Single Working Life

Single Working Life

This sounds like a terribly exciting job but in reality it is milking the cows, cutting the firewood, doing the gardening, and killing the sheep for the cookhouse. This was in Feb 1947 and it was a period in my life I have never regretted, I was only 14 years old and I never left that property for 9 months there was no way of getting to town except on the mail truck and as I was only earning $2.00 a week and I had to pay for all my blankets and work clothes and also buy a few cigarettes(had no brains then) there was just no money to be going home. This job was a great help to me in gaining employment in my future life and as there was only adults there as workmates I had to learn to grow up and not give too much lip.

I stayed in this job for nearly 2 years and then as it didn't appear as though I was going to get a job up the ladder as a station hand I left and got a job on a fruit block at Barmera working for a Mr. Alec Jones,

This was not as a fruit picker but as a permanent employee and I would probably have stayed there but the manager of Braemar Station wrote to me and offered me a station hand's job at Faraway Hill Stn which was an outstation of Braemar well, as the reason that I left was that I didn't appear to be able to get a stationhand's job so I jumped at the opportunity and took the job

This property was about 20ks away from the main homestead at Braemarand the weekly trip to Braemar on Saturday to get the mail was always looked forward to.There very often used to be a dance in the woolshed on the Saturday night and it was a real event , the music was only a button accordion and the highlight of the night was the supper, of course all us young ones would do was stand around and watch, too shy to join in.

The work was a far cry from the way it is done nowadays, it was nearly always mustering sheep and checking them for blow-fly strike or mustering for crutching or shearing .As we only had horses in those days by the time we rode the horses out to the paddock which could be up to 16ks away it would be 10 o'clock before we started mustering and very often we would be riding home in the dark and of course there was no overtime paid then.

I stayed here for 9 months and was offered a better job at Redcliffe Station a property owned by Mr Andrew Tennant this property is East of the Burra about 60ks from Morgan

This job was similar in work from Faraway Hills but the advantage was that the manager used to go to Burra quite often and consequently I had a bit more of a normal teenagers life I was only 16 and a half years of age and had missed out on quite a lot.

On a trip to Adelaide in mid April 1949 I applied for a job at Richards Ltd in Mile End, they were the manufacturers of Chrysler Dodge DeSoto motor cars and was successful in obtaining a position as a squab trimmer ie making the armrests for these cars, so back I went to Redcliffe and tendered my notice and started at Richards the next week.

This job certainly wasn't my cup of tea if you were late 5 minutes in the morning they  would dock you 15 minutes in your pay and being chained up to a bench inside a factory 8 hours a day was not my cup of tea so I looked around for another job. An Uncle of mine Ken Moore was working for carriers in Gouger St called H Graves and Co and they had a vacancy for a horse drawn trolley driver so I applied for it and was successful in winning the job. I then left Richards -had only been there two weeks- and startedat H Graves & Co driving a trolley in the city picking up parcels from John Martins, Kodak, Miller Andersons, Tolley Wines to name a few, quite a change from my previous jobs, driving horses in all the traffic of the city although as you can imagine the traffic was not as heavy 50 years ago. After I had completed my pickups I would go down to the Mile End Railway Goods Yards and put all the parcels on the trains for the country centres , this could see you spending up to 4 hours waiting to be unloaded, you would arrive at the yards and find a queue with up to 30 or 40 trucks and trolley's About 3 months after I started there was a strike brought on by the  Railway Train Drivers and as there did not appear that there was going to be a early resolution to the dispute Graves stood us all down and told us they would call us when the strike was over so back home I went to the Burra.

Dad was helping a shearing contractor one Saturday and the contractor told him he was looking for a woolpresser starting at Woolgangi Station East of Burra on the Monday and would I be interested?, well I certainly was, even though I was only 17 years old I was fairly strong and well built so away I went on the Sunday night on the back of the contractors truck to Woolgangi-in those days we all traveled on the back of the contractors truck to the sheds there was no cover or canopy and if it rained you just pulled a tarp over your head and kept warm and dry the best way you could, I remember travelling from Burra to Arkaroola 450 ks in 1950 on the back of the truck no big deal in those day's no other way to get there except by the Ghan and then the back of the mail truck.

Well this was the start of 23 years in the shearing sheds as a woolpresser, shed hand ,cook, expert -overseer, (running a team) and a shearer. This run of sheds started in August at Woolgangi then to Pohlners at Hallett finishing up at Koonoona south of Burraat the end of September, I pressed for 7 shearers at Koonoona quite a feat considering my age, had to work up to 12 hours a day to keep the shed clear of wool  but with a little help I managed to do it.

