Charles Errock [4] a timed
Charles Errock [4] a
Audio file
Railway Tce 4.m4a
Transcript
00:00:01 Speaker 2
OK, that's got nothing to do.
00:00:05 Speaker 2
With the right.
00:00:06 Speaker 1
It's OK. OK.
00:00:07 Speaker 1
Alright, cause I checked when I all the information I check when I go home I look up and the facts and the cities and the you know what happened, yeah.
00:00:13 Speaker 2
OK.
00:00:19 Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, well. First wages were very low until probably the late 1940s. Early 1950s. Yeah. And Bob Hawke, who later became Prime Minister many years later. But he at that time, he was the advocate.
00:00:38 Speaker 2
For the Australian Workers Union, yeah, for the.
00:00:42 Speaker 2
Let's try and work this in.
00:00:45 Speaker 1
But that was 1980s, isn't.
00:00:47 Speaker 2
It. No, no, no. I'm going back. He he was. Ohh yeah. There were many years before he was. Yeah. Advocate for the. For the ACTU. Yeah. OK now he was a brilliant lawyer. Mm-hmm. And the brilliant speaker. Yeah. And wages were set by the arbitration.
00:00:50 Speaker 1
Or before he became Prime Minister.
00:01:05 Speaker 2
Permission.
00:01:07 Speaker 2
And of course, he would go before the arbitration Commission and he was so good that he'd win every time.
00:01:13 Speaker 2
OK, here, take the wage case to them. Umm, we'll be sitting that waiting to see how much we got. Yeah. When you when we.
00:01:21 Speaker 2
So that's and of course that's when industry and SA really started up, they started making washing machines, they started making television sets, you know, every.
00:01:35 Speaker 2
And then so that was, yeah.
00:01:37 Speaker 1
Which which decade are you talking about? Like 19?
00:01:41 Speaker 2
50s. Fifties. Yeah, that's when it all started.
00:01:44 Speaker 1
Then he must have been very young in 1950s.
00:01:49 Speaker 2
Ah, you know, he was a Rhodes Scholar. He come back from England, he was, but yeah.
00:01:57 Speaker 2
I don't know what he'd been, but anyway, he he was the advocate for the ACTU and he used to go before the arbitration Commission. Yeah, and and win these wage cases. Yeah. Then it all changed later on. But yeah, that's when that's when wages started to grow. OK then it's just that I.
00:02:19 Speaker 1
Book I read I got impression that Australian wage was.
00:02:26 Speaker 1
Comparatively high international standard.
00:02:30 Speaker 2
Although I don't know that that. Yeah, but I mean when when they start manufacturing all these goods here, that's when the wages went.
00:02:38 Speaker 2
Up. OK.
00:02:39
Yeah.
00:02:40 Speaker 2
And Bob, like I said, he was so clever. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:02:45 Speaker 2
OK, OK, so God here.
00:02:50 Speaker 2
Right. You can see how my along the stakes, there we go.
00:03:01 Speaker 2
And then save it.
00:03:06 Speaker 2
The first time I met Tommy Crick.
00:03:09 Speaker 2
At the Army drill Hall at Peterborough, he had been working on Mount Victor station, out from Yonta.
00:03:19 Speaker 2
We had both been called up for National Service train.
00:03:24 Speaker 2
We were there for our medical examination, which we both passed, so it was off to Woodside Army training camp in the Adelaide Hills for three months.
00:03:39 Speaker 2
Basic training and 18 months with the CMF unit at Peterborough.
00:03:48 Speaker 2
It is the start of a long friendship.
00:03:51 Speaker 2
Tom's sister Margaret was married to Tom Casey and he had been elected to the South Australian parent and Tommy had left the station life to help Margaret and their five children on Casey's Farm. Amelia Parker. You told her about 10.
00:04:11 Speaker 2
Malls from Peterborough.
00:04:14 Speaker 2
I always called Tom Casey the accidental politician. Nico Heron was the leader of the Labour Party opposition in the South Australian government.
00:04:26 Speaker 2
Had a farm up the prawn line somewhere and also a house in Peterborough.
00:04:36 Speaker 2
I promise.
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It.
00:04:45 Speaker 2
No.
00:04:46 Speaker 2
When Parliament wasn't sitting, he often spent a lot of the time in his residence at Peterborough on Sunday mornings he would attend.
00:04:56 Speaker 2
Mass at the Catholic Church and then if there was a trades and Labor Council meeting.
00:05:02 Speaker 2
He would sit in on it. He had taken a liking to the Secretary, Kevin Ryan, and made a note in his diary suggesting Kevin would make an ideal replacement for himself. When retired, however, Lego Helen died while still in office.
00:05:24 Speaker 2
I was working in the truck yard at Peterborough Railway workshop.
00:05:30 Speaker 2
When a car pulled up opposite.
00:05:33 Speaker 2
Then three men in suits climbed out. One of them asked me where they were, could find Kevin Ryan.
00:05:44 Speaker 2
So after they left, I met Kevin.
00:05:48 Speaker 2
In the carriage shop where I had directed them, I said, what did those coppers want with you? Kevin replied. They were not police officers. They were from the South Australian Labour Party.
00:06:07 Speaker 2
Kevin said that he had been invited to stand for Mick O'halloran seat in the South Australian parliament. I said that's great. It is a safe Labour seat that will set you up for your life, risk your life.
00:06:22 Speaker 2
Kevin had strongly rejected their offer.
00:06:26 Speaker 2
So the trio spent the next the rest of the week trying to find a suitable candidate, as it happened, after Tom Casey left the army, he went cheering, so had to be a member.
00:06:42 Speaker 2
Of the AWU's Union, although he hadn't been shearing for some time, his parents, when his subscriptions were due, they paid them. The Casey family owned the Peterborough Hotel as well as the Media Park Farm, and were all paid up. Members of both the Liberal Party.
00:07:02 Speaker 2
And the Labour Party.
00:07:04 Speaker 2
This enabled Tom Casey to stand from the Cohen seat in Parliament and he was duly elected.
00:07:14 Speaker 2
There's not controversy about that, but he got there.
00:07:19 Speaker 2
Tommy rang me one day at work. He had lost 6 Rams to the Foxes. He knew I had a fox whistle so went.
00:07:27 Speaker 2
But I went out the next evening. We drove around at sundown, but we couldn't find a fox, so we parked the car and I tried the fox whistle. It was getting on to midnight, so we tried the spotlight again with no result. We caught 6 rabbits, so we scanned them and dressed them.
00:07:47 Speaker 2
I put 2 in my car and Tom took 4 for my 2 mug.
00:07:52 Speaker 2
To cook or feed to the dogs, which he obviously decided.
00:07:56 Speaker 2
We were having a coffee when Tom Casey came out of his office and I had a talk to him. He said that the government was trying to keep enough work for us at Peterborough. However, with the standardisation of the line from Perth to Sydney, he could see Peterborough depot declining. We were running out of work with a lot of the.
00:08:17 Speaker 2
The a lot of changes being made.
00:08:21 Speaker 2
So.
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Because my parents, Linda and Chris.
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Had shifted to Port Lincoln. We were thinking.
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I'm having a holiday over there. I had sold my old my first car.
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In 1928, Chevrolet Sedan cut down to a utility I bought a Morris utility and built a canopy on the back and the four children were happy to travel in the back.
00:08:52 Speaker 2
So we decided to head off to Port Lincoln. I was a bit concerned. I really would have liked.
00:08:58 Speaker 2
To put some new tyres here, I just couldn't afford to. I had a couple of second hand tyres and tubes which I put in back just in case I needed them. We had a good trip to put to good trip, no problems after the two weeks with Nancy now able to catch up with.
00:09:18 Speaker 2
Several of her cousins and and their families, we were ready to head home. It was very hot, so I kept a close.
00:09:28 Speaker 2
On the tyre pressures, however, after we left Port Neil.
00:09:32 Speaker 2
Our.
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Our first tire blue. I put the spare one on, but about 20 miles further on another tire blue. I put a tube in one of the spare tires, then another tire blue wouldn't have worth a lot of fun.
00:09:51 Speaker 2
OK.
