He's a voice synonymous with some of Australia's most memorable aquatic achievements, and this week Peter Graham prepares to embark for London to carry out the announcing duties for the swimming events at the 2012 Olympic Games.

What started as simply helping out as his daughters competed in the local swimming carnivals at the Henley Beach Pool has given Peter the best seat in the house for some of our country's best pool performances.

The baritone voice of the one-time police officer has been heard from the pools of Adelaide's western suburbs to the stadiums of the Olympic Games in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.

Initially filling in for a missing announcer at a local meeting at the Henley Beach Pool in 1982, Peter realised his announcing had become more than a simple pass time when he became the stadium announcer for the 1986 Australian Age Championships in Adelaide.

"That was my first national meet, and after that I was approached by Swimming Queensland who were about to host the 1987 Pan Pacific Championships.

"I was asked if I could do that, and away I went."

Invitations continued to follow for Peter, and he took care of the master of ceremonies duties for the 1991 and 1998 FINA World Championships and the 1998 World IPC Championships in Christchurch.

Originally invited to give other announcers an insight into how to host swim meetings for the staff at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Peter soon found himself in the role for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"I was a career policeman and police work came first.

"This was strictly a hobby and initially started out, I guess, supporting my own children and other children who were involved in the sport of swimming."

The hobby would place him poolside for Ian Thorpe's remarkable 400m freestyle world breaking win in Sydney, but it was not the moment Peter would call his favourite moment.

That memory for him is held by the performance of Kieren Perkins when he 'absolutely destroyed' the mens 1500m freestyle world record at the National Championships in Canberra for the 1994 Commonwealth Games selection trials.

He also lists Susie O'Neill's poolside dance when she claimed the 200m butterfly world record at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Swim Trials as another treasured moment.

"Susie got out of the pool and did the most magnificent little jig.

"It was Susie to a t."

Although he confesses that he could go on for hours with moments he has been privileged to witness from the stadium announcer's chair, Peter said there is one event that will never grow old, every time he has had the pleasure to perform it.

"The hair on the back of your neck pricks up when you are announcing an Australian champion, and not only that, you then announce the Australian national anthem."