A Intro About My Past... Phil Wratten
Hi to fellow students and teachers of Mayfield West P.S. - 1956 to 1963. Following my days at Mayfield West, I bombed my way along at Newcastle Tech for 4 years. My academic achievement was poor due to ability, unlike the abilities of Paul Colditz, John Groom, Mark Fitzsimmons, Robert Campbell and 95% of the other kids, So poor were my reports from primary school that I shredded them.
After leaving Tech. High I worked for NSW Rail as an apprentice elec. fitter for 6 weeks at Hamilton. I left there and joined the power industry with the E.C. of NSW (a great employer for 24yrs) where I served an elect. apprenticeship at Wangi P.S. and Warath Regional Centre. I then relocated to Muswellbrook and worked at Liddell P.S. as an Electrical Control Technician in April '74. The best part of this job was spotlighting rabbits beside the conveyor belts that run adjacent to the N.E. Highway! The Charge Engineer on shift was never amused!
From there I ventured to the Snowy Mt's Hydro Electricity Authority on a secondment from the E.C. and I lived in Cabramurra, Australia's highest township from April '75! Cabramurra township is the manning headqtrs for the maintenance and operating staff for the two underground hydro power stations, T1 and T2. I lived there for 2 years and 1 day. The high-light of that period was getting home as quickly as you could up two slippery mountain roads after afternoon shift. Night time was safe as there was no terrorist traffic; you had all the road to yourself!
I relocated to Talbingo which is outside of Tumut in April '77. Work involved operating T3 P.S., Blowering P.S. I became the Station Engineer of the Lower Tumut Region (more study - yuck). From here I was seconded to Human Resources - Staff Training at Eraring, to bring practical knowledge to their management training programs.
The high-light of Talbingo, besides another great lifestyle, was having 'quick runs' between the Tumut River and Talbingo township turnoff on the Snowy Mt's Highway. Russell Williams knows the area well! I have never lost my passion for speed Russell!
I drifted to Queensland with my wife while on L.S.L. in '92 and I never returned to the power industry. I ventured into real estate as everybody did back then with an L.J. Hooker franchise - northern side of Brisbane in Feb '93; ended up winning top auction lister for L.J.Hooker Qld in the March qtr of '95.
Left real estate in Feb '96 and worked for a great little Holden dealership called Petrie Holden which was owned by the Jackson family - Peter Jackson the footballer, was one of the sons! If you remember, he committed suicide. Left there and became the HSV Specialist Sales Rep at Zupps Aspley - north side of Brisbane. It was my dream job and I would still be there, but the dealership lacked ethics. Sold more HSV than any other HSV salesperson in Qld in '97. I left the industry due to the lying and cheating that was generally expected.
Started my own cleaning business in '98 washing cars in car parks and grew that business to the point that I had a gang of sub-contracted staff ripping up floors in supermarkets and other stores as part of refurbisment programs. The business had multiple income streams but was hard work so back to putting the brain into into gear and so I took on mortgage brokering from November '01 to May '05 with a Mortgage Choice Franchise. I locked horns with 2 state managers so I sold that business and semi retired for 12 months, but in April of '04 I had bought, with my Del, a beauty salon. (girls - Dermalogica and Sothys were the product line) We owned the business, but never worked in the business. We sold that business March '08!
I re-entered the mortgage business as an independant mortgage broker in August '06 and the business runs under the management of Del's daughter now.
With regards family - 2nd marriage to Del - 20 years this June. I have a son 34 and daughter 33 from a first marriage: both live in London.
In amongst all of the above, I had contact with Lesley Holdstock about 3 years ago and we floated the idea of a reunion. More recently Margaret and I came together through Friends Reunited and it was a throw away line about another reunion that got us talking to Lesley again and through the COMBINED efforts of the two ladies, we will enjoy the fruits of their hard labour come June. Clay Campbell, Glenda Phillips, Mavis Shearman and Russell Williams have been tremendous help too.
I look forward to catching up with you all in June.
Regards Phil Wratten.
