Local Boy Makes Good

The lands that nestle under the Southern Cross every night are well renowned for hearty per-capita representation around the world. Beyond consistent high achievement on international sporting fields, pioneering names like Florey, Hilary, Hollows, Melba and Te Kanawa are rightly etched in global folklore.

Our creatives are also well represented around the world. From Errol Flynn to Peter Jackson, Paul Hogan to the Flight of the Conchords, the lands down under produce a continuous supply of world leaders.

We likely all know about the musical artists that succeeded beyond the cultural cringe border – Peter Allen to Lorde and countless more in between – but what about the prodigies behind the desk, the Australian and New Zealand techs and gear that ‘made it’ overseas?

Home grown talent
The roadie luminaries list is long and star studded. From the legendary pioneers of the 70s to plenty that have trod the boards since, a large contingent of southern crew have left their mark on the world stage (and continue to do so). I pay homage (in no particular order) to serial overachievers such as:

Bill McCartney, $crooge Madigan, Tana Douglas, Eric Robinson, Bruce Jackson, Howard Freeman, Roger Davies, Bruce Johnson, Michael Oberg, Michael Lippold, Ted Gardner, Fergie, Gerry Georgettis, Swampy Jarvis, Motley Hackett, Eric Carter, Michael Tait, Alex Saad, Lee Freeman, Pete McFee, Jeff Pavey, Squirter, Matt Doherty, Sophie Kirov, Syko, AFG, Rod Mathieson – and I could name oh so many more.

This tally is far from exhaustive and, for brevity, I’ve left a good many out. Any one of them could forge a show out of next to nothing, present an amazing CV, and have enough road stories to entertain even the most seasoned souls.

Sadly, some are no longer with us, but they will ever remain examples of world leaders in their fields. Regardless of their mortal status, we can take inspiration from what these folks have achieved and their attitude in getting there.

For starters, they are all self-taught, they’ve all shown great tenacity in the face of diversity, they’ve all had the self-belief to be the best, they all learned to learn quickly and all became shining lights for the rest of us to look up to.

They all started out at home, but none saw a boundary at the airport – more a gateway to opportunity and growth.

I single out those names as exemplars of a worldly mindset, unconstrained by insular notions of national borders. Their formative periods might have been in a backwater, but their end goals were the other side of big oceans.

They either made their own luck or were sharp enough to seize the right moment. While my personal career path hasn’t reached the dizzying heights of the aforementioned characters, I’m happy to have known and worked alongside some of them.

ANZAC spirit
Over the years, technical production crew and companies from the Antipodes have been highly valued internationally. Why is this? I see a multitude of reasons. Geographically isolated at the end of the world, we have long had to rely on nothing more than our own wit and what we had at hand.

No waiting days or weeks for a supply shipment from head office – we have to solve the problem and bang out the fix. We regularly overcome the tyranny of distance and find solutions while the Northern hemisphere is asleep, and enjoy thinking laterally, getting on with the job and laughing at adversity.

We are not as constrained by demarcation as the USA, and usually have at least a working knowledge of the departments that we work alongside, if not some degree of competency in them. And, we are generally pretty good at turning a hand to anything, doing what needs to be done to get the show on.

These practical, generalist skills are always in demand.

In other antipodean industries, this perspective has led to a dazzling array of breakthroughs such as: Wi-Fi, Black box flight recorder, Google maps, Cochlear implants, Ultrasound scanners, the electric drill and our favourite pillow, the goon bag.

Across the ditch – disposable syringes, the egg beater, Jetpacks, Jet boats and the ubiquitous bungee jump have contributed much to the world. We continue to bicker over lamingtons, pavlovas and Rusty Crowe!

Neighbourly jesting aside, I’ve long held that Australia and New Zealand are hot beds of invention and innovation, despite the many R&D cultural barriers imposed by our collective leadership approaches rooted in the “dig it, grow it, sell it” mentalities.

Homegrown gear
No, not that kind of gear … the electrical gadgety type of gear. While some of our enterprising people were off flying the ANZAC flag and hanging out with the stars, others got stuck into making stuff and building empires – home-growing their own equipment and businesses.

This list is no more or less comprehensive than the crewcall above. Many have led the world, many still are. Much tribute and reverence are due to:

Bytecraft, Australian Monitor, Rode, Maton, Drum Workshop, Fairlight CMI, Strauss, Nova Sound, ETONE, JANDS, LSC, Dynalite, Laservision, Liquid Automation, Blackmagic Design, Big Picture, Showtech, Howard & Sons and many more.

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Images: Jands Vista Lighting Console by Rob Lee (flickr.com/photos/55761924@N00) is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0;
DW Practice Set by dave.kobrehel (flickr.com/photos/14291736@N08) is licensed under CC BY 2.0;
Rode mic by Wolfgang Lonien (flickr.com/photos/99713555@N00) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

All are great examples of locals made good in the biggest arena. Again, some have passed, many have evolved but a lot are going stronger than ever. It would be remiss to not mention other local innovations such as the A4 Lake DSP, which was the genesis of the Dolby system, or the fluid head camera mount. Before that, The Story of the Kelly Gang even heralded in a wee thing now known as the feature film.

A more recent case of techo-makes-good is Wisetech Global, with Richard White evolving from JANDS R&D to becoming a major worldwide logistics software supplier. While talking software, our zone has seen considerable success with names such as Atlassian, Xero, Vend, and Sausage.

Arguably the most iconic homegrown piece of kit – the Hills hoist – spawned a company that was embedded heavily in the pro-AV marketplace for quite some time this century. So very lucky for so long, we all know how that is now panning out.

I was working for them with Crestron until being made redundant in the GFC fallout. While Hills management subsequently worked on making the company redundant, I took a nice payout and moved on with my life.

Homely
Which was, my partner and I growing a home. Grown with 20,000 hours of our own blood, sweat and tears. Everything was homegrown – hand built doors, windows, walls, tiles – even the bathroom basin was hewn from a lump of granite.

A big old bastard gum fallen and milled onsite provided trims for the entire house. It grew next to our home where its ancient flesh will now see out its days.

In the process, we remade ourselves as resourceful and ingenious country folk. However, many of those skillsets, and the attitudes required to foster them, have root in the DIY world of R&R touring where necessity is the almighty mother of invention.

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We managed a dwelling – many other gig veterans have taken that ethos and gone much further to conquer the world.

Homily
Long white clouds, wide brown lands and other well trashed parochial clichés aside, our countries are a hotbed for lateral and clever thinking, dogged determination, incredible teamwork and individual style.

If we ever stop dancing the awkward distancing tango and get back to gigging, we’ll be able to say (or sing) “I did it my way…” in whatever accent we care to use, wherever we find ourselves in the world.

CX Magazine – August 2020   

LIGHTING  |  AUDIO  |  VIDEO  |  STAGING  |  INTEGRATION

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