No. 253. JAN.lFEB., 1974

A SUBSIDIARY OF AUSTRALIAN MININGAND SMELTING COMPANY LIMITED

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j ON OTHER PAGES ic PAGE c! Potted Biographies 2', More Retirements 3 jj Floodbound Saga 4, 5 ie Some Fish 6_, Presentations 7 j=, Pallet truck improves c

a handling problem ... 8'i Sulphide. Employees' ii Recreation Club 8 c

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RETIREDFAREWELL

STAFF AT"SEND-OFF"

Early in January a farewell function arranged bythe Staff Social Club was given to retiring staffmembers, Gordon Stidolph, Bob Thurston and J oeWaiters. Also attending the "do" were quite anumber of the retired staff from Sulphide Corpor-ation.

The picture below shows the new retirees, J oeWaiters, Gordon Stidolph and Bob Thurston(Centre, L. to R.) and the "oldies" arranged aroundthem. Reading clockwise from the 12 o'clockposition, the "oldies" and their date of retirementare as follows:- Steve Bell (13.4.62), Bob Hughes(31.7.72), Glyn John (5.6.71), George Barnier Snr.(8.5.73), John Thomas (31.12.69), Jack Kerr(22.2.68), Ivan Horys (31.8.73), Reg Gibson(9.9.73), Bill Haynes (7.3.66), Doug Eckford(3.6.71), Frank Allan (16.8.53), Bob Chedzey(28.7.71), Charlie Cressy (26.5.71) and Roy Filmer(3.4.64). See story on Page Three.

POTTEDBIOGRAPHIES

JOSEPH WALTERS

J oe is the youngest sonof recently-retired Watch-man, Joe Waiters and worksin the Transport and YardDepartment.

He was born at SpeersPoint in December, 1941and educated at Boolarooand Cooks Hill HighSchools. After leavingschool he commenced workwith D. Dellaca's : JoineryWorks and then later wentto another local joineryfirm, Smith's Joinery, ofBoolaroo. In 1960 he wentto work for AustralianWire Rope Works and waswith them for four yearsuntil joining us at SulphideCorporation in October,1964. Joe started here atthe Fertilizer Plant and wasa member of the No. 3 Millteam under Frank Rice. Hewas transferred to theTransport and Yard De-partment in 1968.

Joe is married and livesat Bell Street, Speers Point.

His wife was formerly Pat-ricia Mash, of Tcukley.They have two children,Marc, aged four and Lee,16 months.

Joe is a keen soccer sup-porter and presently iscoach of Lake MacquarieUnder 12 Years team. Healso had a one year stintas coach of Toronto/Awaba Third Grade team.Until an injury forced himto give the game away, Joeplayed first and reservegrades with Lake Mac-quarie and Cardiff WorkersClub. He is also a golferand plays off a handicap of15 at Toronto CountryClub. Like his father he isalso a keen fisherman andparticularly likes beach androck fishing. AroundMooney is a favourite spotfor this pastime.

JOHN ALLAN ROBSONBorn at Maryville, New-

castle, in June 1934, Johnlived in Swansea until hewas married in 1956. Heattended Swansea PublicSchool and Central JuniorTech. High, where he ob-tained his IntermediateCertificate.

After finishing schoolJohn worked at a lccal gar-age until he was 16 years oldthen he went to WallarahColliery as a trapper and

,clipper. In 1951 he com-menced work with theDep't. of Main Roads as atimekeeper-storekeeper inthe Northern Division, re-

o maining with them until1956 when he joined theTime Office staff at B.H.P.After being with B.H.P.

for about nine years Johnresigned and commencedhere as a timekeeper inFebruary, 1965. He is nowsenior timekeeper.

John and his wife Kay(formerly Kay Fairhall, ofMerewether) have lived atWindale since 1957. Theyhave a son, Allan, aged 15and a daughter Jeanne-Kay,who is 11. Many Sulphiders

have met John's charmingwife during their stay atNewcastle Hospital, whereshe works on the DietaryStaff.

John is a real sportsmanhaving played First GradeSoccer with AdamstownRosebuds, Grade and Cityand Suburban Cricket,Tennis and Lawn Bowls.He also did some boxing aswell as being an activemember of Caves BeachSurf Lifesaving Club. Johnhas represented Newcastlein three of these sports - asan amateur boxer, JuniorSoccer and Lawn Bowls.

John's current sports areBowls, with Swansea Wor-kers No. 1 Pennants andGolf. But he also enjoyssurfing with the children atBlacksmiths Beach.

