Early Years
Born in Katanning, O'Halloran grew up on his family's 9,000-acre (36 km2) sheep property at Kojonup—40 km (25 mi) to the west of his birthplace—on a property established by his grandfather in 1900. He had two brothers and a sister. After his father enlisted during the Second World War, his mother could no longer run the farm and raise the children by herself, so the family moved to Katanning for seven years.
Katanning was one of the few country towns in Western Australia that had a public swimming pool. Along with his siblings, O'Halloran learned to swim there, often defeating local boys who were four years his senior. At the age of eight, he was taught to swim competitively by his teacher at Katanning State Primary School, who was an age group champion in her youth. The boom in wool prices at the time of the Korean War inflated his family's income, allowing them to send O'Halloran to Guildford Grammar School in Perth, the state's capital city. At the age of 14, he won five events in the school championships, and led the school to its first state championship in 29 years. He also competed for his school in Australian rules football and rowing.
O'Halloran attracted the attention of the leading Western Australian coach Don Gravenall, but his schoolwork limited him to a few weeks of intense training over Christmas. In 1952, at the age of 15, O'Halloran began to make his mark at the state level. He played a major role in Guildford's win at the interschool championships, placing second in the individual points tally. He won the 100 m freestyle, 50 m breaststroke and 400 m freestyle.
Competitive swimming was slow to develop in Western Australia and O'Halloran's state debut came in 1952, only the second time the Western Australian Championships had been held. He won the junior 110 yd freestyle and butterfly and the 220 yd freestyle and was second in the open 110 yd freestyle, in a muddy pool on the Swan River in the Perth suburb of Crawley. The arena was such that the bottom could not be seen and jellyfish lurked in the area, sometimes climbing onto the swimmers' bodies. When O'Halloran returned to his home, he often trained in a muddy waterhole.
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