When the shed finished Graves rang up and said the strike was over and did I want my job back? Well the shearing run was finished and I had no job so back I went and after the first day I wished I hadn't. The strike lasted 3 months and all the horses were turned out to the sewerage farm where there was plenty of good food and no work so when they were brought back in to start work they were literally jumping out of their skin, well I harnessed up my two horses and away we went and were they flighty really on edge ,we went to a store in Chancery Lane behind the Fire Brigade Headquarters and backed under a doorway into a landing in Robert Bryce & Co's building jumped down off the seat and tied the rains around the swing tree ( this is where the horses trace is hooked)loaded the goods on to the trolley and then jumped down onto the ground to retrieve the reins, unhooked the reins and before I could get back up into the seat the horses decided to go, well there was no way that I was able to hold them from the ground with the reins so I tried to run around to the front and grab the bridle of the one nearest me but by this time they were in the street and there was no room in between the cars parked in the street and the trolley for me so I had to let them go. They took off south down Chancery Lane into Angas Street and before they got to King William St they had collided with no less than 6 parked vehicles, the damage they caused was unbelievable, fortunately there was no tram or vehicles going across King William when they were going through or somebody could have been hurt. I took a bike from the kerb (didn't know whose it was)and took after them .By the time I caught up to them one of our trucks coming down Gouger St had forced them into the kerb and had them under control. I think there was another 3 or 4 cars swiped in Gouger St.

Well I thought this is it I will get the sack for this nothing surer and when the manager told me to report to the Head Office in Currie St I was sure I was in for it. The General Manager asked me what happened and after I told him my story which must have been what he had found out he just said "just be real careful in future", I couldn't believe it and there was one thing I learnt from that and I tried to act upon all my life from then and that was always tell the truth, people respect you more for that, if you tell a lie you invariably get found out. One other event worthy of mention was that in 1949 I drove the horses towing Mother Goose in Johnnie's Pageant Johnnies always used H Graves & Co horses for this event.

 After this little episode with horses I decided that I would try and get a job driving a truck so I applied to a firm of carriers at Mile End for a job and once again I was successful and worked for them for 2 months early in 1950, the reason I only stayed that long was because the shearing contractor I was working for in 1949 offered me a run of sheds starting on the 5th March and as I decided the shearing shed life was for me I accepted , I had bought a motorbike by then a EX Army BSA 500 my firstvehicle.

This run of sheds was for a woolpresser so I worked on, starting in March,  Kia-Ora, Arkaroola, Balah, Canegrass, Sturtvale, and ended up back at Braemar Stn where I started work as a cowboy, these sheds with the exception of Arkaroola are east of Burra. At Braemar the shearers went on strike for more money and as Lindsay Martin the shearing contractor would not pay more we all left the shed. The next shed in the run was Wirrealpa out from Blinman so one of the shearers rang the owner and offered to bring a team up and do it which the owner accepted so we all headed off on the back of Joe Mcbride's -a shearer's truck -to Wirrealpa Stn, I will never forget that trip I think it was then that I came to appreciate the beautiful country we live in , we were travelling through Parachilna Gorge about midnight and the moon was shining on a cliff face which was a blaze of color from our beautiful Sturt Pea, nearly 50 years down the track I can still remember it as though it was yesterday. This shed lasted 4 weeks, which took us in to the middle of August.

A humorous event took place here,well I thought it was so I will relate it here and you can decide for yourself.I was the presser here and there was a young Aboriginal girl (16 years old and not bad looking)that used to come down to the shed every day and she would spend hours out in the wool room talking to me, well one day the conversation got around to sex and I said "but I wouldn't know how to do it Daphne" to which she replied " you meet me up by the two tanks tonight at 8 o'clock and I will show you how to do it allright" Well I did NOT go up to the two tanks that night (or any other) and next day I said to her " What happened to you last night Daph" and she said to me quite angrily " I was there you bastard you did not turn up" Well over ythe years I have told that story many times and nobody beleives me, I can assure you it was not her color that stopped me but the smell of her and the  fear of catching something certainly did.                                   Returning to the Burra I was only home a couple of days when a contractor by the name of Cliff Gartner from the Pastoral Shearing Co rang me and offered me the job of woolpresser at Nonning Station out from Iron Knob apparently there was a fight and the presser got his arm slashed with a broken bottle in the brawl and the owner of Nonning, Ian McTaggert,had to fly him into Pt Augusta Hospital in his old Tiger Moth. He had heard that we had finished Wirrealpa and knew we didn't have a follow on shed, so away I went to Nonning, Cliff called into the Burra and picked me up and delivered me to the station.

