Recollections of Yallourn 1946 to 1960 by Allan Schroeder (circa 1990)
My first experience of Yallourn was in February 1946 when I arrived with my wife and 3 year old daughter for a few days’ holiday. I was on my way to Tasmania to look over a prospective job there after five and a half years in the Air Force.
We stayed at the Yallourn Guest House run by Mrs Birmingham and her sister. We immediately became surrounded by fellow boarders, who later became friends of many years standing. These boarders were Carl Rosenbrock, Father Walsh, Allan Cameron and several school teachers. In two days’ time, before I had time to collect my wits, I was sent to Melbourne by the SEC to be interviewed for a staff job and the next thing I knew, I was an electrical operator at the briquette factory. Just before Xmas 1947, I was transferred to Civil Construction as in 1947, the mobile plant consisted of some single furrow ploughs, two small tractors and an abundance of picks, shovels and various hand tools.
Within a few months, the SEC had been busy buying up surplus war service mobile plant and equipment. By 1948, we had over 100 heavy tractors, tournapulls, scrapers, mobile cranes and many heavy tipper trucks and concrete agitators. ‘C’ Power Station was in the process of being built by SEC labour to be followed by ‘D’ Station. The labour force in Civil Construction alone had swollen to over 1100 bodies.
The Construction Depot was the centre of operations and I will endeavour to recall some of the identities of the early days. Being a thorough gentleman, I will mention the ladies first. These were the typists trying out their skills on a hard headed lot of construction workers who wanted things done now and in a hurry.
To my knowledge, most of the girls were graduates from the Yallourn High School and included Betty Whitaker, June Blenkiron, Rita Stephens, Laurie Sidebotham. They were very popular with the men and seldom blinked an eyelid when a burst of profanity escaped the usually pristine lips of the workers.
The timekeepers were Taffy Stock and Ernie Maddern. The Assistant Construction Superintendent was Bruce Banks (a great bandsman) and Barry Callinan (accountant). Snowy Crowe was the Works’ Supervisor and Snowy was a real character in his own right and not many of that generation will forget him.
Of the foremen, there was Ted Daly, affectionately known as Docker because he collected the time sheets and woe befell those who put in false returns. Other foremen were Les Nicholson, George Gray, Jimmy McIlwaine, Tom Jones and numerous others on the field.
I must relate a funny story concerning Snowy Crowe. In the late 1940s, the SEC were busy recruiting a lot of new Australians and many of these were sent to the depot for job allocation. Mostly they were Europeans from the Baltic States and could speak no English. It was Snowy’s job to line them up on Monday morning and the first thing he would do was ask them their name, to which they would give him a blank look.
I had some knowledge of the German language but very slight, whereas most of them could speak it. I would hear a howl of rage from outside and Snowy yelling “come outside and see if you can knock any sense into these fellows.”
Well, I would o out and say “what is your name?” Their faces would immediately light up and one would ask why Snowy was shouting at them. I would tell them not to worry as he was a schaffs kopt (sheep’s head) and they would burst into hysterical laughter. Snowy never did get the message and called me the interpreter.
Some other identities looked after the Municipal Services and they were Len Oakley, Jack Carlisle and Bob Dinsdale. Most of the identities I have named would have had sons and daughters who attended Yallourn High School and I hope it will bring back memories to some of them.
It was a sad day when Civil Construction shut down in Yallourn in 1960 as it affected so many people living in the town.

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