Monash Memo - articles - 14 November 2001

[contents] [next article]

Maintenance man leaves a gap

Mechanical services coordinator Mr Noel Edmonds is set to retire at the end of the year after a remarkable 40 years' service in the maintenance department on Clayton campus.

Mr Edmonds was only 24 years old - and the university's only plumber - when he started back in 1962, the year after the university opened its doors to its first students.

"I was very lucky to get in at my age because they didn't feel that a young person would stay," he said. "They thought I was a bit young and inexperienced for the position, but I hung in there."

Mr Edmonds proved those early doubters wrong by being one of the university's true stayers.

He said he had witnessed many changes during his years at Monash, not only to the campus grounds but also in the way people related to one another.

"When I first started here under Dr Matheson, we were a close-knit community. With the university being so much smaller, everyone knew each other by their first names. We seemed to have time for each other in those early days - and we could have Christmas parties with the whole university."

The university grounds at Clayton have changed considerably from the rabbit and mushroom-filled farmland Mr Edmonds first encountered.

"There were no roads then, so getting between the buildings was difficult because of all the mud," he said.

"Everyone was issued with gumboots because you just couldn't get around without them in wet weather."

The maintenance department had also grown from the small team of one electrician, two carpenters and one plumber, Mr Edmonds said, to today's department of nine plumbers, three fitters and two labourers.

"I think I've learned a lot and hopefully have contributed a lot too," he said. "It's been a good job."