Jon Fleming became part of Novocastrian history when an iconic photograph was taken of him in the aftermath of the Newcastle earthquake.
Jon, then aged 20, was involved in the recovery effort with the Army Reserve.
"I was throwing bricks off the roof as part of the clean up. The chimney was damaged," Jon said.
"A photographer from The Sydney Morning Herald turned up and took a photo and the next thing it was in the paper."
By coincidence, he was working on the roof of the Cooks Hill house where his grandmother lived for decades. She passed away in the months before the quake hit.
"It was the house that my mother grew up in," he said.
"We worked on literally 40 to 50 different properties throughout the clean up. But at that particular moment, the photographer snapped the photo."
The photo was later used in a mural painted by Newcastle artist Birgitte Hansen.
The Newcastle Herald had commissioned the mural for its one-year anniversary coverage of the earthquake.
Birgitte used news photos to gain inspiration and subject matter for the painting, which has been cropped for this story.
The faces in the painting include victims, rescuers, building workers and civilians.
She said her painting sought to depict that the earthquake "brought us together as a community".
She added that the photo of Jon was "just right" for the mural.
The top right of the mural shows Jon in uniform, throwing the brick off the roof.
He thinks about the earthquake around this time every year. The 31st anniversary of the quake falls on December 28.
"It's something you can't forget. Everyone in Newcastle has a story of where they were.
"I was at a friend's place at Adamstown. We were about to play golf. The house literally felt like it was coming off its piers.
"We ran out of the house and looked up the road and saw a domino effect of everyone out the front of their houses, wondering what on earth had gone on."
Jon said he felt "very fortunate to be in the mural, as part of Newcastle's history".
"It was a bad day of course. But I'm proud to have helped in the recovery," he said.
A Helping Hand
Jon Fleming found himself involved in another crisis this year - the pandemic.
He's general manager and part owner of Industree Group, which sells personal protection equipment.
As you can imagine, the company has had a busy year.
While he has a good head for business, he also has a social conscience.
In the early stages of the pandemic, there was a shortage of face masks.
People with medical conditions were particularly fearful about not having any masks. Jon and his company helped people in need - just like he did all those years ago on that roof.
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