New TasTAFE teacher Chris Wright is an old hand when it comes to Mechanical Services

TasTAFE Mechanical Services teacher Chris Wright at the Water and Energy Trades Centre of Excellence at Clarence Campus.

Chris Wright has spent 5 decades managing, designing, commissioning, balancing and maintaining air-conditioning systems – a rich career that began at the Hobart Technical College and has come full circle, leading him back to TasTAFE to teach.

Chris grew up in Lindisfarne on Hobart’s eastern shore, with a few years at Rosebery on Tasmania’s west coast (“I loved it, but mum hated it – 3 little kids and lot of rain.”). In 1973, beyond finishing the football season and his Year 12 exams, Chris didn’t have any solid plans.

A family connection led to an engineering cadetship at a Hobart air-conditioning and refrigeration company in 1974. Then in early 1975, just as Hobart’s Tasman Bridge collapsed, he began his formal engineering training at Hobart Technical College – which would grow to become TasTAFE in 2013.

Chris spent a lot of time criss-crossing the River Derwent on ferries while the bridge was being rebuilt – but he still cherishes these early TAFE years, which also gave him a taste of teaching.

“They built the new TAFE campus at Claremont, got the industry involved and started up a course in Mechanical Services. Consulting engineers taught hydronics, hydraulics, thermodynamics…all the specific engineering modules. The Head of the Public Works taught me air-conditioning for 3 years. It was brilliant. I’ve still got my certificate on the wall,” Chris said.

“I ended up teaching drafting at Claremont for 2 or 3 years: straight off the drawing board at work and off to night school. That was good fun.”

Chris then clocked up a few years’ experience running projects in the trade, before starting as a Mechanical Services Project Manager at TCM Building Services in 1982. He became a TCM company director in 1987.

Now, in his retirement, Chris is still consulting with TCM, is an active TACA and ARBS Foundation board member – and never one to sit still for very long, he’s also reconnected with TasTAFE.

Chris was heavily involved in the development of the Water and Energy Trades Centre of Excellence at TasTAFE’s Clarence Campus, which opened in 2023 – replacing the Claremont Training Facility where he studied in the 1970s. TCM were the Mechanical Services contractors on the new WET Centre, but Chris also helped secure government funding, was a member of the project Steering Committee, and, leveraging his industry connections, lobbied local suppliers to donate equipment.

“It was just hitting the right people at the right time,” Chris said with typical modesty, “– and it was all for the good of the industry. Reece HVAC, GJ Walker, Belimo, HVAC Supplies, TCM, DegreeC, Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin…they all did their bit. It's not a huge industry here, but it's very tight knit. Everyone knows everyone.”

More recently, Chris has returned to TasTAFE as learner, upskilling so he can formally pass on his knowledge as a teacher.

“It’s hard to get highly skilled teachers in the Mechanical Services field, because they’re all too busy in the game – that’s always been a challenge for TAFE. And I’d always wanted to do it. So, I did my Vocational Trainer Preparation Program in 2023, then the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. And it did push me – I’d never done so many assignments in my life!”

As a newly minted TasTAFE graduate, Chris worked with Bevan Britton, Education Team Leader – Plumbing Trades and Built Environment, to develop and deliver 2 new modules as part of TasTAFE’s Certificate IV in Plumbing & Services (Mechanical Services) course, meeting specific industry needs: ‘Design a Heating and Cooling System’ and ‘Commissioning an Air and Water System’.

“These are elements of HVAC & R that I've been doing all my working life – so I thought it was something I could do to help the industry. Back in the ‘70s the industry helped me, so it was a chance to give something back,” Chris said.

After successful pilot programs of the new modules in mid-2025, Chris is looking forward to the next enrolment intake and seeing how the learners collaborate.

“I've always been big on industry associations. We might get a class of 7, and a couple of them might know each other – but after a few days they realise that even though they’re coming from opposition companies, there's a commonality in what they do, the issues they face and the training that they need,” Chris said.

“I benefit from being around the learners, too. I can show them the big picture: this is why you do this, and this is why you do that – tips that I've learned over 50 years. But I learn something new from them every day, too.”