Visiting Jumper: Sydney and later Queensland jumper who came to visit the Centre whenever she could.

Leonie was a style and accuracy competitor who represented Australia at Kazanlak, Bulgaria 1980 and Bled, Yugoslavia 1990.   She was Team Manager for the Australian RW Team at Chateauroux, France 1979 and was an FAI Judge at ? WPC 19??.

Leonie loved life and lived it to the full.   She loved fast cars, water sports and spent most of her weekends instructing student parachutists.

After breaking up with her second husband, she contracted a wasting disease and succumbed to it after a short illness.

He was a member of the team "Aces High" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

Anne was involved in the organisation of Australian Parachute Team fund raising events at the Centre.    

She was Secretary of the Australian Parachute Federation for some years in its formative stages.    Working part time in the office when it was on Claude's property in Doveton, then from her home in Springvale and for some time when the office was on the Moorabbin Airfield. 

Anne died of natural causes in 19??

Jack had a malfunction on his Dominator parachute at Pakenham and did not carry out an emergency procedure, the canopy opened at about 300ft of its own accord.   This incident made him as well known as his wife, who was the paid secretary of the APF.

Jack spent the last years of his life in an upmarket aged facility in Dandenong where he was regularly visited by Ray Williams and occasionally by Claude Gillard.   He passed away in 2004.

Louis jumped in the NSW Team at the 1st Australian Championships at Pakenham in 1960.   He was a key figure in the early development of the Australian Parachute Federation and he was Treasurer 1963/64 but his employment took him overseas to England for a number of years.

On his return he took up where he had left off and was APF Vice President for 1970/71.   He was particularly active in raising funds for Australian Parachute Teams.   His position as Secretary of Gilbey's Australia opened many doors as did his relationship with Henk Rutgers, a prominent Sydney lawyer.

Louis was Team Leader for the Australian Team at the 8th World Championships in Leipzig, East Germany and again at the 1st World Championships of Relative Work at Warendorf, West Germany in 1975.                                              More

Peter passed away in 2005.

Russell first jumped at Labertouche on November 27th 1966.   His parachuting development paralleled that of his close friend Tony Hillman.  he became one of Hillman's Heroes as can be seen by the T-Shirt he was wearing in the photo at left.  

He jumped regularly and became an Instructor at the centre until his trade took him off to distant dropzones and he departed to the north.

He borrowed Claude's copy of Captain Cook's logs, if you see him ask him to send it back.

A regular jumper at the Centre, he enjoyed taking on difficult ventures; like jumping with Fred Gungle into the Longwarry Pub on Saturday nights.

Julian was one of the Hungarian parachutists who arrived in Australia after the anti communist Hungarian uprising in 195?

The now photo was taken at the 2004 National Championships.

Julian was recently diagnosed suffering from cancer and he passed away in hospital on 26th April 2004.

Sandy Kane

He competed in two Australian Championships in 4-Way Sequential Events.   

Colin retired from skydiving in the late 70's, married in 1980 and lives in Mount Eliza with his wife Sue and daughter Anna. His son Nicholas is at Melbourne University.

Visiting Jumper: Bill Kenny was Chief Instructor of Commando Skydivers based at Pakenham.    His first jump at Labertouche was on the 24th October 1965.  His jumping at the Centre was mostly at boogies, competitions, and courtesy visits.

He jumped at the Centre as a member of the 10-Man Speed Star Team "The Valley Rats" in the 2nd Australian Relative Work Championships (73/74)

Billy was a committed competition jumper and probably one of the best known Victorian jumpers.   He won the gold medal in the World Masters Freefall Style Event in 198?

He had a rapport with the media that did not always work to his advantage.   Bill took sick leave from his job to jump in the Australian Championships in Rockingham, Western Australia.   His photograph appeared on the front page of a Melbourne newspaper reaching for the disc on landing.   He got a telegram from the boss; "Congratulations on your success in the competition, don't bother reporting to work upon your return".

Billy won the Silver medal in the Parachuting Style Event at the World Masters Games in 199?

A true Australian Skydiving Identity.                            

Most older jumpers can remember seeing Tommy on dropzones with his dad.    He was able to carry out emergency procedures while he was still a toddler.

Tommy jumped regularly on relative work loads at the Centre during 1980/81.

Tommy joined the navy but carried on his fathers love of sport parachuting.   He has more than 1,000 jumps and lives in Western Australia.

