A qualified welder arriving from Italy in 1960, Fred could not work as a welder as his qualifications were not recognised by the Australian union. So he completed an apprenticeship at the shipyards at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. His first job out was with Kellogg who was building a refinery in Brisbane. This led to Fred’s first pipeline work building pipelines from the refinery along the Brisbane River to the port.

Fred also remembers his introduction to downhill or stove pipe welding when an American supervisor asked them what the hell they were doing after finding Fred working on top of a sphere with another welder in Gladstone. Fred answered the supervisor’s question with, “We’re welding”. Fred and his offsider were using the vertical up method so they were immediately sent (by bus) to a training school in Sydney to learn the downhill or stove pipe technique, which they picked up very quickly from their instructor Jack Pontefact.

From there Fred welded on a water pipeline for Transfield and spent a couple of years working around Australia.

In 1968 Fred worked on the Roma to Brisbane Gas Pipeline working for Theiss Brothers. He still vividly remembers receiving plates and cutlery to wash up and keep after each meal. Fred laughs as he says “This didn’t last long as all the men decided to dump their plates in the rubbish bin after their meal and that was the end of that idea.”

Fred first met Bob Papp on this line and after convincing the welding boss to give them a go on the front-end welding, the pair raised the rate of production by 500percent, resulting in most of the expat welders on the job being sent home as they didn’t want to work on hot pass or fill and cap at the pace Fred and Bob were setting. That pipeline was the start of a long personal and working relationship between Fred and Bob that has lasted to this day.

Fred then moved to Victoria where he worked with Carter Johnson on the Geelong Pipeline, the Longford to Crib Point Pipeline, and others, including the building of the first slurry pipeline in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, where Fred’s first TA arrived in full native dress including a bow and arrow and spear.

Fred was later to work in Bougainville when another slurry pipeline was constructed by McConnell Dowell. The pipeline crew just got out in time when armed opponents of the mine blew up the power lines and mine equipment, closing the mine, which has remained closed to this day. Fred said he knew when the Revolutionary Army was around as you would put out your hand for the next rod and your TA, a local man, was not there. He had spied the armed men hidden on the other side of the river and fled.

Fred worked for McConnell Dowell on a number of jobs – first with Stuart McDonald and then with Jeff Shepherd. Fred said “I don’t think Stuart liked me very much because I was always asking for more money, which by the way, I always got. Then Jeff Shepherd took over and I again did a lot of work for him. Jeff was good to work for,” says Fred. “If you did a deal with Jeff he always kept his word. So I made a lot of money with Jeff and I guess he made a lot of money out of me. Jeff was always very organised so we always worked hard for him; if you went hard and got 300 welds for the day, the next day he wanted 301.”

Fred says that working overseas is where the money is really made, but it is hard work and very hard to stay in contact with family. “In India it was $US55 a minute to ring home so I didn’t stay long on the phone.”

Fred worked for Fluor and Oceaneering during the time that Oceaneering had a pipe barge. He worked in Singapore, Penang, Brunei, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Germany. “In 1971, I worked for Fluor International for eight months in Penang, Malaysia, on a water pipeline running from Penang to Thailand. When I came home I paid my first house off and took my wife for a six-month overseas visit to my relatives. So it was good work.”

Fred also did a lot of offshore work with a preference for pipelaying rather than platform work. “It was like a cruise in the Mediterranean working on a lay barge. Five star accommodation and meals – much more comfortable than, say, a desert job or working in the swamps of South East Asia,” he says.

Asked about the job that he remembers most, Fred replies “There were so many of them that I was never out of a job. As one job finished, in another couple of weeks I would pick up another one. However, there was one six inch line we did at Portland where I welded 100 km of pipe without one repair, so that is one that I was very happy with.”

Fred remembers with special affection his days working with Vin Pollock and Graham Witty. After working on many of their jobs as a welder, later in his career he worked as welding inspector for Vin and Graham. He has kept up a strong friendship with them both. Fred also remembers Tony Tschapeller who he worked for a number of times and says he liked Tony̓s style of getting things done.

Fred has now retired to his beautiful home and large garden on a fifth of an acre. He built the home himself and his garden really does him proud. It is a combination of beautiful lawn, hedges and trees with an extraordinary vegetable garden and fruit trees grafted with many different varieties on each tree.

Fred says “After working all my life I sometimes get bored, but not enough to want to work again. I do what I want to do when I want to do it. I have loved working in the pipeline industry and would like to thank the many people I have worked with over the years. I love the family life I now have with my wife Joanie, and three children and grandchildren.”