Rino Cercarelli

Power & Water Corporation

I was born and raised in Darwin and have experienced the wonderful lifestyle and people this town has to offer as well as living through many cyclones including Tracie. I grew up in the suburb of Millner attending Millner primary school and then went onto St Johns college to complete my senior schooling years.

Once I completed my schooling I chose to pursue a career in electrical and won a apprenticeship in electrical fitter/mechanic trade with the old NTEC which has now transformed into what is known as PowerWater. I completed my 4 year apprenticeship and then was successful in gaining a position with the organisation as a fully qualified electrician. It was always a role that I enjoyed as everyday presented new challenges in ensuring that we had a reliable and safe power supply to the people of Darwin. Through the years I became a team leader, foreman and then a supervisor within power networks.

I have also been given the opportunity through the years to run crews in other centres being Katherine and Alice Springs which had their own unique challenges due to the location and differing environmental factors but one thing that remained consistent was the drive that personnel had to keep a safe and reliable power supply to their community.

Some of the major faults that I have been involved in over the years have been , the restoration of the power supply to Darwin river dam when the water supply was about to run out, restoring power to Mandorah when the undersea cable was damaged by a large boat anchor and then getting that cable repaired, quite unique work that you only see once in a lifetime, the restoration of the network after the Casuarina substation incident and the restoration of power to the community after the numerous cyclones ( storms ) that Darwin has experienced over the years.

Evan though these may be looked at as major faults what I took out of these and was proud to be part of is seeing how people banded together in a time of crisis and put the community needs ahead of their own families in getting the power restored in a timely and most of all safe manner with no injuries to the members of the community or staff.

I have seen this organisation progress from having nightly power outages when Stokes Hill power station was operational to delivering a power source is so reliable that it rarely goes off ( black outs ). The power business in an ever evolving and challenging beast that every day brings new challenges which keeps me engaged in what I do and is never boring that is why I have been in this business for so many years. Why change what you love and thrive doing.

In any job you do you experience the ups and downs but just focus on the positives that you have experienced and let go of the negatives. To achieve major outcomes is not done as an individual but working within a team and I have worked with some of the best in the past and could not ask for any better with the current team I have.

The best achievement as a supervisor is being able to mentor/guide those coming through and watching them grow and thrive in this challenging environment that we live in be it work or home after all they are your work family and you spend a lot of time with them. I am grateful for what this career has given my family and I and calling Darwin my home.