Walking in the Clouds

Darren Hamilton is a roof plumber, and started his apprenticeship in 1985, working under Peter Gourley and his company - All Suburbs Roofing & Guttering. Darren is now an expert and has worked on many of the roofs that make Sydney’s skyline so iconic. He says that people never look at the roof of a building - they take it for granted, even though this is THE feature that forms the thing that people remember about the city skyline.

Darren has been involved in all the roofs of most of Darling Harbour. He worked on the exhibition centres, shopping malls, Aquarium and National Maritime Museum as his first solo project after his apprenticeship. His next posting was to BHP Billiton & Bluescope Steels’ sites in Port Kembla.

Interestingly, just like the painting of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the rooves at Port Kembla are never finished. Depending on the size of the job, from 5,000 (his everyday jobs) to 660,000 square metres (his largest ever job, at Port Kembla) he may be at a site from one week to 2 years, but after that he usually won’t be back.

After being in the trade for 23 years, Darren now manages and supervises teams of up to 25 people on some of the most complex roofing projects around in Sydney. Darren values his apprentices very very highly and currently has four working for him.

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Walking in the Clouds

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Learning the Ropes

Gordon Institute of TAFE

Life After Sport: Apprenticeships