Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to Voices of Blue Scope, the podcast where we go behind the scenes of Blue Scope to meet the people who create strength every day. I'm your host, Martin Feld. Thank you for joining us. This time on the show, we're featuring an interview by Blue Scope Company historian Craig Whelan with Walter Hruber O M. Walter kindly sat down with Craig at the Inside Industry Visitor Centre to discuss his career with Blue Scope and beyond, which has spanned metallurgy, research, and product and business development. Furthermore, he covered some of the key achievements for which he was recognized with the Medal of the Order of Australia, including her contributions to Australian manufacturing and associated collaboration with government and educational institutions, along with his long-term support of the Slovenian community in Australia. Let's hear

Starting in Steel

SPEAKER_00 1:00

their conversation now.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Walter, congratulations. Thank you very much. You must be super proud of getting this award, absolutely. Like when did you start and what made you come to the well the steel industry and manufacturing in general in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

It basically started with the love of uh, I guess, science. So I still enjoy doing science when I was in high school and whatever, and um we were looking at either chemistry, something in chemistry, and then uh metallurgy popped up as well as an option. And uh, because my dad used to work in the steelworks many, many years ago, I thought that was a pretty good connection and uh I decided to go down that path. Went for an interview, and uh I started in uh 1978 as a baby trainee metallurgist straight out of school.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

I'll just ask you about your dad. Where did your dad did you know much about what your dad did at?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Yeah, dad, dad actually worked at my first department, believe it or not. It was like it was it was meant to happen. He actually worked at number two open hearth. He was actually working on the checkers and um on the floor, so on the front side of the business as opposed to where the tapping of the steel happened at the back end of the furnace.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

So that could have that was a pretty brutal sort of place in its time. I mean hot and dirty and quite confronting, but I but also I know that people really enjoyed working there, right? They had a real connection with it.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Absolutely. Honestly, that was one of the best apartments I've ever had. Uh the guys were fantastic, everybody knew their job, they helped one another. Uh, there was over 900 people then. When I started, there was 22,000 people down here at Port Kembler, so it was a great number. There was people basically buzzing everywhere, and um the guys on the shop floor were tremendous. I came on as um uh trainee, making sure that we put the right grades and whatever on the worksheets for the guys, and then we followed that all day and made sure that all the alloys went in the back the rear end of the furnace and uh made sure that it got tapped correctly and all that sort of stuff. So that was one of the elements, and then basically working out of the production office most of the day. So it was pretty busy and pretty intense. You're right about being hot, and you're certainly right about being um a little bit daunting to start off with because it is everything was on a grand

Research, Distribution and Product Development

SPEAKER_01 3:27

scale.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Be fair to say then, somehow your career took a pretty radical turn because I can remember working with you in research in a completely different part of the business. How did that come about and how did you find your way into that?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Well, one of the great things about Bluescove or BHP back then at that stage was that we had opportunity of going from one department to the to the next to actually find where you want to land at the end of your career or towards where you end your um traineeship. So I did steel making to start off with, I did uh uh quality control over at Flat Products, and I finished up at Customer Services at Central Laboratory. And uh that was an introduction of commercial matters, discussion, any issues, concerns, development, all that sort of stuff in one bag. So that excited me a great deal. And then when I came to the end of that period, I actually had an opportunity of um looking at jumping the fence and going to John Lysarts at that stage, and I went and we started working at research there, and I stayed, I think, three and a half years at research before coming up to Chalora, which is the Blue Scope State Office.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

And you never looked back once you joined Lysarts, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Well, look, Lysarts, I loved Lysarts, it had a great new uniform. We looked sensational back then. Um, so yeah, it was great. It was great. I loved um research and technology. Um the guys there were tremendous. We had great conversations, great group of people that um, you know, were open to conversation and discussion throughout the time that I was there. So it was a very good opportunity for me at that stage.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

Okay, but then you moved to Chalora, but you left the business, am I right or saying, and went to work for someone else? Yeah, yeah. Came back?

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah, well look, what happened was that um Chalora, uh, I went to Chalora in 85 and stayed there, became the uh coordinator looking after um distribution, and then the uh business had a bit of a a change in philosophy. We looked at getting McKenzie's in to come and look at the business to see what rationalization we could do to improve um our costs, and I put my hand up to take an offer and moved on at that stage. So that was 94. I went and joined a company called Sheet Metal Supplies, which is a privately owned company by the McNee family. That was a really terrific period. I was basically their technical manager for that period, and then uh 12 months later, uh a wonderful man by the name of Bob Wilton, who looked after George Ward, which was a part of TubeMakers, asked me if I wanted to become a BDM for them, business development manager, uh, which was a fantastic opportunity for me again because I really enjoyed talking to people, working with people, and more importantly, developing products. Let's face it, you know, we had a lot of opportunity back then, in particular with developing new products, there was a lot of manufacturing going on and a lot of opportunities.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

