FOURT ETTER TO REV PROF DUTNEY PRESIDENT UNITING CHURCH IN - TopicsExpress

FOURT ETTER TO REV PROF DUTNEY PRESIDENT UNITING CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA ASSEMBLY Ref GH / 4 309 – 319 Browns Road, Rye, Victoria 3941 28 October, 2013 Ph. 042 339 1566 REV. PROF ANDREW DUTNEY, PRESIDENT, UNITING CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA ASSEMBLY, Piccadilly Court, Level 10, 222 Pitt Street, Sydney. Dear Sir, RE: UNITING CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA ASSEMBLY KALKEE & HILL $2.5 MILLION - $4 MILLION BEQUEST I feel that I should now tell you how I ended up broke. CHAPTER 1 My name is Graham Walter Hill born on 22nd November 1943. Initially I went to Fenwick Memorial Baptist Church Kindergarten then went to Tate Street State School then to Geelong Technical School where I was 1st in form 4 at mid-year exams and 3rd at final exams ( Intermediate Year Diploma Entrance Standard ) In the 3rd grade at state school I remember rubbing my eyes excessively due to hay fever from grass and when I opened my eyes I could not see for a few seconds. After this I had to wear glasses which were on the strong side. I had difficulty seeing the blackboard. When I went to secondary school and the exam questions were on paper I started to do quite well. I do remember the very first maths exam where I got 100 % until I told the teacher that it was really only 99 % (no units). He was really disappointed. So that year I got the maths & science prize. I don’t think I got a prize the next year although I think 98 % for maths and in 3rd form six of us got 100 % for maths and I didn’t get top for science so I got the religious instruction prize. The next year, form 4, I was called “Rev”. This fourth form year I got a prize for coming 3rd. Despite all of this I would not wear the glasses outside so I walked around getting a blurred view of everything. I then went on to complete a diploma in civil engineering at The Gordon Institute of Technology in 1963. Whilst here I received a Commonwealth Scholarship which provided a basic living allowance. My first job after graduating was as assistant engineer at Scott and Furphy consulting engineers for 2+ years then at Balaton and Associates for 6 months until I got a job with the British Phosphate Commissioners who managed the Christmas Island Phosphate Commission as well as Nauru and Ocean Island. I was on Christmas Island for approx. 2.25 years until December 1968. In 1969 I got a job with a consulting firm on surveying the Bougainville Copper Mine but I did not last long due to tropical type sickness in the jungle. Also we had to travel about 10 km. to work each day in the back of a ute up a winding gravel road with a steep drop to the bottom and I thought the ute might go over the edge one day so with these I decided to leave after a short time. When I came back I got a job with Project Designers and was contracted to Davy Ashmore designing walkways and structures for extensions to Altona Oil Refinery. After 6 or 7 months I was contracted to Fluor Australia where I was employed on the design of an iron ore hopper also other structures for an iron ore mine at Paraburdoo in North-West Australia. Then employed in St Kilda Road office on design of sections of the HUTA coal loading facilities in Mackay Queensland. Toward end 1970 I got a job with State Rivers and Water Supply Commission in Tatura on the irrigation projects with cheap accommodation and food but no social life. I then got transferred to Melbourne head office in Orrong Road Armadale – Major Dams Section. When I transferred from Tatura to Melbourne I said to my “mum” that I might buy a flat in Melbourne – could have got one in Hawthorn for $11,000 I think. Anyway she went “waaaah” “what do you want to buy a flat in Melbourne for – we will give you the workshop land in Geelong and you can build a block of flats”. Well all of that went by the wayside and I didn’t know anything about investing so I did nothing. Anyway the job got boring so I finished up and had a holiday in Tasmania. I came back and got a job on the site of the now Sofitel hotel at top of Collins Street Melbourne (twin towers) doing survey work for the foundations. Here I was called a scab when I went back to collect a tape which was left after the builders labourers called a sudden strike – they sent the construction company Mainline Constructions broke in the end. Next I took off to the Gold Coast where I got a job as Project Engineer at Hooker-Rex Estates a land development company making canal estates eg. Paradise Waters, Palm Garden Waters, Mermaid Waters, Burleigh Waters.. A recession hit in 1974 and most of us were retrenched. The non- waterfront land at Palm Garden Waters sold for $8000 the water front land $12,000 and the land at Paradise Waters all water front sold for $20,000. The land was dredged up sand to form the canals with 3 inches of topsoil and then grass sprayed on top of that. In the office one day we got hold of the salesman’s book. You would never guess how much the Real Estate Salesmen made selling that land in 1973.. After all they did not know how well that land would sell as they had just made it and was made of sand. The next year they reduced the salesmen’s commission substantially. Anyway we celebrated with a parma at the Skinny Dog Hotel. Next I got a job as a labourer on the construction of a new subdivision at Palm Beach. After that I got a job as Senior Engineer at Blain, Bremner and Williams Consulting Engineers supervising land development projects in Rockhampton and Yeppoon. After these were completed and they laid people off I was doing private work – drawing house plans and calculations. For one short term job- 2 or 3 weeks I asked for and got an hourly rate. We all went for a drink on the Friday and one of the guys calls out something like “ Hey the $xxxx per hour man” . After some time I got a job with the Queensland Railways in Rockhampton as a Technical Officer – surveying loop line extensions supervising precast yard at Humes and as Fire Warden – writing reports on causes of fires adjacent to railway tracks. The money wasn’t real great here I would have stayed – it was a good job nice weather but LEON LUMMIS who I did some private work for put an advert in paper and said the job is yours so silly me went – he didn t have too much work on anyway. He provided me with a ute with MULTICOMP SERVICES Consulting Engineers written on it and a free flat and he had printed letter-heads with my name at the top saying :- Multicomp Services, Consulting Engineers, G. W. HILL Dip.C.E., M.I.E.Aust. Consulting Engineer (this is relevant to later on) After a couple of months he had not much more work. He wasn’t going to pay my salary for no work . Its 1979 now and I came back to Melbourne and got a job contracted to Public Works Department of Victoria – design of school buildings and a multi storey building under supervision for the Police Academy in Glen Waverley. This obviously was not built as a later employer said that his partner designed that – it looked like I was lying on my resume. This 11 or 12 month contract was completed. It was here that 4 of us were standing together one being Jim who said “one of us four is getting over a certain dollar figure per week “ Steve .the Class 3 engineer said “No . No I’m not” Jim then repeated his statement and stared straight at me. Well happy days since my position was 2 grades under class 3. Whilst employed here I bought a small single fronted terrace house in South Melbourne for $37,000. To be continued next chapter. Yours faithfully, GRAHAM WALTER HILL