Ken Gamble

The tropics of the Sunshine Coast.

Yeah.

You know, you'd been living a life of so much freedom.

Your schooling had been via School of the Air.

What was your first day back in regular schooling like?

It was actually not very good because I was a white-skinned boy with a crew cut and I was suddenly in a school with a bunch of guys with suntans and long hair.

So I had come into a surfy environment.

Back in 1977, everyone had long hair.

but I didn't.

So I was immediately an outcast.

The day I walked into that school and someone had a go at me, someone called me a skinhead or something and I had a punch up with a guy.

Yeah, a guy named Danny and he was one of the biggest kids in the class.

And the fight got broken up, but I did pretty well because I had fought a lot up in the Gregory.

I'd had a lot of fights and

And I was a good fighter and my way of dealing things was just start throwing punches because that's what I was taught when I was growing up looking at Dad, the way he would deal with things.

So anyway, that first day, it changed everything for me.

I got a bit of respect, ended up growing my hair a bit longer and became very good friends with the guy that I had the fight with.

And what about you as a fighter?

Were you training as a boxer or was this just an extracurricular activity?

So when I started high school, I started to train at a local boxing club, the Gympie.