Bob Pearson is probably the oldest person working with an A-Grade Certificate of Competence. He’s now contemplating full retirement – at 85!
Based in Winton, Southland, he’s by no means working full-time but still has responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety at a few local operations. One is a rock quarry, the other alluvial river sites, with Bob doing random site visits as often as once a week.
Quarrying is in his veins. He grew up near the Port Tarakohe operation of Golden Bay Cement, where his father was a manager. “We used to swim off the Tarakohe wharf.”
After leaving Nelson College in the early 1960s, he completed science and pharmacy units at Canterbury and then Victoria University in Wellington.
“Then the job for Chief Chemist at Southland Cement was advertised. I thought, ‘That sounds interesting.’
He got the job and was based at Orawia in Western Southland for some years.
“When it closed they transferred me to Westport.”
After time working at the Cape Foulwind cement plant, it was bought by Milburn Cement. Bob returned south to manage the company’s plant at Burnside in Dunedin. He also studied for his A-Grade CoC, which he’s now held for around 30 years.
Around 2000, when already nudging retirement age, Bob was appointed manager of the Fernhill Limeworks near Winton.
“We diversified a bit,” he recalls, which included him and his wife Lyn establishing Southland Serpentine.
They reached out to Duncan and Lachy McGregor of McGregor Concrete, who became – and remain – fellow partners and directors.
After the Pike River disaster, it became mandatory to have A or B-grade CoCs supervise for health and safety.
“When the McGregors found they needed people with qualifications for their gravel operations, I came on board.”
For the next five or six years, Bob found himself responsible for overseeing 10 to 12 sites, mostly river gravel pits, albeit on a part-time basis. “I used to call on all the sites that were operating.”
A bout with cancer then took out chunks of his kidneys and he needed to step back from the role with McGregor Concrete. These days, he limits himself to the rock quarry and single river pits.
Bob says he has no regrets about his life in quarrying and cement, although he recalls a few accidents and the odd fatality on sites during his career.
“They weren’t very nice.”
He believes health and safety have improved hugely in recent years.
“WorkSafe do a pretty good job, really. It keeps everybody on their toes.”
Bob’s now contemplating retirement. “I won’t be going too much longer, I reckon.”
A return to Golden Bay or the wider Nelson region is on
the cards. AQA