During World War II, Horace White (Horrie), a plumber by trade, worked with Hawkins and Wilcox as a senior and foreman. Much of the work was highly sensitive. During that time, he had John Nichols (Nicko) as an apprentice. After gaining his trade, Nicko left the firm and became an inspector of Mechanical Services for the Board of Works. This involved travelling the full state of Victoria, he found his workload was too heavy and recommended the Board of Work to hire a second inspector. When this was agreed, he recommended Horrie, who took the job. In time, to make extra money Horrie and Nicko started working on weekends and spare time installing air conditioning, heating, boilers, and the like in the public domain, inclusive of hospitals and asylums. They did this for some time, proved to be quite lucrative and eventually they could see the work as inspectors was not the best return for their time.
In parallel to this, Horrie’s son Donald White (Don) had gained an apprentice with a backyard company, Ifland and Watson. Nicko’s father, a senior figure within the Board of Works could also see their work as inspectors was not the best return and was well funded. A deal was struck between Nicko and his father to start or buy a business and that their first employee should be Horrie. They approached Horrie and offered him the job. He replied with “I will never work for you, but I will work for half.” This offer was accepted.
In order to get his half Horrie sold his family home in Brunswick, which provided the money they needed for the deal and to buy land for commencing construction of a new house in Ringwood, then the absolute outskirts of Melbourne. With no home and nowhere to live, it also resulted in Horrie, his wife Matilda (Tilly) and their four kids aged 16 to 5, the two youngest being girls, moving to Tootgarook which was then a backwater. The six of them living in a single 14′ x 14′ Australian army bell tent.
Horrie and Nicko, started by buying Ifland and Watson, exactly what got them is unknown but it did result in Horrie employing his own son. They immediately changed the business name to Mideco (Watch the video for more details). There may have been other employees and equipment that came with Ifland and Watson but this is not known.
Their first actual new hire was another ex-employee of Hawkins and Wilcox, who had also struck out on his own, Lionel Johnson. To work for Mideco, Lionel closed a business he had started, but this meant he brought with him a shed in Richmond, and a truck.
While living in Tootgarook, Horrie and his wife Matilda (Tilly) had the house built in Ringwood, still not big enough for all the kids, again the boys ended up in a tent again in the back yard. But Ringwood had a big back yard.
The company had working space in Nicko’s shed, Lionel’s shed, a truck and sheet metal working folders. They also worked in Horrie’s backyard, a guillotine, rollers, and swagging machines. The core business was in heating and ventilation. At the time Melbourne was growing quickly and this provided enough work for them to be able to buy land in Nunawading, employ others including both their two sons and with their combined in-house skills built their own factory on that land.
One interesting snippet of Mideco’s journey is that Mideco was the first Australian agent for Clark Daikin air conditioning. They opened a shop in inner Melbourne and employed a guy to manage it. They did so well that the Japanese decided to open their own premises and simply said thank you very much. It was another very interesting and successful interlude with some interesting tales about the interaction with the Japanese and Horrie which kept some in hysterics.
Eventually, Horrie retired; Don bought out the Nichols and run the company, always developing new engineering. After 20 years at the helm retired himself. Today, both Horrie and Don have passed, but Mideco moves forward…