Paul Paech
A brief report on some of my doings

Parents John Paech and Edna Muller, and brother John, sister Kate

John and Edna both earned university degrees, then fell in love at Concordia College in Adelaide. John & I were both born in Lower Hutt Hospital in Wellington NZ, my Dad’s first post as a Lutheran Minister. In 1950, we transferred back to Australia, first Grovedale then Geelong where my loveliest sister Katharine was born.

Education

At 14, my Dad’s professional work resulted in the end of that cosy family unit: I was (almost literally) packed off to Concordia College in Adelaide, where I was in line to become the third gereation of the Paech family to become a Lutheran minister (or teacher, perhaps).

My Adelaide years

What a stroke of luck to have had the experience of growing to be an adult in one of Australia’s more civilised cities: South Australia was the only colony not to have been settled by convicts.

Doubly fortunate for me to have done so during the radically transformative years of Don Dunstan and Gough Whitlam, two of the most visionary and consequential politicians Australia has seen.

I guess I was a bright kid, and managed to sail through most of the educational challenges that arrived on my plate, and the various acedemics who noticed me seemed to apprecite the quirky ways of this lanky long-haired weirdo.

Career

It was pretty obvious to me quite early on that it was important to get a handle on the harsh realities of making a living. Being a poor student was fun at the time, but I knew there was a wider world out there and that you didn’t get to travel for free.

It was eventually the offer of a copywriting job at local ad agency that determined the course of my professional life. Thanks to Creative Director Terry Bunton for persuading me to join US-based Young & Rubicam, for which I worked off-and-on for an international career lasting more than 20 years, and taking me first to Sydney then to Europe.

Sydney frolics

There was no more exciting city on the face of the earth than Sydney during the 1970s, and I love exploring the thrills that a bigger city provided to me. I lived in a tiny flat that I bought for $64,000 at 7 Elizabeth Street in the centre of the city, travellling to work in North Sydney on one of the city’s ferries.

As often happens in big cities, it was the pressure of real estate that determined my next move, this time to Bondi Beach, where in desperation because my inner-city home (this one in Hunter Street) was being demolished, I bought a modest flat in Bondi Beach. One of my firends snapped that “you’ll never make any money down there”, but I could hadrdly hve bought better.

It was such a beautiful and welcoming place to live, and I’ve lived there ever since. So many very exciting events and creative loving people, Bondi has delivered in spades. It’s my Australian home.

The world

I’d totally enjoyed a year in Europe during my 20s (London, Bath and Amsterdam), and after more than a decade in Sydney I was again eager to explore more of the world.

A successful posting to London was followed by a stint as European Creative Director living in Milan, and travelling all around Europe and beyond. During which time, I picked up a tolerable proficiency in other languanges and a serious taste for the delights of the cultured collectivity we call Europe, and in particular for Paris, where I’m very pleased to be sitting right now as I tap these words out.