A dire skills shortage is threatening our air conditioning industry, a frightening prospect as heatwaves descend across large parts of Australia.

Almost $19 billion a year is spent on keeping us cool, but government data shows around 26,000 of the national workforce is employed as air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, despite millions of cooling units being sold.

Ron Conry joined the industry in the 1960s, earning an Order of Australia Medal for inventing a component that’s now used by every aircon manufacturer in the world. 

His business partner Sam Ringwaldt boasts two decades of experience and the duo know air conditioning is transitioning “from being a luxury item to a necessity”.

Mr Conry said consumers had increasingly adopted a “throwaway mentality”, meaning most technicians or “fridgies” were kept busy installing new equipment.

High demand for aircon parts last summer — ordered through suppliers that had only just recovered from pandemic-era shortages — culminated in a “near impossible” situation for many Queensland businesses.

Supply has returned to normal, but now the industry is battling a lack of qualified tradies.

‘No-one in Australia with the skill set’

Gregory Vaughan, who is the business manager at a Queensland air conditioning company, said after advertising senior fridgie vacancies for a month, he’d only got a handful of responses from overseas applicants.

“There’s no-one in Australia with the skill set who can even do [the job],” Mr Vaughan said.

“It’s horrible.”

Jobs and Skills Australia confirmed there was more than 500 vacancies across the national industry, including almost 150 in Queensland.

Mr Vaughan said customers often shopped around to find “whoever they can” to get work done on time — and with less qualified workers on-site, “obviously the job’s not as good”.

Since Queensland offers numerous types of licensing, electricians with lower level qualifications are often booked for cooling jobs instead of a fridgie.

“They can install [aircons], only up to a certain kilowatt, but they can’t repair or service,” Mr Vaughan said.

Mr Vaughan said “electricians have priced us out of the market”, and his Coopers Plains business now only does commercial work.

Mr Ringwaldt and Mr Conry believe a lack of public awareness about what fridgies actually do is further hindering the struggling industry.

“I expected when I became a refrigerator mechanic that I’d fix refrigerators. The reality is, I’ve never fixed a refrigerator in my life,” Mr Conry said.

“It’s hard for someone to come out of school and say, ‘Yes, I want to do this industry’, because they don’t really understand it — no-one knows what it is,” Mr Vaughan added.

Data paints a concerning picture

“I think most people are unaware that a quarter of Australia’s power goes to keeping things cool,” Mr Ringwaldt said.

“If the government was to start shining a bit of a spotlight on the need, especially as we transition to cleaner energy, we really need to start tackling where our big consumers are and air conditioning is top of the list.”

Mr Vaughn said he had noticed a trend of tradies leaving the industry early in their career, with government data indicating an aging workforce among those left.

A Department of Climage Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) report found the average age of Refrigerant Handling Licence holders in 2017 was 40-years-old — that increased to 41 in 2023.

The report also said less than 10 per cent of licence holders were aged under 25.

“The young guys come on and we try our best, we try to teach them, but … it’s hard to find someone with ambition who actually wants to do it,” Mr Vaughn said.

Even if businesses can find apprentices, he said it’s likely they’ll finish the trade without learning repairs.

“There’s big companies [with] 30 technicians and none of them know how to replace a compressor, but they can all replace an air conditioner,” Mr Vaughn said.

He said the “employees market” meant businesses were “letting customers down” in the long-term.

Maintaining your aircon

Mr Ringwaldt said some people would’ve switched on their aircons this summer to find it “suddenly not working”. 

He said that’s likely because the units hadn’t been used since last summer and users may not have kept up general maintenance.

To keep it operating, he advised aircons equipped with heating capabilities should be given a run in winter as well.

In summer, they suggest never running your unit below 22 degree Celsius to help save on your power bill.

The life span of modern units is about 10 to 15 years, so consider the potential for repair before buying a new aircon.