Okay. No, it was actually a mixed collection. As I said, Lyn de Alwis put it together. The first thing you saw when you came into the zoo, to the entrance gate. No, once you got into the zoo itself was the small-clawed otters, underwater viewing as well, and then… Read More
I think it’s a, “Haha, let’s see how long this guy lasts.” So tell me about the zoo when you started. Read More
Was it primarily Asian animals?… Read More
Was there a theme to it?… Read More
I really quite got involved in the selling of the zoo. What was happening at that point was that we were not getting enough tourists. We didn’t get any tourists at all. Singapore had a lot of tourists, millions of tourists every year, but we were not getting any. And… Read More
Was the staff jealous of you, this moving up so quickly?… Read More
Some of them. There was a horticultural officer called Herbert Wee and he was 20, 25 years older than me. And he resented the fact that I was young and moving up ’cause we were colleagues, and then suddenly I’m now his boss. I just met with a colleague yesterday… Read More
Did you think you were ready?… Read More
Yeah, I did. I felt I was okay. They asked me whether I wanted it, firstly knowing the history of the demise of the predecessors. And I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready for it, I think so.” I said, “I certainly can do it. I don’t have a problem. I’m… Read More
Then they looked at me and they said, “Well, we’ll promote you to director.” This is in 1980?… Read More
Yeah, 1980, yeah, yeah. And so I said, okay. And for some reason, and I think it was because of my youth, because I think I was 27, 28, yeah. And because I had actually worked with Dr. Ong, the chairman for six years in various positions, I could get… Read More
What did you think when they gave you this promotion?… Read More
And the vet, the guy who was hired as the vet, who was de facto head of zoology, eventually moved up to be the acting director and got fired within about a year. And so they hadn’t filled that position, that’s why I kind of moved into that position of… Read More
And so he got the stage where the chairman said, “Maybe we shouldn’t have a director, then we wouldn’t lose them,” and the board said, “Yeah, that’s a pretty sensible thing.” So they said, “Why don’t we make Harrison?” He’s called me Harrison, “Why don’t we make Harrison assistant director… Read More
They had some animal husbandry training, and then a local vet used to come in and look at the sick animals. So I met them, said, “Guys, I’m gonna be your new boss.” And they all looked at me and said, “Hmm.” So I spent one day a week in… Read More
And a lot of them were grass cutters. The zoo was situated in the center or is a promontory into the Seletar Reservoir, now called the Upper Seletar Reservoir, the 28 hectares, 70 acres. And so it’s surrounded by water, then surrounded by forests. It’s actually probably the most spectacular… Read More
What was it like?… Read More
Sure. Okay, so Singapore Zoogical Gardens opened in June the 28th, 1973. I got into Singapore in September, I think. I interviewed the chairman then Dr. Ong Swee Law, and I joined the 1st of November, ’73, as an assistant administrative officer. The position was interviewing for administrative officer. As… Read More
And so when I went to report to the director who was also in the interview, his name was Tan Tiangyo. I said, (Bernard exhales) “So what do I do?” Because the administrative officer had a very clear, defined role. It was administration, obviously, and education. And these were his… Read More
So like to talk about that. Read More