An active member of Southern Cross Skydivers, Andrew first jumped at Labertouche on the 7th of February 1971 from VH-AVV and he last jumped at the Centre on the 17th of February 1980 from VH-AGF nine years later.

He was a tireless worker for both the Club and the APF.

One of skydiving's gentlemen, he has returned to work in banking and lives in Sydney with his wife and son.

Brian is a keen pistol shooter and was Australian Champion six times in two events, was winner of the US National Championships and a World Championship.

He won the Australian IPSC (move through town shooting the baddies and not the goodies) three years in succession.

One of parachuting's gentlemen.

Visiting Jumper: Col came to compete in the Labertouche Cup in 1968 and later that year to jump the Pilatus Porter that was available every third weekend while the Porter was back in Australia from the Australian Antarctic Expedition.

Col represented Australia at 7th World Parachuting Championships, Leutkirch, Germany 1964, the 8th World Championships, Leipzig, East Germany 1966, the 9th World Championships and Graz, Austria 1968.

At the 9th World Parachuting Championships hosted in Graz, Austria, Colin tied for first place in Individual Accuracy but lost the jump-off and so won the silver medal.  Australia's first WPC medal.

The APF's premier award, the title Master of Sport Parachuting was created to honour Colin's achievement.   To put it in perspective, Colin was a weekend jumper from a country where parachuting was a young sport competing against jumpers who spent years of their lives as full time jumpers.  it was a remarkable achievement.

Col now lives on the Sunshine Coast, a place that attracts many older jumpers as a place of retirement.

Victor    Kleinschuster U

Vic was an expert mechanic and worked exclusively on Mercedes and Jaguar cars.

He became an Australian Champion Aerobatics Pilot and was killed when the aircraft he was flying collided with another aircraft over Port Phillip Bay

Peter was a core member of "Rapid Transit", winning Bronze medals in the 4-Way Event of the 3rd World Parachuting Championships in Relative Work, Chateauroux, France  1979.  
Gold in the 1979 and 1980 Australian Championships, Silver in the 1981 Australian Championships and Bronze in the 1978 Australian Championships.   He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

He retired from jumping in 1986 to complete his education, marry Susan and raise a family.   Commenced jumping again with Commando Skydivers in 1999 and took and interest in instructing and administration.   He is currently a Board Member and Treasurer of Commando Skydivers.

He is an active instructor with ratings in AFF, Tandem and Static Line and is writing his thesis for the Senior Instructor Rating.

Jim was heavily involved in the spread of the Accelerated Free Fall training method throughout Australia.   

Paul was one of the original group of experienced Hungarian jumpers who came to Labertouche when it opened in 1965.   

Visiting American jumper:   First jumped at Labertouche on September 28th 1968.

Trudi married Mike Timewell on ?? they made many relative work jumps together at the Centre, their apartment was the venue for many jumper oriented social occasions.   Somewhere along the line they split and later Trudi married Rod Wilson.    

Trudi and Rod went to live in New Zealand and became citrus orchardists.   Rod purchased a yacht and now divides his time between New Zealand and Queensland.

He was Australian Style Champion 1964.

He was also a member of the 10 Man Speed Star Team "Ramblers Raiders" and the 4-Way Team "Ramblers" in the 2nd Australian Relative Work Championships 1974.

He was a member of the team "Wings of Lemon" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

The last time we had contact with Rocky was in June 2004 at the Toogoolawah 25th Anniversary Boogie.  Photo left.

He now lives on Bribie Island, Queensland, not far from Roy Taylor.   They play golf together.

He w as a member of the team "Aces High" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

He was a confident parachutist, always ready to advance to the edge of the envelope.   Enthusiastic about all things airborne, he was a very popular identity at the centre.

Russell established a successful aviation and parachuting business in Ceres (near Geelong) and operated there for many years.

He was a keen skier and regularly flew to the snow fields for both business and pleasure.   Tragically, he lost his life on a flight to Mount Hotham when he encountered bad weather and crashed.    

His smiling face and happy disposition made him a popular figure on and off the dropzone.   Bobbie later suffered a bad accident in England that left him an invalid.

He migrated to Labertouche as an Instructor and was active until he took up flying and became a successful commercial pilot.

Some years ago he returned to Papua/New Guinea and built a commercial aviation company.   Recently, he experienced a heart attack while flying and was fatal injured when the aircraft crashed on landing.   