This is an interesting career because basically you've started off as a steelmaker, gone into research, and then got right at the pointy end of where these steel products end up and how they're used, right at the sort of customer-facing side of the business.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I guess that's where that's where I actually started working with individual businesses and companies. And I think if anybody wants to go down that career path, I can certainly say that I enjoyed that. Uh, you're talking to people that are owners of businesses, that are general managers, that are, you know, the guys on the shop floor that have got problems and you need to solve them, or we had a product that then we need to develop. Um, and back then, again, the relationship I still had with research down at Paul Kemball was fantastic in the sense that you know we had the product application lab down there, we had some tremendous people, very knowledgeable, very creative as well, that actually had that ability to help me develop something with a customer. That was probably one of the periods where you actually feel like you've really contributed to the marketplace. We also back then also did a lot of work with trying to make sure that the sheet metalwork industries was looked after correctly, uh, not only within a supply parameter, but more importantly, uh also government understanding that there are requirements. TAPE colleges knowing that this there's this new technology coming in with new lasers, new turret presses, all this stuff that was coming in. We didn't want the guys to learn just tin snips and bending and folding on pan brakes. We went all the way to make sure with people like Colin Johnson of FJP Manufacturing and people like him to make sure that government that TAFE understood that these are the new requirements, that industry moving forward and everybody else in education and technology had to come with us.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Yeah, interesting. It's so varied compared to someone that maybe has spent their entire career at the steelworks and and been a good iron and steelmaker that you've sort of experienced the whole shebang. The whole range of it in a way.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

And I think that's that's the beauty of uh uh back then, and I hope it's still the same now. Where so if somebody wants to move and progress and have the opportunity of um having doing something different, uh this is the fantastic, I guess, vehicle to to take it and go

Supporting Australian Manufacturing

SPEAKER_01 8:47

with it.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Yeah, and a fantastic industry to do it in, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Absolutely. Look, we we're still very lucky with still Australian manufacturing here. People that understand that having an Australian manufacturer like Blue Scope is is paramount, especially when we had just COVID coming through. There'd be a lot of industry not working if uh we weren't able to supply at that point in time. So uh if you look at what we did that through that period, uh okay, we couldn't supply a thousand tons to you if you wanted a thousand tons, but we gave you 900, so that was pretty good in the sense that we actually supported the industry, supported everybody going through that difficult stage. People recognize that overseas supply isn't what it's meant to be. Uh, there's issues there again with transportation, lead times and all that sort of stuff. And what we made was here. We had a lead time we stuck with. We actually had facilities of cutting and processing of that material here, and we had the technical support because a lot of people, when you buy from overseas, you get you get duck egg,

Recognition for Work in Community and Industry

SPEAKER_01 9:51

nothing.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

Tell me about your community here in the Illawarra, and I guess elsewhere, the Slovenian community. Been recognized in your award for that for that. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how that's come about and what you've been involved with.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Look, I've been involved with them since um, I guess, a child. Uh we started going to with church and then going to uh clubs and um being, you know, doing community cultural events and stuff like that. Every other ethnic group that you have around children would have gone through the same process. I got involved a little bit more heavily involved with the community by trying to get grants for various things. I actually got um given a role by the Slovenian government to actually represent the Slovenians in Australia or in particular New South Wales. So there's three of us, or there was three of us, there's only two now, one in Victoria and one in New South Wales. So we're just trying to make sure that the awareness is if there's any issues in relation to cultural things, the language to maintain language. What we want to do is make sure that our heritage is maintained. Uh, we obviously have become good Australians. We're very proud of that, but I think it's also good to remember where you come from. So, you know, I I think our heritage is is who we are, and I think we've got to maintain that. Yeah, wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Now tell me about getting your reward and receiving your reward and what that meant to you. And I and well, let me start by saying you've got a little pin on your jacket, I notice, and you're sort of required to wear that in a way. So you you are wearing it formally, and what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Well, actually, this is this is a pin that um they they give you part of the um uh Order of Australia uh medal process. It is something that they would like you to uh to wear, and and I I guess this is bringing awareness of of what we do and what we've done in the past. So it's it's something that you use on a if I go out and meet with people, then obviously I'll show the pin. Uh if I go to more formal events, there's also some form more formal sort of attire that you can use as well. So I think it's it's a lovely thing. I mean, I'm very proud of it. I really like to thank everybody that's been involved in this because this is not just uh me doing something, it's a lot of people that have actually supported this. There's a lot of people that have actually been either a part of this, um, I've been either a chairman of something or I've been actually a committee member of something. Um, there's been a lot of nights, uh, you know, so it's these are not during the day of opportunities, they are all in the evening. Uh, like when I was part of the sheet metal work industry association and part of Nash and whatever, we we did lots of stuff that was outside the normal working hours as well.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Not just your job.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, it wasn't just a job, it was actually something that I wanted to do as well. Yeah, and that's the that's it. That's I guess that's also part of the passion behind it all. Um, so I overall I've been very grateful of uh people that have actually again endorsed that uh this is actually something that we've done together, because this is something that I've done not only for me personally, it's something that I've done for my community, the Slovenian community, and also for the um the Australian manufacturing, because I'm very passionate about Australian-made products and very passionate about uh having an industry long into the future.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

Yeah, wonderful. So getting an order of Australia Medal, you actually have an actual medal.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Do you want to show it to us? Can I show you my medal? Absolutely. Yeah, this is um this is something that looks pretty cool actually.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

And you received that from the New South Wales governor.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

New South Wales governor, absolutely. So um, yeah, she was um gracious and wonderful at the same time. We had a lovely chat there for a couple of moments, took a couple of uh photos, and um there was 31 recipients on that day. So um again, uh some wonderful people that you know did medical research and all sorts of things. So they've saved lives, but at least we we delivered steel and stuff like that from our side.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Congratulations once again. Thanks for spending a little bit of time chatting to us there.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

It's my pleasure. Thank you. Good on.

Conclusion

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

We thank Walter for sharing his story on the podcast. To learn more about Walter and any of the topics you just heard, please visit the links and show notes in your browser or podcast app. For example, you'll find a brief video version of this interview on TV Blue Scope, which includes photos of Walter's award ceremony and some supporting industrial footage. It's been a pleasure to have you. Stay tuned for more.