Ryan Matthews is the MTA Institute Apprentice of the Month for March 2023.
The 25-year-old light vehicle apprentice has been working for Tye’s Remote Mechanical in North Queensland since 2021 and according to his MTA Institute trainer Antony Joslin, he displays an attitude that is always positive, he will independently research and apply knowledge, and he is ‘polite, well-presented, and an asset to his employer.’
Based out of a cattle station a few kilometres from Georgetown – a small township of around 400 people located 380km southwest of Cairns – Tye’s Remote Mechanical offers services on a wide range of vehicles and machinery. From cars to trucks, from tractors to bobcats and everything in between, Ryan works with business owner Tye Ryan to keep all manner of vehicles and machinery running. And it’s not just for the residents of Georgetown. Cattle stations dot the region and repairing and maintaining the equipment used by contract mustering crews is part of Tye’s Remote Mechanical’s regular work.
Mustering is, in fact, how Ryan began his working life. Leaving school after completing Year 10, Ryan joined a mustering crew working the Gulf Country and he enjoyed that rugged life enough to stay for five years.
For those that don’t know, mustering crews are usually a group of 8 to 10 people who live and work on cattle station land and, for much of the year, round up cattle, brand calves and sort them for sale. It is a lifestyle Ryan loves, but he always had the desire to complete an apprenticeship – a wish that was spurred on by the fact that a mustering crew needs to maintain the motorbikes, trucks and other machinery they use.
“When we were contract mustering, we had to do 99 per cent of the work on our vehicles,” said Ryan. “We used them every day, so they had to be working.”
Eventually, the opportunity to take on an apprenticeship came along, and Ryan grabbed it.
“I loved the lifestyle of mustering, so I stayed with that for a while,” said Ryan. “But when I was 21, I went and saw some family friends – Martin and Judy Vemeer who ran Atherton Mechanical Services – and they offered me an apprenticeship.”
Fortuitously, Tye Ryan was just about to finish up his own apprenticeship at the shop just as Ryan was starting his.
“I have known Tye since I was about 15,” said Ryan.
“His parents ran a contract mustering crew and we met each other then and had a few bits and pieces to do with each other over the years.
When he finished his apprenticeship, he came out here and set himself up with a workshop. He’d had that going for a couple of years when I started to look to move back here.”
Moving in part to be with his girlfriend, who works on outback stations, and partly to get back to the Georgetown region, Ryan reached out to Tye who took him on as an apprentice.
While Ryan had started his apprenticeship with another training provider, a change in ownership at Atherton Mechanical Services would see him swap over to the MTA Institute. He stayed with the Institute when he moved to Georgetown – something that has proved useful when considering the town’s remote location and that the Institute’s educational model sees the trainer go to the apprentice’s workshop to deliver training.
“Antony coming here is great,” said Ryan. “I can chip away at my own study and know what I need to be looking at and learning and can focus on it. With him coming here, it’s one-on-one and I can ask my own questions and it is a good system.”
With less than a year to go until he qualifies, Ryan has given some thought to what happens next with his career. Not surprisingly, one spent in outback Queensland is likely, with more training on the cards too.
“I would like to get more training and be better with the electrical side of vehicles because that is something that is really sought after out here,” he said.
“I do think about EVs too and would like to do a course and get up to speed on them. But I think I will set myself up as a mobile mechanic and work station-to-station.”
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (April 2023)
17 April 2023
