This news photograph shows electroplating teacher, Fred Beringer, with students, the day before his retirement from the Collingwood Technical School, 9 May, 1963. He taught at the school from 1938-1963.

Electroplating became a speciality trade at Collingwood Technical School from 1934. Head of Department, Fred Beringer, made a substantial contribution to the defence and instrumentation industries through his research and experimentation into hard chromium plating.

During the Second World War (1939-1945), success with this relatively new process drew the attention of the Munitions Laboratories in Maribyrnong, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and the Department of Civil Aviation, NSW Railways and the New Zealand government. Under his direction, thousands of gauges used by the Australian Army were reconditioned by students and sent back into service. The Department of Civil Aviation issued Beringer a ‘Ground Engineer’s Licence’ and in 1948, the school was issued a Certificate of Approval to electroplate aircraft parts.

The accompanying article reads: ‘Mr Fred Beringer, who has taught electroplating at Collingwood Technical School for the past twenty-five years, will retire tomorrow after fifty years as a craftsman. Mr Beringer is showing Mario Glessig and Gregory Fox how to plate out impurities, at the school yesterday [1]’.

[1] Fifty Years A Craftsman, The Age, Melbourne, 9 May 1963.