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Peter Wearing Smith
Founder of
SeniorSitters
Peter relaxes aboard a junk in Sok Kwu Wan,
Lamma Island, Hong Kong. Dec 2004
Although he grew up in Melbourne, Peter has lived
much of his life overseas, including more than 25 years in Hong Kong.
Born under a wandering star, he
first satisfied his passion for travel by joining the Royal Australian Naval
Reserve. “With the Reserve, I made my first overseas trip at last,” he
enthuses, “…to Tasmania!” Later, after seeing a newspaper advertisement
that said, “See the world as a Qantas Flight Steward”, he did just that.
Peter’s two other passions were
for writing and cars, so it was not surprising that when he left Qantas it was
to become a full-time motoring journalist, first in South Australia,
then in Hong Kong. There, he established his own highly successful motor racing
operation, along with other ventures – some more successful than others, as he
cheerfully admits.
Peter’s international experience
in corporate governance led to his election in 1983 as a
Fellow of the Institute of Directors in London. He was also elected a Fellow of
the Royal Geographical Society, following the
publication of his outstanding travel book, Outback
Australia? – No Worries!, a copy of which is in the National Library in
Canberra.
Commenting on housesitting, he
says: “I can’t think of a better way
of seeing new places. In the past year or so I’ve looked
after houses in Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, the Gold Coast, then Gippsland – where I
was responsible for 40 head of cattle as well as two
cats, Macedon, then back to the Gold Coast for winter.
"After a
stint in Albury over Christmas with two loveable dogs and a swimming pool, I am
now looking after a cat and its house at Port Stephens, near Newcastle.
"I know
it's tough, but somebody has to do it," he quipped”
The preceding paragraphs were written some
time ago, since when Peter and his wife, Lyn, have housesat twice in Hong Kong
and have engaged housesitters several times for their house in the Southern
Highlands of New South Wales.
As the originator of the SeniorSitters concept,
Peter is the public face of the business and is responsible for
media liaison and promotional activities generally, along with the bulk of telephone enquiries and sales.
Peter's former
"office" — a Qantas Boeing 707-338 V-Jet
(the V being "vannus", Latin for "fan", as in Pratt &
Whitney JT8D fan-jet engines)
Click on image for enlargement of this and the photograph below
Final Approach — a Cathay
Pacific Airways
B747 300 flies low over Kowloon of its final approach to Runway 13 at Hong Kong's
now defunct Kai Tak Airport
Kai Tak opened in 1936 and closed in July 1998,
when operations transferred to the new Chek Lap Kok airport, west of Lantau
island, some 27 km distant
Kong Kong flags old (above) and
new (below)
The former British Colony became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the
People's Republic of China at midnight on 30 June 1997
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