When I was around twenty and the shearing season was over I earned a small amount of money bag sewing and hay carting. This was over and above working at Phillip’s Mill in Albury, New South Wales. Phillip’s were the leading Oat processing, rolling and grading mill in southern NSW.
During the off season for shearing I organised a small team of work mates from Phillip’s Mill to form a ‘Bag Sewing Hay Carting Team’. They were Roy Grentell, Frank Ledwidge, Carole my life time partner and my-self.
Roy and Frank had permanent work at Phillip’s Mill grading and rolling oats for the South East Asia market. Frank, who had worked on the Burma railroad as a prisoner of war, was the toughest man I ever met. Frank reckoned I could do with some toughening up to catch up to him as he had survived the Burma ordeal and proven his ability to work in extreme heat.
Roy and Frank were very good workers and neat at bag sewing. Carole, whose job was to thread the bag sewing needles to keep up with the bag sewers and to do a spot of driving during the hay season, was a handy helper.
We decided that because Roy and Frank were far better at sewing than I was we should split the proceeds three ways – Roy 1/3rd, Frank 1/3rd, Godfrey and Carole 1/3rd. The pay was reasonably good as there was a standard rate for sewing oat bags at 6 pence per bag and wheat at 8 pence per bag
I was a major partner in the deal because I had the car and we couldn’t ‘do’ bag sewing or hay carting without a car to get us out to the farms. Carole was teaching at Aerial Street, Wodonga and would come out with us at the weekend.
On the weekends in the summer we would leave Albury at sunrise, returning at around 5 pm. We were very fussy about who we worked for because it was hot, hard work, often passing 100o Fahrenheit.
The bulk handling of grain with the use of augers and other elevator systems gradually superseded the old bag handling systems. Our bag sewing team stopped doing weekend work.
Roy, Frank and myself continued working, mainly after normal hours, for another season. Carole drove the hay carter’s truck to finish off the bales while Roy, Frank and I built hay stacks.
All this was hard work! I wonder nowadays how we did it!
Godfrey Marple
October 2016
During the off season for shearing I organised a small team of work mates from Phillip’s Mill to form a ‘Bag Sewing Hay Carting Team’. They were Roy Grentell, Frank Ledwidge, Carole my life time partner and my-self.
Roy and Frank had permanent work at Phillip’s Mill grading and rolling oats for the South East Asia market. Frank, who had worked on the Burma railroad as a prisoner of war, was the toughest man I ever met. Frank reckoned I could do with some toughening up to catch up to him as he had survived the Burma ordeal and proven his ability to work in extreme heat.
Roy and Frank were very good workers and neat at bag sewing. Carole, whose job was to thread the bag sewing needles to keep up with the bag sewers and to do a spot of driving during the hay season, was a handy helper.
We decided that because Roy and Frank were far better at sewing than I was we should split the proceeds three ways – Roy 1/3rd, Frank 1/3rd, Godfrey and Carole 1/3rd. The pay was reasonably good as there was a standard rate for sewing oat bags at 6 pence per bag and wheat at 8 pence per bag
I was a major partner in the deal because I had the car and we couldn’t ‘do’ bag sewing or hay carting without a car to get us out to the farms. Carole was teaching at Aerial Street, Wodonga and would come out with us at the weekend.
On the weekends in the summer we would leave Albury at sunrise, returning at around 5 pm. We were very fussy about who we worked for because it was hot, hard work, often passing 100o Fahrenheit.
The bulk handling of grain with the use of augers and other elevator systems gradually superseded the old bag handling systems. Our bag sewing team stopped doing weekend work.
Roy, Frank and myself continued working, mainly after normal hours, for another season. Carole drove the hay carter’s truck to finish off the bales while Roy, Frank and I built hay stacks.
All this was hard work! I wonder nowadays how we did it!
Godfrey Marple
October 2016
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