Phillip Deveraux

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This is Studio 1 on Vision Australia Radio.

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Hi, I'm Sam...

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And I'm Lizzy.

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And this is Studio One, your weekly look at life from a low vision and blind point of view. Here on Vision Australia Radio.

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On this week's show...

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I catch up with an old friend and training partner, two time Paralympian Phillip Devereaux is our guest.

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As we always say at this point, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience of any of the issues covered in this week's episode of Studio One, or if you feel there's something that we should be talking about, you never know. Your story and insight may help someone who's dealing with something similar.

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Please contact us by email: studio1@visionaustralia.org - That's studio number one at Vision Australia - dot - org.

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Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook page at facebook.com/RVA Radio Network.

00:57S2

Hello, Lizzy. So, hey, I know we promised that we were going to be out and about running, but, I think we both came across a bit peaky, so it hasn't quite worked out that way.

01:08S3

Yes, you are becoming an old man. Or I shouldn't say becoming - you ARE an old man. And I've been a bit unwell over the weekend, so our running expedition got cancelled? 

01:20S2

Sadly, yeah. I've had an ongoing hip issue since I decided I probably unwisely, to take up running again, which it's getting better though. I actually had to run the last bit across a road and isn't hurting. So we'll see how we go. So the person I am talking to, Phil, has... well, he started athletics in the early or early to mid 1980s. He competed in the World Championships in Sweden in 1986 and went away to Seoul and Barcelona. So, yeah, it's, I said three time Paralympian, didn't I? So he's not... he's a two time Paralympian. So he didn't quite make it to Atlanta. But I trained alongside him for quite some time and actually was his guide runner for a while as well. So we go back a long way.

02:15S3

That's amazing. Well, I can't wait to hear from him and about his experiences being a top class athlete.

02:22S2

And you might be able to understand some of what he talks about because yes, an issue was finding guide runners.

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But yes. Well, I think there's a lot of, lot of us in different sports who have trouble finding sighted assistance.

02:34S2

Yes. And a lot of his training was actually done on a treadmill because, again, problems finding guide runners. But let's listen to the man talk about it himself. And welcome to Studio 1, Philip Devereaux.

02:48S4

Could I see him along with me?

02:49S2

You were sort of a fixture of the national championships, and well, what was the journey that took you there? So how did you lose your eyesight? 

03:00S4

Well, that 14 one week after my 14th birthday, I was out that day on the Daly River at a station, and that and my best mate, who was there with me, accidentally shot me with a 22 and and that. And so, yeah, there's a bullet went through the arm and through the right eye and came behind the left one. And the ambulance lady who what do you call first? First, along about two hours or so later, she was cleaning, cleaning the area where the bullet came out and it was stuck in my hair. Oh, so it went all the way through, but it didn't make it past my hair. I was with shoulder length hair, you know, 70s. So, you know, the hairy. The hairy hippies.

04:01S2

Yep, yep.

04:03S4

At 14.

04:05S2

So I understand, your friend was a very bad shot. So he wouldn't have done this deliberately to just shut you up?

04:11S4

No, I mean, you know, he was just playing with the gun that was faulty. And it was one of the kind. You load bullets underneath a barrel. I could put 15 bullets in there, and a spring loaded little tube would poke the bullets down each time as you were ejected. One. And it was three bullets were still in there, stuck and didn't know they were in there. And as he played with it, finally one of them come loose. And that's the end result. Don't play with guns. Accidents will happen. Yes, even if you think it's empty.

04:53S2

What do you remember of that day? Do you remember much?

04:57S4

I knew I'd been shot. I was halfway through reading the jokes in the post. They said Ned and his Neddy, I think they were called. And that. And I didn't even get to finish that joke. Oh, okay. It's like ripped off. But yeah, the basis of a ghost, I guess, is I can remember, it's like a spinning kind of a sensation and, and sinking like slowly towards, as if you're sinking down through water, or whatever. But yeah, round and round and, yeah, it was, I was probably aware for at least the first three quarters of an hour and, and I kept coming back from... unconscious to conscious, over the next several hours, I think all up it was five hours getting from there. Where happened at Daly River trying to get the, first to the Aboriginal mission there. Because there was a doctor there and hoping to get the flying doctor to come because they had an airstrip, of course, they were otherwise employed. So it was in the car across corrugated road. 

