Passing the baton of positivity

AFTER a childhood full of trauma, Bill Sutcliffe didn’t believe in himself until others made a point of seeing his potential.

Sutcliffe was only a toddler in 1944 when sitting in his highchair he was hit in the face by a knife thrown by his alcoholic father.

He lost one of his eyes.

His parents divorced, but when his mother married her second husband, a much older man, the circumstances were “even worse.”

They entered an unsafe home, where his stepfather and stepbrothers were physically and sexually abusive, respectively.

Treated like a dog, he slept on an old ute tray outside for two years, and when he’d go to school during the day, he was bullied relentlessly for having one eye.

By age 10, Sutcliffe was angry and had started to shoplift, but not long afterwards, important mentors in his life appeared.

As the name of his newly released autobiography, Driven suggests, he survived the darkness to forge a new and brighter path.

“I was caught shoplifting,” he said. “The incredibly understanding business proprietor asked me how long I’d been doing it for. He said something remarkable, ‘Son, you’re good’.

“It was the first time someone had told me I was good at anything, let alone good at doing wrong.

“He said we were placed on earth not to take, but to give. He saw me as gifted and talented. It was an affirmation of potential. He sewed and watered what were, literally, lifesaving seeds.”

A “powder monkey” at the local quarry, who was a former circus strong man, also took Sutcliffe under his wing, and saw potential the boy couldn’t see.

“He taught me that our seeming deficits are our greatest assets, and that we are no one’s superior, but anyone’s equal,” he said.

“Everything that happens in our life has an alternate purpose, provided you recognise it.”

Sutcliffe was also supported by a local policeman to get into boxing, where he had a short but successful athletic career.

“A bitter atheist” at the time, he met his wife of now almost 56 years, Bev, who was deeply embedded in her local church.

“I had thought, how can there be a god that has allowed the things that had happened to my family?” he said.

“But in the early hours of my birthday, Sunday, 5 April, ‘64 I had an incredible experience. I went to sleep with the only peace I’d known.

“I’d been born again and now nearly 60 years later, the belief that something incredibly profound did occur then, is still with me.”

Sutcliffe developed a deep desire to go back to those who had come from similar homes as his, and mentor them.

He returned to Melbourne to train at the Theological College in his early 20s, and went on to work in various roles, including at a drop-in centre for alcoholics.

He made his life in Ballarat in 1972 as the superintendent of the old Ballarat Town City Mission, and in 1981 he and his family settled in Buninyong, where they’ve been ever since.

Sutcliffe worked in prisons across the state as a mentor, aiming to rehabilitate and educate prisoners, and for the last 12 years of his career, was based at the Ballarat Specialist School in a student counselling role.

“My goal has been to assist people to recognise, individually, their enormous potential and pass on the baton of positivity,” he said.

“People in difficult circumstances can gain resilience, to perhaps see, as powder monkey Jimmy said, our greatest deficit’s our greatest asset.”

Sutcliffe explores these themes of his life in detail in his memoir Driven, which is available in all bookstores.

If you or anyone you know is dealing with issues resulting from sexual or physical abuse, help is available from CASA on 1800 806 292, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732.