When I Grow Up

Wayne Phipps grew up in Midland Junction in the 1950s and 1960s, a working-class railway town in Western Australia where steam engines, brickworks and clay pits shaped everyday life. From outside, it looked like an ordinary childhood. School days, bikes, railway yards and Saturday afternoons at the movies. But inside the family home, things were often very different.Violent arguments, neglect and fear were part of growing up. There were nights of chaos and uncertainty, times when the children were taken away, and moments when survival felt far from certain. Yet there were also adventures. Exploring railway yards, swimming in clay pits, roaming bushland and bamboo patches, finding small freedoms wherever they could. Through it all, Wayne and his siblings learned resilience, independence and the determination to build better lives for themselves.When I Grow Up is an honest and deeply personal memoir about childhood, survival and the complicated spaces between hardship and hope. It is a story of a place, a family and a generation. Three children who, despite everything, survived.