00:09:56 Speaker 2
I had one left and by this time we were between towel and Layla.
00:10:01 Speaker 2
Nancy and Steve took off. There were hundreds of tires on the side of the road. They were almost out of sight when they headed back, Nancy, patting a tire. She found the right size, which?
00:10:14 Speaker 2
She thought looked good enough. I checked it. I found only a small cut on the inside. It needed a gaiter inside. I usually carried some strong canvas but had not thought to bring in.
00:10:29 Speaker 2
I brought Nancy.
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A leather handbag which she had wandered for a long time. We had no option then to cut a Gator out of the handbag.
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The tire was.
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Extremely hard and had been out in the sun for a long time. I put my last tube in it and we were away. We stopped at Loyola for a meal with some friends and set out for Peterborough I had.
00:11:01 Speaker 2
Put my last 5 lbs for petrol helping, hoping it would be enough to get us back to Peterborough.
00:11:15 Speaker 2
We're about.
00:11:19 Speaker 2
To set off when we discovered our Jack Russell dog was missing, no one could remember seeing him.
00:11:28 Speaker 2
We were all very sad, but were several miles out of Layla and we spotted him running along ahead of us on the side of the road.
00:11:37 Speaker 2
He had we had first stopped on the main road before going into the Township. He had got out there but never got back in the car, so I kept following the main Rd.
00:11:51 Speaker 2
I was watching the fuel gauge very closely.
00:11:55 Speaker 2
When we got to Orono.
00:11:57 Speaker 2
I worked out we had about enough petrol for another 25 miles, just enough to get us home.
00:12:06 Speaker 2
As.
00:12:08 Speaker 2
And drove into our driveway. The car spluttered and stopped, and the fuel gauge showed empty. The end of a trying day, but indeed a happy ending.
00:12:18 Speaker 2
We got home.
00:12:19 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:12:20 Speaker 2
Yeah, I don't think that's gone off.
00:12:22 Speaker 2
Further than that.
00:12:27 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:12:30 Speaker 2
So back at Peterborough and back at work.
00:12:36 Speaker 2
And things weren't getting any better in the row as they were cutting and cutting and we were running out of work. And so I had to look, see what I could do about that.
00:12:51 Speaker 2
Normally there was a job advertised at Port Lincoln.
00:12:56 Speaker 2
Normally someone from Islington workshops would want to get that and I would have had no hope. But at that time they were building a lot of rail cars and carriages. That was into workshops and none of the carriage and wagon motors wanted to leave because they're making too much money.
00:13:15 Speaker 2
So.
00:13:17 Speaker 2
I put in for the job at port Anchor and.
00:13:23 Speaker 2
Anyway, they flew me over and pee where they flew me.
00:13:28 Speaker 2
To Adelaide? No, they didn't follow me to Adelaide, sorry.
00:13:34 Speaker 2
They applied for the job they got, but then someone appealed against it. And so I had to wait till that appeal went through. But eventually I was given the job.
00:13:47 Speaker 1
Were you not continuously employed by railway?
00:13:51 Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. Continuously. Yeah. Yeah. There's another depot on the West Coast. W Portland. Yeah. Yeah. It was completely different when I got to Port Lincoln, they were flat out the rail cars were still running.
00:14:06 Speaker 2
Cummins and up to Laguna, we had the book side and the salt being brought down from the top end to.
00:14:19 Speaker 2
The government Abattoirs Department government produce department was called.
00:14:26 Speaker 2
They were slaughtering lambs and blowing frozen lambs onto boats, but we had to get them from the government produce department to the to the.
00:14:39 Speaker 2
Wharf.
00:14:40 Speaker 2
And we had these old dilapidated refrigerator.
00:14:45 Speaker 2
So there was a lot of work. We spent a lot of work plugging up holes and fixing them up and that and that, that used to take a lot of time. Then we had the rail cars we had.
00:14:56 Speaker 2
Yeah, we were fed up and.
00:14:59 Speaker 2
There was.
00:15:01 Speaker 2
Seven of us there and they were great. They were great books, they were, and I was very lucky there. I went to Portland and there were about 311 bloke that I went to school with and played football with, was working with me and there's a couple of other blokes that who worked at Peterborough.
00:15:21 Speaker 2
And.
00:15:24 Speaker 2
Was there too, so I wasn't. It was. I wasn't completely on my own sort of thing.
00:15:30 Speaker 2
But I found that.
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Port Lincoln, itself overall, was very quickly and if I hadn't known those people, I would have found it very hard. Hmm, but that was alright. But then one day I was working away and this I heard this.
00:15:47 Speaker 2
Boat behind me with a very strong Irish accent and he said to me, he said, he said tell me you come from Peterborough.
00:16:00 Speaker 2
And I said, yeah, that's right.
00:16:02 Speaker 2
And he said, oh, he said I had. I came out as a sponsored migrant.
00:16:08 Speaker 2
He said. And you might might know Gordon Maloney. I'm sorry I said I knew more. Gordon Maloney, very well. He said Gordon was my sponsor. Hmm. I said I. So then he told me he came to one.
00:16:23 Speaker 2
Of the poorest parts of.
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And when he knew he was going to respond to that, he he saves as much money as he could. He wasn't earning very much.
00:16:35 Speaker 2
Big morning silver, a suit.
00:16:38 Speaker 2
Gabardine suit, thick garment suit and a cap and.
00:16:44 Speaker 1
Who was Gordon Maloney?
00:16:47 Speaker 2
Gordon Ray worked in the superintendents. Obviously he was a a clerk in the superintendents office at Peterborough.
00:16:57 Speaker 2
He he was a great follower sport. He used to wish to play basketball on the Wednesday night and and they went to the gymnasium and then the whole board and I'd be there. He'd push his broke a mile and 1/2 with his overcoat and gloves on. Just come and watch us play basketball. And then Thursday nights.
00:17:17 Speaker 2
He was in Berwick for the Rover Football Club. He'd be down watching the Rovers train on the Thursday.
00:17:23 Speaker 1
Night so he can personally sponsor a migrant? Or does the railway sponsor the?
00:17:31 Speaker 2
No, no, no, no. He no he.
00:17:34 Speaker 2
I don't know how it's going, went, but he he sponsored him. He was he had to.
00:17:39 Speaker 2
Head to sponsor him out and Bob had the pays. Well, Bob, Jesus first name and he had. He had to find his. His fear that when he got here, Gordon had to give him a home. Yeah. And find him a work. I see. That's how it worked. It's fine.
00:17:59 Speaker 2
On your head.
00:18:01 Speaker 2
Bob said. Bob see.
00:18:02 Speaker 2
His name was either become one of my best friends. I was there 13 1/2 years at Portland and Bob was my best mate. Yeah. If I got to learn to understand him, he was. He used to speak Gaelic language, talking and so took it a long time to really. Yeah. So lots of times I couldn't understand. But we've got on pretty good.
00:18:22 Speaker 2
So.
00:18:23 Speaker 2
He said to me, he said they tell me you used to do a bit of bar work and Peter and I said, ohh yeah, I said done that. He said I work part time at the Tasman Hotel. Yeah, he said we're always looking for staff. Would you be interested? OK. And I said, well, I guess.
00:18:41 Speaker 2
I could do a bit of work there.
00:18:44 Speaker 2
So about the four children going to school with and my wife doesn't work. So yeah, OK, he said. Well, I'll tell the boss that you're coming down to see him. And I said, yeah, he told me. So I went down on a on a Tuesday night.
00:18:59 Speaker 2
And so is Tommy Bryant. He was a.
00:19:03 Speaker 2
Manager of the front bar.
00:19:07 Speaker 2
And I didn't know. I walked in and asked someone where, who he was and he was out having a few drinks with his friends.
00:19:15 Speaker 2
So we're not to introduce myself and told him both and.
00:19:18 Speaker 2
All he said.
00:19:20 Speaker 2
You have to come back another night, he said. Tuesday is my day off. He, so I don't.
00:19:25 Speaker 2
Do any business on Tuesday? Umm, I only had to say yes.
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Or no. OK.
00:19:31 Speaker 2
But anyway, I said oh OK.
