Scott McGregor
Presenter of DOWN THE LINE
Scott McGregor was born in Orange, NSW, on 22nd October 1957. The youngest of four, Scott had an idyllic childhood growing up on his parents small mixed farm. His father Doug ran the local paper, the Central Western Daily, and his mother, Poss, was a homemaker and party-thrower extraordinaire. Scott spent a lot of his childhood on horseback - and one of the "high points" of his life occurred when he was 12 and a Pony Club member...he met HRH Elizabeth 2. He's loved her ever since - although now he says he's a staunch republican!!!
Scott's love of all things railway also began at an early age. As a Boy Scout, Scott managed to score the best "bob-a-job" ever..."driving" a small steam engine used in the Orange station (actually the real driver made him shovel coal all day. Heaven!) .
At the age of 12 Scott and his family moved to Mudgee, NSW, where they ran the "Mudgee Guardian". It was in Mudgee that Scott got his taste for performing. From "second cornet" in the town band to "Pharoah" in the ubiquitous "Joseph and his technicolour Dreamcoat", Scott developed his more flamboyant nature.
Scott attended Scots College in Sydney as a boarder in his final years at school and was an enthusiastic member of the Drama Club and the College Pipes and Drums as Bugler. When he won Best Supporting Actor in the NSW Arts Council's High Schools drama festival he was hooked!! At that moment Scott made the decision to pursue a career in acting. After a year's detour studying Communications at (what was then) Mitchell College in Bathurst, Scott was accepted into NIDA. One of the highlights of his time there was writing, Directing and Starring in his own one-man show about Beethoven - another lifelong obsession. He graduated in 1979.
Upon leaving NIDA Scott's acting career took off. Bill Shanahan, Australia'a top agent at the time, took him on, and thence followed years of back-to-back theatre and Television. Highlights included lead roles in the mini-series "1915" and "Coral island" for the ABC and "The Tempest" on stage with Keith Michel, also producing and starring in "The Promise".
Scott has had guest lead roles in most Australian Drama series, and always seems to end up playing the bad, sad or mad guy. Roles have included a wife basher(she died in the end), a gay rapist, a bent cop, a boss who gets done for sexually harrassing the work experience girl and a gay married man who gives his wife Syphilis. Fortunately Scott's life does not always reflect his art!!!
During his acting days in the 80's Scott indulged his other passion - trains. His parents bought a block of land near Mudgee,and Scott bought a vintage 1890's carriage as a form of cheap accomodation for the place. From there, the carriages seemed to breed...currently there are 9 carriages, 2 station buildings and a huge infrastructure of signals, track and other memorabilia all landscaped to suggest some ruined railway Terminus...and all going nowhere!
By 1989 Scott had collected so much "railway stuff" (including lots of wonderful old furniture the railways were tossing out) he decided to start selling it. Off The Rails began as a small stall within a large(now defunct) antique emporium in Camperdown, Chelsea House. Soon, another branch was opened at Central Station within the Zig Zag Gift shop, and another within the Tin Shed at Balmain.
Then, Off The Rails moved to King Street Newtown, where it prospered
for 3 years, before outgrowing the small floor space. Finally,
the shop and workshop moved to a highly successful location
in Camperdown.
In the 1990's Scott also turned his creative talents to a different area of performing - TV presenting. After appearing in many segments on various lifestyle programs, Scott decided he wanted to be on the other end of the interview. For 2 years Scott appeared as presenter/reporter on Foxtel's Lifestyle Channel, where he specialised in Antiques and Collectables for Australian Living, and covered all forms of leisure and travel for Out and About.
Scott's wife and partner of fifteen years,
Wendy, is a TV and Web Producer. They have two daughters, Sophie
and Hayley, and a dog called Patsy.