ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO        The Weekly Advertiser August 18 2005 by Peter Miller

 Peter Carthew, one of a select band responsible for changing the face of Ararat’s commerce, is easing off the pedal.  He talks with Peter Miller about Ararat, war and his climb from humble beginnings in this exclusive two part interview.

A new era is dawning at Ararat’s biggest industry and an important one is beginning to close. Co-founder of AME Systems Peter Carthew has announced the assigning of the General Management role of his company as part of an ongoing succession plan. Peter will continue on as Managing Director with a focus on future opportunities and cultural development. He has handed the reins to his son Christian who has worked as the general development manager at the company for the past five years.

Peter Carthew with son Christian outside AME Systems in Ararat  Picture: Peter Miller

Peter’s decision marks the first step in the closing of a remarkable chapter in his life that began with an accounting cadetship firstly with Myer then the publishing company Gordon and Gotch. Before he could warm up his calculator, the boy from Ringwood was called up for National Service which included a twelve month tour of duty in Vietnam stationed at Vung Tau and Nui Dat.

While many who saw action in the conflict never recovered from the trauma, Peter said it had a different effect on him.

“The visions you have from war leave indelible memories that can easily break you, Peter said.

“But for me they brought focus, made me resolute, ”he said.

“War chisels your values, your intent.”

Peter returned to Vietnam in 2001 wife Lyn.

“It helped me resolve a lot of issues and I’ve been able to walk away from it all when many others haven’t.”

At age 24, a couple of years after returning from the un-winnable war, Peter took up an offer to work for his father in-law as general manager of a suite of small businesses.

His role included book-keeping duties and overseeing about 30 staff members.

After a couple of years the businesses were sold and Peter’s father in-law retired.

It was then that Peter stepped into the Industry he would one day make his own.

On September 4, 1972 , when Christian was just one year old, Peter took up a position with Cable Wiring and Harness, a Melbourne company making electrical wiring systems for Nissan, Toyota and Ford.

During this period he was gaining a bit of weekend work at home, servicing auto parts and accessories equipment  that his new company wasn’t interested in working on.

In 1974, the Australian Labor Party gained power and sent supply off shore and Cable Wiring and Harness lost important contracts.

We kept the business going for another eighteen months but it was sold off in the end and most of the management and staff had to relocate themselves,” Peter said.

It was the middle of 1976 and Peter had turned 30. It was time to make an important decision.

He and two other managers from the defunct company, Gene Travaglini and Barry Tyrell, agreed there was potential in wiring harnesses and pursued their ideas by forming their own small company in a garage.

They called it TCT- an acronym of  their surnames. In May 1977, the company had outgrown the garage and the three directors began looking for a new home with a plan to decentralise.

Peter said the company looked all around the state at many regional locations but noted the advice of an industry colleague Frank Ford and took a serious look at Ararat.

“Frank felt Ararat was the right location for us because of an innovative industry there by the name of Gasons,” Peter said.

We came up and had a look at Gasons and talked to the Ararat council.

“What we found in Ararat was a real willingness to support what we wanted to achieve.

“Gasons were instrumental in helping us to site ourselves here and they were prepared to link up and work with us.

“Gasons were the most innovative general engineering company I had seen anywhere in the world.  We were also impressed with the education system and the facilities they had for young people.  Being on the highway to Adelaide was also very important.”

Peter said the decision to decentralise was basically a “quality of  life” choice.