00:19:33 Speaker 2
So I went back the next time I said above all, and I said I and he said I I told him what happened. So I don't take notice.
00:19:41 Speaker 2
He said. Ohh, I'll speak.
00:19:43 Speaker 2
To the manager at the hotel.
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And so he did and.
00:19:50 Speaker 2
Metallic it was. It was in the process of leaving there, umm. And then, you know, I got the job. I spent a couple of nights in the front bar with huge the front bar called the tuna bar. Umm had all the tuna fishermen and all the boats off the Wharf used to drink there and it was 6:00.
00:20:10 Speaker 2
Clothing and that was bedlam, you know, for a night time, but any.
00:20:15 Speaker 2
Right.
00:20:17 Speaker 1
What? What those.
00:20:17
Thanks.
00:20:18 Speaker 2
Population sizable paid about Paul Lincoln, but it just become a city. Yeah, had just become a city. So I don't know how many people we have to have for a city, but it had just become a city and it was terribly busy.
00:20:22 Speaker 1
Who's?
00:20:27 Speaker 1
OK.
00:20:31 Speaker 1
So several 10s of thousands, yeah.
00:20:38 Speaker 2
But the tune of fishing had just started a couple of years before, and while I was there, the prawn fishing started and the abalone diving start started.
00:20:51 Speaker 2
And then they had these oil survey boats that were off the shore. They were trying to find oil and minerals on the inside. And so we were well.
00:21:04 Speaker 2
Busy and you? Unreal, Unreal, busy and and now I got promoted up in the saloon. But I worked there for for a couple of weeks.
00:21:16 Speaker 2
And then.
00:21:17 Speaker 2
This.
00:21:19 Speaker 2
Like very gradually, she came over because they were changing managers. Yeah. Betty was very experienced. And she was a great person. And she come up to me, they were flat out in the in the cocktail bar and dining room. And she came up to me and she said you ever carried a tray?
00:21:39 Speaker 2
And I said, oh, yeah, yeah, I had when I was in Peterborough from 1 bar to the other with a couple of drinks on it. I wasn't going to say no. So she said, come with me.
00:21:52 Speaker 2
And that, she explained what was going on. And she said, I want you to work mainly up here in the cocktail bar. And I said, well, I haven't had a lot of experience. That's just I'm going to teach you. Yeah. She said I'm going to stop with you for the rest of the evening. She said, oh, I'm going to stop with you and show you how it's done.
00:22:01
MHM.
00:22:11 Speaker 1
Ah.
00:22:12 Speaker 2
And I couldn't have got a better person to do it, you know? And so she trained me.
00:22:17 Speaker 2
And.
00:22:20 Speaker 1
So.
00:22:21 Speaker 2
That was great. I was making terrific money because I was working all sorts of hours and and that that those those days you with all these people around off the boats that they tipped you know. And after I've been there a couple of years that I've.
00:22:37 Speaker 2
If I was working on the tray and the dining, how much we're both? We used to use when the dining moment used to be one each side of the door with a tray, you know, and and going. And I had people come up and they'd put a pound on my tray. Yeah. So you're gonna service tonight. Chat. So I said alright. So they put a pound on tray for a start, you know. And then every time I put their drinks.
00:22:57 Speaker 2
That whatever change there was.
00:22:59 Speaker 2
That told me to keep.
00:23:01 Speaker 1
What? What was the year that you moved to Port Lincoln?
00:23:05 Speaker 1
63, OK and what were children's ages?
00:23:11 Speaker 2
Uh.
00:23:13 Speaker 2
From the book and.
00:23:15 Speaker 2
They were just starting schools and student was in about Grade 3 and grade 3-1 in Grade 2 and another two probably hadn't started OK.
00:23:28 Speaker 2
So they done most of their education important and it was couldn't have got.
00:23:33 Speaker 2
A better place.
00:23:34 Speaker 1
Than that, but last week you were talking about children playing football. That was.
00:23:40 Speaker 2
Yeah, I know.
00:23:41 Speaker 2
Got ahead and.
00:23:43 Speaker 2
This is what's happening. Yeah, I'm getting, you know.
00:23:46
Yeah.
00:23:47 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:23:48 Speaker 2
Yeah, OK, but that's.
00:23:49 Speaker 2
Alright. Well, we'll, we'll we'll concentrate on our on Portland from from now and next time and so.
00:23:51 Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. OK.
00:23:55 Speaker 1
Occasionally, when you like, move things like there's something starting you tell the year just for like, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.
00:24:03 Speaker 2
I know. Yeah. Well, I can now, but I couldn't be too long ago and I just couldn't put it all together and probably I should have sat down and worked it out once before we started, but never like. And so we got there and.
00:24:09 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:24:19 Speaker 2
My 2.
00:24:22 Speaker 2
Doris, Michelle and.
00:24:26 Speaker 2
And Deborah?
00:24:28 Speaker 2
Well, that must have been a bit older.
00:24:29 Speaker 2
Than I think.
00:24:31 Speaker 2
I'll get the book an envelope. And they had been going to brownies in Peterborough. No, I don't have that. Girl Guides and brownies. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they were qualified.
00:24:43 Speaker 1
Brownies are like Boy Scout.
00:24:45 Speaker 2
Well, they're girls. Yeah. That boys are Cubs and scouts and girls are brownies and guys. And so anyway.
00:24:58 Speaker 2
Debbie and Michelle, my two daughters at that time.
00:25:03 Speaker 2
They were due and helps with little guys because they've finished their brown training and.
00:25:08 Speaker 2
In Peterborough.
00:25:11 Speaker 2
So Nancy found the girl guide.
Commissioner hmm, very strict with regards that, that, Commissioner and the local Commissioner and the District Commissioner, so she said, oh, we don't have a girl guide unit because the Girl guide leader left. Umm.
00:25:31 Speaker 2
So there's this rule. OK, as you found out that there were 3 Browning groups.
00:25:39 Speaker 2
You see, before you can take on training them, you have to be warranted. You have to get your warrant. You have to pass a test. OK. With the Girl Guide Association before you can do that.
00:25:51 Speaker 2
So she went back To Pat and she said, well, look, she said you've got 3 Lots of brownies, she said. Yes, she said, well, where are they going to go when they get out of brownies? If there's no guide unit?
00:26:04 Speaker 2
And pat s? Well, I don't know. I said. I can't know nothing about it. And she said, well, who's?
00:26:08 Speaker 2
The district commissioner.
00:26:10 Speaker 2
And she said, oh, Mrs. Richardson, they had a transport company in Portland.
And so Nancy rang her up and and she went to see her and she saw nothing we can do about it. We just haven't got any guide lead. And Nancy said you got to do something.
00:26:26 Speaker 2
She's. What do you mean? She said. Well, you've got 3 brownie.
00:26:29 Speaker 2
Leaders, they're all warranted. So why don't? Why can't one of them start up the guys? And she said, well, I don't know whether they want to. And she said, well, perhaps you should ask them, umm. And then she said to Nancy, well, they don't do it themselves, so I'll need help.
00:26:50 Speaker 2
Yeah. And my wife said, yeah, well, I'll help her. Anyone that takes it on, I'll help.
00:26:55 Speaker 2
And so if you did and I said that the God and yeah, so Nancy put ohh a terrific amount of work in it. Yeah. And she went and got, went to Adelaide, went done the test got warranted.
00:27:11 Speaker 2
And that so if you could, in her own right, she could look after it. She found another lady that she liked that would be suitable for guides. So she talked her into going and getting herself warranted to help her. And the guide unit went from strength to strength and.
00:27:31 Speaker 2
Turn right.
00:27:34 Speaker 2
It got really big and she used to arrange these camps and she arranged the camp at Yonder flat and.
00:27:41 Speaker 1
Mm-hmm.
00:27:45 Speaker 2
And you actually found this farmer down there that she.
00:27:49 Speaker 2
And which he had a Creek running through his little lot of trees and an ideal place for a camp.
00:27:56 Speaker 2
And he said, yeah, that's no worries and so.
