Opportunities For Empowering Individuals

Rex was a lot of things to a lot of different people.

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Throughout life, he was a man who was of few words but managed to be liked by all those who crossed paths with him and were friends with many. 

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Life was difficult for him, largely due to being isolated and unsupported throughout 48 years of marriage in the psychiatric caring of his wife, holding family life together as a sole parent for his children, pursuing the demands of his specialist road construction based career, and navigating the turmoil resultant of his military career.

 

He cared deeply for his loved ones and he showed profound mateship for his friends.

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From humble roots of pioneering South Australian families, he was born in July 1949, grew up on a farm in New Residence, a district on the outskirts of Loxton, alongside the Murray River in the Riverland. He played district football and cricket, and was part of the rural youth and a cadet in the RAA (Royal Australian Army). 

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He was called up to the Vietnam War as a Lance Bombadier and later returned to Australia with the offering of promotion and career in the Keswick Barracks, but turned it down for a civillian life.

 

For some time he travelled in a 21 foot caravan travelling the Riverland and South East working as a farm hand and shearer before starting a family, a part time job as projectionist at the local drive in, and entering into the then Highways Department as a road gang labourer. 

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It was this placement in the Highways Department which led to him progressing through technical college to become one of two contract supervisors responsible for the federal governments arterial road upgrade for South Australia between 1983 to 1999. 

 

This meant he was the person solely responsible for designing and laying of the now Dukes Highway we all now know and recognise, the South Eastern Freeway reconstruction to bypass the lethally precarious 'Devil's Elbow' stretch, all of the Adelaide Grand Prix tracks, the freeway turn off upgrades for all of the Adelaide Hills, the South East connector highways between townships, sealing of all the mid north and western plains dirt tracks as well as across the nullaboar, and the widening of all the main corridors and intersections of metro Adelaide.

 

Such is his work, his attention to detail in the construction of the highways offered smooth and resilient road surfaces unmatched by todays crews, who have since patched sections of it or had to expand his work to cater for the modern traveller demands and have not yet been able to match the superior condition of the original foundations. The demands of the job and his level of skill initially went unappreciated and no amount of coaxing from a regretful department was able to lure him back out of his early retirement.

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It wasnt a completely straight forward career for Rex, as it was marred in places where his work requirements meant that as the depot supervisor, he was first on the scene to have to clean up fatal rural vehicle and truck accidents, in times before mobile phones and SES became widespread as a responsive deployment unit; he was the first person police would call to assist them in road clearing and traffic management.

 

During his career, members of his road gang with the Highways Department as well as public commuters entering their work sites during road construction activities, have died through accident and injury in front of him while on their job sites. Road trauma was something Rex had become forced to endure and manage, and road safety for worker and public became a passionate concern.

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As a result, Rex championed road worker safety with the government in the late 80s, early 1990's and had high vis work uniforms become mandatorily introduced and enforced, as well as road signage, zoning perimeter systems and also speed laws introduced to all road workers employment conditions throughout South Australia. Previously workers were wearing civillian clothes, there was no equipment to enforce safety zones, and vehicles were not regulated from significant speed around pedestrians who were working.

 

He ended his career on the completion of the Heysen Tunnel and later retired to focus on health and country living with his grand and great grandchildren in the Lower South East of South Australia.

 

His life consequently was consumed by trauma, stress and anxiety and consequently mental health was a significant focus of his advocacy.​ Rex saw the benefits of creativity as a method of therapy for managing trauma and stress throughout life. It is something he believed in and always encouraged others to explore when they were struggling with mental health or physical chronic health.

 

And so in his legacy, to continue that care and message, the studio has created an studio award for disadvantaged recipients who need opportunities to explore the healing benefits of their creative potential. 

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