John Butterworth
Better late than never for a very brief bio....
After high school, I accidentally got into sports turf maintenance briefly at the whimsical suggestion from a friend, and then found myself stuck there for some 13 years having gotten married, 2 daughters, 2 cars, a mortgage meanwhile working also as a part-time musician(firstly drums, which you'll all be glad to know that I did get to learn to play properly eventually after the 5th Year Revue: ref Martin Coles' bio"...and someone else") then switching to doublebass, and inevitably ( from commercial necessity) electric bass...
We also bought a small property above the Hawkesbury River next to the Tizzana Winery with the dream of living the rural life, and I did Agriculture at Syd Tech at nights...whilst still doing everything else !! Sold that ,which raised the mortgage on a suburban house, studied Horticulture (Hons),then Landscape Design, and then got accepted as a mature-age student by UNSW to study Landscape Architecture 1977-80,graduating with 1stClass Hons'82 (Took 2 years to finish thesis,like most others).During vacations, worked for various design offices/myself, and then straight into another office the moment Uni finished working on future planning of Milton & Retford Park properties at East Bowral.
The recession of mid'82 put me out of work briefly (got thesis finished!), then suddenly scored a large project on my own and had to employ others. Suddenly, I had my own practice, and the work continued to flow in - over the next 13-14 years, we did shopping centres,retirement villages,private schools, business parks etc plus a lot of work in the late'80's/early'90's in The Land & Environment Court with me as Expert Witness in many matters.I was also Visiting Lecturer in Landscape Design at the Uni of Tech(UTS) PostGrad Diploma of Design '92-'95 on a part-time basis, voluntarily resigning when the Rozelle campus shifted to Ultimo.
My partner and I decided in late'90 to live in the country by renting around Kiama, but ended up in Kiama suburbia as recession hit home yet again. Around this period,I initiated a number of country town centre urban design upgrading projects having great faith in the future of country towns, and in trying to assist them in improving the quality of life in their town centres. Very little of this work has yet been implemented due often to floods/drought etc taking first priority, but there are bits and pieces happening sadly often a pale echo of just what we originally designed...
Gave up trying to live on the South Coast, and returned to Sydney '92.and, by '95, became somewhat disillusioned with much of the work my office was doing. Wound up my practice and spent most of '96 focussing on my interests in sound and music.
In early '97, I took up a 3 year contract with North Syd Council to manage their shopping centre streetscape improvement program. Later that year, they appointed me Projects Manager to run all their building and office fitout projects incl Nth Sydney Olympic Pool Redevelopment, Indoor Sports Centre at Crows Nest, new Cust Services Cntre & Offices at Council etc etc. This contract has now been extended twice, and I thoroughly enjoy working here with a great bunch of people in a very relaxing setting. I've run out of time to say any more for now, other than to say that much of my life has been focussed on North Sydney from birth to now...Have to go now, look forward to seeing some of you on Sunday.