This article was written by Ted Raisbeck and published in the June 1980 edition of Celsius.
Image via Celsius Magazine (June 1980)
In 1943, commercial and industrial refrigeration work was classed as essential services and refrigerant and parts and all types of controls were only made available after applications were approved, if at all.
During those tough years petrol was rationed with only small amounts dispensed to approved classes of essential service vehicles with private vehicles receiving next to nothing.
Service vehicles had to be fitted with gigantic gas bags, charcoal burners or shale oil converters with hot boxes. Conditions were so bad for all service trades that after continuous complaints and letters to government departments, a special meeting was set up by Justice Maxwell as the convenor and chairman, with representation of all service trades. From this meeting a handful of refrigeration tradesman decided to form their own association with the aim to achieve better consideration for their problems.
The first meeting was held with Norm Jorgenson, Ted Raisbeck, Jim Ryves, Clarrie Wiggins, Bill Robins, Carl Frankel, Hugh Adler and a few others in attendance. The new association was named The RSCA (Refrigeration Service Contractors Association of NSW) and Norm Jorgenson appointed chairman.
In the early days of formation results were slow coming but were encouraging. New members had to be found and the fight for improvement in conditions for country and city service trades progressed slowly.
The RSCA under the leadership of men such as Norm Jorgenson, Clarrie Wiggins, Bill Robins, Col Goldstein, Neville Young, Stuart Judges, Ken Thompson, John Rice, Jack Wilsher, Jim Mara, Rob Bryant and many others, including myself, continued to obtain improved conditions for the trade and our membership continued to grow at a steady rate.
In 1950 we decided to establish our own publication. One our strongest members, John Rice, volunteered to commence Cold Facts. With his drive and tremendous support from advertisers, we established a newspaper to advance association news and views to our members.
Around this time Keith McClure, Peter Lang, Neal Vagg and Ken De Saxe joined the association and have given many good years of service to the betterment of our industry.
It was in the early 1950s that it was decided to change the constitution of the association to include the air conditioning section of the industry. The association name was changed to RACCA (Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association of NSW). Not long after the formation of RACCA NSW, we decided to spread our wings to cover all states of Australia. John Rice, Jack Wilsher and Stuart Judges were sent by RACCA NSW to other States and RACCA Australia was formed.
By this time RACCA NSW, with the benefit of membership increasing steadily and with finance on a firm footing, were carrying out the business of Federal Council by running the Federal meetings in NSW, using NSW councillors as substitutes for each state.
The other states continued to gather strength of membership and Federal Presidents were appointed each year.
About 10 years ago, a big step was taken with a new association news magazine Celsius replacing Cold Facts. At the same time new councillors had been elected, several are still current officers with the association. Neal Vagg, Doug Staniforth, Bill Gorman, Jim Freeburn, Jim Harris and Ray Harding did much of the ground work in successfully getting Celsius off the ground.
IRASE were invited to use Celsius as their official magazine. They accepted, bringing a closer liaison with the southern and western states. Celsius has continued to grow over the years and we have a news magazine which is well read by industry, about the industry.
RSCA and RACCA have always attempted to achieve hourly rates and changes for the benefit of the trade. We are striving to achieve the licensing of contractors and to ever increase the methods of technical training for the youth entering the trade. Entry by RACCA into the domestic field is likely and prospective ethical domestic refrigeration service contractors are now invited to join the association.
With the drive of our present Council and various sub-committees, the trade and RACCA continue to take steps towards a strong and united industry.