Paul Blake was born in Melbourne’s beach suburb of Chelsea. He lived in Frankston, Somerville and Langwarrin until moving to Rutherglen in 2020 prior to the COVID outbreak.
What did you do workwise?
I am a retired plumber and gasfitter who worked for the Gas and Fuel Corporation as a service technician until the company sold in 1995. I then started my own business on the Mornington Peninsula installing and repairing popular brand gas appliances. At one stage I was a service agent for 15 different companies in the Melbourne metro area.
What brought you to your career?
I was guided down my career path by my grandfather and uncle who were both plumbers. I enjoyed working with them on weekends as a youngster earning a bit of pocket money to save up and buy a camera. Photography is now my passion when travelling and photographing birds from central NSW to Southern Victoria and Tasmania.
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What did you love about your work?
Meeting people across all walks of life. I had a contract at Channel 9 in the late 1990s which involved constant colour changes of ovens on set and maintaining working models in the real kitchen on the ‘What’s Cooking’ show with Geoff Jansz and was introduced to many interesting TV celebrities.
What do you do in the community?
It’s a little minimal due to my passion of photography and travelling around the country, also backwards and forwards to Melbourne to visit family and friends. Recently with my partner Ann we were involved in a memorial piece to a local farmer Tony Reeckman tragically killed by a driver using a mobile phone. The artwork was recently installed at the Rutherglen’s Wine Bottle with an official opening last Saturday morning with his family attending from all over the country.
Is there an important community issue that you think needs addressing?
First and foremost is youth unemployment along with drugs. It’s a problem nationwide that I see travelling around to different areas from Melbourne to Sydney and all the small country towns in between.
What would you do to solve change, improve that situation?
I won’t be popular but maybe bring back national service as I believe this would instill life values and create self-worth in the younger generation. I believe most teenagers are great people but sometimes make bad choices leading to terrible outcomes.
What do you see as one of the most important current world issues?
Donald J Trump due his inability to comprehend the damage he is doing to the world financial markets, free speech is slowly disappearing in the US and people believe his propaganda. As they say it spells disaster.
If the person you would most like to meet came to Indigo Shire (past or present), or was already here, who would that be, what would you show them, and why?
Being an avid wildlife photographer, I would love to meet British-born Australian photographer Steve Parish. He has inspired me in many ways, one including writing a book just finished (‘Through the Lens-A life Transformed’) with more than 100 pages of my most favourite images with another including a brief story of my early life. I would take Steve to one of my favourite local spots where the Rainbow Bee-eaters migrate every year to raise their young before travelling back to northern Australia and as far as New Guinea. I would gain a little insight into his experience of capturing these beautiful birds from the master himself.
What book are you reading?
The most recent is ‘Justice in Kelly country ‘by Lachlan Strahan whose great, great grandfather was a Rutherglen policeman during the Kelly outbreak and was involved in the hunting of the gang.
