I guess that this is kind of an electronic CV. What you will find here too, is some pictures and stories that you'd never see in any resume.

I left school in 1979 and went to work for Hardie Ferodo P/L in Smithfield, NSW, in the brake production facility.
In 1982 I injured my back in an industrial accident and was off work for nearly a year.
In 1983 my employment was terminated.

At this stage I really didn't know what to do. I was married and had two children and had no idea how I was going to be able to support them.
That was when Mum came to the rescue. She, and her husband John, were relocating from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to a place called Mission Beach in Far North Queensland to re-open their hire boat business. Knowing that I was able to handle figures, Mum offered me a job looking after the business.
It was a terrific job but it was hard work. The setting was wonderful though.

Sitting on the beach looking straight out at Dunk Island and being able to go for a sail at my leisure.
Wendy (my wife at that time) soon grew tired of the quiet life and wanted to return to Sydney.
To keep my family together I left it all behind.
I found though that the sea would be with me for the rest of my life.

Soon after returning to Sydney, I was employed as an Assistant Manager for McDonalds Restaurant in Gladesville, NSW.
When I started there I was sure that actually being involved with making the food would turn me off it. Quite to the contrary I found that I enjoyed it even more.
Due to financial reasons I was forced to leave in 1985, after working for them for about 18 months.

From 1985 to 1986 I was employed as a Sales Rep for Webster Publishing in Parramatta, NSW.
The job basically involved selling advertising space and a lot of driving.
I decided to leave for moral reasons in 1986, as some of the work practices conflicted with my own values.

On 11 March, 1988 I started work for TNT Security Guarding Division
as a Security Officer.
On 8 June, 1988 I obtained a transfer to the Alarms Division
as a Control Room operator.

On 24 August, I was promoted to Control Room Co-Ordinator.
It was a great place to work and they were great people that I worked with.
There was a huge social atmosphere too. Most of us worked and played together.
Some of us bowled some played golf and ALL of us drank.
In these pics: me, Steve, John and Micheal ham it up for the camera.
 

Originally we were based at Flemington (opposite the markets)
but later moved into Redfern (next door to TNT Towers).
Uniforms changed, and so to did the faces.
One of my close friends there, at that time was Steve Zegarac.
Steve was not only a great worker, but was also a brilliant cartoonist and did fantastic charicatures.
I spent some time going through my files of Steve's work and have included my two favorites.

The first is Steve and Sam discussing work ethic,
and the second is MY reaction to a gas alarm (which turned out to be a false alarm).

Eventually the atmosphere changed and union action became the norm.
On 22 March, 1993 we were all retrenched due to internal restructuring.

It was to be over a year before I was once again, gainfully employed.
This time it was with MSS Security - Queensland Guarding Division.

On 3 August 1994, after being with Guarding Division for two months, I obtained a transfer into the Alarms Division as a Casual Control Room Operator. My status was upgraded to permanent in December 1994 and by February 1995 I was promoted to Control Room Supervisor.
Again, these were a great bunch to work with. I made some good friends and socialised with most of them.

The first pic is me about to enter the first vault door to the Control Room.
The second is the Supervisor's Work Station.
On 29 November,1995 we were all retrenched, once again due to internal restructuring.