I first met Pat Baird when we had colour
in our hair. His larger than life personality and easy going nature made him
a natural within the tractor industry. I caught up with him while in Daylesford in Victoria where he and his wife have a successful accomodation business.
Pat has made many friends across
Australia and like me I'm sure they will be pleased he agreed to tell his story.
It's been a while since you were involved with farm machinery, tell me just how did you get started
in the machinery game?
I actually was ahead of my time and
invented the ‘Gap Year’. I told my Father I was taking a year off to rest up
after some arduous years at Ardrossan Area School. He obviously didn't agree
with my plan and had the local Farm Machinery dealer come and pick me up on the
following Monday morning to start an apprenticeship.
My
Gap Year only lasted two days, rather than the full year as I had planned.
And
what was that first job, and for who?
Apprentice Diesel Mechanic at Ardrossan
Motors in South Australia. We were the local David Brown dealers when I first
started in 1973. When David Brown was bought out by Case we became the Deutz
Dealership and then my boss took on the Ford Tractor dealership. During this
time Ardrossan Motors had the Holden franchise and a variety of assorted
implement franchises. Victor Kenny owned and operated the business and at the
time he was a very well known South Australian machinery industry identity.
Notorious,
I remember he had a larger than life personality, can you tell me a bit about it? Did
anything interesting happen?
There were always interesting things
happening at Ardrossan Motors. Victor Kenny was known as a bit of a ‘Wild Man’
back in those days and he always drove flash cars. It was a great time, a
constant stream of interesting people and fun things going on. Vic’s dealership
was more like a playground for grownups in many ways. The annual Deutz Golf day
that Ardrossan Motors put on for their clients was legendary. Not so much golf
but more so for the number of drinks scored.
Did
you have a career plan or did it just evolve?
There was no plan at all. In fact I was
possibly the worst mechanic that God ever shovelled guts into, and my only aim
was to get off the tools. After eight years as a mechanic and sales person with
Ardrossan Motors I was offered a role as a Product Demonstrator for Ford
Tractors and Equipment. They were getting ready for the launch of their mid
Range 10 Series tractors. It was a great job, I was based in Melbourne and
working with a great company.
From there I took another role with Ford
as their territory manager in North Queensland where Townsville was my base for
two years. A change of location to Adelaide followed, again as territory
manager. This time however the territory was all of South Australia.
Cutting a long story short I returned to
Melbourne and transferred into the Service department. From there to the
Melbourne Metro Ford Tractor Dealership as Service manager working for Vin Smith
(Top bloke and top operator).
Due to family pressures I returned to SA
and became the service manager for the Isuzu truck dealer and then the Volvo
truck dealer. Eventually my wife of the time asked me to ‘put some magic into
the relationship.’ So I did. I disappeared.
Following that I returned to Melbourne,
taking up the role of Tractor Product Manager with Massey Ferguson, Ursus, and
later Fendt as the products in my portfolio.
AGCO Australia Limited was another
fabulous company to work for.
Finally after eight years I left there
to work in the fashion belt business (of all things). Eventually my wife Anne
and I purchased our own accommodation Booking Service business in Daylesford
Victoria, where we are both still working today.
Worst
day at work, can you tell me what happened and when?
I tend to be an eternal optimist so in
many ways my worst day was probably one of the funniest looking back, although it
wasn't very funny at the time. I was sent about seventy kilometres down the York
Peninsular from Ardrossan to south of Minlaton. I was to do the first service
on a Deutz tractor. Late in the day I was driving home on a secluded back road
when I was suddenly overcome by stomach cramps. There was no other traffic around,
so I pulled over to the side of the road, I scrambled through the glove box and
ripped a couple of pages from the cars service manual. I headed into the bush,
flipped off my overalls and proceeded to ‘do number two's’. On completion, I
cleaned up using the pages from the service book. Flipped the overalls back on
and headed for the car. As I got back in the driver’s seat I leaned back and
felt a clammy feeling at the back of my neck. I was still a good fifty
kilometres from home and being the seventies I had long flowing hair which was
also caught up in this mess.
