Ten Pound Poms

Thanks JS, No, my ex was a waitress at Frenchy’s in Milwaukee — lion steaks and such for the Toffs and a hang out for the Green Bay Packers football team in their heyday — not a place i ever patronized. The reason i gained the job as Marine Super in 1964 was due to a Chicago Marine Surveyor’s botched report on a dropped Caterpillar Grader aboard a Swedish ship ( I was handling the Caterpillar Account as an Underwriter). Reading the report prior to payout caused me to get involved and ended up getting hired by the Stevedore Company even though I had caused their insurer to pay off the claim. Anyway, the National Cargo Bureau was formed and Congress or some government entity took over all Bulk Grain Surveys for entire country and gave the work to them. I still have their Grain Rules Hand Book. At that time I didn’t know i was to be a Marine Surveyor on the West Coast USA a few years later — We are a versatile lot aren’t we ? — guess that is what comes of being at sea and having to make do and adjust no matter what life throws at us as there is no one to help but the crew on a little steel floating island !

Hi Keith.
That Company in Christchurch would have been the Canterbury Steamship Co, they had two or three ships. I was on one the MV Calm they also had the MV Storm, can't remember the other one. they serviced the South Island.

It is not easy these days to get a pension in Aus if you are not kosher, when we came over from NZ in 72 I had to put my son on my passport, thought nothing of it until my son recently went for citizenship in order to be in line for his pension, took him six months of wrangling, and he has been here all that time.
Des

#68. Making do with what you have to do the job applied in other occupations as well. I can remember as a kid shortly after the war when the continuation of shortages existed for a long time after ,was going around bombed out buildings and collecting building bricks , my old man used to knock the old cement off them and reuse to build people’s garden walls. Today they talk about re-using materials such as empty bottles as though someone has had a brainwave, we did that 70 years ago to survive on the deposits paid out on such. We survived and had no hang ups on such , different people and different morals. All you hear today is whining about how hard life is , we were survivors today we seem to have bred whiners . Cheers JS

Des mate, the problem for your son is the fact he has deal with the Missing Link, aptly named, to get anywhere.

I have been putting my vaccination details on my phone for travel purposes, mate three different bodies to deal with for that.
You have to link them all together, Medicare, My gov and Services Victoria.
Problem is none of the talk with each other.

Often wonder what they do all day long, I know they do not look out of the window in the morning as it would mean there was nothing to do after lunch if they did.

Funny how I never thought anyone else cleaned house bricks after the war but here you are!
The remaining portions of many bombed buildings were walled off with large bill boards to hide the rubble until there was time and labour to clear the property and rebuild. The last summer before my last school year was spent cleaning bricks and stacking them in blocks I worked at a site in Wallasey of a cinema that was to be rebuilt using the same bricks and aptly named Phoenix. Dump trucks came in with full loads of mortar encase bricks from sites all over town. Steady work the begat very corse skinned hands ! It was only when I went to sea that I learned to apply coats of linseed oil To soften my hands during the last few days before arriving back in Blighty …

We also had “Bob a job” campaigns for Boy Scouts Cheers !

You were lucky Keith you probably got paid for collecting them, I didn’t It was father and son , he was the builder and I was the unpaid help. Even had to clean off some of the easier ones myself. No wonder I chose to go to sea.? Especially when I had to mix the new cement, all human cement mixers in those days , the Industrial Revolution hadn’t yet arrived in some parts of the UK. Cheers hope your plumb rule still in working order. JS

Thanks Des, I always thought it was Cooperative Farmers and did understand they had just a few coastal type vessels serving South Island. I was the second of two Mates on the 12 to 4 on the “EMPRESS OF BRITAIN”. When a Male Passenger when in the First Class elevator up from the dining room asked if he could come on the bridge without a Purser Tour. He explained he was Owner or part owner of a small shipping operation in NZ the and 2nd Mate said okay as long as he didn’t speak of it to others. After that he spent a lot of time on our watch, especially the Night Watch when it was quiet and clear weather. I was chuffed to hear about NZ from an actual KIWI and said it was my goal to live there after i earned my Masters but in a coveted shore job. Anyway, he said if i could get myself out there, to let him know ahead of time that i was actually able to come, he would sponsor me but may not have permanent work for me. Sadly never made it but hopefully still be able to fly out for visit before i get too feeble to freely get around. Always said that other than UK/Eire there is nowhere else i would live than Christchurch, NZ or Portland, OR/USA. Took me more than two years for me to accept that i could get to like USA!

Yes, I was paid and able to buy a weekly Social Insurance Stamp at the local Post Office. While on site i was able to watch the Brickies do their stuff. I don’t think i ever had to work as hard as a Hod Carrier, up and down the ladders with mortar and bricks in the Hod at their shoulder even though i had some really slave like work as an Apprentice with PSNC. Perseverance, Starvation and No Cash, or was it Pease Send New Crew or Poxy Sailors Never Cured ? I must be sadistic as i am quite proud that I was able to have that four year experience. Living just across the Mersey opposite Canada Dock i was too handy and called back off leave as needed — very jealous of those who lived in other counties and got full 10 days every four months or so. I learned a heck of a lot about loading and discharge in Liverpool, did me in good stead for Orals ! Keith A.

#75. When I had a. House built in 2000 for retirement 300 metres off the Indian Ocean with miles of beach which was crowded if more than 5 people were on it , life was very pleasant. At the time of building was lucky as had 2 very good brickies and your plumb rule would have proved that . At the time the Olympic Games were in sight and all the tradesmen were over in Sydney where there was a call for big money tradesmen, even here they were getting $2 dollars a brick laid. Even my old man in his heyday could lay over a 1000 on a straight course in a day , so shows the high money they get out here at times. Even working from a scaffold he had two hod carriers supplying him trying to keep up. As regards my self or wife designed house built for retirement even it got too big to maintain. Definetly too far a walk to the nearest pub. Cheers JS

Some individual brickies can now make s fortune there is such a shortage here in Victoria.

But with many of the major builders they will take on any as they only pay a fixed rate per house.
My brother had one built a few years ago and the brick team were four from Indonesia.
Paid a fixed sum of $5000 per house,
Not that good though, the front of the house had to be done three times they were so bad.