Speech to Owen Hall, by Lynden Vikingur, President
Western Australia’s composites industry was not built by investors or policy frameworks. It was built by people who were too far from the eastern states to wait for instruction, too resourceful to be stopped by the absence of it, and too practical to distinguish between a problem and an opportunity. The physical distance from the eastern states created a manufacturing culture defined by self-reliance. Owen Hall was at the forefront of all of it.
This award recognises Owen’s contribution to the composites industry in Western Australia across more than four decades, spanning fabrication, teaching, technical sales, production management and process development.
Owen began his career at Windrush Yachts, building plugs, moulds and finished products for the company’s surfcat programme. He went on to develop the Storm 10 windsurfer, combining construction knowledge from the surfcat range with a new class of craft. From fabrication, he moved into technical sales with Plastics Limited, then Summit Chemicals and Nuplex, roles through which he carried new products and process knowledge directly to WA fabricators for over two decades.
Running in parallel was a sustained commitment to training. Owen taught boat construction and composites through night school at Wembley Technical College, then joined South Metropolitan TAFE as a lecturer in shipwrighting and composites. He also contributed to the development of the PMB and MEM training qualifications, giving WA composites workers nationally recognised credentials for the first time.
As production manager at Swarbrick and Swarbrick Yachts, he brought those accumulated standards into one of WA’s yacht building operations.
Owen’s most consequential contribution, however, was the introduction of vacuum infusion processing to WA composites manufacturing. He developed that knowledge at Summit Chemicals largely in his own time, then shared it with fabricators across the state, visiting workshops, providing hands-on process assistance and delivering industry workshops, all without commercial arrangement.
The quality of a sector depends on the quality of its knowledge, and for more than forty years Owen Hall has treated the transfer of that knowledge as a professional obligation. It is our privilege to present Owen with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Please join me in congratulating Owen on this well-deserved recognition.