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MORE RETIREMENTS

Continuing the spate of retirements from theWorks scene in the latter part of 1973, we reporton another four which took place at the end ofDecember and early January.

The quartet on this occasion, Bob J ones, GordonStidolph, Bob Thurston and Joe WaIters, had be-tween them amassed 110 years continuous servicewith Sulphide Corporation. (Bob Jones, 32 yearsand two months; Gordon Stidolph, 33 years andfour months; Bob Thurston, 31 years and one monthand Joe Waiters, 13 years and seven months).

However, except for JoeWaiters, the others all hadbroken periods of employ-ment here going back forsome time prior to theirlast starting date. In thecases of the two Bobs, BobJones and Bob Thurston,this service extended backto 1926 and 1934 respec-tively.

Bob Jones' first recordedassociation with SulphideCorporation in 1926 waswhen he was engaged onproduction work at theFertilizer Plant. In the 1938records his name appearsfor the first time as a tradesassistant in the EngineeringDepartment and' all his ser-vice here since his last startin October 1941 has beenin this capacity. For manyyears before his retirementBob was with the Acid De-partment Engineering sec-tion. As is their wont whenone of their number retires,the Acid Department per-sonnel organised a rousingsend-off and presentationfunction in Bob's, honour.

Works chauffeur, GordonStidolph, could perhaps,have been aptly called

"Sulphide's man-about-town" on account of histwice daily service run toNewcastle and environs onmissions for the Company.There's not too many shortcuts to the factories andindustrial supply houses inthe area that Gordondoesn't know about. In fact,it would 'be interesting toknow just how many mileshe has travelled over themany years he has beenengaged in this and otherchauffeuring duties in trans-porting Sulphide Corpor-ation officers to variousdestinations. Gordon's first"link-up with S.c., whichhappened in 1938, was notas chauffeur however, thiswas to come later, it was asan operator in productionunits on the site here. Hewas appointed to the staffin 1948.

The Thurston family iswell entrenched in Sulphidebibliography. Bob and hisfather before him havecreated niches here. Boththeir names appear on theHonour Rolls in the Can-teen, Bob in respect of ser-vice in World War 2 andhis father in the 1914-18

Bob Jones

War. Like we said earlier,Bob was around these partsfor some time - since 1934in fact, firstly as a truckerat the Fertilizer Depart-ment, following this up withturns in the DischargeGang, Cement Plant, En-gineering Department andfinally as Stores Receiver atthe General Store. He wasappointed to the staff in1962.

Joe Walters, because olhis Watchman's duties,would undoubtedly beknown to more Sulphidersthan the other retirees. Joejoined our staff in 1960after resigning as DeputySuperintendent of LakeMacquarie District Ambul-.ance. His forthright state-ments and philosophies onall manner of subjects willbe missed. A keen fishermanfrom way-back and recog-nised orchid growing auth-ority, Joe is also Captainof Boolaroo Volunteer FireBrigade, so should have notrouble in occupying hisleisure time. Joe's youngestson, Joe Jun., is a memberof our Transport Depart-ment (see Potted Biograp-hies - Page 2).

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'FLOODBOUND SAGAby Eric Rees (Shift Foreman, Acid) -

My 14 years old son, Joe, who is a member of alapidary club, has, for a long time, wanted to go toLightning Ridge, in north-west N.s.W. to look foropals. We had made many inquiries about the areaand decided just after Christmas, when I was onholidays, that we would go there, just the two ofus, the rest of the family having eJected to stay athome.

Departure tirue was earlyin the morning of 6th Janu-ary following an all-tarredroads. route taking usthrough Murrurrundi, Bre-eza, Gunnedah, Coon am-ble and Walgett to PineOpal Lodge, a 5,000 acresheep property some 30miles N.W. of Walgett,which caters for tourists.

Pine Opal Lodge is con-ventiently situated, beingin a central !!lJsition to thethree opal fields and hashome units and camp sitesavailable for visitors. Otherattractions are tame animalsrunning on the property anda programme of feedingwild birds daily.

Everything looked rightfor a good prospectingholiday. We could fossickall day and come back tothe Lodge for a hot showeror a swim in the pool thenhave a good meal and aquiet night's rest.

It did not work out quiteas planned!