00:28:00 Speaker 2
We I borrowed a utility from the hotel and I manage the hotel. Luckily his daughter was in the guide, so he had to lend it to me. Umm. So anyway, so we took all the camping gear down there and they were there for, you know, two weeks or something.
00:28:20 Speaker 2
And when she was packing up the farmer come up there and he said.
00:28:23 Speaker 2
Look, he said.
00:28:25 Speaker 2
We've just built a new house and he said.
00:28:27 Speaker 2
The old house is there.
00:28:29 Speaker 2
He said why don't you?
00:28:31 Speaker 2
Put your gear and set a cart in the back to Portland. Why don't you put your gear in there? Mm-hmm. He said. Ohh, look after it for him and said I'll put some baits in there. I'll make sure the rats don't eat.
00:28:41 Speaker 2
Any of it, yeah.
00:28:44 Speaker 2
So she thought that was great and which it was too, because each year she could go down there and the gear was all there, you know? And so it went from strength to strength and.
00:28:50 Speaker 1
Uh.
00:28:55 Speaker 2
See.
00:28:56 Speaker 1
So what? What is the number of occurs involved in that?
00:29:01 Speaker 2
Lots of in the guards. Yeah, I think she ended up about 24 25 girls. Yeah. Yeah. From time to time, it got bigger and smaller. It all depends.
But. But no, she put a lot of effort into that. And then.
00:29:17 Speaker 2
And.she looked around the West coast,
00:29:18 Speaker 2
And she found that there were other places having problems. So.
00:29:25 Speaker 2
Yeah, she got what she was warranted, and she could go around and and she found leaders for groups in other towns. And mm-hmm. And trained them up. Mm-hmm. And got them going. And that's her. And she done that all the time.
00:29:39 Speaker 2
And.
00:29:41 Speaker 2
There's the.
00:29:43 Speaker 2
With various cute.
00:29:45 Speaker 2
Once she started something, she put her whole self into.
00:29:49 Speaker 1
It you know and that.
============================
0:29:50 Speaker 2
That was great. So she got that all gone. And of course, the kids, they all got the boys during the Sea Scouts. And that was terrific. They had three trainer boats and they used to go sailing Saturday morning, and sometimes they they had to have an adult with them and there was 2 Scout masters and sometimes they were working and they couldn't take them so.
00:30:19 Speaker 2
And then there was the chip, one of the Scout Masters worked at the local prison. Umm, and he said to me one day he said, look, he said there's three young cadet police officers been appointed to Portland. And he said he said, why don't you offer them?
00:30:38 Speaker 2
At the chat.
00:30:41 Speaker 2
To take the kids out on the boat so so they could take the kids out on the boats on Sunday when they weren't lost it on and because they were a bit lost. So anyway, yeah. So anyway, I spoke to one of them and they said, yeah.
00:30:56 Speaker 2
OK.
00:30:57 Speaker 2
So from then on between Scout Masters.
00:31:00 Speaker 2
And these three young police officers, they we had, I think 14 senior scouts at that time.
00:31:07 Speaker 2
And I became president of the Senior Scouts Committee and there where we got that done pretty.
00:31:15 Speaker 1
Good. So the activities of this? This is before children start the sport.
because sports and this and all overlap.
00:31:30 Speaker 2
They don't. They don't do it again. OK, yeah, they're different nights. They're different days, wells on Saturdays and that.
00:31:37 Speaker 1
So on on weekends.
00:31:39 Speaker 2
Weekends. Yeah, but yeah, so they, they. They.
00:31:44 Speaker 2
Worked out pretty well, but.
00:31:47 Speaker 2
Uh-huh.
00:31:48 Speaker 2
But in the winter time when we're playing football, we're going out on the boat. That was only in the summer times when when that and none of them played in the summer sports, so they they both the two boys became screen between scouts and the two girls.
00:32:06 Speaker 2
Become God. Yeah, trains gods. So very involved in it. And Nancy done a terrific.
00:32:16 Speaker 1
And.
00:32:17 Speaker 2
Once Nancy started, she was like a dog with a bone she.
00:32:20 Speaker 1
Would never go up, yeah.
00:32:22 Speaker 2
Ruffled a few feathers here.
00:32:24 Speaker 2
And but she used to come to town and and go to the guide headquarters and.
00:32:30 Speaker 2
Tell them what was going on and what she needed and that and.
00:32:34 Speaker 2
She got it. Yeah, yeah.
00:32:37 Speaker 2
So that's when yeah, so I was.
00:32:40 Speaker 2
Looking terrific out. So I was working. I don't know how I don't just I when I look back, I think I wondered how I've done it, but I'll start work to have a 7:00 in the morning and the railways and then I would knock off at 4:30, have a shower, quick shower.
00:32:57 Speaker 2
Put.
00:32:59 Speaker 2
Club around bow tie and all down to the hotel. Yeah. And and I sometimes I might work till 8:00 to 9:00, but sometimes 1011 o'clock sometimes 2:00 in the morning. You know, that's wasn't unusual to to work right through. Especially when.
00:33:01 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:33:16 Speaker 1
And they all survived virtually, because those parts used to drink. I missed the part. The reason why you had to move to Port Lincoln from Peterborough.
00:33:33 Speaker 2
Because I read it in their what they standardize the gauge, yeah, from Perth to Sydney, OK.
00:33:44 Speaker 2
There was nothing really. There was 7 right 100 people working there. I was at Peterborough. There's not one person there now. The train just goes straight through. Ah, OK yeah, yeah.
00:33:56 Speaker 2
They shifted the workshops. They shifted or didn't shift. They just this just shot shut them down.
00:33:57 Speaker 1
OK.
00:34:05 Speaker 1
So everyone in Peterborough railway worker, they all went somewhere.
00:34:10 Speaker 2
Move. Yes. Move there. Yeah, yeah.
00:34:13 Speaker 2
Lot of until the early retirement, OK. And then it's moved on. Yes, it was. Umm, yeah. I was just so extremely lucky to get the job. I got. OK. Extremely. Yeah. Because normally I've had no where in the world. Just that busy at Islington here. Hmm. And no one wanted to leave because they work on Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah.
00:34:34 Speaker 2
Two or three nights a week so.
00:34:36 Speaker 2
8:00 at night I was 8 at night, you know? So they were getting bill big money and they weren't gonna leave the length.
00:34:43 Speaker 1
Peterborough, as the town must have suffered in economy.
00:34:48 Speaker 2
Yeah, of course it did. Yeah. Yeah. But it it's very resilient. They're still going. Umm, it's still a very strong town. Yeah, that town, there are a few other industries that went there.
00:35:02 Speaker 2
But no. Yeah, it didn't.
00:35:04 Speaker 2
It's it suffered like when I.
00:35:08 Speaker 2
And I play a lot of football there.
00:35:11 Speaker 2
And many years and we had, there was 4 football teams in Peterborough. Now it's Peterborough, Jamestown combined.
00:35:19 Speaker 1
Yeah, I see.
00:35:21 Speaker 2
That's no difference. OK. Yeah. You know, I was very fortunate. I played in three winning premiership sides in the town. Football. Robert Peterborough. Yeah.
00:35:33 Speaker 2
It's.
00:35:35 Speaker 2
At the.
00:35:37 Speaker 2
Yeah, well, Port Langan at.
00:35:41 Speaker 2
I just went from strength to strength there with the job and everything and and the money I earned was especially when I had before. I'm going to high school and finished and then they get how many years altogether in Port Lincoln 1313, OK, 13 years but they're 19.
00:35:51 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:36:01 Speaker 2
63 and left there in 1957.
00:36:05 Speaker 2
Yeah. Uh.
=====
00:36:10 Speaker 2
They're all the children of good that sport. The boys were above average footballers and.
00:36:19 Speaker 2
Dennis won the Junior Colts medal by the biggest margin ever St. poll.
00:36:27 Speaker 2
Three points in every game except 2/1. He had a broken finger and the other one had the flu and shouldn't have played. Umm but yeah so.
00:36:37 Speaker 2
And. And Michelle, she will. She won the best and fairest trophy playing netball. Deborah won the Miss Turner armour competitions. He was miss Jump Turner Umm about 58 or something, I think.