Needless to say, this was the longest drive
of my life. Very messy, very smelly and in hindsight very funny
And
to balance things the best day at work, can you tell me what happened and when?
There are too many to be able to name
them all. One major highlight was hosting Gil McDonald from Southcorp Wines on
a three week ‘Junket’ through Europe as a thank you for a two hundred Fendt
tractor contract. John Bradley AGCO/MF's sales Director and my boss at the
times parting words to me were ‘Gil's not to put his hand in his pocket the
entire time you are away’. It's fair to say I didn't let him down. I reckon the
company would have struggled to make a profit that year!!!!
Was
the tractor industry your first career choice?
No, not at all - I ended up in it by
accident.
If
not what might have happened?
Throughout my last few years at school I
was keen to become A Police Officer. As explained earlier my attempt at
inventing the ‘Gap Year’ put an end to that.
How
many different jobs have you held during your career?
I've had about eight different employers
- Ardrossan Motors, Ford Motor Company, Melbourne Tractors, Metro Isuzu,
Voltruck, Massey Ferguson, Tripler Trading Company and currently self employed
at Daylesford Accommodation Escapes. With Ford however I had a number of roles
in the eight years including Demonstrator, Territory Manager and Service
Department Assistant.
Describe
your best job ever.
It’s a toss of the coin between Ford and
Massey, but I think that Massey wins. I was Product Manager there for eight
years looking after Massey, Ursus and Fendt Tractors and enjoyed almost every
day of it.
I worked for John Bradley who was a
great boss, and I was teamed alongside Ken Heath. Ken is a great bloke and
excellent teacher, particularly talented in filling out expense
reports.
Tell
us about any favourite times or parts of your career?
I loved my participation in the numerous
product launches that I was involved in at Massey. The overseas travel to the
UK, Germany and France for factory visits was always enjoyable.
What
was the best product or service you ever owned, sold, or worked on?
Undoubtedly the Fendt Tractor range. They
are bloody expensive but bloody good products.
What
is the most important innovation you’ve seen?
As far as the area of the business that
I was involved in it had to be the Fendt Constantly Variable Transmission
(CVT). Both innovative and market leading.
So,
getting back to before your two day ‘gap year’. How far did you go in school,
and did you do any study after leaving?
I completed my Leaving Certificate,
fourth year high school in 1972. I was so dammed good at it they invited me
back again in 1973 to show the next class how not to do it. This was followed
by a Diesel Mechanics Apprenticeship.
What
do like most about your work today?
Working for myself I guess. Also I'm
dealing with people on holidays so they are generally in a good and happy mood.
Seeing guests arrive stressed and exhausted and checking out a few days later
smiling and refreshed from a short break in a beautiful part of the country.
Just
what is it that you are doing today?
My wife Anne and I own and operate
Daylesford Accommodation Escapes. The business is a holiday rental business in
the Daylesford/Hepburn Springs region of Central Victoria. We manage about one
hundred and twenty or so self contained houses, apartments and villas
throughout the area on a commission basis.
Going
back to Ardrossan Motors again, can you remember your first pay packet? How did
you feel when you held that first packet in your hands, and can you remember how
much it was?
I think it was about $26.00. It didn't
stay in my hands all that long though. I think a schooner of beer was about eighty
cents in those days so it was gone well before the weekend was over.
Can
you tell us what you see any challenges the industry will face over the next
few years?
I'm an optimist but I still believe the
next few years will be really tough for nearly all small businesses. I'm well
removed from the farm machinery industry these days so I can't offer much input
there.
And
is there any advice you can give to anyone considering a similar career?
You need to be passionate to be good at
anything you do. If you are in it for the money you've probably picked the
wrong game. If you are in it for the right reasons you will thoroughly enjoy
it.