We arrived at Pine-OpalLodge at 6.00 p.m. andwhile we were putting upour tent a storm brokecausing us to run for shel-ter in a nearby shearingshed. It rained and blew allnight. Next morning theproperty owner came to seehow we had fared duringthe storm. He told us therehad been four inches of rainover a wide area and thewhole north-west of N.S.W.was flooded.

He further said that itcould be a month before

'we would get our car out.

We did not really believethis at the time but eventswere to prove that he knewwhat he was talking about!The tent was never erectedyet!

The Boomi, Gwyder,Barwon and Namoi Riversall merge at Walgett andthese rivers already swollenand running pretty wellfrom the rain in southernQueensland had burst theirbanks cutting all roads andwashing out many culverts.

The rain continued foranother three days. Listen-ing to the radio (which wasabout all we could do), we·heard of the plight of thepeople in the area. In ourcase we were safe but withthe nearest water only ahalf-mile away. The carwas no good to us at all- we were isolated.

With the seriousness ofthe situation now apparent,we were asked what foodwe had. I had broughtsome tinned food which wethought we could supple-ment with bread, meat andother supplies from Lightn-ing Ridge. We were advisedto make the tinned foodlast as long as possible asno one knew just when wewould be able to get anymore. We also had a Christ-mas cake with Us whichcame in very handy.

Early in the floods theemergency airstrip on theproperty could not be usedbut after drying out for afew days light aircraft be-gan to bring in aIittle foodto supply the neighbouring

properties and opal fields. Imanaged to get a loaf ofbread, half pound of butterand a tin of fruit.

Meals had to be carefullyplanned. We would rise inthe morning, have a smallbreakfast, nothing at mid-day then, in the evening wewould look at our foodsupply and then decide whatwe could afford to eat.

Every tourist in the areahad studied maps and manytried to find a way out.Some tried to get t 0Queensland and othersthrough Brewarrina andBourke. At: returned. Someafter being bogged andhaving to walk 20 milesfor assistance. J oe and Istayed put.

After a week I notifiedmy family th-at- we wereO.K. and would get backhome whenever possible.

At about this time wewere able to get throughto Grawin and then Glen-garry opal fields withcaution as water was stillover the roads in places.We did some fossickingaround and managed to findsix opals, which we hadcut and polished. But wehad lost our incentive tolook for opals. The isolationfirstly and then the steamyheat and sand flies upset us.We went down a mine andworked in the open cutbut only found very smallopals.

The owners of Pine OpalLodge, the Newton family,did their utmost to makeour stay as pleasant aspossible. in>: the circum-stances .. It was. they whomade it possible for us allto fly by light plane to Wal-gett and then direct toSydney by Fokker Friend-ship for us 44 strandedtourists.

The plane trip openedour eyes to the extent ofthe flood-waters.

As far as the eye couldsee, in all directions therewas .water, with isolated

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high patches of ground onwhich cattle and sheepwere huddled - and home-steads, flooded to roof levelwith muddy flood-waters.Then, on to Walgett withthe levee banks holdingback the water from thetown. The amount of watersurrounding the place wasincredible. Tt had to beseen to be believed!

Walgett looked like anisland in an inland sea.

The airfield was beingused mainly by the RAAFfor rescue work, fodder andfood drops to animals andpeople in need. And, therewas plenty in need of as-sistance with the peak ofthe floodwaters expectedthe next day after we werethere.

Cattle and sheep lossesand property damage willrun into many, many mil-lions of dollars as this floodwas reckoned to be theworst ever experienced inthe area.

When told we would beflying home the next day,Joe said, "Dad, there is noneed to conserve food anymore, is there, can I goback to the shed and havea meal?" We both did andit was very satisfying. Thiswas the first time in afortnight that we were nota little hungry.

The food had lasted welland there was still a littleleft in the car for the pro-perty owner if required.(Like all the other touristscars it was still up at PineOpal Lodge, safely undercover).

The experience will beremembered by Joe andmyself for a very long time.Indeed, I'm sure we'llnever forget it.

And, if for no other rea-son, it does show that nomatter how well a holidaymay be planned there arealways times when thingscan go wrong ... WEHA VENT SEEN LIGHT-.NING RIDGE YET!!