00:36:54 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:36:57 Speaker 1
All graduated high school in Port Lington.
00:37:00 Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're they're very lucky there. My older son, he.
00:37:09 Speaker 2
He when he finished year 12 he got.
00:37:15 Speaker 2
He came over to Adelaide and teach of scholarship and he came back.
00:37:23 Speaker 2
On on Christmas holiday, he came back. They went down the bank.
00:37:28 Speaker 2
They'll draw out some money and the manager was just putting up a notice. Wanted 2 genies. So he came home and he said to Michelle, he said you better get on your push bike and go down and put in one of those jobs. Hmm. So she did and.
00:37:45 Speaker 2
And anyway, as it happened, there was relieving manager there and I knew him pretty well and.
00:37:53 Speaker 2
And you know, a few weeks later, I said to him, I said, how did Michelle get on with?
00:37:59 Speaker 2
If application, he said. Michelle. Who's Michelle? I said, my daughter, I said she went down and applied for job. Ohh yeah. He said OK. He said Michelle. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. He said, well, I've.
00:38:12 Speaker 2
Asked for two.
00:38:13 Speaker 2
But they'll, they said they'll probably only give me one. And I said Ohh well, hopefully she'll be alright. So couple of weeks later he's big tall but I can he used to drink in the saloon bar at the Tasman and I was working then there that night he got to the door and him and and yes, she got the.
00:38:32 Speaker 2
Well, and she was very fortunate because mostly when you're getting jobs in banks, you get into one position, you get put on the counter.
00:38:41 Speaker 2
Or you. Yeah, you.
00:38:43 Speaker 2
But because she had done the course and shorthand typing, the manager used to go to take down all his. Yeah. Then she'd type him up for him and that and she was doing such a good job. She's got quite a nice personality and and the because of that.
00:39:02 Speaker 2
Accountant.
00:39:04 Speaker 2
He said to the manager. He said when when you don't need Michelle, he said instead of going back on the counter, he said, what about letting her help me? Yeah, he said I can get her to do a lot of my work for me, OK.
00:39:17 Speaker 2
Which meant she learned a lot. Yeah. So she was doing both. She was offside into the manager, working on the account and working with the accountant. Mm-hmm. And this he was there for a few years.
00:39:30 Speaker 1
Well this this was after high school.
00:39:33 Speaker 2
Yeah, OK. Yeah.
00:39:35 Speaker 2
The the.
00:39:40 Speaker 2
Headmaster at the hospital. He was very proactive. He went around the different like Rotary and a businessman's association and that and said, well, you know what, what did they need, you know? And they all said, well, we can't get receptionists. We can't get typists, shorthand typists or anything.
00:39:43 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:39:57 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:40:00 Speaker 2
And it's all OK. So he went back to the school and then decided that the third year he'd going to have so many girls. He had 24 girls to a shorthand and typing course. Yeah. And they all got through it. And they all had a job.
00:40:21 Speaker 2
Except one. Mm-hmm. Had a job before Christmas. OK, they got snatched up.
00:40:25 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:40:26 Speaker 2
And yeah, so she got the job in the bank and I guess she was there for about 5 years before she came out and got married. She came over to Adelaide and she worked up at the Enfield bank. And overall, she's worked in for eight years. Yeah. When she got married, she had, when she had her children, she stopped work.
00:40:45 Speaker 2
Umm. And she didn't go back to work until after they started school. And then she worked in finance or from that then on, you know, and.
00:40:56 Speaker 2
Yeah, so she done very well, but they were very lucky that Steven got just got into teach as far as and that was.
00:41:03 Speaker 2
All.
00:41:04 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:41:04 Speaker 2
They he he had missed out. And then Mr. Bryson rang me up at work one day and he said, can you get Steven over to Adelaide? And I said why? And he said well.
00:41:16 Speaker 2
He said he hasn't got a placement. Umm, but he said they want him there by Friday. If you can get him off and said alright.
00:41:24 Speaker 2
Say.
00:41:26 Speaker 2
I had a mate that.
00:41:28 Speaker 2
And working on the airlines and he told me that they always save one seat. OK, you know, you should always keep one seat in case, you know, emergency in it. And so I rang him up and he said Ohh, he said you're about 30 minutes too late. He said we just gave gave the ticket to someone else.
00:41:36 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:41:47 Speaker 2
So so OK, so.
00:41:50 Speaker 2
I had a Datsun 1200 stations sedan and it wasn't going 100%, but then I went home and changed oil and everything and got it all ready and I said it's him. Hop in, we'll go. And so how many hours, how many hours?
00:42:04 Speaker 1
Oh.
00:42:11 Speaker 2
Those days, I suppose 99 or 10 hours. It wouldn't take me, but later on I got a bit better car and I used to do it for 7-8, seven or eight hours, but it's good straight roads, but we're a bit unlucky. It was really wet and there.
00:42:27 Speaker 2
Was a rule that.
00:42:30 Speaker 2
Like with the buses and there if the bus, if the car was coming, the bus would give way to it. Yeah, you know, but we got halfway across this bus come across and just about drowned. Yeah. Any rate and motor cut it out. So we had to push it out of the water and.
00:42:48 Speaker 2
Put the bond up and try and dry it all out to get it started again and luckily I had.
00:42:54 Speaker 2
A tin of.
00:42:55 Speaker 2
Spray you know to spray on it and that we've got it going. So yeah. So and I got him over and he started at teachers college.
00:43:08 Speaker 2
I left the Merry Easter. He had a bought a motor scooter where he to get around on Umm when he was coming home that that the the truck that where I worked the hotel.
00:43:20 Speaker 2
Matt Pierce Matthews Hotels, as I had a hotel at at Port Augusta and the hotel at Loyola and then one at Port Lincoln. And they had this truck that used to go over the cattle, their stuff. And I knew the drivers and that and.
00:43:30
Hmm.
00:43:39 Speaker 2
And that Stephen was home on holidays and I got him and job down the hotel for a few hours and that and he met. I'll be one of the drivers and they'll be said to him. Look, if you said.
00:43:50 Speaker 2
He said you.
00:43:52 Speaker 2
When you're coming home, you know from Adelaide you said just let us know as you will pick.
00:43:57 Speaker 2
You up at depths cross. Umm, you can throw.
00:44:01 Speaker 2
Tell your motorbike up on the back. Yeah, and we'll take it. So that's what he done like when he's coming mainly at Christmas time and that.
00:44:09 Speaker 1
Teach.
00:44:10 Speaker 1
This college was how many years?
00:44:13 Speaker 2
For I thank them for for the using. Yeah, the one that he went to has closed down there. I was just trying to think the name of it but.
00:44:23 Speaker 2
Really. Actually.
00:44:26 Speaker 2
He was alright there but he the last.
00:44:29 Speaker 2
I don't know what happened. He went. He went very well until the last quarter and he just missed out on getting his diploma.
00:44:37 Speaker 2
But it was OK. He was still qualified to teach in it, and but the jobs were us all starting to dry up. And so he said, Ohh I'd go anywhere. So they took sent him to andamooka. Oh, yeah. So he got there for a couple of years and he went down to mount game and he went all around the place.
00:44:59 Speaker 2
Paid down very.
00:45:00 Speaker 2
We're gonna finish that there.
00:45:02 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:45:05 Speaker 2
So.
00:45:07 Speaker 2
Deborah, my other daughter, she she badly wanted to be a hairdresser, but she put in for an apprenticeship and she didn't get it. So I said, well, you have to go back to school and she didn't like the idea that pretty much I said no. That's well, if you can't get, you can go back to.
00:45:24 Speaker 2
Cool. And just keep on going. So you're at after the first term, this lady that she's applied for the hairdressing apprenticeship rang up and said this debris still interested and I said I just wouldn't ever want to do anything else but be a hairdresser. And so she said.
00:45:45 Speaker 2
The girl I put on, it's not suitable. So Deborah can have the job. So. OK. So she got there and she never looked back. So yeah, she became quite a good hairdresser. And. Yeah, and then.
00:45:47 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:46:00
Seems.
00:46:02 Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's still doing her prenatal hairdressing. They talked her into putting in the Miss Tunera competition. The firm over there sponsored her and that. And she won that since she became this general. Yeah. Yeah. So. So that was successful.