For the next several hours a wallaby went through the radiator and stopped, it stopped us dead on the road. This was nighttime and and it took nearly two hours before another car came along and, and they all got thrown out of the car, commandeered the car. And I was on my way again to Adelaide River, where there there was a what do you call like a little... sister and a like a little place where you could take small injuries and that and and they had an ambulance. They, they were Saint Johns and, and they did all the road accidents or any other thing and, and so, yeah, they took me halfway to Darwin where the ambulance from Darwin, took over and and. Yeah, off to the Royal Darwin Hospital.

07:30S2

So that joke you were reading, was that the last thing you ever saw?

07:33S4

I do, I do remember some flashes of of of sight, but only only small bits, I guess, because, well, the ride, the ride I was completely. Born, but the yeah, the bullet had passed behind the left one and it left a couple of, um, optic nerve shreds still attached. And so there was some definite sight there for a, for a little bit. But as I said, I was mostly off and on unconscious. So, you know, I still reckon you know, that there are still those same little optic nerve fibers are there. But, I did see Australia's best eye doctor when I was down in Melbourne on, on holiday. When I went back down there because I was getting, I was getting what I reckon was definite flashes, okay. 

And that and he did all the light tests on me and he said, Yeah, well you definitely got some, some what they call it some pupil dilation reaction or whatever thing, whatever you call it when. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, what do you call it, your pupil dilates or whatever it was. There was definitely some flashes coming through, but maybe most times now the flashes I get is when I bang my head on something and in a small, like, lightning flashes. You mongrel bastard.

09:16S2

So you're 14. You've just lost your sight. You've finally come out of hospital. What was next? I'm guessing the special education system and things like that, in the Northern Territory wasn't quite up to looking after you. What happened there?

09:35S4

Yeah, well, I was I was in hospital for a month. And then they released released me from there. And I think I got either 1 or 2 weeks here back back at Batchelor, at home before I was on the big aeroplane, on heading down to, uh, the Melbourne Guide Dog Centre, where I was going to, you know, be taught how to use a cane. And well, I was actually told I was going down there to get a guide dog, but they said, No, no, first of all, we'll teach how to use a cane and that and once I've finished with the cane, they said, Well, you don't need a guide dog. And... I did have some radar glasses there which were, were pretty awesome because, you know, I was getting all this feedback of things so I could sometimes miss posts and walls and doors and people and stuff there, but they wouldn't pick up, you know, if you were heading towards any like, steps or down steps or holes in the ground, it was like you were still lost there. You had to use your cane properly. 

But yeah, and of course I needed to finish school. So as I was learning to use a cane over at the National Guide Dog Centre, initially I was doing 2 to 2 afternoons or a couple of hours twice a week over at Saint Paul's School for the blind, learning to type with a typewriter and learning Braille. And I then after finishing with my, oh, mostly finishing with my basic cane training, I actually went over to Saint Paul's Books, a boarding school, and, I spent yeah. What the rest the rest of that year about that three months the next year. And then then I went, went to an all all boys Catholic college called parade down there in Melbourne and and that and yeah. 

12:06S2

Did you do all your school...

12:07S4

My last two years of school there... and then come home.

12:13S2

So when you left school and there's often quite a few limitations on what someone with a vision impairment or someone who's blind can do. What did you do with your life after that? I mean, you didn't jump straight into the fantastic world of sport, and a lot of other people will have experienced, say, things like blind cricket. But what did you get up to?

12:31S4

Well, initially I just simply went out and had fun... when I came back up here as first year, of course, was family heading out, you know, always going fishing and stuff, I moved into Darwin, ended up with my own flat and that I ended up with, getting a, a job at cabinetmaking place, furniture making place and that and yeah, did that for a couple of years, become a DJ for a little bit. Wow. That was that was another part time. You know, that's in... the disco. Yep. Yeah. So the thing where they gave me free booze.

13:22S2

Oh, that would have been interesting.

13:23S4

Yeah. Oh.

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I know you don't like a drink.

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Too many records.

13:27S2

Yeah, I know you don't like it like a drink that much. You know, you're a total teetotaller.

13:31S4

Well, I was blind already. You can't get any blinder, innit? Yeah, but no. So there was some interesting, interesting times as it goes there. I, you know, just as I said, with it goes, I was just basically well known around Darwen because I was out there with my cane cruising about and uh, in the discos, in the pubs, walking up and down the streets wherever going, you know, from here to there and, and stuff and... Yeah. And then eventually I ended up getting conned into going into blind sports. Yeah.

14:12S2

Let's talk about that, because I met you in, I think it was 1984. It would have been the end of 1984 or thereabouts. What got you into, well, running about the place and jumping in and out of pits and throwing stuff.

