The College recently reconnected with Stef Carli (SPC 1975-78, PY1980) whose life has returned full circle to the world of engineering, but has included stints as a country police officer as well as peacekeeper to the Solomon islands and East Timor. Stef shares his story with us.
“I left St Pat’s after completing Year 10 to commence an apprenticeship with my father at Carli Engineering. After five years I left and started working as a rigger in NSW before returning and joining Victoria Police in 1988.
I worked several stations and areas before becoming the Officer in Charge of Linton Police in 1995 where I remained until I was seconded to the Australian Federal Police in 2005 as part of the International Deployment Group. After training in Canberra, I was deployed as a Peacekeeper on Operation RAMSI to the Solomon Islands. I worked several remote locations for periods of four months at a time until I was transferred to East Timor in June 2006 after the local military shot up the police force in the Nation’s capital of Dili.
We landed on the ground with the country being under Marshall law and we became part of the UN Peacekeeping under Operation Serene with the Australian Military.
I remained in ET until November until being requested to return to Malaita in the Solomon Islands to resolve a conflict issue that had arisen. I returned there until the end of January 2007 after completing two years as a Peacekeeper.
I returned back to Victoria Police in February 2007 in the position of an Operational Safety Tactical Training Officer where I worked training police until 2015. At this point in time I had the offer from my brother to buy a 50% share in the family business which had grown dramatically over the years.
After 28 years policing, I was more than happy to exit the position and take up as a director of the company with my brother. I have been working there for the past five years.
The business is Ballarat based and we manufacture and fit custom-built truck bodies to new and used vehicles. In addition to this we have our own line of heavy vehicle towbars and equipment which we now supply country wide. Our business services over 30 councils around Victoria building their vehicles and conducting crane services etc.
I have only one hobby or passion in life and that is racing. I currently have 36 in my collection ranging from small dirt bikes up to 1800cc road bikes. I have raced since my teens in motorcross, enduro, drag racing, road racing and two years ago I started road racing sidecars. Our business sponsors my racing which is an expensive hobby.
In addition to that I also race a prolite buggy in offroad with another friend who owns an engineering firm locally. Our aim is to enter Finke in 2022. This class is a little too expensive to handle on my own.
I still remember some good times from St Pat’s and I still keep in contact with my old music teacher Daryl Honeyman, who is in his 70’s now. It would be good to catch up with some of the guys as I have had little contact with anyone since leaving school.
Just a bit of an insight of what I’ve been up to.”
