Tony Scholes
Field Officer

am a descendant of the Donovan family.

Great Great Great Grandparents were John Donovan and Charlotte Malone

Great Great Grandparents were William Donovan and Catherine Marshall; they were married in Broulee on the south coast of NSW.

Great Grandparents were Steve Donovan and Elizabeth Chapman; they married in Kempsey.

Grandparents were Leslie James Donovan and Alice Donohue.

Parents were David Leslie Scholes and Dorothy May Donovan.

It all began for me in Newcastle where I grew up with my grandparents on my father’s side of the family, the Scholes, Hunter and Coward families.

Newcastle was my home for many years, I started school at the age of 5 where I attended Fern Bay infants school. I then went to Stockton Primary and continued on from there to Broadmeadow High School.

After leaving school at the age of fifteen I attended Tighes Hill Technical College. I studied metal and fitting machinery for 3 months under a scheme called N.E.A.T. This was to give me an idea of the sheet metal industry which I never did pursue, Awabakal Aboriginal Corporation came to my rescue.

Being a member of the Awabakal Aboriginal Corporation I was offered the opportunity to work full time as a Trainee Producer with Newcastle University Radio Station 2 NUR-FM. In this position I would record many programs for multicultural radio, edit programs and do live presentations and on air broadcasting. Whilst working in this position I became well known to the community of Newcastle with the program Awabakal Aboriginal Voices.

I moved from Newcastle in 1989, during the end of this year I applied to raise my level of education in a 3 month bridging course at the then University New England Northern Rivers (UNENR) in Lismore where I was accepted and in the following year I signed for a mainstream course in Small Business Management. Family issues prevented me from completing this course, 2 years later I found myself back in radio at 2 TLC-FM community radio in Yamba NSW.

In 1992 I worked voluntary for Aboriginal Home Care Service Casino and later on applied for the permanent position of Aboriginal Service Coordinator for the Clarence Valley which kept me going for the next 6 six years.

For most of my adult life I wanted to work with young people and found that opportunity when I completed a course at Grafton TAFE for community youth worker certificate 4. This led me to become a Youth Officer at Acmena Department of Juvenile Justice Centre in South Grafton. My role here was to support and advocate on young peoples behalves.

Things started to happen real quickly for me after spending 4 years in this government department. I began working on a part time business called Life Without Barriers ( LWB ), recruiting, training and assessing carers for fostering young people with difficult behaviours. I now have a small business operating out of the many hours work that I have put into this business that will support and care for these young people.

Which brings me to the position of Field Officer with Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Family Community Care Centre CHAFCCC, I am thrilled to be associated with this organisation and the new colleagues that have welcomed me into this position. I hope that I can be of assistance to the Aboriginal people of Coffs Harbour and surrounding areas.