After working 60 years at Piacentini and Sons as a dozer driver Colin Resta has seen technology change, employees come and go and become the companies most valued employee in the meantime.
It’s been quite a journey for Colin as he reminisces on his first day on the job at just 18, sent out with a bulldozer to clear a paperbark swamp.
“I hadn’t been here for long at all before I was thrown into the thick of it with a dozer and a paper bark swamp, I remember the day very clearly,” Colin said.
“Because I did a very good job on the paperbark swamp I was sent up to Ferguson to clear another patch of trees and got my self stuck.”
He laughs and explains the call to his boss Albert Piacentini, to come and get him out, which at the time wasn’t as easy as picking up a mobile phone.
“Working here has been an life long education, I’ve seen thousands of employees come through in my 60 years, I’ve seen this business go from one bulldozer to an over 500 piece operation,” he said.
Colin’s boss now is Albert’s son, Colin Piacentini who was only five years old when Old Colin began work.
Since then Old Colin has become a mentor and a life-long friend to young Mr Piacentini.
“He’s a part of our family now,” Mr Piacentini said.
“We’re all very proud of him, we want people to grow but you need commitment and Colin has that, he’s still out there every day.”
Colin can’t imagine a worse fate than being stuck at an office desk all day everyday.
“I’d tear the walls down, there’s nothing that would keep me in an office, I was born for the field,” Colin said.
“But it’s amazing to see how drastically things have changed, back when I started you couldn’t make a phone call from the field to get a new part and you had to be a jack of all trades to get the job done.”
“But now we’re running mining operations overseas from here in Bunbury, it’s absolutely unreal.”
“And after all this time my lovely wife still makes me lunch everyday when I go to work. You need a reason to get out of bed in the morning and she drives me and has kept me on good pastures.”
Colin Resta began work on September 24 1956, but said he’s always looking to the future and only rarely peaks in the rear vision mirror.