I've always been fascinated by machines... and how they work

Introducing David Jenkins.

Firstly I'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to the land and the traditional families of the Yugambeh region of South East Queensland (the traditional owners of the land where I grew-up). I spent my childhood on a property at Yatala. Now a major industrial hub, Yatala was traditionally know for sugarcane, pies and the rum distillery.

How did I get into the refrigeration industry? 

When I was 15 my father arranged work-experience with his customer (an air-conditioning contractor) during my school holidays. I am thankful for this opportunity to experience what the trade was about. Although I mostly remember travelling around Brisbane to fix ice-cream freezers, and eating as many melting ice-creams as I wanted.

After graduating high school, I secured an apprenticeship with another Refrigeration Contractor, Mr Mike Melenewycz. 

Initially we were contracting for Carrier/Toshiba, as we diagnosed and repaired Split AC failures on behalf of the manufacturers.

During the final years of my apprenticeship, I mostly conducted maintenance and repairs on commercial air conditioning plant for Woolworths supermarkets, BP service stations and Warner Brothers sound studios.

I successfully completed my apprenticeship in November 2008. 

Sadly, Mike's business closed after the GFC. After this I joined a new company as a HVAC Technician at QUT Gardens Point. 

Over the following years, I worked across a wide range of companies and industry-sectors including: 

• All types of air conditioning and mechanical services
• Commercial refrigeration
• Industrial  & process refrigeration 
• Small water chillers (Zip, Billi)
• Cold-rooms, freezer-rooms & blast freezers
• Ice machines
• Building controls and automation
• Chillers
• Cooling towers
• Clean rooms/sterile rooms within Hospital and Pharmaceutical facilities
• Negative-pressure/positive-pressure isolation rooms
• PC2 laboratories
• Data-centre C.R.A.C. systems
• Self-contained refrigerated displays 
• Domestic hot-water heat pumps
• Commercial & industrial heat-pumps
• Supermarket refrigeration & HVAC (including heat recovery)

I value and appreciate the diversity of our industry. Today I still consider myself to be an apprentice, because I must keep learning (and sometimes re-learning) in order to stay relevant with new technology innovations, refrigerants and procedures.

I try to make a difference by implementing best practice (ALWAYS), adopting energy-efficient solutions, and sharing my knowledge and experiences.