00:46:10 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:46:21 Speaker 2
And then with my younger son, then that's. Since that's why we came. One of the reasons we.
00:46:26 Speaker 2
Came to Adelaide was.
00:46:28 Speaker 2
Everyone said, well, he's that good of football, that he has to get a chance to play football.
00:46:36 Speaker 2
So we came over here. I transferred over here to Islington.
00:46:40 Speaker 1
Because of your sons football, you moved to Adelaide.
00:46:45 Speaker 2
And and not and not only.
00:46:47 Speaker 2
There that the jobs were starting to dry.
00:46:49 Speaker 1
Up there too, OK.
00:46:51 Speaker 2
That when they they formed Australian National Railways, they combined S Australian Railways with the Commonwealth Railways.
00:46:57 Speaker 2
Yeah. And so they did jobs where I was going to be sent up, the Bush working a lot, and I didn't want my wife would be left with the 14 ages, you know, so.
00:47:09 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:47:12 Speaker 2
And you're.
00:47:13 Speaker 2
Of putting for a job that his intention.
00:47:18 Speaker 2
And it wasn't the best. The jobs I ever had. But you do what you have to do. And Dennis done very well. He played for junior for under.
00:47:23 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:47:31 Speaker 2
Five games for the West Torrens and then we got in under eighteens W Arms and he was just about ready to go into the upgrade side. Umm, but he got glandular fever. Bad. Mm-hmm. And so he had to six months. He was going to teach his college. He was going to teach us too.
00:47:50 Speaker 2
I had.
00:47:52 Speaker 2
Six months off from teachers college and of course that there's no going back to the league side. That's so hard to get in, you know. But but he done alright. He played a lot of football for Walkerville played in about 6 premiership sides and the Big Red there.
00:48:12 Speaker 2
So he done all right, but he.
00:48:16 Speaker 2
He couldn't get a job. Teaching was was very hard to get a job when he got through and he was engaged in in his girlfriend.
00:48:25 Speaker 2
Or the house.
00:48:26 Speaker 2
At Lynnwood Park, they're paying that off, so he needed that permit so. So he took on it. He was worked for a furniture company until he was 40. Ohh, and his back was given taffy, so he went to Flinders University and got his Bachelor of Education.
00:48:44 Speaker 2
And he put in for a job with the losing system. Umm. And he got a job at bakery. I see. And now he's sitting here up and he's still teaching up there. OK, yeah.
00:48:55 Speaker 1
Did did you have five children?
00:48:57 Speaker 1
Yes. Yeah, you you mentioned 4.
00:49:00 Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, the other one, that was our, yeah.
00:49:04 Speaker 2
Yes, I told Nancy when she had.
00:49:09 Speaker 2
The youngest son they the gynecologist and the doctor said, well, Nancy, you'll never even know another child. It won't be possible for you to ever have another child.
00:49:19
Yeah.
00:49:20 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:49:20 Speaker 2
About 10 1/2 years later, well.
00:49:25 Speaker 2
We are every on holidays and we were due to go back to port.
00:49:28 Speaker 2
Lincoln.
00:49:29 Speaker 2
And, umm, she got up in the morning and she said, I think I'm pregnant. Mm-hmm. And I said that was still you got a virus that said you can't, you can't get sick.
00:49:39 Speaker 2
So anyway, she was sick all the way back from.
00:49:46 Speaker 2
From Adelaide to Port Lincoln and I took a stayed up to the doctor's. When we got there because we knew the doctors and everyone knows everyone in the country and and he said, well, she's dehydrated. She needs to go on trip, he said take her straight up to the hospital and I'll get Mr. Sheedy here with the surgeon and specialist.
00:50:06 Speaker 2
Use especially of everything.
00:50:09 Speaker 2
And then.
00:50:10 Speaker 2
So I said OK, I'll talk about knocked up in the hospital, settled her in. Then I went home and unloaded the car and everything. And so I went back up and Doctor Sheedy was there. And he said, look, he said there's something seriously wrong, he said. But I don't know. He said I've booked it for surgery first thing in the morning.
00:50:31 Speaker 2
And see. OK. So he operated on them before I got up there, he went into Nancy and he said, well, Nancy, do you want the good news first or the bad news first?
00:50:42 Speaker 2
And she said, oh, well, I don't know. He said, well, the bad news is you had a badly infected over. He said I had to remove it, but you got a little rabbit in.
00:50:50 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:50:52 Speaker 2
There.
00:50:55 Speaker 2
So Roxanne went? Yeah. So that's yeah. So I think she was when we transferred.
00:51:02 Speaker 2
Over here.
00:51:03 Speaker 2
I think she would have been about.
00:51:05 Speaker 2
Five years old, you know? Yeah.
00:51:08 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:51:09 Speaker 2
But so that's their rock them. And she's stealing strong. She's.
00:51:16 Speaker 2
Because they can read this book can say more about one than the other.
00:51:24 Speaker 2
Yeah, she's. She's done very well.
00:51:25 Speaker 1
So what? What year was Roxanne born?
00:51:31 Speaker 2
Well, I can tell you I can't get the.
00:51:33 Speaker 2
Birthday book.
00:51:38 Speaker 2
This is it.
00:51:42 Speaker 2
I walk like a.
00:51:43 Speaker 1
Crab on 1970 something.
00:51:48
I'll find it.
00:52:37 Speaker 2
All of the various state.
00:52:39 Speaker 2
She would kept good records.
00:52:47 Speaker 2
My my hands don't.
00:52:48 Speaker 1
It's you.
00:52:48 Speaker 2
Work as good as they used to.
00:52:49 Speaker 1
You don't remember your children's four years of help? No, no, no, really.
00:52:58 Speaker 2
I used to when I.
00:52:59 Speaker 2
Was going to work. I used to but.
00:53:00 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:53:07 Speaker 1
I think you need a table with all the years.
00:53:15 Speaker 1
Important years.
00:53:19 Speaker 2
I know when she was born, she was born on the.
00:53:21 Speaker 2
3rd of January, yeah.
00:53:27 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:53:31 Speaker 1
What these are?
00:53:32 Speaker 1
We'll have to have a look.
00:53:40 Speaker 2
Roxanne, 1970. OK. On the 3rd of January 1970.
00:53:47 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:53:56
Hmm.
00:53:58 Speaker 2
She's done very well. She's.
00:54:02 Speaker 2
Been nursing for 35 years at the present time, she's got a manager's job with Kidney Health Australia, so she's getting.
00:54:10 Speaker 2
Yes, she does know.
00:54:12 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:54:13 Speaker 2
Nursing she so she keeps her registration OK, she she loves nursing school. Yeah. Hmm.
00:54:22 Speaker 1
So how many grandchildren now?
00:54:26 Speaker 2
11 OK, great grandchildren too. Uh nine with two to go. And we had one last week. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. And.
00:54:34 Speaker 1
Ohh OK.
00:54:43 Speaker 2
Yeah, my grandson went on a gap year or he didn't go gap year. He worked for a year at Port Lincoln. When he came out of teachers college. Yeah. And he worked for a year. And then he went for a trip around the world. And he met this girl in Brazil, and he brought her out here.
00:55:04 Speaker 2
And she had a baby last.
00:55:05 Speaker 2
Week.
00:55:06 Speaker 2
OK, multicultural now so, yeah, so the baby last week and then.
00:55:14 Speaker 2
Hey.
00:55:22 Speaker 2
Taught me one of my other granddaughters. She's I think she's due January. And then Amy, when Mother granddaughter she's due in, then do they mostly live in around the Adelaide? Oh, OK.
00:55:40 Speaker 2
Yeah. The only one our oldest son, Steven he.
00:55:45 Speaker 2
He lives in point Cook in Victoria. He was earlier last week. Come over to see me after I'd had him radiation and that. Yeah, see how it got on and.
00:55:48 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:55:57 Speaker 1
So Christmas time will have very big gathering.
00:56:00 Speaker 2
Normally yes, because they're getting like Michelle's got a son and.
