An OLSH Parish, Randwick, story. Tony Chung
The Chung Family
It’s a long way from Papua New Guinea.
Born in Papua New Guinea in 1952, Tony Chung has been part of the parish since 1965. This is his story.
My father, says Tony, was the General Manager of the Burns Philip Company in Papua New Guinea and our family lived in Kavieng the capital of the PNG province of the Island of New Ireland. It was occupied by the Japanese during World War II and was frequently bombed by Allied aircraft in 1943–44.
I went to the MSC school there. Not the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart we know but the American MSCs. My two brothers – Charles and Bernard went to the public school. Bernard also attended the Sacred Heart School in Rabaul, New Britain a few years earlier. Secondary education was lacking in Kavieng so our parents sent us to boarding school at St Joseph’s Hunters Hill. Tony was one of the first groups to complete the Higher School Certificate under the Wyndham Scheme in 1970.
Been back to PNG? Every year up to and including January 1970. PNG become an independent nation in 1975 and is now part of the British Commonwealth.
As was the way pretty much until the 1980s jobs security meant making a career with the one company. And so it was with Tony. Graduating from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting in 1974 while living in Randwick he joined Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) the next year. He retired from the firm 44 years later in 2019 as one of its Directors. Longest employee? No, the record is 47 years.
He makes no claim to living in the one place for long periods. Four places, he says, but all in Randwick since 1965. One claim he does make is always sitting at the same desk in the UNSW Library, reckoning that being first in the Library when it opened gave him squatters rights!
Once an accountant, always an accountant says Tony. So now in partial retirement he has his own micro accounting firm. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy goes the saying and for Tony it is Ten Pin Bowling. Not quite a passion but he has been a keen competitor for many years, beginning in 1993 and he still competes in a team at one centre in Wetherill Park with his two sons.
Family and the church are of course so important. Tony was an Altar Boy at the OLSH Mission Church in Kavieng and has remained part of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart community ever since arriving in Randwick.
He and Kim were married at our OLSH church on 29th January 1983 by Fr John Conroy. Kim was born in Malaysia. She completed her training in Perth before moving to Sydney in 1978. They met in Sydney at a picnic at Wiseman's Ferry via mutual friends. Kim worked initially at the Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick before moving to South Sydney Hospital. She did not resume her career after the children arrived.
They have three children. Kim has other family in Australia. Her sister Kim Siew and her husband Richard live in Victoria and are regular visitors to Sydney. Like father like son, the boys attended Joeys, being there during the years of 2000 to 2008. All three children attended OLSH Randwick for their primary education. Felicity, who works in child care was born in 1984, Gregory was born in 1987 and is a teacher and Emery is a trainee accountant, born in 1991. Reversing a likely trend, the boys live at home but not Felicity. They’re full members of the family according to Tony, not exempt from chores.
It’s not just his immediate family with connection to OLSH. Long time parishioners will remember the organ in the loft. It was dismantled in 2008. Where it went is unknown and so too is the crocheted cover for it. What is known however it was Tony’s mother, Angela, who did the crocheting.
