In 1963 Peter Rees, then nineteen years of age, started work with the Colonial Gas Company based in Box Hill. Peter worked at one stage for Ollie Clark. John Lott, another well known pipeline personality, was also at Colonial Gas at that time.

Peter worked in the Colonial’s Box Hill works and testing laboratory as a chemist in the days of manufactured gas and was later involved, in both Melbourne and Perth, with the conversion to natural gas. It was at this time, around 1969, that he met and married his wife Suzanne. When Colonial Gas was taken over by the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria Peter moved to the pipelines division headed by Graham Witty. Peter eventually took over the hydrostatic testing unit.

Peter’s first pipeline project was to hydro-test the first two sections of looping of the 30 inch Longford to Dandenong Pipeline in the late 1970s. Peter continued with Gas & Fuel until 1984 when he decided to go into his own hydro-testing business. Hydrostatic Testing Services Pty Ltd was formed with Suzanne looking after the business side from home. After much hard work, Peter and his company were NATA certified and his work then took him far and wide.

Peter worked on pipeline projects in every state and territory of Australia and he was highly regarded for his skills, integrity and capacity for hard work including long hours into the night and early morning – the lot of hydro-testers.

Peter also worked on projects in New Zealand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Papua New Guinea and England. He worked as a contractor, consultant and directly for various companies during this time.

Peter also did offshore testing work in Bass Strait and often worked with Brian Trevena, one of the pioneers of pipeline hydrostatic testing in Australia.

Peter recalls the Kutubu job in PNG where he worked with Jim Reaman. Jim was to work with Peter on a number of projects. Discussing some of the more interesting projects Peter said “Some of the PNG construction work was helicopter work as the terrain was too steep and too rugged to get normal construction machinery in and then when it was built we had to test it. Steep drops introduce many problems into hydro-testing with filling and differences in test pressures. Another interesting job was Hides, which was 9,000 feet above sea level very steep and rugged and helicopters had to be used again.

“I also worked for Tranaco with Keith Potter on the East Java pipeline where it came ashore in Surabaya. It was through rice paddies and up onto freeways.” Peter also found Burma a great place to work with lovely people although there were plenty of guns about. “That was very steep work again.”

Talking about his time in Pakistan Peter said “When I went to Pakistan I always had three bodyguards. Sometimes I would drive, sometimes I wouldn’t – I was driving one night as I was coming up over the bank of this aqueduct, I apologised to my bodyguards in the back as the car was bouncing up and down and I thought I was driving through some very rough ground, but when we got back that night we found there had been a severe earthquake that had wrecked the mud hut villages. So much for the rough ground.”

In 2001, Peter was forced to retire due to health problems. His last job was in England on a pipeline project that Grant Bowley was running for McConnell Dowell. Peter and Suzanne continued to live in Melbourne but also bought a property in Euroa where they raise cattle, even though it has not been easy as Peter then spent six years on dialysis because his kidneys were damaged by a genetic disease called polycystic kidney.

Two years into dialysis Peter and Suzanne were on the way home to from their Euroa property when, after stopping at a roadside café, Peter started complaining about the food making him feel sick. As they got closer to Melbourne Suzanne could see Peter getting worse and feared a heart attack, as the heart is weakened by dialysis. Suzanne said “I tore into the Royal Melbourne Hospital, flew into the casualty and they were terrific. We lost Peter a couple of times that night but each time they were able to bring him back. Two weeks later he had bypass surgery.” The surgery lessened Peter’s chance for a kidney transplant but after a successful defibrillator implant Peter was a candidate for a transplant, but only from a live donor.

The lovely part of this story was that recent medical advances meant that Suzanne, although not originally a match, was now able to donate a kidney to Peter.

However, not long before the transplant was due, Peter was kicked by one of his cattle and unknown to him this caused internal bleeding for some time before he collapsed during dialysis and was rushed to hospital and given a blood transfusion.

Peter and Suzanne were devastated on finding that the blood transfusion had introduced complications, which looked like spoiling the chance of a successful transplant. However after many more tests they were given the OK and the transplant went ahead.

When I interviewed Peter and Suzanne the transplant had been successfully working for twelve months allowing them both to regain a near normal life. They were looking forward to a holiday together. I am sure that all those in the pipeline industry who know Peter and Suzanne will wish these two very special people all the very best for the future together and those who have just read Peter’s story will recognise an amazing man in every sense of the word.