00:56:08 Speaker 2
WA he's got two children and then she's got another son in Victoria. He's got 2, they're all going over to WA and for Christmas. But the rest we're going down to Deborah's. But she lives her two of them. The rest of us are going down there.
00:56:10 Speaker 1
Oh.
00:56:16 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:56:29
Oh.
00:56:30 Speaker 2
OK. Yeah, we usually, I mean.
00:56:33 Speaker 1
They always used to have 24 and here then I always fed them in. What did you say? 24 year for dinner? Another question I had was was this House to the House that you moved in first when you?
00:56:46 Speaker 2
When I come from Port Lincoln, yeah, 34 years.
00:56:48 Speaker 2
Ago.
00:56:49 Speaker 1
I.
00:56:49 Speaker 1
Yeah. So, children, how long did they lived here for a long time.
00:56:56 Speaker 2
Ohh no because uh no.
00:56:57 Speaker 1
They're all kind of grown up. Yeah, yeah.
00:56:58 Speaker 2
Yeah, that's right. We had Dennis and and Roxanne. Yeah. Dennis was doing his year.
00:57:01 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:57:03 Speaker 2
12.
00:57:04 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:57:05 Speaker 2
And when we come over and Roxanne was just starting school.
00:57:10 Speaker 2
So yeah.
00:57:13 Speaker 2
So yes, that's right. I'll stop here. They've served me off and said, why don't you move somewhere else? I said no. So I've been here that long. I know everyone around the place and yeah, I feel quite safe and.
00:57:25 Speaker 2
That here OK.
00:57:28 Speaker 2
Yeah, I've got a couple of mates that look after.
00:57:30 Speaker 2
Me pretty well.
00:57:32 Speaker 2
Plus I've got this with.
00:57:37 Speaker 1
Did this neighborhood change much?
00:57:41 Speaker 2
Ohh it has yeah. Has changed, right? Yeah, yeah.
00:57:42 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:57:44 Speaker 1
A lot of new houses.
00:57:45 Speaker 2
That's right. Yeah, yeah. It's gradually changing. Yeah. It's gradually growing. Yeah.
00:57:52 Speaker 2
Oh yes, it has changed a lot and.
00:57:59 Speaker 1
Now I see that this one is correction. This one is I think.
00:58:07 Speaker 1
Michelle worked on this, but she's yeah. She sent me by e-mail. So if you want you can. You can keep this. Yeah. Or really, because I also have hockey computer file copy. So. OK.
00:58:08 Speaker 2
That's right, Suzanne.
00:58:14 Speaker 2
Did she? No. No, no, no, no. You thank you that she said we'll give it to you. Yeah.
00:58:22
Yeah.
00:58:24 Speaker 2
Yeah, but you you got this all printed, so yeah. Yep. Be more interest. Better for you there. Yeah, that's right. And just doing the other one today or something. Yeah.
00:58:28 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:58:29 Speaker 1
OK.
00:58:33 Speaker 1
So and.
00:58:35 Speaker 1
So last weeks one I sent on over the weekend, she work on she'll. Yeah. Work on with you.
00:58:42 Speaker 2
On that.
00:58:47 Speaker 1
Or over the room. Yeah. Yeah. Also, the first week 1. I also center. And so after the Week 3, one real work on Week 1 because she is doing.
00:58:47 Speaker 2
Well, I went one with us this morning. I went through.
00:58:50 Speaker 2
One with them.
00:59:07 Speaker 1
Great job actually. Yeah, so.
00:59:09 Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:59:12 Speaker 1
So yeah, we've we've done so today is the 4th week. Yeah, yeah, now.
00:59:21 Speaker 1
How many weeks do you do?
00:59:23 Speaker 1
You.
00:59:24 Speaker 2
Think. Yeah, well, I'm trying to keep it down as much as I can. Yeah. And and just put the important things and see that. I mean, I retired in 19. What? It was 57 there. And then I went out to Port Vincent.
00:59:39 Speaker 1
Hmm.
00:59:42 Speaker 2
For two years.
00:59:43
Yes.
00:59:44 Speaker 2
And that's the story again, because we we looked out from the hospital up there, down the catering and then.
00:59:46
Yeah.
00:59:48 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:59:50 Speaker 1
Yeah.
00:59:57 Speaker 2
Yeah. Then I came back here and I played bowls for 20 years. So yeah, that's a fair bit. Yeah. OK.
01:00:04 Speaker 1
Yeah. So I'm negotiating with the Office of Life Storage program. Yeah, that we can extend this a little bit.
01:00:16 Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, what I'm going to do, I said to myself, I said there's some stories that I wanted to tell.
01:00:22 Speaker 2
And honestly you.
01:00:24 Speaker 2
Haven't been able to. Yeah. Put it all in.
01:00:27 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:00:27 Speaker 2
So what I'm going to do, I'm going to do each one of them, perhaps make it a page. You keep it to the page and get it to type it up, and then if you can put it in, yeah, wherever. We will try and get it. I'll try and get a few dates. Alright, you know.
01:00:34 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:44 Speaker 1
OK.
01:00:46 Speaker 1
So I think.
01:00:48 Speaker 1
You can plan on and.
01:00:52 Speaker 1
Important stories that you want to tell you can group them into corporate stories. Yeah, and we can insert that into.
01:00:55 Speaker 2
Yeah.
01:01:05 Speaker 2
But where we can fit them in, we can fit them into here. You see, we're we're like, you know where they.
01:01:08 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:01:10 Speaker 2
Go.
01:01:10 Speaker 2
Here and I think that's.
01:01:11 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:01:13 Speaker 1
Today's studio again, I'll eventually produce like the title section title, yeah.
01:01:16 Speaker 2
Yeah, that's right. It should be easier today because I read it out and accept it first. But yeah, I didn't expect to go this far.
01:01:21 Speaker 1
Yeah, the first, the first part, yeah.
01:01:26 Speaker 1
First part has very little mumbling. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So.
01:01:30 Speaker 2
We're all reading.
01:01:33 Speaker 2
So it's not better when I see I spent yesterday writing that all out and I thought that'll be easier. Yeah, but I thought that would take a lot longer than I did, but it.
01:01:36 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:01:41 Speaker 1
Yeah, but actually night reading and simply telling it has its own kind of dynamics. It has energy. You don't know that you're not planning, and stories come out. Yeah, there is that. Yeah.
01:01:43 Speaker 2
Didn't.
01:01:51 Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:01:58 Speaker 2
I know well, the more I do it, the more I remember.
01:02:01 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:02:01 Speaker 2
You know, but for so over so many.
01:02:03 Speaker 2
Years.
01:02:03 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:02:06 Speaker 2
Well, when Nancy went in the nursing home, we've been together.
01:02:09 Speaker 2
64 years.
01:02:11 Speaker 2
You know, that's five years ago.
01:02:12 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
01:02:15 Speaker 2
There's a lot of history, and I mean, I was always, I was always involved wherever I was, like when I was playing football.
01:02:21 Speaker 1
Uh.
01:02:25 Speaker 2
I was either secretary or supposedly yeah selector.
01:02:31 Speaker 2
Different jobs than the football club, apart from playing and that you know that always seemed to be what happened to me wherever I went, see and I haven't said nothing. I was present at the Probus club here or haven't put any of that in. You know, Nancy was the secretary of the Progress Club. Yeah. I'll let me put included any of that.
01:02:34 Speaker 1
Uh.
01:02:37
Hmm.
01:02:51 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:02:53 Speaker 2
But this we're but still back in Portland and now, aren't we? Yeah. So.
01:03:00 Speaker 1
Tourism, later part I want you to talk more about kind of reflections on kind of life in general.
01:03:10 Speaker 1
Yeah, but at this stage I want to ask.
01:03:16 Speaker 1
What were the important things in life for you? Family, definitely.
01:03:19 Speaker 2
Our family.
01:03:22 Speaker 1
Yeah. And sports is very important part of family.
01:03:26 Speaker 2
Yeah. Ohh yeah, no, it's not. It's quite important part of me, you know, like and I always played a lot of sport. Mm-hmm. I mean, I think that's why I'm as fit as I am now. Yeah. Like. Yeah.
