Bill Stent - Friend, Birder, Astrophotographer
Q: Next year marks 50 years of knowing each other. Does that feel strange to you?
A: Yes. I’m getting old. But what’s the alternative? I’ve considered that alternative almost every day.
Q: You’ve always seemed outwardly bubbly. Is that a mask?
A: Absolutely. I’m deeply introverted. Introverts wear masks. My motto is that the whole of life is a search for understanding. Recently a psychiatrist told me she’s 90% sure I’m autistic—what would once have been called Asperger’s. It explains a lot about my serial monomania.
Q: How did that affect you?
A: I spent a year just thinking about it, trying to understand myself. I’ve only tried to kill myself once, but I gave up halfway through. I guess strenuous exercise saved me. My life has always been strange.
Q: What does your family think?
A: My daughter Emma, who has ADD, pushed me to get an opinion. Her life was changed by diagnosis and medication. Mine can’t be treated with drugs, but she believes understanding myself will help. My monomania has been hard on both Jan and Emma though.
Q: Is monomania part of your passions like birding and astrophotography?
A: Yes, completely. I fall into obsessions—birding, telescopes, astrophotography. I work with schools and amateur astronomers, often older men with domes in the country. It’s fun and gives me the sense of being a medium-sized frog in a very small pond. I also volunteer with the Astronomical Society of Victoria.
Q: Do you think about retirement?
A: I’d like to, but I feel guilty when I’m not doing something useful. Even on a rainy Saturday, I can’t sit still—I start writing. In a hundred years, all my work will be gone, but maybe that’s fine. I’m more of a technician than someone chasing legacy.
Q: How do you compare your astrophotography with mine?
A: You like making pretty pictures. I’m more interested in hunting asteroids and comets. It’s the same obsession expressed differently.
Q: What was school like for you?
A: I hated it. I was small and got bullied constantly until my tormentors left. My mother even complained to the principal, who just said, “Boys will be boys.” The observatory at Scotch was my haven, and I’m still friends with those I met there.
Q: That’s so different to my experience—I never got bullied.
A: I assumed I would, always. That’s probably why I hated school. But it shaped who I am.
Q: Has being an old Scotch boy helped you?
A: Not really. My father sent me there thinking it would give me an advantage. It may have helped me get a job at ANZ, but I’ve never used the network. They keep inviting me to old boys’ events, but I’m not interested.