Phil commenced work as an apprentice electrical fitter contractor in 1965 with Ophir County Council, he quickly went to the drawing office as a technical officer designing overhead lines. He later became involved in supervising construction.

“I think the building of zone sub-stations was the big thing at the time, when I started, because … in1965, Orange South zone sub-station was built and Blayney sub-station, was rebuilt it was a little old thing, down near the railway line in Blayney. And before that, they shared a zone sub-station with the Electricity Commission in Orange, and had part of that, and it was the only one in Orange City. And there was one at Molong, and a little one at Blayney. And I think they were the only ones, and I think there’s nine or ten, zone sub-stations in the area now and all of those were built during the time that I was there, so. That was the biggest thing that I saw happen, the building of high voltage lines to those, and the construction of the sub-stations.”