police service, I was slightly older than most of my colleagues who joined at the same time.

  • The Old Digger

    It happened one day when I least expected it – a call to do the ex-serviceman’s rites at the funeral of an RSL Sub-Branch member.

  • Gormanston

    It was one of those good days in Queenstown, Tasmania.