Dawn Fraser, a Larrikin

"We only have two things that we share in this life; we are born and we die. And what we do in between those times, we've got to be happy. I don't let the outside world deter me."

To understand Dawn Fraser, one must first understand, at some implicit level, what it is to be a larrikin.  In fact, to understand a larrikin is to understand much about Australia.

When I became a student in Scotland I was matched with two classmates to share a room and some campus responsibilities.  It became apparent that there was a dark purpose behin…