Family Confidential

Madman

DVD and BluRay

There seems to be a fascination among TV audiences for shows about the lifestyles of rich or famous people. Perhaps it is some sort of envy for a lifestyle that most viewers will never have. This Australian series deals with real people and details their history, the bad bits as well. In so many cases there is a hidden background that they have been reluctant to reveal or discuss. The subjects are significant people in Australia, not just the usual bunch of shallow “celebrities”. A brief look at some of the subjects gives an idea of their influence.

Frank Lowy, head of the Westfield Plaza company, discusses publicly for the first time his Jewish origins in Poland. Although his mother and her children escaped from the Nazis his father disappeared into the camp at Auschwitz. Through sheer ability to see a business opportunity Frank was able to build a network of shopping centres in Australia, even overseas. Frank’s health was a problem and finally, on a psychiatrist’s advice he told his family of his life as a young Jew in Europe. He is not particularly bitter, coming across as a humble yet strong man.

Bob Jane built up his tyre sales empire mostly on his personality and car racing successes. Although he no longer races (he is 80 years old) he still turns up at races to watch one of his sons in action.

His childhood was rough. He lived in poverty in a tough suburb and his mother was regularly beaten by his drunken father. In his late teens he took up cycle racing then moved into motor sports. With Australia becoming more affluent more people could afford a car so he opened a chain of car yards. His first love was still car racing so he left his younger brother to run the business while he went on to win four Australian Touring Car championships. He also collected wives and adopted their kids. Working so hard developing his business put unacceptable strains on his home life. As his marriages hit the rocks he appeared unrepentant, and it was only when he retired that he finally had to time to work at a relationship. He admits that the death of his daughter Georgina was “the saddest thing in my whole life”.

Bob did not have the business acumen of Frank Lowy. He sank two hundred million dollars into the new Calder Park Raceway. It was a white elephant and it was only his son, who took over running the business, who saved him.

The Mundine family live in the village of Baryulgil in northern New South Wales. Older family members remember that Aboriginals had no rights at this time but came under the Aboriginal Protection Board. When the local grazing company gave the community a 99-year lease on the village land they experienced security for the first time. The Mundine family grew to over a hundred members including their most famous member, Anthony. . The only real employment in the area was a local mine that produced asbestos. Asbestos dust blew through village, the roads were surfaced with asbestos waste, and cancer grew to epidemic proportions. Many Mundines were victims. It wasn’t until 1984 that an enquiry finally assigned responsibility to the James Hardie company. Gradually family members moved away from Baryulgil but some remain because they have nowhere else to go. “It’s our home, it’s our roots”.

Anthony Mundine found his release in boxing and used his fame and prizemoney to support some of his relatives who also moved to Sydney. Now Anthony himself has an ominous spot on his lung.

Jimmy Barnes, at 54 one of Australia’s rock legends, is another rock star who nearly finished his career in drugs and alcohol. Immigrants from Glasgow, the Barnes family settled in Adelaide. Although Jimmy was academically bright his young life was hard, especially when his mother walked out on them. When his career was on the rise with Cold Chisel he met a young Asian girl, Jane, who seems to have kept him together when he could have just crashed and burned. She is a strong woman who survived the discrimination both in Australia and in Japan. When they married she also had to have the strength to share her husband with his fans. She took on responsibility for their kids. One of her daughters says “Mum was a natural-born dictator”.

She also selected a home for them at Bowral and Jimmy found it a refuge from the high-pressure rock world. In the 1980s Cold Chisel broke up and Jimmy went solo. The money ran out and the home was sold to pay debts. As Jimmy tried to rebuild his career he started again on drugs and alcohol. Jane could no longer manage Jimmy but he finally admitted he was an addict and went into rehab. He is now clean and has bought another more modest home in the southern Highlands. Jane is still with him. The Jimmy Barnes story is as much about her as about Jimmy.

The Hemmes family is a small and private one, better known for its position in the fashion and hospitality industries. They started with the House of Merivale and Mr John. John Hemmes remembers his life on a plantation in the Dutch East Indies until the family was interned by the Japanese. He was separated from his family until the end of the war. After the war the family was reunited and went hack to Holland. From there he spent three years in New Zealand then, returning to Holland, he stayed in Australia instead where he married Merivale. Their first business enterprise was selling hats at exclusive prices with John as the salesman. They were ideally positioned for the fashion boom of the miniskirt days.

John and his son Justin had disagreements over Frank’s hard-working business ethic and his expectation that Justin would follow his commands. Justin revolted and moved out for a month before John eased off. Another shock to the family’s stability came when a New Zealander arrived in Australia with a camera crew, claiming John was his father.

John has now passed the family businesses on to his son and daughter who are determined, like his father and mother, to be the best.

The Waterhouse family have been bookmakers and racehorse trainers for four generations. They have been involved in Australia’s biggest racing scandal and their horses get short odds when the race. Their family history in Australia goes back to the First Fleet. It was Bill Waterhouse, from the third generation, who moved the family into full time bookmaking. He could calculate odds with good accuracy and gave up a promising legal career to become a bookie. That tradition has continued to the current generation, Robbie and his wife Gai.

The Fine Cotton scandal, where a faster racehorse was substituted for a long-odds nag, hurt the family badly. Robbie was barred from bookmaking and from every racetrack in the world. Gai tried to take up the other family business, training racehorses, but was refused a trainers licence.

The family started to crumble internally. Cousins claimed that they owned a large share of the family assets as their father had supported Bill in the early years. For ten years the assets were frozen. Then Robbie’s brother David sued his father for a share of the assets as well and revived the Fine Cotton affair. Gradually the family’s fortunes have been renewed, largely from the efforts of Gai. Now the family business is being taken over by Robbie’s son, Tom.

Andrew Garrett, winemaker, has experienced the ups and downs so typical of Australian agriculture. He was born into a well-off family and at school he met the sons of many of South Australia’s winemaking families. Although he had no experience he persuaded a friendly bank manager to advance him the startup money. He bought the old Penfolds winery. His early vintages were well received and critics commented on their freshness and flavour. He turned out to be a good winemaker but a poor businessman. He was well on his way to success, then the winery burnt down. The business had grown so fast the insurance had not kept pace. He was forced to sell a majority share to Japanese giant Suntori, who later sold it to Fosters. Andrew left the company and started again.

He borrowed extensively to finance his dreams of a winery and tourist resort, but when a hailstorm destroyed a vintage the creditors called the debts in. The only collateral he had was the family home. They lost the home and most of their possessions. Finally when news of an affair got out, Andrew lost his family as well.

You can’t keep a good man down. Andrew’s new plan is to set up a chain of inner-city boutique wineries.

Most of the subjects had supportive families. Their problems have been the same as those of ordinary people. Most have worked their way through their problems. You tend to look at them with a little more respect ad understanding after watching the series.

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