01:03:29 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:03:37 Speaker 2
When I was playing football, I trained three nights a week and you know and that and when I gave up.
01:03:45 Speaker 2
Football I always stretched, always exercise and I always stretched and I'm so glad I've done that. Yeah, cause if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be walking around now. OK? Yeah.
01:03:56 Speaker 1
To what age did you continue sports?
01:04:00 Speaker 2
Ah.
01:04:02 Speaker 2
Oh well, I played both for 20 years.
01:04:04 Speaker 2
After I came there, wouldn't I say in 1957 I retired and?
01:04:12 Speaker 2
Yeah. So another 20 years after that, I played bowls.
01:04:16 Speaker 2
OK.
01:04:17 Speaker 2
Then I had to give it up, so I had that.
01:04:18 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:04:21 Speaker 2
To do all this myself, yeah. And then I gave it away, but yeah.
01:04:22 Speaker 1
So.
01:04:28 Speaker 2
Eh.
01:04:30 Speaker 2
I was. I played was fortunate enough to play and three or four winning pennants, so I was played in a A winning Pennant side at tennis earlier in my life like I was.
01:04:39 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
01:04:41 Speaker 2
In my 5th.
01:04:43 Speaker 2
In my late 40s, so I reckon and.
01:04:49
Who?
01:04:49 Speaker 1
What was the work life?
01:04:54 Speaker 1
For you, what was it? Was it a means to an end or was it you you enjoy? When I was, when, when, when I was.
01:05:04 Speaker 1
Itself.
01:05:07 Speaker 2
In my early teens, every Sunday night there was a show on 5:00 AM on the radio called roaming around Australia. Yeah, with.
01:05:09
Hmm.
01:05:16 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:05:25 Speaker 2
I don't know. I just got married now.
01:05:28 Speaker 2
And I will remember. But yeah, what he done, he wrote travel books all over the world. But he started off in Australia. He started following the swaggers around when the depression is on. He used to follow them around from town to town and they were going from town to town looking for work.
01:05:42 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah.
01:05:45 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:05:49 Speaker 2
Yeah, I'm looking for a paid or.
01:05:51 Speaker 2
You think and that he would.
01:05:52 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:05:54 Speaker 2
He would say, well, I went to Peterborough with a 4H town. He always said how many hotels you know and then he would write all about what he found out they were doing, you know, and so and he then he the first book he ever wrote was try anything once.
01:06:00 Speaker 1
OK.
01:06:03 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:06:11 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:06:12 Speaker 2
And yeah, that, that, that sort of appealed to me, you know, oh, I see. Was that fiction or is it? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Then he wrote roaming.
01:06:19 Speaker 2
It was true.
01:06:24 Speaker 2
Roaming down the Murrumbidgee. Yeah, and it was roaming around Australia. That was The thing is, he wrote these table books there and then he went overseas. I I've seen.
01:06:36 Speaker 2
Books he's written on.
01:06:39 Speaker 2
And South Africa and India and those places, he went everywhere. But he said he had that knack of.
01:06:42 Speaker 1
Oh, OK, yeah.
01:06:47 Speaker 1
Yeah. So if there's a traveler he likes traveling. That's right. Yeah. Work is just to keep himself able to do that.
01:06:48 Speaker 2
OK.
01:06:50 Speaker 2
Yeah.
01:06:58 Speaker 2
But yeah, the whole thing is try and you think once and I think I've done.
01:07:03 Speaker 2
That pretty well, OK.
01:07:06 Speaker 2
Because when the girl.
01:07:07 Speaker 1
But you made it very early. So yeah, yeah, yeah. You couldn't do that with the family. Different, different style.
01:07:16 Speaker 2
Yeah, but well, I kept on doing things and I've got somewhere near, but my.
01:07:27 Speaker 2
That's fine.
01:07:30 Speaker 2
I've got a certificate for being part of Christmas.
01:07:33 Speaker 2
OK, when the school learned to be Father Christmas and I've done 1 stint at John Martins at Westlakes.
01:07:35
I see.
01:07:38 Speaker 1
OK.
01:07:40 Speaker 2
Yeah, there's two of us and that we used to do 4 hours each day. Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's that was interesting. Umm. But yeah, so yeah, I'll give it a go. OK.
01:07:56 Speaker 2
And that's what's Love's about. Yeah, you know.
01:07:59 Speaker 2
I mean, not a job.
01:08:00 Speaker 2
I mean, it was as a patrol officer. Just fire patrol officer.
01:08:04 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:08:06 Speaker 2
That was the worst job we ever had.
01:08:08 Speaker 1
Oh.
01:08:10 Speaker 2
But it made me in the finish because when Australian national role was formed.
01:08:19 Speaker 2
And.
01:08:20 Speaker 2
When it was self phone railways, they had a turntable.
01:08:24 Speaker 2
On the face and at those days in and, they had the detectives down at modeling, and they had a chap from Southtown, police force, who was in charge of it.
01:08:32 Speaker 1
Oh, OK.
01:08:38 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:08:39 Speaker 2
But then the common flowers.
01:08:44 Speaker 2
When when it all collapsed, when when they joined together?
01:08:48 Speaker 2
My boss that I had lately here he was a senior Detective Sergeant in the federal police force and he was at Port Augusta and all happened and he went to the Assistant Commissioner there and he said, what are you going to do about security? And? And he said, what do you mean? He said, well, you no longer have.
01:08:58 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:09:04
Mm-hmm.
01:09:09 Speaker 2
The Councils and the detectives will have played, he said. You won't have anything in Adelaide.
01:09:15 Speaker 2
And they said, oh, OK and.
01:09:20 Speaker 2
So he said. Well, would you like me to?
01:09:24 Speaker 2
To take over and get.
01:09:27 Speaker 1
And.
01:09:27 Speaker 2
So they made him.
01:09:31 Speaker 2
Web like folding map.
01:09:34 Speaker 2
Gave him a title.
01:09:38 Speaker 2
I forget what it was now, but anyway he took over when he came Adelaide.
01:09:43 Speaker 2
The only staff he could see was us down dissington, who were 7.
01:09:47 Speaker 2
Of us, yeah.
01:09:48 Speaker 2
And five could fall off, so he should forget about the Buddy 5. We're going to.
01:09:53 Speaker 2
Do.
01:09:55 Speaker 2
He said. I'm I'm going to turn them into patrol officers.
01:09:59 Speaker 2
And in the end.
01:10:03 Speaker 2
The study done he done away with what we used to spend most of our time. We go around the huge they were huge workshops, you know, and we go around six, you know, we had to test all the fire equipment and that we had we had a Dennis Fire engine which used.
01:10:13
Hmm.
01:10:20 Speaker 2
To go out.
01:10:21 Speaker 2
We had a a delay button at the disk. The fire bill went we.
01:10:29 Speaker 2
But if we could handle it, we wouldn't worry. But we'll just go through to the.
01:10:37 Speaker 2
And then press the button in the front office there. That will stop the fire. Would go from coming in. We have to handle ourselves. If we couldn't hand it, we just go within 5 minutes. We the fire engine here from up North Adelaide and that.
01:10:42 Speaker 1
Yeah.
01:10:52
Hmm.
01:10:53 Speaker 2
Yeah, they there. They made him Superintendent of security services. That's the title they gave. Yeah. And he kept that right through, and then we'll we'll get to that later on. But then I became.
01:10:57 Speaker 1
I see. OK.
01:11:01 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:11:07 Speaker 2
The chief security officer for throwing this under him and my and our boss was a.
01:11:11 Speaker 1
OK. Yeah.
01:11:14 Speaker 2
But not.
01:11:17 Speaker 2
He was a Canadian academic.
01:11:20 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:11:21 Speaker 2
And he was a corporate manager. Yeah. And I've got the show.
01:11:28 Speaker 2
But yeah, so it it changed altogether. But when I first came, that was a shocking job that they they were, they used to fight amongst themselves so.
01:11:37 Speaker 1
Hmm.
01:11:38 Speaker 2
And needs to be given me telling me you know all these stories and I didn't know whether to believe them or not. In the end, I sort of worked it all out. But yeah, yeah.
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