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From
his first jump as a student at Labertouche, Tony became an enthusiastic
skydiver. He was a CMF soldier and Public Servant.
For some time he worked with Bill Molloy at the Department of Defence.
He
was heavily involved in ab initio training at the Centre and trained a large
number of first jumpers.
As Claude spent more and more time away from the Centre on Parachute
Federation activities, Tony was more involved in the running of the
drop zone, he was in charge of ab intio training with Steve Filak in
charge of continuation training and rigging.
Tony
worked in publishing and so he was a great help to Claude in writing the
Labertouche Instructor Manual. He conducted the first official APF Instructor
Course at Labertouche in 1967. He was the APF Director
Instructors 1973 and 1974 and made significant improvements to the APF Instructor
System.
He
conducted the first full time APF Instructor Course at the Centre in (Month/Year).
Some of the students on that course went on to play a significant role in the
development of sport parachuting. Among them were Ray Williams and ?
He
also conducted the second APF Instructor Conference. This conference was attended by senior officers of the Department of Civil
Aviation and had a significant influence on the Department's attitude to sport
parachuting. Tony held the conference in an up-market Melbourne hotel/conference facility and the professional manner in which it was conducted
impressed the DCA officers.
He
worked on a number of television commercials with skydiving themes and was
always ready to throw himself into whatever was happening at Labertouche.
As
a member of the Golden Eagles, Tony travelled the south eastern states of
Australia jumping into tight dropzones and revelling in the high life that went
with being a member of a celebrity team.
Tony
enjoyed the skydivers' life style but always found time to spend with his
family. Although he never married and was childless, he spent time
with his siblings and their children.
He was very proud of having trained Ron Barassi and we are sure that
he would have liked the picture below to accompany his description.
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