61 to 66:  Apprenticeship WRE qualified with special class endorsement.

66 to 70:  TA with Systems Integration. Great fun, worked on Ikara with extensive trials done in Sydney and Nowra.  Got to work on the DDG destroyers and the old Wessex helicopters.  The environmental testing was a bit dry but still an interesting and stimulating time, introduced to Sydney and the dreaded Kings Cross.

Left when barriers put in between TA and TO, was appointed to TO-in-Training but didn’t like the idea of 3 years at Uni.

70 to 72:  Joined Sample Electronics as a service engineer and worked on a range of products (last time I owned a car!) After only 5 months the company, Searle, who manufactured the main products, Gamma Cameras, went direct and I joined them as sales/service.

72 to 75:  moved to Melbourne still with Searle, as Sales Engineer.

75 to 77:  Moved to Sydney, as National Sales Manager with Searle Nucleonics.

77 to 80:  Marketing Manager Searle Nucleonics where I sold Gamma Cameras used for Nuclear Medicine and other gadgets for nuclear applications.

80 to 81:  Searle sold out to Siemens and I joined Medical Applications as Marketing Manager and then on to Manager Nuclear and Ultrasound.  Didn’t like this too much and left to join General Electric.

81 to 00:  Still with GE after several different jobs including support to Asia for 3 years; travelled extensively throughout Japan, Thailand, Korea, China, India, Taiwan, HK, Singapore... hard work. Great times had with introduction of CT scanners and later MR, all diagnostic imaging equipment.  Many overseas trips to most parts of the world.  Planning on retiring next year and moving back to Adelaide to spend time with ageing family.

Activities during WRE and Melbourne:  water skiing, built two boats, and during the Melbourne years got back to my old hobby from school years of aero modelling.

Sold the speed boat in Sydney and took up sailing, trailer sailer, as Sydney is more suited to this.  Carted the boat all over the place. Sold this and bought a 27 foot fixed keel boat and sailed up and down the coast for 15 years.  Sold this and bought a stink boat; Haines with Honda 4 stroke outboard.  Carted this all over including two trips back to Adelaide; long drive at 90k!

Heavily into the model planes and the local club. See us at www.wrcs.org.au

One son, Peter, now 16 years old, (I was a slow learner).

Memories from Salisbury:

50/50 mixtures of welding gases!

Muegge eating two pies, chips and gravy every day.

Sticking my fingers on the plate of an 807 valve while turned on.

The great rubber fight at the Electronic Drawing lessons.

Harry Elliot and his "backs of couches".

That f*****g horrible relay course.

The Transistor course where Milton blew a transistor to smithereens.

Dave Jones sticking solvents into his Austin Seven, and the resultant smoke.  Also his attempt to Araldite the crankshaft of the same two bearing Austin 7.

Geoff Geue actually getting into his Austin Seven.

Clonan's effort on the guitar.

The driveinometer:  a device designed to pick up magnetic signals from the speakers so you could park behind the drive-in and hear the movies for free, sparked a huge design effort in 50Hz filters as the power hum was all we reliably detected.

Sobels losing a wheel from his sports car thing.

Francou getting pulled up by the cops after he farted and had everybody hanging out of the windows.

The Radio Workshop and characters like Bob Beilby in the Paint Shop and Wally and the "Moll".

Sobels nearly cutting his hand in half with a scalpel.

Rod Taylor's erotic drawings.

I could go on... Woomera:

Drunk as a skunk.  No, drunk as 2 skunks!

The bus trip to work and the swill at the "Jazza" each day.

Drunk again.

The Black Knight rocket launch at 4am that earned us a week's pay on overtime.

The day the booster rockets blew off the Bloodhound rocket at launch.

The missing rocket that was found 3 feet from the launcher.

The day Sobels and I got left in the desert while the land rover left for spare parts.

The guy that ran the Comms Centre, Charlie, who could fart hundreds of times.

The loon at the Timing Centre who had the big sign in Latin saying "The signal is leaving here OK MATE".

Free flights back to Adelaide on the "Dak" (DC3) or the Bristol Freighter.

****** getting the "clap" from a bird he pinched from ******.

Getting bogged to the windows when the Land Rover hit a pile of wet bulldust.

Visiting Island Lagoon and Andamooka.

The piss-up at the clay pan and the rooting on the slippery dip. (Who was it?)

The "Idlers Three"

Free phone calls to Adelaide after we conned the switchboard bird.

****** shitting in the rubbish bin in his room.

Zabo's light bulbs with the 50/50 oxy-acetylene mixture.