Biography
Mark Anthony Dellar
Born 5 April 1953 – Moreland, Victoria
Married March 1978
Job title: Technical Officer in Telecommunications
Retired 3 years ago
Family
Mark’s father was Walter Dellar born 1913 in Shepparton. (Sheet metal worker) Mother was Winifred Walsh born 1912 in St Kilda (housewife)
Grandparents: Albert Dellar born 1879 Jamieson. Annie Shelley born 1890 Tallangatta. William Walsh born 1885 Ballarat and Gladys Kolba born 1887 America
Mark’s wife is Joanne who he met on a cruise ship. They have two children: Renee born 1978 and Tim 1984.
Mark is proud of how he and Joanna raised their children. Particularly teaching them the importance of being responsible for their actions.
School
St Fidelis Primary School
Christian Brothers College – St Joseph’s North Melbourne
CBC was a more academic focused school. Mark feels he would have been more satisfied attending a technical school where his interest and abilities lay in hands on tasks.
Early on Mark wanted to be a farmer. His first job after school was in a butchers. He remembers when growing up life moved at a slower pace and that technology was minimal. For example in his street there was only one neighbour with a telephone that everyone used for emergencies.
Work
In 1970 Mark started a 5 year course at PMG training school.
In the 1970’s and 80’s work in communications was easy to come by. Mark was able to move around and learn different tasks as a field technician. Some of these these jobs included
Installing subscriber lines, Installing switching and transmission equipment in telephone exchanges.
In 1990 Mark moved from field work to an office position dealing with telecommunications traffic management. He also left Telstra for a short time to work in in aged care .
Hobbies
Genealogy, music, travel and working on “hands on” projects.
Best Inventions
Computers and electronics, and solar panels
Outlook on life
Biggest decisions – to marry Joanne. Also to change from field work to an office position.
Happy memories : going to his uncle’s farm, children’s milestones and 4WD trips
Life issues – Mark was one year younger than conscription age during the Vietnam War. He finds wars are senseless.
Mark has a spiritual outlook on life rather than religious
He believes it is very important to give back to society.
Since retiring, Mark has been involved with the Eltham Men’s Shed
Rory Martin interviewed Mark Dellar as part of a Eltham High School VCAL project called Stories of my life. October 2016
