Local speed tracks
Any collections?
On all available surfaces, in cabinets, hung from every wall, and dangling from the rafters, are old and interesting objects. Asked about his collections, Gilbert says that he has a lot of stuff but no collections as such — apart from 20 or so 26-inch-wheeled bicycles and a variety of pistons, some as big as rubbish tins. He loves motocross and also has a few motocross bikes.
Working around harbours, he comes across interesting old objects that are being thrown out, such as a long wooden trolley that ran on tracks on a wharf and a very large cast-iron maker’s plate from a 1926 Stothert & Pitt crane.
Engineering apprenticeship
Gilbert’s family farmed in the Pleasant Point area and he attended Timaru Boys High School as a boarder. He was motivated to pass School Certificate (now NCEA Level 1) in all five subjects — English was compulsory — because this was the requirement to secure an apprenticeship at well-known local company Wallace & Cooper.
Gilbert was officially a fitting and turning apprentice, but in fact worked in a variety of departments in the large engineering company, from fabrication to blacksmithing. He worked in several Timaru businesses after completing his trade training in 1980 before being
Oreti Beach, Southland is where New Zealand icon Burt Munro used to test his record-breaking modified Indian streamlined bikes. In 1957 he gained the New Zealand Open Beach record of 131.38mph on this beach. It is also where the equally revered Bill (later Sir William) Hamilton, of jet-boat fame, gained the Australasian Speed Record of 109.09mph in 1928 driving a 1913, 3.3-litre Sunbeam.
A love of the big jobs
Dredging is something for which Gilbert has great enthusiasm. Big jobs using big ships with big gear he finds very appealing. One job, the Gorgon Project, involved building an LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal on Barrow Island, a Class A nature reserve about halfway up Australia’s