Gordon’s time with the Woodworkers of the Southern Peninsula (WoSP) goes back many moons to 2004 – not all that long after the group was formed. He joined the Committee in 2006 (and remained a committee man for some 10 years) when sheds at the old location by the Council offices were being added. Good relations with the Council were (and remain) important – ‘relationship cultivation’ being the name of the game. And some interesting innovation involving roofing and a fence. Gordon had worked with concrete during his working life, a skill of value to the Club at the time. Also important was to have assistance only by those with concreting experience – something Gordon enforced with firmness. In later years, Gordon has been building and turning segmented bowls with a great deal of success.

But going back to where it all started – in the Wantirna area where as a youngster, he swam in the Dandenong Creek near the Burwood Highway and watched platypus. In those days, the eastern suburbs from Doncaster down to Dandenong was farms and orchards – lots of orchards. Upwey High School is Gordons’s alma mater. Box Hill Tech is where Gordon completed his apprenticeship.

Gordon’s father was a builder thus Gordon ended up as a builder. At seventeen, Gordon joined his brother doing piece work and never again worked for a boss. Business was good – and, with hard work, so was the money. The focus initial was on domestic dwellings. Of course, there was no prefabbed frames, roofing etc era in those days.

A group of fruit growers from the eastern suburbs visited Europe / USA coming back with the concept of ‘controlled atmosphere’ cool storage for the long-term storage of apples and pears. This fruit could now be sold ‘fresh’ year-round. Gordan and his brother had built a reputation with these growers and now had the opportunity to build these special rooms (for big money}. For Gordon, the challenge was to build air-tight rooms (or as near as possible to air tight). An engineer built the machine needed to lower the oxygen in the rooms from 21% to 1% plus reduce/eliminate other gases as well. Building these rooms (including insulation) become the mainstay of their business. Engineers followed the build to install the ammonia coolers, plus electricians and plumbers and finally the installation of the ‘air conditioning plant’. Their first cooling chamber was found wanting when a vacuum cleaner was used to test ‘air tightness’ – went fine for a start but then ‘whoomph’; modifications/repairs needed. Some of those cool stores have been consumed by ‘urban sprawl’ but many are still in use.

Farmers are a tough breed and accustomed to failure. Gordon recalls clearly, the agony on the face of a farmer whose near-ripe crop was wiped out by hail storm. A year’s work and income gone in the space of a few minutes of hail storm.

Probably the most memorable holiday Gordon and wife have been on was a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska. On this cruise, they took a trip ashore; helicopter scenic flight over the glaciers followed by a journey on a dog sled (Huskies and all). Fascinating adventure. 

The year 2000 saw Gordon selling up and moving to his beach house at Rye. Soon after, circumstances changed, the house was sold and they moved to Rosebud. Behind the police station, they found an established property – Gordon had no desire to build again so they bought and moved in some 20 years ago. Recently, his wife has had to move into aged care. The house was now bigger than needed so he sold up and moved to the Village Glen where he is very happy.

Gordon has retained a small workshop at home (lathe, etc) but continues to come to the WOSP workshop for timber preparation, machining, etc.

In the new workshop, Gordon has contributed by way of internal walls – to close off the toy area, closed room for the security equipment.

Finally, like many tradesmen – injury is one of the hazards of life. Sky lights seem to be a common hazard – he fell through one and landed on the sheet of corrugated iron that he had been cutting. He also sports a short thumb from a ‘ripping’ accident – after being re-attached, the thumb is working fine but is shorter than the other.

Now for some segmented bowl lessons – I’m really looking forward to it.