Interested in machinery, trucks and earth-moving equipment, in August 1949 he started a mechanic apprenticeship with Tony Spalding in Awanui. Tony started his business from his home on Quarry Road, and in 1950 purchased Ron Vazey's garage and service station in Awanui.
After three years Mickey went out on his own as a mobile mechanic. In 1955 he bought a section on Matthews' Ave in Kaitaia, building his own garage/workshop on the site with help from his friend Bosko Vegar. Empire Garage was ready for business in March 1956.
In 1959 he installed a petrol pump, and became the first to give the public a seven-day service. He worked without a break for seven and a half years but, once there were four suppliers in Kaitaia providing a seven-day service, it was no longer worthwhile.
About 1960 Mickey built his own towing vehicle, using a 1947 six-cylinder Chev. He adapted his own winching gear, one on the front of the vehicle and one at the back. He had 12 forward winch gears and six reverse; the lowest he set them to haul was 4.8m in one hour.
The winch on the back was 38,000-pound capacity, the front 10,000, and both were used for tank recovery during World War II.
Mickey became famous for rescuing many a stuck fertiliser spreader, tractor, bus or other heavy vehicle. He salvaged buses stuck in the tide on 90 Mile Beach, manure spreaders from peat, tractors from bogs, even a cow out of a gum hole. He was always the star of the show, effecting rescues in what appeared to be hopeless situations. He was called out day and night to retrieve vehicles of all descriptions.
The following are just two examples.
The first was during a storm one afternoon, when Sonny Petricevich's bus was stuck on 90 Mile Beach. There was so much rain a lake burst its banks and the flood came down Waikanae Stream. Pat Hira, the bus driver, was taken by surprise. He had a bus-load of children aboard. Water flooded over the motor and the bus stopped in the stream.
The front of the bus went down fast, and Pat couldn't get the door release to let the children out. The weight of the sand outside stopped it from opening. Fortunately they could all exit by the rear door.
Pat then had a long walk to find a house with a telephone so he could get help. It was pretty late when he got hold of his boss. Sonny called Mickey, who, by the time he arrived on the scene, could only see the top three feet of the bus and the roof. "This isn't stuck, it's bloody buried!" he said.
It was late, and the rain was still teeming down, and before Mickey could pull the bus out work needed to be done to divert the stream. Eric Grbic and Jim Potter were called to help. Eric arranged for Dick Matthews to bring the Mangonui County Council grader from Waitiki Landing.
In pitch dark, Dick collected the grader and drove it down Te Paki Stream. He arrived at 2am, by which time the rain had stopped, working through the night to divert the stream to one side of the bus. Then Jim Potter dug an enormous hole with his machine around the bus, and a huge amount of sand was shovelled out from inside it.
At last Mickey hooked up his winch, and slowly, slowly, the bus came up and out of the hole. He towed the bus to the Bluff, where more sand was shovelled out before it was taken to Te Paki. Over the few next days it was towed to Kaitaia, dismantled and cleaned, until it was ready to go back into service.
On another occasion Mickey was called to Te Kao to pull out a spreader. All went smoothly, but on his way home he was stopped by Mr Tepania.
"We have a bus stuck at the turn off."
"In loose sand?"
"No, no, in the tide!" And the tide was coming in.
By the time he got there waves were crashing spectacularly over the top of the bus. He gave the driver shackles and a rope, and hooked it up "quick smart".
"Once you break the suction it's okay. You've got to use a low gear. I got off the truck, into the cab, then steadily rocked backwards and forwards," he said. As the suction eased he pulled the bus out. The bus was saved.
Mickey Petricevich built a reputation as an expert on retrievals.
He is proud to say that he never caused any more damage to vehicles than had occurred by their getting stuck. No one was hurt, and he never failed to complete a job.
While still operating his garage business and retrievals, he diversified into contract farm development, using small bulldozers and crawler tractors. Initially he did this work on weekends, but as demand increased the garage wound down.
He developed a large area for the forestry nursery, and worked on many farms in the Far North. He knows the country well. He did many thousands of hours of work, developing rough gum country to easy pasture.
He is a straight talker, says what he thinks, no nonsense, totally honest and dependable. He was interested in getting the job done, at times to his own detriment. He overlooked the paper work involved and was slow to send out accounts. He was hurt that some of the people he worked for took advantage of that and did not pay him.
He worked bulldozers and crawler tractors for more than 50 years, and knows the land around Sweetwater like the back of his hand.
He's retired now, but still takes an active interest in all that is going on around him. And he has a collection of old TD6 bulldozers and Bristols, and his old tow truck, reminders of all his years of contracting.
