Bird, Kenneth

Posted by Elizabeth (Betty) Bird

Born Kenneth Llewllyn Bruce Bird on 6 December 1949 in Coonoor, Nilgiri Hills, South India, The first child of parents Rex and Elizabeth Bird.

Growing up in India was a big adventure and it provided a boyhood experience not to be missed. Ken lived in India for 12 years before moving to Perth, Western Australia in 1963 when he was 13 years old.

Ken attended Doveton Corrie Boys High School (Madras) and Baldwin Boys High School (Bangalore).

In Western Australia, he attended Perth Modern Senior High School from 1963 to 1967.

In 1968, he commenced employment with the Bank of New South Wales, working as a ledger examiner, junior general hand and bank teller before resigning to join the State Public service in 1970.

Ken started as a Clerk on 7 September 1970 with the (then) State Housing Commission before gaining his first promotion as a Wages Clerk with the Forests Department in 1971. Two years in that agency saw him return to the State Housing Commission in 1973 as a Human Resources Officer. Promotion followed as a Staff Clerk including a stint as an Inspector of Building Societies.

Ken was promoted to the Education Department in 1977 where he worked as an Industrial Officer and later as Clerk-in-Charge of Staff (Non-Teaching). For the latter he received a written commendation for outstanding management of the section.

In 1980, he was promoted to the Department of Industrial Development and Commerce where he gained many of his skills as a Secretary of Committees. These were the heady days of the North West shelf development in Western Australia.

Ken received a further promotion to the Treasury Department in 1981 and then moved to the Prisons Department in 1983 as an Assistant Manager. This was his longest tenure in one agency.

In 1989, he attended Curtin University full-time to complete a Bachelor of Business Degree (Marketing).

Ken transferred to the Education Department in 1994 and worked temporarily for the WA Electoral Commission (1996/1997) and the Curriculum Council on secondment (1997/1998).

Ken was seconded from the Education Department in 1999 to the WA Electoral Commission and was subsequently promoted to manage the local government elections section. He also worked as a Senior Project Officer Training. He retired in August 2005.

Ken has several academic qualifications. His first was a Diploma in Accounting in (1977). He completed a Bachelor Business (Marketing) in 1990 at Curtin University, Western Australia. This was followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Business (Human Resource Strand) at the same University in 1995. He also qualified as a trainer completing Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training.

Ken married Maureen Rhonda Shaw on 3 April 1971 (Perth, Western Australia) and has two children from that marriage, Brett Jeffrey Bird (born 23 November 1973) and Kelly Janine Bird (born 7 March 1976).

Ken and Maureen were divorced in 1985.

In 1986, Ken met Alexandria (Sandra) Cameron Miller, a widow. They started to live together in 1989 in Gosnells, Western Australia. They married on 25 January 2004 in Singleton, Western Australia. There are no children from that marriage. Sandra has two children of her own (Linda McLeod Etherington (nee Miller), born 24 November 1969 and Andrew Laird Miller, born 20 May 1972).

Sandra is and continues to be the enduring love in Ken’s life.