Dave Stewart is a boomer born in 1957, 2nd of 7 kids to Ian, a freezing worker, and Elaine, a cleaner and grew up in South Auckland in Mangere.I left Aorere College after the third form and got an apprenticeship at the Otahuhu Railways Workshops as a coachbuilder.
I worked there for 15 years. The last 8 years were during the post 1984 Labour Government restructuring of railways and subsequent closure. I served as Branch Secretary of the Railways Trades Association during those last 8 years.
Post redundancy I managed a wholesale paint outlet in Auckland CBD during the apartment boom.
I became interested in photography attending Springbok tour demonstrations in 1981 and got a part time job doing photofinish at race meetings from Dargaville to Taupo.
This business grew and audited billions of dollars of totalisator taking over a period of 41 years.
In tandem with that I ran a web based IT business at the beginning of the internet boom and was recognised internationally for technological innovation and delivery.
I moved away from Auckland to a small farm in Waikaretu, North Waikato, and lived there for 14 years before moving to Whakatane in 2015.
I’ve been a kid on the South Auckland streets, I’m trade certified in 4 trades, I’ve been a trade unionist, run a small business and have been a company director, a farmer, a father and a grandfather.
In the quieter moments, I took up music and in the 70’s and 80s I played drums in various bands and still participate regularly in the live music scene in Whakatane.
