Neil Crawley

Neil was born in Yallourn in 1950 and lived there until 1958 before shifting to Morwell. He then left school and returned for his first job at Yallourn Post Office as Junior Postal Officer. Ross Cook was the Postmaster at that time. One of his most vivid memories at the Post Office was delivering a telegram to an old lady (or so he thought then) and telling her that her only son had been killed in Vietnam. she was a widow living alone and under the Commonwealth Secrets Act, Postal employees were forbidden to divulge any information contained in telegrams. I knew what the telegram said and because I felt sorry for the lady, I went to a neighbour and told her what had happened before I delivered it. For months after, I lived in dread of the Commonwealth or Military Police arriving to arrest me.
I attended Yallourn Kindergarten in 1953 and then started the Primary School in 1954. I presume because of the baby boom after WWII the school was unable to house all primary children because my first year was actually spent at the High School using a classroom along the Strzelecki Rd boundary just above the medical centre. We were semi-segregated from the big rough High School kids with our teachers shepherding us around like mother ducks looking after her ducklings. We were marched to the Primary across the Square and past the picture theatre if there was anything on at the Primary school (such as endless needles and vaccinations, assemblies etc). I also remember the build up of coal dust in the quadrangle that reached the top of the concrete retaining walls in the corners.