Queensland election: Boy who dreamed of fast cars now in race to be Queensland premier
Updated
As a boy, Tim Nicholls dreamed of being a racing car driver.
He had grown up around cars and Bathurst was big in the Nicholls household.
Every October the family would eagerly watch the V8s scream around Mt Panorama and at one time his dad, Peter, even worked in the pits for the Ford racing team.
"I was, and still am to a degree, infatuated by internal combustion engines and cars," the Queensland LNP leader told the ABC.
"I pretty much thought the greatest thing would be to drive a Ford V8 around Bathurst."
In 1977, Peter was offered his own dealership in Brisbane and so the family packed up their life in Melbourne and headed north.
"The climate was very different," his son recalled.
"The size of the mosquitos was a big change — I just remember feeling enormously excited about going to a new place."
Tim Nicholls described his childhood as "happy" alongside his two sisters, Sandra and Sophie.
He also admitted to being a handful at times.
"I could be difficult on occasions, stubborn, firm in views.
"I had days when I'd rather not have been at school, I had days when I'd rather be out sailing or riding bikes, but it was a pretty happy childhood."
But a career on the race track was not to be, although at one point later on it seemed the Navy might be beckoning.
Mr Nicholls went to school at Anglican Church Grammar, the Brisbane private boys' school better known as Churchie, where the lanky teenager took up rowing and was an enthusiastic rugby player, but by his own admission not highly skilled.
"I'd heard of rugby, but never really played it because coming from Melbourne, the religion is Aussie rules, or VFL in those days, but it seemed like a good thing to do, so I signed up.
"I liked being part of a team, had good mates in those teams and had a bit of fun, [but I] didn't play very well," he said, laughing.
After school, Mr Nicholls eventually settled on studying law.
"I was tossing up between that and joining the Navy — I was a Navy cadet."
"I did like the idea of charging around in patrol boats and that type of thing, but I settled on the law."
In the 1980s, a relationship with Mary (nee Paterson) began to blossom. She was studying occupational therapy at university when they started going out. But they had met much earlier. Tim Nicholls was best mates with her cousin.
They were together for seven years before he proposed in a rather matter-of-fact way.
"I just asked her! I said: 'we've been going out for a while' and I'd bought a house. I was reasonably settled in the job I was doing at the time.
"So she said, 'yes of course'."
In 1999, Jeremy was born and two more children would follow — Duncan and Kate.
Mr Nicholls named his family as his inspiration.
One of his grandfathers fled Bulgaria during World War I and came to Australia as a refugee.
He wound up running a small business.
His other grandfather, 'Pop', came from a poor Yorkshire family in northern England, migrated to Australia and later developed the sugar cane harvester.
So what was it two generations later that spurred Tim Nicholls to ditch his job as senior associate at a law firm and run for office?
He said interest in politics began as an 18-year-old when a friend invited him to a Young Liberals meeting and he signed up.
He would help handing out how-to-vote cards on polling days, but said it was not a burning issue that motivated him.
He said he simply loved the Westminster system.
"I think it's one of the great political inventions of all time — it allows so much expression of opinion, but allows it to occur in a relatively civilised way," he said.
"It facilitates changes of government without anyone having to pick up a gun or a knife or a stick.
"It was my sense of wanting to do the right thing and my sense of belief in the system."
In 2000, he was elected to Brisbane City Council as the councillor for Hamilton.
By 2006, State Parliament became the next logical step.
He was elected as the Member for Clayfield and by 2012 was Treasurer under the former LNP premier Campbell Newman.
There were highs and brutal lows.
"Not winning in 2015 was a tremendous disappointment, as it would be for anyone," Mr Nicholls said.
"But we've learnt the lessons and I've learnt the lessons from that period as well and that's all part of the process. You hopefully get a bit smarter and a bit wiser and a bit better from all those experiences."
These days, he and Mr Newman only crossed paths "occasionally" at public events.
"We exchange pleasantries, but he's now got his business life and he's moved on to that and I'm still fighting the good fight in Parliament," Mr Nicholls said.
Now that fight has moved to the streets of Queensland on the campaign trail, with the prize title of Queensland premier up for grabs.
In front of the cameras there will be plenty of serious policy discussion, but behind the scenes is a man who loves country music, who looks to his religious faith to "provide some guidance as to the right and proper thing to do".
He enjoys a rum and coke to wind down at the end of the day, but can't stand the reality TV show The Bachelor.
Mr Nicholls described himself as someone who had no problem scuba diving 30 metres under water but had a healthy fear of heights.
In rare moments of spare time, he said, he liked to hit dirt tracks on his motorbike or take his family over to the Moreton Bay islands.
There is no better way to get away from technology, communications — and interviews with journalists.
Topics: liberal-national-party-queensland, political-parties, government-and-politics, electoral-system, elections, human-interest, people, brisbane-4000, clayfield-4011, qld, australia
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