Opinion | From gutter leak to career insights

Almost by chance, or accident, I ended up as a reporter and reached the pinnacle of that career when becoming the editor of this newspaper.

Career counselling, or advice, along with many other things, has changed significantly from what seemed like another lifetime ago in the 1960s.

Oddly, it was what seemed like an innocuous pooling of water in my front gutter that prompted my reminiscing about careers advice from the ’60s.

My wife and I had watched the unusual pooling of the water for a few weeks and, for whatever reason — I’m not sure — we agreed spontaneously that something needed doing.

Subsequently, a plumber was called and he and his apprentice were directed to a leaking backyard tap and, although that was fixed, it was not the answer to the pooling water.

The plumber and his apprentice checked everything else — all our other taps, inside and out, our toilets, the roof-mounted air conditioner (it’s connected to water) — and they even talked about digging up our lawn and maybe even cracking open a section of a cement driveway.

But then they had to go, as both were to talk at a careers' day for local students, explaining the satisfaction, joys and rewards of plumbing as a career.

That seems to me a great leap forward — that you have someone actually working in the trade or profession talking about the realities of what they do to someone considering such a career choice.

Upon return, the two plumbers said they had lots of questions, but probably only one person seriously considering plumbing as a career.

Now back on site and fresh from lots of chats explaining the benefits of plumbing, the pair continued their search for the origin of our water leak.

Suddenly, there was a subdued Eureka moment when the apprentice spotted a small leak — bubbles of water were coming out of the soil beneath our ’50s-era house sitting on stumps.

I’m unsure of the pecking order among plumbers, but it was the young qualified plumber, who only an hour or so before had been spruiking the joys of being a plumber, who disappeared into the darkness below our house with a torch and a few tools.

Maybe he knew what he was in for, but the leak had softened the earth so much that it was like a swamp beneath our house, and undeterred, Rhys waded in (that’s something of a misnomer, as he was really scrambling about on his chest) to find the leak and effect the repair.

A while later, he reappeared, problem solved, but covered in mud, with his dreadlocks a matted mess.

I contacted his employer, Mooroopna’s Admoor Plumbing, and urged them to congratulate Rhys and his apprentice, Kody, as it seemed to me a skilled resolution of a simple but complex problem.

So it was in the ’60s that I heard about industrial design from a fellow who was remote from the experience, while only a few weeks ago Shepparton students heard about plumbing from someone who has experienced the best — and the worst — of the career.

Robert McLean is a former editor of The News.