Colin Sinclair is the Manager of the Systems and Infrastructure team in the Library. We spoke to Colin to learn more about his work history, interests and role at the library, including his involvement in the TL Robertson Library refurbishment project.
After completing my university degree at Curtin University, I commenced in the building and construction sector working in Information Technology (IT) support. This role saw me spend a lot of my days travelling between sites in Perth, remote quarries or mine sites. I had a great time in this role – every day was different and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people from all walks of life. Back then, not everyone had a computer on their desk, so a lot of my role was to introduce people to computers. For those that have been around for a while, we also had people using WordPerfect [a word processing application] and Lotus 1-2-3 [a spreadsheet program]! From there I spent a couple of years in the United Kingdom, working in the legal profession (still in IT) before returning to Perth to continue working in the legal arena.
Prior to commencing at Curtin University, I was working in the mining industry in both fly-in / fly-out and office-based roles. Moving to Curtin University from that work environment has been quite the change and I certainly don’t miss the 12-hour shifts.
My role at Curtin University covers building infrastructure and IT for the Library so the TL Robertson Library refurbishment project has become a large part of my role in recent years. I’ve been the main Library liaison with Curtin University’s Properties, Facilities & Development, external project managers and the builder.
The main work for the project commenced in 2018 when we first met with the architectural team and began to explore what a refurbished TL Robertson Library might look like. From there we’ve been through many revisions, consultation sessions and reworking of the design. We’ve also had to deal with the evolving COVID-19 situation, closing TL Robertson Library to allow for the refurbishment work and subsequent decant of Library services to three locations on campus, all of which I’ve had a high degree of involvement in. At the time of writing, the project is in the stages of final fit-out work as we look to reopen TL Robertson Library.
Outside of work I try to keep fit with running, playing soccer and lots of walking with the family. Holidays up the coast are also a big part of our life where we do some fishing and generally relax. I have a shed at home where I also spend a fair bit of time tinkering with this and that and pondering why the lawn never looks as good as those you see on gardening shows nor do the vegetables seem to grow as large or as plentiful either. We do have a very old fig tree that, when in season, produces a bucket of figs almost every day. This keeps us busy supplying people with figs for their fig jam creations. The local wildlife also seems to know when fig season is on as the tree will be well populated with parrots and other birds getting their fill.
