An unlikely series of events knocked News South Wales native Steve Chadwick off track and put him on a course for a future in Queensland he never expected.

Steve met his wife, Minke, a Dutch immigrant nearly thirty years ago and --despite family opposition from both sides -- feels their marriage was the best thing that he ever did in his life. "I was working with the NSW railways laying sleepers - hefting a 14lb sledge hammer - when I had my accident," said Steve, the son of a military man and father of four.

The accident, in which he lost part of his hand, was compounded by a blood clot in his brain. At 35 Steve Chadwick had a stroke and was left unable to talk.

After losing "everything" to debt, the family intended to make a fresh start by moving to Mackay. But they were soon confronted with another misfortune.

"We were only as far as Bundaberg when we needed to withdraw some money from the bank. Unfortunately, there was some problem with the account," said Steve. It took two days to resolve the bank issue. But in that time, the family had seen enough of Bundaberg to know they wanted to relocate there.

Finally settled, Steve's daughter began her degree at Griffith University, which turned out to be another one of Steve's life-changing events.

"I think she was a little embarrassed of me," explained Steve. "She told me that I should stop sitting around and enrol in a course with TAFE. I thought perhaps I could do small engine maintenance or something?" Steve missed the TAFE enrolment deadline, but applied for a Central Queensland University bridging program that would prepare him for university. He entered CQU by enrolling in STEPS, or Skills for Tertiary Education Preparatory Studies. "That was in 1994 ... and I've been at CQU ever since," said Steve.

Following STEPS, Steve completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in geography, history and sociology; and has also finished his Honours, doing a project on demographics and water in the Bundaberg region. He is now working on a PhD on Ross River virus that he hopes to complete in 2003.

"I think that if I could say anything to sum up my [uni] experience, it would be that it made me realise that I could be something other than a labourer - I never knew I could do that!" Also a CQU lecturer, Steve says he loves teaching.

"I don't try and be something that I'm not. What you see is what you get."