The team of shearers there was amongst the best shearers I saw in 23 years in the sheds averaging around 200 a day which in the days of the narrow comb was quite a feat.

I stayed with the Pastoral Shearing Co until Dec going to, after Nonning, Yardea, and Hiltiba all out from Iron Knob then to Wangaleena between Kingston and Robe and finishing up at Mt Schanck out from Mt Gambier.                                                                                     It was at Mt Schanck that I came to appreciate how temperamental cooks can be, Emil Schnider the cook picked up a carving knife and was going to cut up a shedhand for supposedly picking over the sliced meat, anyway one of the shearers, Peter Nash told him to put the knife down or he would take it off of him and give him a belting into the bargain , well Emil decided discretion was the better part of valor and put the knife down. Would have been interesting if he hadn't have put it down.

I also had a lesson here in the reasons to not gamble, 50 years ago gambling was very common in the shearing sheds and there was a big game going in the mess room this particular night, I stood there for a while watching and I thought this looks easy so away I went to my room and got myself 5 pounds. Well it cost me 64/-to buy cards had one bet and my 5 pounds was gone  I only ever played cards for big money once after that and I lost even more money so even though I did not get the message the first time I certainly did the second time.

Shearing generally finishes in late November and in the 1950's there was a lot of casual work around, hay carting, or bag sewing,(wheat, barley, & oats) I started into building up a round of farmers to sew for and I done this for a number of years until I left the Burra in 1956 .It was not the best job in the world you didn't have enough hands, one to brush the flies away one to fill the bag filler and one to thread the needle but it was money and it meant you did not spend the money you had saved from shearing while you were waiting for the shearing to start the next year. This unfortunately was what happened to a lot of shearers they wouldn't work in the off season and a lot of them would have borrowed heavily from the shearing contractor they worked for and would work for the first month or so to pay their borrowings back. This was the year I bought my first car a 1927 Oldsmobile Tourer, boy was that a heap and the start of a life time of buying cars and utes.

We are now into 1951. As I did not have a shearing run booked up when the local butcher Keith Treleavyn offered me a job as a slaughterman and delivery man I decided to take it.

This job was another phase of my life I never regretted, to be able to dress a steer and dress a sheep in 3 or 4 minutes whilst not up to the professional standard was certainly better than what I could do when I was the cowboy on Braemar. The standard of hygiene then left a lot to be desired, I remember one day shooting a cow in the slaughter house and the animal decided to get up and go ,obviously I did not shoot her properly and she took off over the yards and across the hills I took off too, back to the town to get the boss, out he came and then we started chasing this very irate cow around the paddock trying to get her back into the slaughter yard, well there was no way she was going to have a bar of that so Keith said we'll just have to kill her here so he out with the gun and dropped her where she stood, in the paddock and we then proceeded to dress her there, amongst all the dirt etc. I don't remember but I bet that meat was bloody tough, that's one thing that will assure the meat will be tough and that is to get the animal stressed out before you kill it.

Once again the call of the shearing shed was happening to me so I got a pen  shearing with a family friend Neil Bruce from Booborowie I was a raw learner shearing about 50 a day for a start by the end of the year -this was in August and by Nov I was shearing around 90 a day We shore at Earls at Leighton then at Chigweedens and  Michaels at Clare finishing up that year shearing for Mick Ryan at Gum Creek Station south of Burra

1952 I secured a job with Stockowners Shearing Co as a shedhand ,couldn't get a job as a  shearer as in the early part of the year the contractors didn't want learners so I got a job  at Balcanoona in the Gammon Ranges. Getting to this shed as I did not have a vehicle was by the Ghan from Quorn to Copley and the stories you hear about how slow the train was are true, I think the fastest it ever went was about 40 kms an hour and reminds you of the films you see of the old days of the railways. From Copley I got a ride on the back of the mail truck out to the station. When this finished I got a job pressing again for the Edwards Shearing Co at Pine Creek Stn, Carrieton then onto Bosworth, Purple Downs, and Parakylia Stations out from Woomera  I then went to Princess Royal Station at the Burra for Dick Irlam a shearing contractor at the Burra When this finished I went shearing in the cocky sheds(small farmers) around Burra and Farrells Flat where I managed to shear my first 100 sheep in a day(oh what a feeling).I then took off to Victoria. at Strathdownie, to shear for the old maids McCorckindale well what a performance, these old dears had 4000 sheep and everyone had a name, they all knew the old girls and if they walked out into the paddock the sheep would tear over to them. Anyway if it rained it was not a decision of the shearers that the sheep were too wet the ladies wouldn't bring them in so after about 2 weeks of this I decided I would go broke at that rate so I left ,was not very popular, I then went to Coola Stn out from Mt Gambier for a couple of weeks then back to the bag sewing. Traded in the Olds this year and bought a 1937 Ford V/8 Coupe, boy could she go, trouble was you couldn't stop her only had cable brakes would be worth a fortune if I had it today $20000 would not be a silly price to expect to get for it. Whilst in Adelaide on my way home from the South East I went to a dance and met a girl to whom I became engaged, her name was Joy Upton this only lasted about 12 months after becoming engaged not much of a life for a girl with her fiancée away in the bush 10 months of the year, and even less of a life being married to someone away that amount of time,as I was to my first wife.

