Tony Milner
The relationship between Midland Junction Technical School and the Railway Workshops was two fold. The School has not only trained thousands of railway apprentices, but it has often drawn from the body of railway trained personnel for its trade lecturers. In fact it used to be joked that if you didn’t have a railway background you wouldn’t get a job at the School.
Tony
Milner began his apprenticeship as a boilermaker at the Railway Workshops with
500 other new apprentices. For Tony, working on trains was almost inevitable
– his father had been employed with the Railways, and the family had always
lived near the railway line. He was also influenced by the old adage:
"You can always fall back on your trade", plus the knowledge that
tradesmen from the Workshops were highly sought after. Like all railway
apprentices, his training encompassed a wide range of experiences. He
progressed from the flanging shop, to the marking off table, to the wagon shop
where he worked on suburban passenger coaches.
After he completed his railway apprenticeship he gained even broader experience on the marking out tables at the Vickers Hoskins foundry which had originally been set up to produce the Goldfields pipeline. In later years Vickers Hoskins produced wheat silos and equipment for the mining industry, as well as cranes to unload containers, which Tony worked on. He then spent a period of time repairing whaling boats with State Ships, another organisation which drew heavily for its employees from those trained through the Railways. At the same time he began part time lecturing at what was then called Midland Technical School. After completing further studies and lecturing at other technical schools, he became a permanent staff member at Midland.
Like his fellow railway trained lecturers he aimed to instill the pride in workmanship taught to him as a young railway apprentice.
Though he has now retired from lecturing he still retains a great interest in steam trains and has recently received recognition for many years of work with the Australian Railway Historical Society. It was through his links with the Society that students were able to gain practical experience on some of the old railway carriages