56 years later, Athol hangs up his wrench
FINALLY we tracked him down.
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He was at Horsham Police Station checking out water pipes after a call from the boys in blue.
Veteran plumber Athol Wills had hoped to slip quietly into retirement without any fuss and bother.
After 56 and a half years he was stepping out of the trenches, putting down the wrenches and planning life without windmills, pipes, water and sewers.
Athol Wills - after a couple of Clayton retirements - has handed the keys and books of Dawsons Plumbing to former apprentice Gary Rushbrook.
But it's not going to be easy. He's been back for a morning cuppa at 10am most working days since.
"I'm retiring because I'm 72 years old, been 56 and a half years plumbing and for all those years I've worked from 8am until late," he said. "Now it's time to do a few other things."
Crippling arthritis has also taken its toll.
Mr Wills' career chronicles a few decades of Horsham history.
The son of a Blackheath farmer, he started as an apprentice with Dawsons Plumbing after school at Blackheath and Horsham High School.
It was February 2, 1946, the Second World War was at an end and Athol Wills was 15.
Chas Dawson put him on. The youngster knew Mr Dawson's son Tom because the two shared a mutual interest - the town's pipe band.
Mr Dawson was pipe major and the young Athol Wills a learner piper. With most of the usual players at the war front, young ones had moved in to fill the spots.
Athol Wills jumped at the chance. Besides, he'd missed a job as an electrician with the railways.
A large garage at the back of the Dawsons' Wilson Street home - now about Horsham Town Hall front entrance, was home to the business which had started in 1919.
The young Athol Wills traveled to jobs by bike, lugging his pick over his shoulder. Mr Dawson's old Chev was transport for jobs further afield. Tom Dawson's first vehicle was an old Dodge ute.
Over the six years of his apprenticeship, Mr Wills studied by correspondence with later trade training at Horsham's technical school.
"At that time plumbing was virtually in its infancy," he said. "If there was hot water you had a luxury house.
"Then of course the business grew to the point where we had laborers, so as an apprentice I'd have to work on the pick and shovel all week digging drains."
Back filling was also a manual job.
"And I was only a skinny little thing in those days," he said.
It was also post-war which meant materials were scarce. Dawsons had to queue the same as every other business.
Much of the plumbers' work, Mr Wills said, was mending corrosive pipes, roofing and fixing windmills.
"It was before electricity and something always broke," he said. Almost every day there was a job out of Horsham. He didn't mind that. There was usually time at the end of the job to put the feet under the usually large kitchen table and catch the news while sampling some home cooking. He worked on farms from one end of the Horsham district to the other.
Making tanks was also part and parcel of the day's work as well as putting up tank stands and windmills.
When plastic and polythene piping came in, and mechanical digging, that revolutionised the industry - as did long-length roofing materials
- Athol Wills
Meanwhile the business grew from a three-man business to 20 men and a fleet of trucks. Septic tanks, hot water services, air conditioning and work on new homes kept the men busy. There was also enormous industrial development in Horsham.
In 1983, Tom Dawson decided to call it a day. By then the business had been on the corner of Wilson Street and Urquhart Street for 37 years.
That's when Athol Wills set up Dawsons Plumbing Horsham. The business was then in the Wilson Street yard of builder Brennan and Foster. Gary Exell and Gary Rushbrook were also on the payroll.
For years Mr Wills' wife Heather managed the office. It was her first entry into book work. The business later moved to a former Country Fire Authority workshop in Bolton Street.
Larger jobs in recent years included a new roof on Horsham's state offices, the roof of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the city town hall's roof as well as a large part of Wesley Performing Arts Centre.
Mr Wills has also been busy after hours.
He has maintained involvement with Horsham City Pipe Band after joining in 1942, chairing the committee for 23 years.
Horsham Apex Club awarded him a life membership, he chaired Horsham Housing Societies which lent millions of dollars to allow people to build their home and remains Horsham City Oval management committee chairman.
- New owners Gary and Yvonne Rushbrook have renamed the business. It is now Dawsons Plumbing and Gas Fitting.
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