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Well, my my big sister.

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Okay, so it's all her fault basically.

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Basically, Carol just simply, you know, she reckoned all you're doing is running around drinking and making a fool of yourself out there dancing and carrying on. This is no good, you know, and that and that. That's, of course, after I'd done the, what do you call it? The couple of years with the making and, and and my little DJ... bit. That was just an extra, what, three nights a week while I was working, I ended up with a job in the government. Started off with, well, they were Telecom then Telstra. Now they had some little gadget that was like a if it was a light probe, you if you pointed it at a light it would bing. And so the buttons when they lit up on the switchboard, I'd run it along the buttons until I found the one that was where it went. Bing! And I pressed that and say, you know, good morning or good afternoon Telecom here. How can I help you? And that that was it.

From from there I walked straight across the lady who who fixed fixed up that before that six, seven weeks, I think it was and that and the Employment and industrial relations mob needed a switchboard operator. Receptionist. Right. And that and so she said, I know exactly who, I know exactly who. And she came and reefed me out of there because I was only on an eight week training thing to how to use, use this new little gadget sort of thing. And yeah, next, next minute on on there. And I know after a month they said, well, you're doing you know. Well because every time they hired a receptionist within about two weeks or a month, they'd left. Oh, because they were going to other jobs, you know, paying more money and that within their department. Yeah. And that. 

But they that meant they had to keep on looking, getting a new receptionist and retraining someone new. Well, when they got me, they said, no, don't you bloody leave. And that, that was all up. I was with them for 16 years, but not as a receptionist. I did do a fair bit of reception, but employment officer and of course I went to about midway through that I went. That's when I started the Blind Sports.

17:20S2

1985 you competed for the for the Northern Territory at the Canberra National Championships and you did pretty well.

17:28S4

Yeah, three golds and two silvers.

17:30S2

And you were up for selection internationally, but it was for the Far East and South Pacific Island countries games in Indonesia. Initially you didn't go to those though.

17:43S4

No, I, I mean I got, I got... selected with... whoever else made the grade in 1985, but there was nowhere to go. Mm. So they got selected for the Australian team. We didn't go nowhere. It was 1986. When you know it all it all turned different. And that and yeah I also went across to America on my own with my wife and we did the American Nationals there and went on down into Canada a same thing that was in New York with in America, of course. And... a place called Brantford, which, which is. And well, we had to go through Toronto to get there about 100 and. 150 odd K on a straight line, you know, heading some some other direction away from Toronto. And it was like that was excellent to be around your own master. Like there was no bosses telling me what to do.

19:00S2

One of the questions we often ask, just in general, is what's the point in travelling if you can't see? what is the point in travelling?

19:08S4

Well, you can still have a real good time, but it does help if you've got somebody who's willing to. Would you say to describe and show you what's about and that they're also very capable of doing that because, I mean, you know, you're meeting all people. I mean, I went to Disneyland three times.

19:34S2

Yes, I was there. One of them, one of the time you were there.

19:36S4

One of them. Yes, you know, sort of thing. And did it, did a fair few other... different ones like Niagara Falls went, went there, you know, tried to get in the barrel, but they wouldn't let me.

19:51S2

So let's fast forward a couple of more years and it's 1988, Perth National championships, the very last time in my memory that an international team is announced at the national championships. And you're selected for the Paralympics.

20:09S4

Yeah, well, that was it. I mean, we the recall getting getting the getting the world the world Games in 86 and doing all right going across to America on my own with my wife and getting results there type of stuff and and that. But 88 I had the best guide runner I ever had. And Brendan turned up and and suddenly I really had someone who could run, which meant as good as I could do. He was still capable of doing a bit better to make sure I got there, and we just went on well. It was a little hiccup in the middle when he broke his ankle, but we went on from, yeah, well, 80.

21:04S2

87.

21:05S4

88, right, right through to China, Far East and whatnot. There we did Japan when, when that's a big when doing there too. So we did two pairs because a couple of world games and and a pair of no. Two paralympics, it's like I had this bloke who could really run and suddenly I was able to really run too.

21:34S2

And you got on really well with him as well. That was. And that's important, isn't it?

21:38S4

Yeah. Well, the thing is, is a nicer bloke I've never met, I've met some, you know, people like him and all, but you don't often get someone who's just like, really, really got a good nature. Mm. Took so much to get him angry.

21:57S2

I've seen it when he has got angry and it does take a lot. But when he does lose it.

22:01S4

Yeah, but, you know, doesn't take me too much sometimes when I call it. Yeah. He can quickly, quickly, quickly lose the plot.

