A piece of ephemera found in North Queensland - a four page vocational guidance report for a Sydney teenager in April 1959 - has resulted in a colourful follow up tale about the residents of a street in that capital city.
The report was for Richard Lionel Holliday , aged 14 years nine months , who lived at 9 Milner Crescent, Wollstonescraft , a now desirable North Shore suburb, not far from famous Luna Park . In fact , the man responsible in 1935 for the removal from South Australia to Sydney of Luna Park , engineer Ted Hopkins, also lived in the same crescent , number 15, his property eventually selling for the first time in 75 years for about $1.7million . In Luna Park today there is the Ted Hopkins Room, with great harbour views, used for lavish wedding receptions .
Milner Crescent is also the same street where John Howard and his wife moved after nearly 12 years in plush nearby Kirribilli House following the election defeat . Residents noticed that three months before the election that saw the PM lose his seat of Bennelong there was building activity- a new back fence , renovated windows and a new roof on the garage - at the Howard house . Some took this as evidence that Howard expected to loose the election. He and Janette live there today. During the Liberal Party fight which resulted in Tony Abbott grabbing leadership of the Opposition by one vote from Malcolm Turnbull , Joe Hockey, from nearby North Sydney , was seen lumbering up the stairs into the Howard Milner Crescent residence .
The report , signed by the Director of Youth Welfare in the NSW Department of Labour and Industry , D. E. Rose , indicates that young Holliday had expressed a desire to manage a pastoral property, possibly a sheep station , and was advised to seek work as a jackeroo . Also beneficial would be correspondence courses in station bookkeeping or wool classing . Diploma courses at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College would equip him for employment as an agricultural field officer or agronomist; wool classing and buying were other options .
