Talking about Pt Augusta wharf in my last post brought back a lot of memories of the 1960s when working on the wharfs . We were working in a B class port where we did not receive what was known as appearance money which we received if we were required to attend the pick up centre, it was the princely sum of 10 dollars .
The Chuie Maru was the most regular ship we had every six and when in port usually worked weekends and we would get two weeks pay in five days , Rail boats than unloaded lengths of railway line was the other not so regular , so we had to look at the notice board at the pick up centre
each day , that cost money the pub was next door .
Eventually they brought in what we called mobile transfers where if they were short of men in another port they sent us by bus when needed , there are 2 other ports within 60miles one named Port Pirie that has one of the biggest lead smelters in Australia , the other was Whyalla which has a steelworks plant , the mobile transfer was voluntary, your name was put on a list and if only a few men were required and you missed out your name would go up in the list .
This is what my mate Dirty body and I would do when we knew no ships were in these ports , then we would remove our names and go trapping rabbits and shooting kangaroos to earn a living. a sort of bush telegraph would advise us to come home again for work, once because I was a motorcycle mechanic the two of us went brumby chasing further north with a gang , lasted a week those bastards were mad or I was chicken lol, no way would I ride that rough country on a bike , only went out twice the rest was repairing engines and frames.