Shane Coghill is the first to admit his early CV was not very inspiring ... expelled from high school, nine months in youth detention centres, lived rough on the streets, joined a motorcycle gang at 19 and then worked in a series of dead-end jobs around Australia.
At almost any time during those turbulent years, he said, you could have got long odds against him ever achieving a university degree - and you'd have lost your money.
At the latest graduation ceremonies in December at the University of Queensland, Mr Coghill was there to receive his bachelor of arts degree with a double major in anthropology.
And this year, after having 'done it tough' according to one of his tutors, Mr Coghill is back again going for his honours degree in archaeology.
The 42-year-old grandfather slogged five hard years for his BA. 'I failed a lot of classes and had to repeat them to get them clear in my head. Learning did not come easy to me,' he says candidly.
Learning was also something Mr Coghill insisted had to be balanced with his ongoing commitment to numerous community groups and a determination to keep in close touch with his Aboriginal heritage.
During his fourth year, for example, he was busy with voluntary counselling of inmates at youth detention centres. He was also working two days a week as the stand-in chief executive officer of Aboriginal Legal Services, in Brisbane, and was on the board of directors.
He plans to be a full-time student in 1998 and hopes to finish the honours degree this year. After that Mr Coghill will continue doing what he's doing now - cultural heritage management.
At the moment he's on the board of directors of the Quandamooka Aboriginal Lands Council on North Stradbroke Island. Quandamooka includes the whole of Moreton Bay and all the natural life in the bay.
His work covers everything from the maintenance of European and Aboriginal historic sites, to intellectual property rights and traditional stories. His honours thesis this year examines stories as heritage.
Mr Coghill, the fifth of nine children, said he could recall when a lot of the heritage he's now so proud to protect and preserve for all had to be learned and maintained in secret.
'I can remember being punished in primary school at Inala for talking the Aboriginal language or practising any part of our culture,' he said.
Mr Coghill said he could also remember as a child on Stradbroke Island seeing people forcibly removed from their homes and their houses bulldozed.
'You can't live in the past, it's true. But we need to look back sometimes in order to see where we're heading in the future.'
Mr Coghill said he was expelled from high school in year 10 and later spent a total of nine months in a youth detention centre in connection with separate breaking and entering and assault incidents.
For a time he lived on the street, sleeping rough, and at 19 he joined a motorcycle gang. He then became an itinerant worker, travelling around the country doing odd jobs before injuring his spine while labouring.
It was at this point he first went to college to take an Access course. 'It was hard going. My reading and writing skills weren't that flash,' Mr Coghill recalled.
Then, on a student excursion, Mr Coghill was injured when the bus rolled and he spent the next 10 months wearing a neck brace.
Three years later he was back at Kangaroo Point TAFE doing a two-year associate diploma studying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander welfare. From there it was a short step to University where he began studying psychology before switching to anthropology.
Through his voluntary youth work and field study Mr Coghill introduces many young people to the University and he hopes his academic achievements will act as something of a role model for them.
'After all, if I can go through the system and come out with a degree, then possibly anybody can,' he said.
For further information, contact Shane Coghill (telephone 3409 9599 [w] or 3409 9269 [ah]).
