In Transfield: The first 20 Years, Dr Gianfranco Cresciani's describes the early formation of Electric Power Transmission and, then, Transfield. According to Cresciani, the Italian company Societa Anonima Elettrificazione SpA (SAE) sent Enzo Oriolo to assess Australia's potential as a new market. "When the then NSW Premier Joe Cahill could not find local companies capable of helping end the post-war blackouts plaguing Sydney, he reached an agreement with Oriolo for a future Italian involvement in the construction of steel transmission lines." (p 4)
The Sydney company Dickson Primer got the agency from SAE to build tranmission towers in Australia. In 1951, SAE via its agent Dickson Primer, registered the company Electric Power Tranmission Pty Ltd so as to carry out the work.
Cresciani describes the circumstances leading to SAE's arrival in Australia:
"In August 1951 a group of 25 SAE men, a priest and two SAE engineers, Franco Belgiorno-Nettis and Carlo Salteri, left for Australia. The team project manager, Vittorio Monduzzi, came some months later with his wife and with Salteri's wife ... Born in Brisighella, in the Province of Ravenna, he left school at 11, like many of his generation, and joined SAE as a supervisor when he was only twenty." (p 4-5)
This project manager, Monduzzi, came from the same town as my father. I enjoy this coincidence.
1 comment:
I worked with the good people at EPT between 1978 and 1987, I worked in the "Personnel" Department with Attilio Cosciani and Ivan Zlatin, initially recruiting and mobilising workers for construction projects like transmission lines, radio and TV towers, and I later employee relations responsibilities on larger infrastructure construction projects such as petrochemical plants, power stations, coal loaders, steel plant upgrades, mine sites, industrial plant shutdowns etc etc
I worked with some of the original people that came out from Italy in the early 1950 to establish the Company (Sergio Ruvinetti, Renzo Scarpa, Sr Dreoni, Sergio Rigoli) and other people who ran various parts of the business in Wollongong (Sam Pigozzo), Newcastle (Giovanni Angeli)and with many other people on various other construction projects
I have fond memories of my time with these people and would welcome the opportunity to share these memories with others who may be interested.
Geoff Gavan
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