Later in 197? Robin transferred to the Australian Army and took command of the Williamtown, NSW, Parachute Training School.  He was instrumental in bringing about a much closer rapport between military and civilian parachuting.   It was during his time that the APF obtained approval to send civilian instructors to military training courses for indoctrination.

Claude Gillard and Colin Holt were invited to Williamtown as the first of these liaison exercises and the mutually beneficial practice continues until the present.

Jill was a successful competition jumper and represented Australia at the 11th World Parachuting Championships at Thalequah, USA 

She married Jock Moir and spent some years in Canada as a Pathologist, before returning to Australia to raise a family.

Jock and Jill now live in country Victoria, Jock is retired from management at Alcoa in Portland and Jill is in charge of the Hamilton and Horsham Pathology Labs.

A keen accuracy jumper, Art jumped in the Labertouche Spectacular in May 1966.   A member of 3 RAR Parachute Club, Art left for Vietnam.  Upon his return he became a Centre Instructor.

Visiting Jumper:  A member of Rockingham Skydivers, Dave made his 127th jump at Labertouche on 09/12/1965 to start his training with the West Australian team practicing for the Port Pirie Nationals.    

He made the Australian Team at Port Pirie and represented Australia in the 8th World Parachuting Championships at Leipzig, East Germany and after some years off from the sport, came back and again represented Australia at the 24th World Championships in Vsar, Croatia in 1998.

Visiting Jumper:   First jumped at Labertouche on May 28th 1967 We're not sure if it is THE Lomax from New Zealand.

Visiting Jumper:   First jumped at Labertouche on March 27th 1967

Visiting Sydney Jumper:  One of the principles of Sydney Skydivers, John first jumped at Labertouche on the 26th of December 1966.

He was a member of the team "Thrukbawn" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championships 10-Man Star Event (1975/76).

He stayed on and became a Centre instructor.

Visiting New South Wales jumper:  Roy first jumped at Labertouche on December 22nd 1975.   He attended National competitions at the Centre and would jump at Labertouche whenever a drilling contract brought him into the area.

Roy was a competition jumper and represented Australia at the 15th World Championships in Kazanlak, Bulgaria in 1980.

His adventures while jumping at Labertouche were mainly in the Longwarry Pub and on the way to and from that establishment.

Roy was injured in a car accident in 198? and as a result has been relegated to a wheel chair since then.   In 19?? he jumped at ? and has made ? jumps since becoming a paraplegic.

He has attended a number of WPCs in his wheel chair, including Lucenc, Czechoslovakia 1982 and Vichy, France 1984.

In Lucenc, the Australian Team carried him up three flights of stairs in his wheel chair to the disco, where he took to the dance floor all night gyrating to the music balancing on two wheels.   While in Lucenc, he wangled a jump from a corporate turbo prop but someone in hierarchy chickened out and stopped it.

Visiting Newcastle Jumper:   Steve first jumped at Labertouche on December 24th 1966 and again on December 12th 1968.  On both occasions to contest a national championship.

She went to the USA to follow the RW jump scene and became a manifest tart at Elsinore, California.

Eventually she went back home to New Guinea to play her part in the family business.   Last contact with Leslie was on the airport at New York.  She was on a buying trip for the business in New Guinea.  

Hugh first jumped at Labertouche on the 27th December 1966.   He was three times New Zealand style and accuracy champion.    He came to Australia with his wife Ruth and worked and lived at Labertouche for some time.

Hugh was an excellent competition jumper and turned low 9 seconds clean continually.   Not so impressive today but great back then.

Hugh threw himself into Australian skydiving with a vengeance and was busy transferring his NZ qualifications to Australian ratings when something went wrong with the marriage and he flew back to New Zealand.

Ruth arrived in Australia from New Zealand with her husband Hugh.   After Hugh went back to New Zealand, Ruth stayed on and earned her Jumpmaster Rating.

The APF had an office at the rear of Royal Victorian Aero Club and Ruth took on the position of APF Office Manager there.  

After moving to Corowa, she married again and became a glider pilot.   Last heard of Ruth had earned her FAI Silver "C" gliding certificate,

Danny's first jump was made at Labertouche on 13/11/1982.

He and Dave Waterson operated ??? at Corowa for some time before Ian established The Parachute School at Puckapunyal.   He later moved that operation to Euroa and now operates also at Torquay, south of Geelong.