§ FOOTNOl1E: As we to work (a Honda 90, §§§ go to press, Eric has his see pic. above) _ and,§ car back ... A telegram with trains not yet run- §§ received on Thursday, ning to Walgett, this §

14th February, notified would be his way of re-§ him that the road via turning to Pine Opal §§ Lightning Ridge would Lodge and his. flood - §,

be trafficable at the marooned car. His family§ weekend but extreme did not like the idea

hof §

§ caution would be requir- him attempting suc a §ed and weather condit- long ride on a small

§ ions were overcast and machine, but he thought §§ rain predicted for the he could do it. §

area. §§ A phone call to Pine Setting off at mid-§ Opal Lodge on Friday, night on Friday straight §

15th, confirmed these after finishing afternoon §§ conditions, reiterating shift Eric said that it§ that it was still overcast proved to be an un- §§ with thunder but no rain ,-eventful trip and the §

had fallen. . little Honda performed§ magnificently. Aft e r §

Realising that if it did stopping beside the§ rain again he would have Castlereagh River for an §§ no show .of getting his hour he arrived at his §

car back for goodness destination at 4.00 p.m.§ knows how long, Eric on Saturday with the §§ made plans to retrieve it speedo showing 560 §

on his four-day rostered miles. The bike had§ off period. used four gallons of §§ As a good many of petrol and half a cup of §

our readers are aware, oil. §§ Eric rides a motor cycle (Continued on Page 6)

§~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~§Page 5

§?) <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl §FOOTNOl'E:-§ (Continued from page 5) §

§ The conditions were §§ far from ideal for the §

latter part of the jour-§ ney, with drizzling rain. §§ Eric says it took him §§ two hour-s to travel the I§

last 30 miles to Pine§ Opal Lodge on an earth §§ road in black soil country §

which, as an aftermath§ of the flood, had been §§ converted into a slippery, §

treacherous bog of mud.§ He had his first spill on §§ this 'stretch, about 10 §

miles from the Lodge,§ but neither he nor the §§ .bike suffered any injury. §

After being made wel-§ come at the property and §§ having a cup of coffee §

and some cake, Eric§ packed the bike on a §§ tyre tube in the car §

trailer and after repack-§ ing some of the camping §§ gear set off for home de- §

termined to get over the§ bad stretch before' fur- §§ ther rain fell. This was §

accomplished just before§ dark, so he then parked §§ the car and slept until §

daylight.§ The road north and §§,south of Walgett is cut §

by large washaways and§ will take many months §§ to get back into original §

condition, 'Eric says.§ Army type Bailey §§ bridge" have been pres- §

sed into service on these§ sections but the way is §§ difficult and narrow. §

After .the rain the sur-§ rounding countryside is §§ very green with grass up §

to two feet high.§ But, as they say, "It's §§ a long lane that has no §

end" and Eric arrived§ home, much to the relief §§ of his family, at 5.00 §

p.m. Sunday afternoon. §§ The car (and motor§ cycle) are now safely §

back in the garage none §§ the worse for the ad-§ venture. §~?) <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl <Cl I:"

after a struggle he and Colhauled into the boat.

The schnapper was re-garded as one of the largestfish of its kind to be caughtin the area. When put onthe scales to weight it, theybottomed at 25lbs (theirmaximum capacity). It wasestimated to be about 28/30lbs.

Anyhow, whatever theweight, the fish was abeauty as 'the picture showsand no doubt provided theWatson and Bush familieswith some choice fillets aswell as something to talkabout.

In the picture, Col andNeil with their offspringare shown with the fish.From left, Jeffrey Bush,Neil Bush, Peter Bush, ColWatson and Paul Watson.

SOME FISH!

Most people would be delighted to reel in their fishingline and find they had caught a schnapper of about 301bs.(or 13.62 kilos if you like), but to catch one with a gaffwhile it was swimming towards your boat, boy, that'sreally hooking them!

This was the experience which befell Col Watsoll whenhe was holidaying with his family at Shoal Bay ill Januaryand we have Col's picture as proof of the end result of theencounter.

This is how it happened:Col and a neighbour of

his, Neil Bush, were out inCol's boat in the Dutch-mans Bay area with theirfamilies when they noticeda disturbance in the waterwhich, on investigation,proved to be a big fish sur-facing and swimming to-wards them. (Col thinksthe fish was scared up fromthe deep water by a schoolof porpoises and was alittle stunned by the changein water pressure).

Be that as it may, Colbrought the boat close andtried to bring it on boardwith a small landing net.But he had no show ofcatching the monster (whichwas now full of fight) thisway, so friend Neil swunginto action with the gaff,hooking the fish, which

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A very popular Sulphiderin Col Nelson was fare-welled in the BricklayingWorkshop on Friday, 8thFebruary, when" he was pre-sented with a wallet ofnotes. Col started at Sul-phide in 1951 at the Fertili-zer Plant and had 10 yearsthere before transferring tothe Transport Departmentand more recently to theEngineers. Col resignedfrom the Company becauseof health reasons and he ismoving to the Port Mac-quarie region to live. Wewish him all the best forthe future.In the picture above, Colis sitting in the front rowholding his farewell presentwith his workmates groupedaround him.

