MOUNT Gambier/Berrin firefighters Duncan Harrington believes there is a strong link between firefighting and industrial design.
Mr Harrington said creative problem solving was applicable to everything in life.
Although he has spent the last decade as a retained, on-call firefighter with the local Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS), Mr Harrington originally grew up in Penola and Dartmoor.
He and his family came to Mount Gambier/Berrin where Mr Harrington attended local schools.
It was straight after school that he secured a fitter and turner apprenticeship with CSR before furthering his studies in Adelaide, graduating from UniSA with a Bachelor of Industrial and Product Design.
Mr Harrington then joined consulting firm Nielsen Design in Sydney to begin his fascinating and diverse domestic and global career.
“Producing everything from kitchen sinks to product packaging, flight console controls, children’s toys to pedestrian crossing button mechanisms, and casino coin machines, it is a very diverse range,” Mr Harrington said.
Following this, he then established his own consultancies in Perth and Melbourne before designing and building the staircase at Batman TAFE and consulted extensively in Asia and Europe.
He said the Toyota business was the most profitable in the world but it was not until 2014 when Mr Harrington returned to Mount Gambier/Berrin to be closer to his parents.
Here, Mr Harrtington secured his job as a firefighter with the MFS which handles between 500 to 600 callouts per year, ranging from alarms and house fires to vehicle accidents and rescues.
“It’s challenging, but an amazing job,” Mr Harrington said.
He also enjoys restoring automotive related vehicles in his home workshop, stating ever since high school he was interested in the hobby.
“Ever since high school I have been restoring cars and motorbikes, playing around and making things for me and my friends while using my experience in industrial design,” he said.
He also occasionally takes his hill climb car out of the workshop for a run but away from the fire station, Mr Harrington enjoys life with his wife Martha.
“She is quite active in the Catholic community and I support her in that outreach, including to new migrants in town and their contribution to it,” he said.
Mr Harrington said he liked being back home in Mount Gambier/Berrin which he believed had a lot of things going for it, particularly in resources including forestry and transport.
“It is just the right size to be big enough, affordable enough to do a diverse range of things,” he said.
“It’s not just a farming town, we do things here which are valuable to the community and it is a good place to be.”