22:10S2

So we'll for fast forward about two years time, it's 1990. We head off to the Netherlands and you had some success, but the race was not what you'd call a conventional one. I mean, we both got our medals that same year, but. Well, both our races were interesting, but, you got your bronze medal. The ones just before me.

22:34S4

Yeah, I got mine. You ran in the next race behind me and got yours straight after. But, I mean, we both got. Yeah, we both got bronzes.

22:44S2

Yeah. That's right. What happened in that race though? I mean, it, uh, didn't go to plan for some people, let's put it that way.

22:50S4

Well, as the most, again, I had different guide runner there, Trevor. And he was a real capable guide runner too, as in an athlete of his own own. Right. Just like Brendan and and that. And it was like we were doing the 800 and we were coming around to the back straight, you know, about 650. And these two guys, that's two blind eyes and their guide runners. So you got poor people tangled up their legs and went down in front of us. And Trevor just said, jump. And so I did, in the middle of an 800 metre race, and I landed in equal second place. And kept running and but again, yeah, that's as I say before we ended up with a bronze. But I bought that sky was for silver all the way up that track.

23:57S2

And as it was, it was the world champion who had fallen over or one of the people that had fallen over because. Yeah, yeah. So I remember catching up with him the following year and, yes, he had a bit of something to say about it - in the nicest of possible ways, of course. Yeah.

24:11S4

No. Well, that's it, it goes. It's, what do you call it? It's, some people might say that's how, you know, that's how the cookie crumbles. Or, you know, when shit happens, it happens. Sometimes things don't go to plan. But he came up and shook my hand at the end of that race. Once he finished.

24:33S2

Oh, he caught up with him a few times after that at the pub as well.

24:35S4

Because he he was he was a friend already, but he was a sportsman and, you know, he reckoned it was like, you won't, you won't beat me that easy again. And I never did either. No, no. But... yeah. No, sometimes these things happen.

24:56S2

We'll go forward another two years to the, uh, Barcelona Paralympics. And you got a medal there, but not your normal. What you'd expect to call a medal.

25:08S4

That's right. Yeah. I was just trying to trying to pull out that one. That it was a Goldie and demonstration. They would like, hey, that was... so that they could make sure they had everything figured out. They wanted to run some of the athletes to see that they had the right way of going about how to, you know, do the races properly or the throwing and that and all. And yeah, that was interesting. But when I came out, I come fourth again, I came fourth nine times. You know.

25:47S2

That's not a fun thing to do. I've done it a few times before. I mean that was my, one of my last races, the same thing. Fourth. And you don't get anything for fourth. 

25:56S4

Yeah you do. You get a really big thirst and sore hamstrings. But yeah but no, it was it was a beautiful place Barcelona. And and that was the thing. It's just back to being there and being part of it was an enjoyment of itself. Anyway, the reward was, is if you could get, you know, if you could actually get a medal, that was bonus.

26:23S2

It was I mean, like I often say, just getting there is... an achievement in its own way anyway, isn't it. Yeah. So yeah.

26:31S4

And and and that and say, well, what was it. My, my first overseas trip was '86 and my last one was '95 and that was China.

26:45S2

Yes.

26:46S4

You know, and there was a fair few other countries I went to. And in between all that and, you know, it's like, yeah, the achievement was getting there and having lots of fun.

26:59S2

So as you, as we're heading into the mid 90s here, eventually you made a decision to hang the running shoes up. What prompted that?

27:11S4

I tore my shoulder throwing my javelin, and when it didn't come good, I ended up trying to still run. But all that did was, yeah, I was out of sync because I couldn't really swing my right shoulder arm properly, and and that. And in the end, I just ended up starting to get, you know, like, slight tear in the hammy and a bit of calf kind of thing and, and that and. Yeah. And of course the javelin was no longer there. Or the pentathlon, which were two. That got me a few places, but yeah, it's like, so what do you call it when you finally break down? You've got to time to admit that's it.

28:03S2

So before we go there, consistent selection for the Paralympics and international teams. There were three of us in the late late 80s and 1990s. Now the third member is no longer with us. So it's quite some time ago we lost Mark Davies. Have you got anything to say about Mark?

28:25S4

He was a bloody good athlete and he was a very determined one, trained really hard and he started off as a partial sighted. And I mean, before he even knew he was going to be blind, he actually had a driver's licence and was driving a car around. That's back when he was 17, 18. Found out he was nearly blind by 19 because.he kept on crashing cars.