In 1953 I was called up to do my National Service training at Woodside in the Army, this was another period of my life that looking back on I was very pleased that I done it, it was in January and boy was it hot up there at Woodside, Our company Sergeant Major used to work at Mt Bryan and he took me under his wing one day and said "Listen they are going to call for volunteers for the cookhouse put your name down it's the best place to be " so I done that and ended up a L/Corporal in the Catering Corp, when my time was up in 3 months " boy was I fat," while the rest of the boys were crawling over the hills at Woodside living on bully beef and biscuits I was back in the kitchen drinking iced milk. and eating rump steak. After our 3 months training we were assigned to the CMF for a further 5 years training I was assigned to the Royal Australian Army Catering Corp we were supposed to do a 2 week camp each year but I managed to only do one which was at Caloote. All good training though and we all enjoyed it.

As it was too late to get a shearing run in April I secured a job driving a truck for F.S. Margitich carting beer for the West End brewery, this was a good job, we used to do 2 loads a day 5 hotels each trip, we only carted bottles, in 1 doz crates, the brewery's own trucks carted the kegs, we always managed to get a few bottles for ourselves one way or another. Every day we used to get 4 schooners for nothing at the brewery and every hotel would give you a drink after you had finished unloading. Traded in the Ford and bought a 1937 Chev Utility what a heap, had to rebuild the motor and no warranty in those days.

In July the call of the shearing shed was upon me again and away I went up to Carriewerloo Station out from Pt Augusta shearing for a contractor called Alf Lane, Alf used to be a policeman and was a good guy to work for I was the learner there and the first day in these BIG wethers I only shore 60 the shearer who was pulling out of the same pen as me was the S.A.State Champion and he shore 3 to my 1 all day, quite embarrassing but there was not a thing I could do about it. From there we went down to Old Bungaree out from Clare which today is as well as being a merino stud of some distinction has been opened up as a tourist attraction. I improved in my shearing here, I reached 125,the gun Don Rye only shore 2 to my 1 that day. Buckland Park out from Two Wells was the next shed was almost like a normal job here so close to Adelaide some of the shearers used to go home each night. Had one bit of fun here all the rooms were 2 to a room, well my room mate was an old fellow about my age now ,66, and as he didn't want to get up and go to the toilet during the night he would take a powdered milk tin into bed with him, so I got some Salvital and tipped into his tin you can imagine what happened, the Salvital all frothed up and went everywhere  He got the message, he also used to snore like a pig it was a real battle trying to get to sleep before him each night.

It was now early October and as this contractor had finished his run I got a pen (this is what shearers call a job).down at Lucindale at Perc Loechel's. In the hotel at Naracoorte on the Sat I met a chap who became over the years a very good friend Murray Longmore was his name ,he was around the same age as me, I was just coming up to 21 and I had my 21st at his place, I went out to his parents property and done their shearing when I finished at Lucindale and his mother treated me like a son, a terrific woman, Murray and I would go to all the dances in  the area and she would make sure that we looked a million dollars when we went out. Murray eventually inherited the farm and ended up selling it in 1959 and buying a stock transport. Was now Dec so back to the bag sewing.

