AT THE age of 61, Carmelo Rubio is a self-confessed "late-starter”.

Last year, Mr Rubio took his first job as a school principal, coming in to take over at Warwick Christian College in term three.

Mr Rubio said the decision to uproot and move to Warwick took a little getting past his wife Nicky.

"The first time I brought up the idea, she had a hundred reasons why we shouldn't, family and kids being the top of the list,” he said.

"I tried again, and it didn't go so well.

"I remember thinking that I'd never bring it up again, unless somebody asked specifically for me to take the job.

"That morning I received an email asking that very question.”

Finding his feet in the picturesque Rose City is a far cry from his first teaching position in the early 1980s.

Always one for adventure, Mr Rubio, 25 years of age and fresh out of teachers' college in Armidale, put up his hand to teach at Goulburn Island, a remote Aboriginal community off the western tip of Arnhem Land.

"That first year nearly killed me,” he said.

"I had no idea what I was in for and floundered because I didn't have the skills to teach multi-age students - from snotty-nosed six-year-old kids to married 16-year-old girls.”

At 19, while hitch-hiking across Europe, Mr Rubio found himself low on cash and headed to find work on a kibbutz (a Jewish collective farm) near Beersheba in Israel.

"I spent nearly six months there, working for my food and simple board,” he said.

"I earned $10 a month, enough for a beer and a falafel in the nearby town.

"I guess I was lost, searching for the meaning of life, but it was a great adventure for a young man.”

Mr Rubio said Warwick had been a good move.

"I'm busy, wearing lots of different hats in this job, which is a challenge but it's one I'm really enjoying,” he said.

"Warwick has the friendliest people and it's a beautiful historic town.”