28:53S2

That's what he told me. And he thought he was going insane.

28:56S4

He did that. But I'm just trying to think, which set? Retinitis.

29:04S2

Retinitis pigmentosa. It's said it's the the worst ever Harry Potter spell.

29:09S4

Yeah. It it just simply is. In something like 12 months. He went from near near perfect sight to needing big Coke bottle clean glasses. And then within another year or so, he was basically, yeah, just slowly, just slowly losing a bit more and a bit more. And then suddenly he actually had to go and learn how to use a cane, you know, and that. But he kept on at it there, and all his... it's like I said, very determined a good athlete and and all there. But it's that hard road that sometimes you've got to travel to get somewhere. And he did all that.

30:04S2

He's one of those people that I sort of just assumed would always be around. And it's, it was, yeah, rather shocking to sort of see that he's no longer with us.

30:12S4

Yeah. Well, like, as it goes, it's he'd found the love of his life and and, once he lost her, you know, through... diabetes. She overdosed herself or something. Mm. Accidentally, of course. And... Yeah. That, yeah. Fairly blue. Blue. What do you call it? Blue. His whole together. Together out. Yeah. Sort of thing and all. But yeah, as it goes it's, I think you guys watch it. Just, yeah, just going 51 or 2 somewhere there. So just able of, at least made it to 62 so far.

31:06S2

Well, not that long ago actually. It's a fair bit of time ago now, but back in in 2018, you received a particular honor from the Northern Territory government. You were inducted into the Northern Territory Hall of Fame. I mean, how did that feel?

31:19S4

Well, I can tell you. Tell you what it is. It's a scary thing getting up on the stage when there's hundreds and hundreds of people. I don't know how many people there, but there was lots, all of these great athletes and that were being called up for awards and and then, yeah, they called they called out my name and, and it's like, Oh, gee.

31:41S2

And Brendan was there, for that award as well wasn't he.

31:44S4

Yeah, I mean I obviously they had to give me an invite to make sure it was going to be there, but I wasn't being told what, what it actually was for the thing and, and that, but yeah, that's the, I suppose it's a Hall of Fame 2018.

32:04S2

Well, Philip Devereaux.

32:06S4

Sorry, 2017, but I received it in 2018. Yeah.

32:11S2

Well, Philip Devereaux, what you are is you are eternally entwined within the history of Northern Territory sport, within the history of blind sports in this country and, of course, within my life. It's been a pleasure talking to you.

32:23S4

Yeah, well, as a go, Sam, I mean, you first. I think I first met you when you were 12, that you first sports one was when you were 13. And don't forget to is when I lost Brendan with his broken ankle, who actually started running with me.

32:43S2

It was a pretty good training from memory. So yeah, it helped get me to Barcelona, I can tell you. Yeah.

32:48S4

And you, you started filling in a lot of my kilometres, which made you a better athlete, because I was making you run harder and faster for a lot longer. But you were willing.

32:59S2

We've all got to be willing.

33:00S4

And of course, we became a lot, lot, lot longer and better mates as that went too.

33:06S2

Well, again. It's been a pleasure talking to you, Phil, we will do this again sometime. 

33:12S4

Yeah. No sweat, Sam. And as it goes, hey, it's like, you know, it's been good talking with you, and hopefully there's some blindie out there somewhere that they listen to this, and they're only 14 or 15. They might say, Well, gee, maybe I can do that.

33:36S2

If some of the items in today's episode of Studio 1 have caused you or anyone you know, distress, call 1800 RESPECT. That's 1800 737 732... or lifeline on 13114. That's a wrap for this week. Next week is National Volunteers Week.

33:58S3

We talk to some of our tireless volunteers here at Vision Australia Radio Adelaide, who read the news and put together some of our favorite shows.

34:06S2

And we talk to a retired radio announcer who now reads the death notices for Vision Australia Radio Adelaide.

34:12S3

But between now and then, please do get in touch with the show. Whether you have experience dealing with any of the issues covered in this week's episode of Studio 1, or if you feel there's something we should be talking about, you never know - your story and insight may help someone who's dealing with something similar.

34:26S2

You can contact us via email: studio1@visionaustralia.org ... that's Studio 1 at Vision Australia - dot - org. 

34:33S3

Or you can drop us a note on our Facebook at facebook.com, slash RVA Radio Network, or the rather obsolete platform of x x comm slash VA Radio Network.

34:45S1

Vision Australia Radio gratefully acknowledges the support of the Community Broadcasting Foundation for Studio One.