1954 Started on the 3rd Feb with Alf Lane at Yudnapinna which is north of Pt Augusta and from there to Wirrimina Station just south of Kingoonya. This lasted until the end of April and I then went back truck driving for Margitich, this time at Pt Adelaide doing general carrying. This was quite an experience the old trucks of those days were quite dangerous, brakes were nearly non existent and the steering, well that was something else. The truck I was driving was a 1938 Bedford and I was carting peas from Mile End to Pt Adelaide I had a trailer on behind loaded up as well as the truck all up about 15 tonnes, well I am heading down the Port Road coming up to the roundabout just over the bridge past the then called Southwark Brewery when I see there is a policeman on point duty and he has his hand up against me, well I done everything to try and stop changed down a couple of gears stood on the brakes but nothing happened she just kept on going , well the officer just stood there with his hands on his hips and watched me go past then he started bellowing out 'Hey you, pull over". Well 300 metres down the road I managed to stop and I walked back to where he was waiting for me, well did he get into me threatened to put me over a weighbridge have the breaks tested and all sorts of dire threats. then he said "on your way and just be careful" Phew was I lucky, how there wasn't more accidents I will never know there was 40 trucks in Margitich's fleet and they were all nearly of the same vintage and condition.

July comes around again and a friend has got me a pen over on the West Coast around Cummins and Yeelana with a chap called Maurice Haarsma so Iheaded over there for 3 months then back to Naracoorte to do Longmores and Drury's this takes me to the time to head back for the bag sewing at the Burra. This was the year I got smart and I bought a brand new Morris Minor sedan,  boy was it flash and by the time I had finished with it, it looked like in the words of a grazier at Hawker ---a travelling s-----house anyway I reckoned it was crash hot.

1955 I decided to try another shearing contractor and I chose Dick Bolton from Belair, he had a run of sheds around Blinman and Hawker I started at Oratunga at Blinman then to Narrina then Edeowie and Moralana at Hawker finishing in May. In July I started again at Craddock at McCauley's, McCarthur's, and Hollawena Station ,from there I went back to Buckland Park for Alf Lane, and then down to Kalangadoo where I shore at two sheds before going back  to Naracoorte to do the regulars. On my way back to Burra I stopped off  in Adelaide and went to the Palais Royal dance hall where I met my future wife Gwenda Tellam. Before I went to the South East I traded the Morris in and bought a 1953 Holden Utility.

 In 1956 I went back with Alf Lane again to Yudnapinna  Pt Augusta and this was not a good year at all, this was the year of the big shearers strike of 1956. This all came about by the courts dropping the price of shearing from 8 pounds 10 shillings to 7 pounds 7 shillings and sixpence or in today's money $17.00 to $14.75, this was totally unacceptable to the majority of the shearers and when the date for the commencement of the New Rate as it was called, came we all told the contractor we would not shear for it and we left the job, this was on the 5th March ,we had started on the 3rd Feb. As the ruling from the A.W.U stood -if you could find a contractor who would pay the old rate you could shear ,well I did not know of any so I headed back to Adelaide to try and find a job.

The shearers hotel ie where all the shearers drank in Adelaide was the Duke Of York and whilst I was there one day Jack Walsh the publican asked me did I want a job as a barman, well try anything once and as I did not have too much money I really had no option so I started as a barman.

Was going along Ok and even getting to the stage where I thought that this would be a good full time job when Gil Mortimer a shearing contractor from Copley came looking for shearers he said he was paying the Old Rate and I could start as soon as I could get there so all my thoughts of being a barman flew out the window and away I went to Copley. The first shed was Yankaninna in the Gammon Ranges and the second was Umberatana a few ks further in to the Ranges, we then went to Moolawootana which is out near the Strezlecki Track and then to Wertaloona where we finished in the middle of August, in September Gwenda and I were married and that was another reason for it not being a good year, not that I didn't think at the time that it wouldn't work out but down the track that is what happened. It was destined from the start to be a disaster, firstly because Gwenda became pregnant and we had to get married, and as I was a country boy and she was a real city girl our lifestyles were completely at odds. At Wertaloona Station I met a chap Stan Graefe who was to become my best mate and 43 years down the track we are still very good mates, we shore together off and on for  probably 15 years and we were partners in a hay carting business in the 1960's, Stan would have to be one of the best all round shearers I have ever shore with and a great bloke to boot.

 It was at this stage that I decided I wanted a 1948 Ford V/8 so I traded the Ute in and bought the big V/8                                                                                                                                   After we left Wertaloona,, Stan and I went down to Mt Bryan to shear at John Quinns now that was another experience, John and his wife were so grateful that we came to shear their sheep that they couldn't do enough for us ,every night we had to go into the house and have a sing song around the piano. 1956 was one of the wettest years on record, you could see the water running out of the hills at Mt Bryan . They were calling for volunteers to go to Mannum to help sandbag the river to stop it flooding the town, would have been a hopeless task as it turned out the main street was well under water.