Johnson’s Dalby Motor Group service department worker Mark Thompson celebrates 50 years at the business

Starting work at the Dalby business at the age of 15, Mark Thompson says he has seen the car industry change significantly after spending 50 years in the field.

Mark Thompson has celebrated 50 years at Johnsons Dalby

A Dalby man celebrating 50 years at Johnsons’ Motor Group has looked back at his career and the evolution of mechanics over the decades.

Service department worker Mark Thompson celebrated his golden anniversary earlier this month after starting in the role at just 15.

“I started there on the second of January 1975 and it was known as Johnson’s Garage in those days, it has been owned by the Tresillian family for three generations and now we are under the flag of Mitsubishi and Nissan,” he said.

“I started as an apprentice and have done everything in between including being service manager. When I first started my role was to help the older blokes service cars and repair bedford trucks.”

Mr Thompson said he had seen the industry change significantly over five decades.

“We started with very basic cars, the HJ Holden had just come out at the time and that was prior to air conditioners, radios and power steering and now cars have got quite complicated and are full of safety equipment like airbags, anti-lock brake systems and all the good stuff that makes a car safe,” he said.

“A lot of things have changed, when I first started they we were still selling and servicing bedford trucks, but now the truck industry is all huge trucks, no one has those little body trucks anymore.

“Now we are just seeing street cars which are really good products and don’t need as much looking after, before that we had more staff in the workshop, we were forever repairing something, but today’s cars don’t wear out, cars get an annual service but it used to be three times a year.

“We just went with the times, we don't have a lot of repairs on cars these days, there's a lot of electrical stuff in them, but they are very sound and don’t need repairing as much, all this new technology has made it a better world.”

Mr Thompson said he still loved his job and had no plans of stopping anytime soon.

“It’s all different today, we started at 15 where as people these days start at 18, the young people are more educated, they all turn up in their own cars where as we started there with nothing because we were all too young,” he said.

“I’ll finish this year off and see how I go, I’ll just take it year by year, I’m still there for the moment and the young ones keep coming through and we’ve got to help them along a bit.

“I’m just really comfortable there, I came from the local area off a farm while my wife was on a farm the other direction, we married, stayed in town, the kids went to school and the kids and the grandkids are still in town so it was easy to stay in the same job.

“Maybe I’m just too lazy to leave.

“My father is still on a cattle property working full time and he’s 88 years of age so I think that consistency jut runs in the family.”