The Grape Escape Story

“The “sixties” was the start of young Australians, the “war babies generation” leaving Australia and discovering other lands, cultures and if they were lucky, themselves. We paved the way for thousands of young Australians who “followed in our paths. We returned with new ideas, we enlivened Australia. I found travelling the globe was my university. Travelling opened all my senses, energised my mind and spirit. I became a more confident person working and travelling in another country, than when I left Australia.” Tony Mathers memoirs commence with his early years when meeting his father, for the first time at the age of three, who was back from the wars fighting the Japanese in World War Two. The struggle of those early years, the memories of an only child, living in the tough neighborhood of North Sydney, at six years of age, going to a private school (Newington) enduring the fighting with local toughs and some of those school memories; playing rugby and after school jobs as a cadet reporter and his desire to leave Australia - (travel and adventure!!) His tales of bumming around in the sixties, through Canada, the Bahamas, and Mexico working in San Francisco during the “Summer Of Love” take you back to a time of less rules and regulations. Travelling through South America and being in La Paz when Che Guevara was killed. His photos of Machu Pichu and Africa authenticate a trail few travelled in those days. Partying during Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro. Travelling and working in South Africa, getting stoned with Zulus in Umhlanga Rocks during the apartheid regime. Pulling on his rugby boots to play against Northern Transvaal while living in Rhodesia. Returning to Australian and opening wine bars and restaurants which became icons; The Grape Escape, Fantales, Barnacle Bills in Cairns, that trail blazed a path for other restaurants and future restaurateurs in Sydney and elsewhere. Recollections of study tours of the great New York Restaurants such as “21”, “ Four Seasons”“PJ Clarkes”. Further travels through Nepal and the hill stations of the Himalayas, living in London. Reinventing himself into a design consultant and being retained by hotels operators and developers for resorts in Bali, Far North Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne. The arrival of fatherhood as a surprise and a joy, the responsibilities attached such as working for a boss, seemed minor to the bonding achieved through sport and coaching his son. Combined with the happiness from the results achieved and the journey of his son’s growth from toddler to manhood. The sad passing of his parents who both passed away within twelve weeks of each other and that year of their passing, they would have celebrated seventy years of marriage. Which was the original reason for writing these memoirs as a cathartic and personal journal, now, through encouragement from others has turned into this story.