When Rob Wilson was born, his mother did not want to bring him home from the hospital.
A devout Catholic, she struggled with acceptance and railed against her second-born.
"'I don't know how you're my child, how God would give me a child like that,'" Rob recalled his mother saying.
Born with both male and female genitalia, Rob underwent surgery three days after he was born.
"They just sewed up my vagina, leaving me with six stitches."
His siblings were quick to notice something different about Rob.
"You're half like me and half like our sister," he recalled his brother observing.
More surgical interventions, as well as daily testosterone tablets from the age of eight, would leave Rob with a lifetime of medical problems, leading to ostracism at school after a Christian Brother ridiculed him for his physical difference.
But Rob had an unusual coping mechanism.
When he was six, his uncle gave him a pair of partridge bantams – and he was hooked.
It was the beginning of a lifelong passion, and a specialisation in American Wyandotte chickens.
Rob, 66, is now ranked the seventh-best breeder in the world with "more ribbons than you can poke a stick at" and travels far and wide exhibiting his unique, colourful creations.
Rob knew he was different
For as long as Rob can remember, chickens were his constant companions.
When he was 23, Rob set off to north-east Tasmania to work at the Pioneer Tin Mine and took his beloved chooks with him, 16 in total.
Their home for the next seven months was an old trailer Rob had converted to a double-decker chook pen he parked at his bunkhouse, fascinating the miners.
What Rob didn't know then was about his own genetic make-up. He knew he was different; he just didn't know why.
His suspicions were confirmed when he was in his mid-50s, just before his aunt died.
"She rang me up and said, 'You'd better come and see me, I've got some information you need,'" Rob recalled.
He discovered he was born with a chromosomal condition known as 48, XXXY syndrome, which affects between 1 in 17,000 and 1 in 50,000 boys and men.
Finally, things started to make sense, as Rob recalled suffering from a regular pain he attributed to a stitch while working as part of a road crew.
He realises now that he was having a period and the years of menstrual blood reabsorbed into his body left him with unusually high iron levels.
To balance his conflicting hormones, Rob has travelled to Ukraine for the past 14 years for a drug treatment banned in Australia — a combination of a contraceptive pill, a human growth hormone and testosterone suppressant.
The Ukrainian doctors established what no-one in Australia had: that Rob was more female than male.
Despite these challenges, his generosity has prevailed, and he has shared his medical story with universities around the world.
'Just get on with life'
Rob's resilience is a trait he credits his father with.
An ex-prisoner of war in Germany, his father instilled in him to "just get on with life".
"Dad used to say, 'You can do anything anyone else can do, boy, if you set your mind to it,'" Rob said.
This perseverance is evident in the 40 years it took Rob to develop one of his prized coloured breeds, adding to the total of 36 recognised colours he has created, where once there were only five colours in Australia.
His chickens can now cost thousands of dollars for a pair, with people travelling from as far as the Northern Territory to buy them. He once even mailed two dozen eggs to a customer in Belgium.
Rob continues to be as fascinated with them as he was at the age of six, when he first glimpsed his new coloured Crele Wyandotte chickens.
"I think that was one of the genetic fascinations for me, that has become my life's work," Rob said.
Learn more about Rob's celebrated chooks and fascinating life experience when Back Roads visits Longford, Tasmania. You can watch the episode at 8pm on Monday, February 21 on ABC TV or anytime on ABC iview.