Ian has not operated within the APF System since ???  

Ken made his first jump with Independent Skydivers at Malalla, South Australia on the 27th August 1966.   His first jump at Labertouche was on 22/10/1966.

Posted to Victoria by the RAAF, he became a Jumpmaster with the Centre until he moved to Jakarta to work with the Australian Embassy there.   When he returned to Australia he was posted to Western Australia and settled there to raise his family.

On retiring from the RAAF and working in immigration related areas for a while, he and his wife Joy sold up and bought a motor-home and toured Australia for ? years.   During that time, he spent considerable time running the National Sport Aviation Centre while Claude and his wife Candy took an extended second honeymoon in Europe and Africa.

A glider pilot and recreational skydiver, he spends some of his time prospecting for gold.   An RAAF linguist, he speaks fluent Indonesian and is a walking encyclopedia.

Ken is living in Perth, Western Australia and still jumps occasionally. 

Frank's first jump was with Monash University Skydivers at Labertouche on the 25th of November 1971 and he was issued with APF "A" Certificate No. 739 on the 1st of November 1972.

Frank was a member of the 4-Way Team "Super Bottle Gobble Birds" in the 2nd Australian Relative Work Championships 1974.

Frank was a regular jumper at the Centre and married another Labertouche jumper, Dianne Grubb in 197?

Ian's first jump was made at Labertouche on May 29th 1977.

Peefer, as he was better known in skydiving circles was one of the many Victorian police who jumped at Labertouche. 

He and Colin Smith started jumping together and progressed at about the same rate.   Later when Ian left the police force, he worked as a topography cameraman and jumped wherever his work took him.

He and Colin were seconded to manage security at the 2nd World Championships in Relative Work, which were held at Gatton Agricultural College, Queensland.

His work took him to Thailand and he married to a lovely Thai lady.

We have lost touch with him, so if you know where is, let him know that we would like to hear from him.

Visiting Jumper: David came to Labertouche with the Ramblers team to train for the 6th Australian Championships.   Bob Morrison was the team leader and Phil Whatmore was the other member of the team.   All of them won a place on the Australian Parachute Team and the photo on the left was taken at Graz, Austria where the team trained prior to the world meet in Bled, Yugoslavia.

He was the leader of the Gold Medal winning team "Ramblers Raiders" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

Always pushing the edge of the envelope, David took to canopy formation and he also played a major role in hosting the 1st World Championships in Canopy Formation Parachuting at Toogoolawah, Queensland.

He was a member of the Australian Canopy Formation team at the 2nd WPC in Vichy, France 1988 (Silver medals)

He openly declares that a lot of his motivation to build the Ramblers Dropzone at Toogoolawah came from his involvement at Labertouche and his discussions with Claude about his dream of owning the land and building a resort style dropzone.

His enthusiasm for our sport knows no bounds and his determination to get things done regardless of the obstacles has seen him realise most of his dreams.    Everybody who was at the Centre when he was there can remember good times in his company.

Colin McEwan

1969

He returned the next weekend and made four more jumps before finding that the TV industry did not encourage its celebrities to participate in high risk sports.

Visiting Jumper: Annie was a Sydney jumper and first jumped at Labertouche on the 30/12/1966.   Another skydiving legend, she spent a short time jumping at Labertouche during her varied and adventurous life.   Annie jumped in many countries and settled for a while in London, jumping at Duck End Farm and Peterborough.

Daughter of an Australian artist, she was a fine artist herself and often surprised officialdom with her true to life artistic talents.

Annie excelled at the Cardinal Puff drinking game and is probably the only Australian woman to make the rank of Pope.

She represented Australia at the 16th World Championships at Lucenec, Czechoslovakia in 1982

She became a British Parachuting Champion, married Ian Swinbourne and came back to Australia to live in Queensland.

He was a member of the Australian Team at the 1st World Cup of Relative Work at Fort Bragg, North Carolina USA in 1973.   He travelled with the team to San Francisco but was dropped from the team before the team started to practice at Pope Valley, California.   After returning to Australia, he went back to arrive as a spectator at the World Cup.

He was a member of the team "Metrognome" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championships 10-Man Star Event (1975/76).

Dingus later went to England and ran a parachute centre there for some years before coming back to Australia and establishing the National Parachute Centre at Corowa Aerodrome on the NSW/Victoria border.   He had an accident driving his Porsche and became a paraplegic but continued to manage the centre until 19??.

