The autobiography of distinguished sport science academic and author, John Bloomfield, shows it was memories of his childhood in Kiama that came flooding back as he grew old.

John – who passed away last October – spent two years writing A Boy from Kiama after a long career as a Professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Deputy Chair/ Chairman of the Australian Institute of Sports Board of Management.

His wife of over 60 years, Noelene – distinguished in her own way as a research fellow at UWA and the recipient of a high honour from the French Government for her work on French discoverers in WA – says John saw the book as a tribute to the Kiama Surf Life Saving Club.

“John was very involved with the Club as a teenager and a lot of the people in the Club at the time were quite important people in the administration of Kiama,” she says.

“They seemed to be very community minded people who helped the young men.”

In his book, John recalls his time with Kiama Surf Club, rescuing people on the southern headland with his two best friends, finding the Club’s first dedicated surfboat, and travelling up and down the coast for competitions.

“John also felt it was a childhood that was rather typical of childhoods around the country during the wartime, and there was a very good community spirit in Kiama operating in the background throughout,” Noelene says.

A carnival at Surf Beach in the 1950s

When barbed wire entanglements stretched along the local beaches during the Second World War, John remembers seeing male teachers at his school – including his father who was headmaster of Kiama Central School – leave to serve the army, and his late afternoon shifts for the Volunteer Air Observers Corps spent near the Blowhole.

But in between wartime and John spending time abroad in Africa and Hawaii competing in surf sport competitions, he shares vivid memories of his weekends on Kiama Harbour with his father on the boat he bought at the age of 12, and the joy of the pranks that were pulled on unsuspecting locals never faded.

To honour John’s wishes, last week Noelene presented copies of the book to the President of the Kiama Historical Society, the President of the Kiama Surf Club and to the historians for the Kiama Surf Club. A book has also gone to Kiama Library for the archives.

A Boy from Kiama is available for purchase at the Kiama Visitors Centre or for loan from Kiama Library.