A double wedding pre-sentation was the order ofthe day on Friday, 25thJanuary, when Bernie Brad-ley (left) and Garry Blewett(right) were guests of hon-our at a function arrangedby their workmates at theSmelter Workshops. In linewith the double event, bothBernie and Garry are fittersand both received verticalgrillers as a wedding present.

Then in another function,this time at the Boiler Shopon Friday, 15th February,Herb Bailey (leading handboilermaker) left, receiveda presentation from hisworkmates on the eve ofhis wedding. The present-ation was made by DannyShepherd (Foreman Boiler-maker).

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~anager of Pender andFoster Pty. Ltd., at Mait-land, would be well satisfiedwith 1973's Lansing Bagnalland the job it is doing. -Ed.).

PALLET TRUCK IMPROVES A HANDLING PROBLEMThe introduction of a

Lansing Bagnall pallettruck, during Septemberlast year, to facilitate thehandling of dross boxes atthe ISF condenser floor hasmet with great approval byoperators who previouslyhad to haul the boxes tothe tippler area.

In fact, as one operatorsaid, "Better than Cow perStoves and all that jazz."

To increase the versatilityof the truck an adapter wasprovided to pick up thedross boxes, instead ofmodifying the truck to suit

the design of the box. Thisenabled the truck to be usedfor the handling of pallet-ised goods, such as bricksand "B" mix on andaround the condenser floor.

(Going back we recallthat something like this wassuggested by the then WorkStudy Section in 1963. Atone particular meeting, infact, after much debate, aWork Study man, Ross Red-man, remarked in somedesperation, "What is reallywanted down there is asmall horse!". . We'resure Ross, who is now

TOP LEFT: "Curlv" Masonis shown positioning thepallet truck under a drossbox. Note forks lowered toslide under the box. In thepicture TOP RIGHT, theforks of the truck have beenraised, lifting a loaded drossbox clear of the floor forit to be removed by "Jock"Gibbs.

r-"-"-"-"SUl'PHi[iE"EMPLOYEE87"R're'REATION"C'WB"-"-"-"-'·ri Ten enthusiastic mem- in 1974 and to this end organisation of such a !e bers of the Recreation members have been asked to programme. ,! Club attended the An- supply details of all children Any "live wires" (not =,, nual Meeting which was in the 0-15 years age group. necessarily electricians), c

=, held on 6th February. The financial report dis- who would like to assist ,cR d in this direction are in-

=, eports presente re- closed that Club funds are vited to submit their'e vealed that the Manage- quite healthy and should S ,=

C . h d names to the ecretary,,ment ornrmttee a rea- give the incoming Commit- c- son to be quite satisfied d f hi Mr. Edgar Hamonet - ,I with achievements and tee- a goo start or t IS our Personnel Officer c

c • 'I year. A new ~anagement'i progress in the initia Committee I'S to be ap cc year of its existence. One of the expressed ob- - ,, . ti f th R ti pointed and nominationsc Efforts during 1he year jec Ives 0 e ecrea IOn =,Cl b . . which will close on Fri-, were concentrated on the u IS to arrange inter- day, 15th March, are c

,= Annual P.icnic. The for- departmental sporting acti- ,iti d th C it sought from Tradesmenmat was based on the VI ies an e ornrru tee c,= f . I th ti . , IApprentices and Staff to ,

very successful picnics now ee e irne IS npe fill the available positions. c

,= conducted by the old to implement something . ,U I h I' In the event of more than

c Welfare Club in years a ong t ese mes, =,

'

the required number be-= gone by. Blessed by fine However, these activities ing received, a ballot will =,, weather a very enjoyable cannot eventuate unless be conducted. S.E.U. re- c

c day eventuated. some interested and en- presentation is usually ar- ,! It is hoped to widen thusiastic members come ranged by the Union's =,, the scope of the Picnic forward to assist with the Management Committee. T.:••..-CI..-.II_ll_Cl •••• II_II_11_11_11_11..-.11_11 __ 1'•••• II_II_I_11_'1_11_11_11_11_11_11_11_11_11_'_:.

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