Cobb station co-ordinator retires after 50 years
Cobb power man Gordon Fletcher, retiring after 50 years in the electricity generating industry. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Champagne glasses were raised at a celebratory dinner for Gordon Fletcher held at the Brigand last Thursday evening.
The big occasion was not only his retirement from the job as production co-ordinator running the Cobb Powerhouse, but 50 continuous years’ working service in the electricity generation and distribution industry.
Even top brass Trustpower managers Mike Kedian (production) and Ian Lees (power stations) flew in to add their good wishes.
Trustpower may be the latest corporate owners of the Cobb hydro, but Gordon started off his electrical apprenticeship back in 1961 when his employer was just called the “State Hydro”, though the name was later changed to the New Zealand Electricity Department (NZED) in 1968. In 1987 this huge government employer was corporatised to form the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand and then later in 1999 was split into three separate SOEs (Mighty River, Genesis and Meridian). The Cobb Dam and powerstation were then sold to Canadian company TransAlta for $84m before being bought back by Trustpower in 2003 for $93m.
Gordon remains philosophical about all the administrative changes during his career.
“I was even laid off with a severance package in 1991, then re-hired soon after. It was a crazy time, but we got through it. We used to joke at work: ‘I wonder who we’ll be working for this week.’ But really, the biggest changes up the Cobb have actually been the implementation of all the remote control systems.”
Once the Cobb Dam, road, pipeline and powerhouse and the substations at Upper Takaka and Motupipi used to employ around 32 people, some of whom were rostered around the clock to keep it all going 24/7. Until 1987 the place still had a resident roadman and dam-keeper. The station is now run by only four staff who work from 8am to 4.30pm with paged callouts after hours if something goes down. Explains Gordon: “Our work not only includes keeping the six generators going, but also an eye on the two kilometres of penstocks and tunnel, spillgates, dam galleries, and taking water pressure readings from the dam. Basically the station, along with some 30 others owned by Trustpower around the country, are now all run by one guy in Tauranga who bases many of his decisions on spot pricing in the volatile electricity market.”
You can tell Gordon thinks that all the modern restructuring and electricity pricing is all about a lot of people making money without having to work for it. He was born into a different era. “When I started my hydro electric apprenticeship, you were expected to do training in every aspect of the work, including draughting, testroom, communications, electrical construction, maintenance in power stations and substations, then decide what you wanted to specialise in. I specialised in the testroom division which carried out all the testing and commissioning of the substations in the Nelson, Marlborough and Buller areas, including the Cobb. It was an excellent training ground.”
During Gordon’s apprenticeship (1964) he worked on the Cook Strait power cable project at Fighting Bay near Port Underwood, and in 1966, he took up a job with a private electrical contracting firm in Taumarunui that, among other activities, carried out installation and maintenance on four timber mills. “That was an interesting and steep learning curve” he says. Later in 1968, he moved back to take up a Nelson-based job with NZED, and would frequently be assigned to work at the Cobb Station, staying in either the Rat Trap or the Cobb hostel.
One of the more dramatic incidents in his Cobb job happened in July 2005, after his pager went off at 2.30am one morning, notifying Gordon that communication with the powerhouse was down for some reason.
“Normally two of us go up when we get callouts like this, for both security and technical support, but I thought it was most likely just one of the computers down, so I drove up there myself. When I got there, I immediately noticed one of the side windows was open, the door was ajar and that the little telephone box had been smashed. Inside there was a huge mess, including all the computers tossed around and attacked with a machete. All of a sudden I realised the intruder might still be there. I used my cellphone to raise the alarm but it took half an hour for some backup to arrive. The perpetrator, who had mental health issues, was later tracked down and captured in Upper Takaka.”
In all that travelling up and down the narrow and precarious Cobb Road Gordon was only involved in one accident, and that came a couple of years ago when a police car travelling down from the Cobb ran into his ute a couple of kilometres up from the power station.
“Luckily it wasn’t my fault; the constable just couldn’t stop in time. We all had few quiet laughs over that one.”
Although he was born in Nelson, it’s not all that surprising that Gordon ended up living here, firstly at Rototai, then a move ten years ago with his wife Ann to the Pupu Valley, where they still live today. Gordon’s dad, grandparents and great-grandparents all hailed from Pakawau, and his great-grandmother—Mary Emma Fletcher—is buried in the grave (with grating fence) that can still be plainly seen along the Pakawau to Puponga road.
Gordon’s last day of work up the Cobb will be April 9, just a couple of weeks before he turns 65. “A couple of things I certainly won’t miss are the noise of those generators, and the travelling back and forth. It won’t be a problem finding things to do, especially on our property. I’ve got my ’47 Ford V8 coupe in the shed that I’m in the middle of restoring, not to mention my amateur radio with which I can keep in touch with other operators around the world. I might even have to compete with Ann on the whitebaiting scene.”
He is a member of Pupu Hydro Society and will contribute more of his time there. After a life devoted to maintaining power, Gordon may be ready for retirement, but he doesn’t want to give it all away.
Gerard Hindmarsh
