Ron Johnson’s photography

Ron Johnson has been one of our Alumni members for many years now. He worked in Manufacturing Technology (later Materials Science) in Adelaide for 23 years.

He started work with CSIRO Manufacturing Technology in 1980 as a laboratory craftsman and was later promoted to Technical Officer. He remembers doing an online course through RMIT and CSIRO – one of the first ever to do an online course! He gained a para professional certificate in Mechanical Engineering.

Ron reflects, “I had always planned to retire at 55 years of age and set the world on fire but severe spinal damage put an end to a lot of the things I had planned.”

He is now in a wheelchair a lot of the time but still able to walk short distances thankfully. Since his retirement he has become very keen on photography in a lot of its forms. His favourites things to “shoot” are birds and insects (Macro)

He has had a few different volunteer jobs (photography) since retirement and his current one is as the official photographer for the restoration project of the “City Of Adelaide” clipper ship that is being restored down at Dock 2, Port Adelaide. Ron says, “It’s a marvellous project being done by only volunteers, mostly retired guys like myself.”

“In June last year we moved the ship from a barge in the water to its final resting place on Dock 2. These are just a few of the pics I took. I sent some over to Cometto in Italy, who made the SPMTs (Self Propelled modular transporters) that we used to move the ship. I actually won a photography competition in Europe for the pics I sent. I’ve won a few photo comps over the years but never one I didn’t actually enter!”

If you’d like to get in touch with Ron, and find out more about his photography or the ‘City of Adelaide’ clipper restoration please contact alumni@csiro.au