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'Bucket List'

6/9/2022

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In all of my life I have never made up a “bucket list”.  Of course, I have had dreams; I have had aspirations; but not a Bucket List.
 
I held a clerical position in a Stock and Station corporation for approximately 17 years, and there were many occasions when I felt that I had no future there:  that I had dreams of an alternative career.  I noted that a public accountant in the town had a brand new English sedan car and I felt envious.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be an accountant?  I dreamed, and despite having been counselled by a neurologist to study accountancy and to work for myself I took no action.  Then, totally out of the blue, I was offered a job in an accounting practice!  I jumped at the opportunity and my dream became an aspiration!  I would become a qualified accountant.  I then worked in the practice for 1 months, familiarising myself with the Income Tax Assessment Act and routine accounting.
 
Then I commenced, in May 1968, studying with Hemingway Robertson Correspondence School and the Australian Society of Accountants.  (The Society conducted its own examinations.  I was later to discover that this arrangement would terminate at the end of 1972.)  I set myself a target of studying 20 hours per week and found this to be ambitious.
 
Hemingway’s assignments were very time consuming and, in an effort to do better, I registered with M & M Accounting Services in Flinders Street, Melbourne.  For six months I travelled weekly to the city to attend tutored sessions (6pm to 10pm) for two mathematics courses.
 
By June 1972 I had completed and passed 19 of my 20 subjects.  One subject to become qualified!  Auditing!!  I had till November to study and then sit the examination.  I knew no-one who had passed Auditing on the first sitting!  How would I go!  I studied diligently, but … yes … I failed.
 
The Society had terminated its program of setting examinations!  I was in Limbo!
 
Then fate smiled!  The Society consulted with the Bendigo Institute of Technology (now Latrobe University).  I could do a 12 month course at the Bendigo campus, studying Auditing.
 
This necessitated 3 periods per week.  Monday, Tuesday and Friday.  My employer was obliging and allowed me to be absent for 3 half-days per week.  In consideration I was to work Tuesdays evenings and Saturday mornings.  And so I passed with a pass mark of 87%.
 
My dream; my aspiration had come true.  I was now a qualified accountant.
 
Then, the big test!  Did I want to become “Chartered” and eligible to purchase a share in the practice?  Or was I content to remain an employee?  The advice of the neurologist came to mind: “study accountancy and work for yourself!”.  I decided to become “Chartered”!
 
This decision came with the requirement to study the Chartered Institute’s “Professional Year”.

And so began the most demanding year of all.  I joined with eight other students from Wagga Wagga, Albury, and Wangaratta to do, oh, so many assignments, and meet monthly in Albury (9am till 9pm). Also, the "week-end from Hell"at the Institute's head quarters in Sydney!  The topic - Computers. In the early 1970's computers, to me, were a "foreign" language. Being in my 40s by this time I was the oldest.  The others were in their early 20s and had a better appreciation of technology.  I was physically ill! However, success comes to the battler!  We all passed, and I became a partner in the Chartered firm of Smith O’Shannessy on 1st July 1975.  Thus, the fulfilment, not of a “Bucket List”, but of an “aspiration”.

 
 
Ray O’Shannessy OAM. FCA. CPA.
August 2022
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