From quarry worker to Adelaide University first class engineering graduate, Arvi Parbo becomes mining titan
Arvi Parbo retired in 1999 after 40 years distinguished work in the Australian minerals industry.
From working in a quarry as a postwar Estonian immigrant, Arvi Parbo took on part-time studies at Adelaide University where he progressed to a 1955 honours degree in mining engineering. It was the launching pad for him to become a widely-honoured titan of the Australian mining.
Parbo fled Estonia in 1944 as an 18-year-old, ending in a refugee camp in Germany. In 1946,he began to study mining engineering at the Clausthal Mining Academy, but realised opportunities were limited.
He arrived in Adelaide in 1949 and, after working in the quarry near Adelaide, quickly arranged a job in a factory nearer Adelaide University where in 1951 he began part-time study toward a bachelor of engineering degree. His German studies exempted him from some of the courses but he had to master English. In 1953, he married Estonian Saima Soots and the first of their three children was born while Parbo was studying.
A scholarship allowed him to study full-time – while working part time.
With his first class degree, Parbo joined Western Mining Corporation Limited as an underground surveyor at Bullfinch, Western Australia, in 1956. His strengths surfaced quickly and his career advanced rapidly, from technical assistant to managing director and finally chairman. He retired in 1999 after 40 years distinguished work in the Australian minerals industry.
Major corporations including Alcoa, Alcan, Zurich, Hoescht, Chase and AMP all felt the influence of Parbo as a director and, in some cases, chairman. In 1989, Parbo was appointed chairman of Australia’s largest company, the diversified mining and steel-making group, BHP.
He was the founding president of the Business Council of Australia (1983), president of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1990) and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1995-97).
