Personal Information
Hi! My name is Rob! Welcome to my Wikipedia userpage.
I was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on December 3, 1977, at the now closed Queen Alexandra Hospital in Battery Point. I grew up on the eastern shore of the Derwent River in Montagu Bay, which is part of the city of Clarence.
I still have fond memories of playing in and around the bay, on Rosny Hill and in the bush behind Rose Bay High School.
I attended The Friends' School's eastern shore Sherwood branch from kindergarden to grade 2, when I transferred to Montagu Bay Primary School. When I finished grade 6, I transferred back to The Friends' School where I matriculated in 1995. I also acheived my Queens Scout Award.
I then spent three years studying Law at the University of Tasmania, living briefly in Sandy Bay before relocating to Sydney. I lived in Newtown whilst studying at the University of Sydney. In 2004 I graduated with a double major in Archaeology and History and also studied Museum Studies. My degree focused on prehistory, protohistory, Australian History, European History, European Colonialism and Settlement Growth Analysis. I wrote my dissertation on Politics in Archaeology in the 20th century, focusing on Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, and both regimes mis-use of archaeology to support their ideologies.
I have worked in a variety of jobs, primarily in the hospitality and heritage industries. I have worked as bar staff at Wrest Point Hotel Casino, Quay Grand Suites and the Wentworth Hotel all five star venues, and I am a mean Cocktail mixologist. I have also worked as a security guard at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a volunteer bushfire fighter, child carer, natural landscape restorer, and rally track marshal. I also appeared in a North American commercial for Discovery Channel. I have worked as an excavator on several archaeological excavations including helping out on Time Team, as well as in the lab doing artefact analysis, interpretation, photographing and cateloguing. This has given me an understanding of object storage and examination, conservation and documentation. I am highly knowledgeable of ancient, medieval and modern history, but particularly of the modern European and Colonial periods, Australian history and the history of 19th and 20th century conflict. I have also volunteered at both the Nicholson and Sydney Powerhouse Museums. I currently live in Shepherds Bush, London, and after working at the Imperial War Museum for two years, am now a curator at the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
Hobbies
Watching and playing sports forms a major part of my life, and I follow teams in a variety of sports. My teams are: the Australian cricket team, Tasmanian Tigers and the Lancashire Lightning in Cricket. I support the Australian Socceroos, Burnley FC in the Football League Championship, Sydney FC in the A-League (former Northern Spirit fan prior to reorganisation of football in Australia), and the Sydney Swans in the AFL. I also enjoy motorsports and support Holden in the V8's, Ferrari in the Formula One, and Australia in the A1 Grand Prix. I also love the World Rally Championship, and once worked as a Track Marshall at the Targa Tasmania rally. I also enjoy the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, and of course support Australia at both. I also enjoy watch the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
As well as following sporting teams, I also play Cricket, Football. I also enjoy Swimming, Cycling and Yoga, and attend the gym regularly. I study Martial Arts, and although most of my studies have centred around Shotokan Karate, I have also studied Aikido, Win Chun and Kick Boxing to lesser degrees, and although I have never formally trained in it, I have an interest in Jeet Kun Do. I also have an interest in Western martial arts such as Fencing and Archery.
Outside of sports and martial arts, my interests include reading, films and television, and playing video games. I also love travelling. I am quite into genealogy and local history, and have an interest in spiritualism, religion, alternative history, conspiracies and the paranormal, and I love anything to do with history and archaeology, although i am most interested in Australian history, military history, and colonialism.
Contributions
I was first drawn to contribute to Wikipedia as a result of a lack of articles in areas of Tasmanian history, geography, and sports and culture. I was also interested in trying to expand articles about my favourite sport, cricket. My first edit was on 28 August 2006, and was a rather poor creation of European Cricket Championship which has since been picked to pieces by subsequent edits. I am still not happy with it's standard, and indend to go back and clean it up one day... There is just so many more things to do...
Although I have a nasty habit of tinkering in areas outside of my areas of expertise, I do try to keep to those. So generally my edits and creations fall into the following categories: cricket - mostly Tasmanian cricket, player biographies etc; other sports such as football, Australian Rules Football in Tasmania; Tasmanian geogprahy, history and local institutions; and military history, primarily that of Australia, and colonial forces. If you see me straying, feel free to point me back into my own jurisdiction...
A list of my contributions can be found here:
Contributions
And a list of my Did you Know? contributions can be found here:
Did You Know?
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