To be honest with you, I got expelled from school when I was 14 years old. I went and worked in the shearing sheds at a property called Moyne Falls.

The property is between Hamilton and Macarthur. I just never liked school. I can remember I started work in the shearing sheds at 7.30am and worked through to 5pm.

I worked in the sheds for a year before helping out on my dad’s trucks.

We used to cart groceries from Hamilton railway station back down to Macarthur. We also used to cart superphosphate from the Hamilton railway station to the local properties.

I’m talking about in the 1950s. The Hamilton railway station used to be a hive of activity back in that era.

I can remember getting a drivers licence from South Australia when I was 16 years old and driving trucks from Melbourne to Geelong with wool on.

I suppose the hard work back in those times has taken its toll now, as I’ve had two knee replacements.

There was no such thing as a forklift or occupational health and safety.

When I think back it was hard work, but I was young and wanted to have a go and make a life for myself.

The old saying that hard work never hurt anyone is true.

We’ll get back to your working career in a moment, but did you play any sport when you were growing up?

Yes, I played footy for Macarthur.

They had no juniors so I played in the seniors when I was 14 years old.

We played against sides like Port Fairy, Yambuk, Tower Hill, Penshurst, Bessibelle. I can still remember playing against Southern Cross. We played in a cow paddock out the road from Koroit  and showered in the cow trough after the game.

They were tough game of footy – you used to wear the old boots with stops in.

I never had time to train as we were always carting superphosphate all over the place.

I would drive a full-loaded truck to the game on a Saturday, and after the game I would go off and unload the superphosphate at a property.

Did you play in a premiership with Macarthur?

Yes, I’ve still got my old footy photos at home.

Macarthur used to wear the light blue and red sash jumper. 

The club really changed in 1996 when they merged with Hawkesdale.

My wife Evelyn and I never agreed with the merger.

We had sponsored the best and fairest award at the club for years, but when Macarthur amalgamated with Hawkesdale we decided to not be involved with the club.

Evelyn stood up at Macarthur’s last presentation night and told everyone we didn’t want the merger to go through. 

It was a tough decision, but one which we believed in. We wanted Macarthur to be a standalone club.

Have you been back to the local footy since that night?

No, I haven’t been to the local footy for years.

I’m more interested in watching how my horses are performing.

Kingsley, let’s talk about your sporting highlight which revolves around your ownership of horses. How did that come about?

My dad Jack used to race a few trotters.

We ventured out of them and got involved in racing a few racehorses.

I had Geoff Keast as our trainer in the early days.

Blokes like Alan Peterson and Andrew Kermond used to ride the horses in races, and I also had the late Jim Cerchi training a few for me up at Coleraine.

Evelyn and I had some success with horses that Jim trained for us.

Kings Onyx and Red Speckle would have been the best two.

I reckon Kings Onyx when a Hensleigh Handicap at Hamilton for us.

The race used to be one of the feature sprint races in the Western District. Both horses won numerous races. Stawell trainer Terry O’Sullivan trained a few for us and is still training them today. It’s been over 30 years he’s been training horses for the Peachs.

I’ve had horses with other trainers including Aaron Purcell, Eric Musgrove, Mick Cerchi, Barb Marshman, Trevor and Alan Bailey up in Queensland. The Baileys are now retired, so is Barb.

Who are some of the good horses that you’ve raced?

A horse called Super Lad was pretty good.

Patch Adams won a Colac Cup and is still racing. He’s got a bit of ability.

Horses that I’ve been involved in with Aaron include Swacadelic, King Of Dudes and St Jean.

It was really disappointing St Jean got sidelined with injury. He showed a lot of potential.

We’ve had a bit of luck over the journey, but I’ve thinned the numbers of horses down a lot since Evelyn passed away.

I would have to say the best horse was a mare called Exceptionally.

She won only the four races, including a Banjo Paterson at Flemington, but ran minor placings in the Ballarat Cup, Sandown Classic, Lexus Stakes and the Herbert Power.

Her biggest problem was her best form was on tracks with a bit of give inunfortunately the good staying races are run in the spring when the tracks are less forgiving.

But she did win more than $500,000 in stakemoney.

Kingsley, you mentioned that you have thinned back your ownership in horses since Evelyn passed away. When did she pass away?

It’s three years ago next month.

We met at a dance at a little Western District town called Wallacedale on a Saturday night.

We were married 57 years and Evelyn was the backbone of our relationship.

She was a kind and thoughtful person who loved mixing with people.