In 1972 I left school and started a four year apprenticeship as a car and wagon builder at the Clyde and Everleigh Workshops in Sydney, NSW Australia. The first year I was at Clyde and worked mainly on woodworking joints of all kinds all with hand tools. A large emphasis was placed on sharpening all types of hand tools and learning how to use them in the most practical way, no power tools were used. In the second year, apprentices were paired off with an instructor and were set the task of building the timber components of a railway carriage. We worked in conjunction with the other trades that were required eg bogey and steel men, electricians, painters. The carriage we were assigned was called a JHG Guards Van and had a verandah at each end. The third year started at the Everleigh Workshops. This was a massive series of railway workshops at Redfern NSW. Everleigh was the most fascinating place that you could imagine for a wood worker. Rail lines ran through the workshops and on either side of the rail lines you could find any trade and a variety of nationalities. The Governor General's Rail Car, which had been used for the Queen's visit in 1954, was cordoned off in a section between two of the workshops on one side of the rail line near where I was. One day we were allowed to look through the carriage - the interior of that rail car with it's hundreds of beautiful wood carvings would be the biggest influence of my career, but it would take many more years and a variety of other projects in both the timber and metalwork fields before the impact of that carriage tour would come to fruition in my own ideas.