Immigrating from New Zealand, Alec jumped at Labertouche for a long time.   He was a rigger at the Centre and became President of Southern Cross Skydivers.

He and Lennie Hunter hitch-hiked to Western Australia.    They stopped in Kalgoorlie to look at the mines, went for a drink in a pub and took all their baggage with them.   A local recognised the gear bags and asked if they were jumpers.   It transpired that there was a group in Kalgoorlie who had bought parachutes from an American magazine advertisement and had been jumping at the local airfield without any instruction other than what they read in books.

Rick spent two years hitch-hiking around the world including 6 months in a Kibbutz. 

He jumped with the Australian Team while they were practicing at Lille in France and at the 7th World Championships in Leutkirch, Germany.    He now lives in Dandenong, Victoria.

Visitng Pakenham Jumper:   A member of the Victorian Parachute Club, Jan's first jump at Labertouche was on the 24/10/1965.

A boxer turned television star, Gus jumped at the Centre as often as his television work would allow him.

He worked alongside Paul Hogan in �Crocodile Dundee 2�, �Lightning Jack� and the �Paul Hogan Show�. Other notable movie appearances include �Doing Time for Patsy Cline�, �The Man from Snowy River� and �The Blue Lagoon�. He has also been seen in episodes of the television series �Homicide�, �Division 4�, �Matlock Police�, �Mission Impossible�, 44 episodes of, �The New Adventures of Flipper�, �All Together Now�, �Blue Heelers� and 39 episodes of �Five Mile Creek�. During all of this he was also seen on �World of Sport� on Channel 7 for 13 years.

Visiting Pakenham Jumper: A member of the Victorian Parachute Club, John first jumped at the Centre on the 30th January 1967 in the Labertouche Cup.

He also jumped as a member of the 10-Man Speed Star Team "Star Pact" in the 2nd Australian Relative Work Championships (73/74) at the Centre.

Visiting Jumper:  David first jumped at Labertouche on the 24th of October 1965.   Most of his attendance after that was to jump at competitions or other official events. 

He was a key figure in the development of Commando Skydivers.   A top competition parachutist who represented Australia at World Championships.  He competed at all competition levels; State, National and International and took part in 31 Classic Events as a competitor, before going on to be a world class Meet Director.

His ability as a championship "Meet Director" is well known. He ran the 2nd World Championships in Relative Work at Laws, Queensland in a professional and efficient manner and at the local level made it easier to conduct national championships by devising an aircraft control system using a metal board and magnetic backed call sign tabs to keep track of each aircraft's altitude and whereabouts.   This may not seem to be important if you are not aware that the last Australian National Championships to use small aircraft had fifteen aircraft participating and aircraft separation was a serious safety concern.

Dave is one of Australian skydiving's quiet achievers.      more

He w as a member of the team "Aces High" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

Foundation member. Jock first jump was at Pakenham in 1962.  He was a prominent competition jumper and won meets in Germany and England.  His first jump at Labertouche was on the 8th of October 1967.    He was Team Leader of Australian Teams at the World Championships in Graz 1968 and Tahlequah 1970.    He stayed on overseas and became a successful design engineer.

During his stay in England he won the British Parachuting Championships.   The organisers tried to classify him in the "Foreign and Other" event but Jock produced his British passport and was awarded the trophy.

Jock's debating skills made for a good deal of entertainment at the Gatehouse dinner table.   Jock and Claude crossed debating swords regularly and if Jim Cox was there his skilled repartee added spice to the debates.   If everything was quite at the table, Jock would ask "Isn't there something we can argue about?".  A short discussion about what would be a lively enough subject would ensue and then it was "on for young and old".    Jock took great delight in being able to bait Claude into an emotional defence of any subject.

He married Jill Leyton of Monash University Skydiving Club and they lived in Canada for some years before returning to Australia.

Jock is now retired to a grain and deer farm in Victoria and is president of the Deer Industry Association of Australia.

Founding partner: Bill was co-founder of Labertouche Sport Parachute Centre.  He had an ambitious nature and a determination to achieve goals.  His three month period training with the United States Army Parachute Team gave him access to the then state of the art competition training methods and he used them to great effect in the early development of the Centre.   Bill held APF Instructor Rating No. 17 and Chief Instructor No. 10 in 1962.   He was heavily involved with Claude in the early reformation of the Australian Parachute Federation.

