Episode Overview
In this episode of the Bridge Building Podcast: From Technology to the Trades, we celebrate the extraordinary career of DATTA QLD’s 2025 Teacher of the Year, Terry Grieger. With over three decades of service to Design and Technologies education, Terry has turned classrooms into creative workshops where theory meets real-world problem-solving.
Terry shares how he brought CNC milling to Far North Queensland in the 80s, built working printing presses with his students, and even ran radio-controlled yacht regattas—all while nurturing critical thinking and ingenuity. As he approaches retirement, Terry reflects on the joys and challenges of teaching, his hopes for the future of the subject, and the legacy he leaves behind.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Terry’s journey from Pittsworth to Cairns to Ipswich and beyond
- How he introduced CNC technologies to Queensland schools in the 1980s
- Why meaningful, hands-on projects matter—like student-built cannons, wind chimes, and working yachts
- His philosophy on teaching: embracing absurdity, sparking joy, and fostering growth
- What’s next for Terry in retirement (hint: trees and tinkering)
Links and Resources:
- Explore DATTA Queensland: dattaqld.org.au
- Email the podcast: podcast@dattaqld.org.au
Connect With Us:
Host: Stephen Anderson
Email: podcast@dattaqld.org.au
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About the Bridge Building Podcast
“This is the place where we dissect and then discover the many ways ITD teachers all over this country are using their passion to create passionate students. We talk of measuring and manipulating a multitude of materials of design and divergent thought, of creation with our minds and with our hands. And most of all, we talk of growing great young people because of course that is what we do.”
So what does that mean other than I like to show off my alliteration skills? Since coming back to teaching a few years ago the thing that strikes me most, and frankly scared me most is how lonely this job is. How little we know about what is happening in our subject area. The classroom next door, a class in the next school, let alone the next town are a mystery to me. I know there are teachers out there doing incredible things and this (the podcast) is a way for me to find out and be inspired. I would like to invite you along to listen and learn, to be inspired by some of the sensational teachers I speak to on the “Bridge Building Podcast – from technology to the trades”
About the Podcast Host
Stephen Anderson is a Design Technology, Trade Training and accidental Science teacher at a small high school 2 hours North West of Brisbane.
Over To You
If you know someone who is doing something spectacular or just great fun in design and tech or in trade training, I would love to know about them.
Contact me through my email osaerial@gmail.com
Music by:
Viola Pink
My favourite busker from the Nanango markets.