He was a member of the Australian Parachute Team at the 6th and 7th World Parachuting Championships at Orange, Mass. USA 1962 and Leutkirch, Germany 1964.

His involvement with the Centre was cut short  in (Month, Year?) by his volunteer tour of duty in Vietnam.    On his return from Vietnam he decided to accept an offer from the army to confirm his majority and command the Parachute Training School at Williamtown, NSW.    He was in the process of winding up his involvement in the Centre when he tragically died in a car accident on his way back to barracks from a Queensland dropzone.

Bill was a great loss to both military parachuting and sport parachuting.   As a Citizen's Military Forces Lieutenant he carried out more training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, with the US Army's Golden Knights then any other serving Australian officer at that time.   

Tug was a partner in VH-AGF "Swampy" and was a core jumper and pilot at the Centre until he married and decided to sail his yacht around the world.  He and Diane circumnavigated the globe and were half way around the second time before settling down in Clearwater, Florida, USA, where Tug's computer skills were in demand.

Tug attended the World Parachuting Championships in Hungary in support of the Australian Team and was the life of the party at the country banquet put on by the team's sponsor in an effort to have the team imbibe too much.    The team's host, an army general, was a little startled but enjoyed the spectacular act.

The APF membership was on Tug's computer bureau discs until the so called Mini-Computer came along and the APF moved to in house computing.

He jumped as a member of the 10-Man Speed Star Team "Star Pact" in the 2nd Australian Relative Work Championships (73/74) at the Centre.

He was a member of the team "Aces High" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

He w as a member of the team "Wings of Lemon" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

The team was successful and Bob, Dave McEvoy and Phil Whatmore all won a place on the Australian Team.

Bob ran a strict training program for Classic Event competitors at Ramblers dropzone with excellent results.  He had the ability to analyse the teams performance and insist on continual practice to iron out any strategies or faults.

He moved to the USA to further his competition coaching skills but tragically on a brief trip home to visit family and friends, he was killed in a car accident on his way home from a party with jumpers. Bob's demise was a sad blow for Australian skydiving.

He was a regular jumper at the Centre for a year or two.

On one jump he caught his finger in the Blue Goose hand grip and left the last joint in the handle.

Andy was ACT Novice Accuracy Champion in 1978, won the Accuracy Silver Medal in the 1992 Australian Nationals, represented Australia at the 1994 World Championships in Chengdu, China and is a member of the Australian Team to the 2006 Classic World Championships to be held in Russia.

He was a member of "Wally Wombat's Warriors 4-Way Team at the 1980 Australian Nationals and Co-organiser of the 1995 and 1996 Classic Events Nationals at Redcourt, Victoria.

Married with three kids, his son Tom did a tandem on Australia Day into Albert Park with illustrious company: Janine and Ken Hills, Terry Murphy, Gavin Cooke, John Winkler and Craig Trimble.  Dave Boulter was the Tandem Master.

One of sport parachuting's gentleman jumpers.

He jumped as a member of the 10-Man Speed Star Team "Leroy Brown" in the 2nd Relative Work Championships (73/74)

Visiting Sydney Jumper: Gary made his first jump at Wilton in August 1970.  He moved around on the east coast before migrating to Tasmania in 1986.   He first jumped at Labertouche in December 1975/76 as a member of the Gold Medal winning team "Ramblers Raiders" in the 4th Australian Relative Work Championship 10-Man Star Event. (1975/76)

Gary was Chief Instructor - Western Districts Skydivers (NSW) 1981/1983, Operations Manager - NSW Parachute School 1983/86, Chief Instructor - Island Skydivers 1986/93 and was APF Director - Instructors 1991 to 1998.   He was APF Director - Safety 1998 to 2000.

Gary was Head of Delegation for Australian Parachute Teams to Thailand and Taiwan in 1982.   He was Safety Officer at the World Skydiving Championships at Corowa, NSW in 1999.

He was APF Delegate to two IPC International Technical Congress - Budapest 1991 and Helsinki 1993. 

He is now part owner of a recreational scuba diving
centre at Eaglehawk Neck 75km south east of Hobart, Tasmania and has been very active in that field as well as keeping up with a heavy parachuting administrative role over the years.

One of skydiving's hard working and dedicated volunteers.

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