Living History

Frank's story - Young professional

In 1956, Dad gave up shearing and got work in Wollongong at a Metal Foundry. He got a housing commission home in Unanderra and in September school holidays, we all moved to there. I was enrolled at Wollongong Secondary Technical School. This was a culture shock believe me. The class I was put in was made up of students who had just started that term, most of them were migrants the majority from the UK and several from European countries. I could not understand most of them the English, Irish and Scottish accents were just as hard as the Greeks and Italians to understand. What went on at the school and on the train traveling home was beyond my boy from the bush’s comprehension. The following year because of my changes of schools, and lack of attention to my schoolwork, I was placed in a very average class and repeated the second year of high school.

A new primary school was built almost opposite where we lived and Mum got the cleaner’s position there. I had to get up with her at 5.30am and help by hosing out the toilets and shelter area that made up the ground floor of the school for this I received one pound a fortnight. I made a deal at a bike shop and purchased my first new bike a Malvern Star with 3 gears. I could now ride to high school about five miles, instead of traveling by train.

I found living at home, with my father now a permanent fixture, rather than the occasional visitor back from shearing, a bit tough. We did not have that father son relationship that most kids have. To me he was more of a stranger and adjusting to his stricter discipline was hard. It came to a head when I turned fifteen and up to that time I had not been allowed to go to the pictures at night, with my friends but had to take my brother Bill, who was five years younger than me along to the Saturday matinee. When you turn fifteen you can go at night was reply whenever I asked. The first Saturday after I turned fifteen I said, “Dad can I go to the pictures tonight now I am fifteen”, and Dad replied “yes but take Bill with you”. “But he is not fifteen I replied.” You take him or you don’t go was the answer. I was livid and never forgave my Father for that.

With the Intermediate Certificate coming up I had to think about what I was going to do after that. Going on to do the Leaving Certificate this meant changing schools again, and two more years or taking up an apprenticeship of some sort, or looking for some other type of job.

At the start if the final term that year the local industries and businesses visited the school and gave talks on the apprenticeships or traineeships they had to offer, such as bank tellers mechanics electricians etc. Nothing appealed to me as they all meant staying at home. Then the P.M.G. department came along with an offer to become a Telephone Technician. This meant attending one of their new training schools in Sydney for one year then completing the training while on the job wherever you were located. Bingo! I did not care what the job was about just the fact that the training was in Sydney, away from home. On the way home I had to consider how to get my parents ok. I decided to tell them I was going to be a bank teller. I knew Dad, who hated banks, would not be in favour of this. I was right he exploded “bloody thieving banks. Not on your nellie. Why don’t you get a government job, secure and good pay? You don’t want to be like me out of work on and off for most of your life.” The next day I bought up the P.M.G. job. “That’s more like" it he said "a good secure government job.” I then explained that the training was only available in Sydney but they paid a living away from home allowance and they also found suitable accommodation. A couple of day’s later Dad signed the papers and I sat and passed the entrance examination and in January 1958 I was on my way.

The twelve months in Sydney doing the basic training was a great experience. At first I did not have much money after paying my board, as it took several months for the paperwork to be processed for our living away from home allowance. I survived by ironing shirts on Friday nights for the other lodgers, at the boarding house that gave me enough to go to the pictures on Saturdays. I had arrived in Sydney with one good pair of trousers and two good shirts a pair of jeans and a couple of pairs of shorts plus three T-shirts. When the back paid allowance arrived, I spent most of it on clothes, and I also had enough to catch the train home for a weekend visit. I now had some spending money each week and could venture forth. I still had a lot to learn about city life. On Saturdays I started going to the races with some of the other boarders, and if I had a winning day I would stay in the city and have a café meal and see a couple of pictures. I thought life was as good as it gets.

At the end of the year we had to nominate where we wanted to finish our apprenticeship. There were several options. Stay in Sydney and do maintenance work at one of the telephone exchanges or go back home and do the same at the nearest Local Exchange. Or go into one of the installation divisions. This meant you would travel to and from various locations installing new equipment. The home base was in Sydney but you could spend most of the time elsewhere. There were several sections, one covering the Metropolitan area of Sydney and six covering the rest of the state. Two south, two north and two western sections. The two in each section covered different aspects of the job. We had to list three choices. I listed the two North and one of the Western ones as that meant I would be as far from home as I could get. I ended up getting one of the Southern ones.

The Head Station was located near Villawood in the western suburbs of Sydney. It was a collection of old Army Nissan Huts. It was very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. This was the first year where apprentices or trainees as we were known were allocated to the installation divisions in only our second year and in such large numbers. There were six hundred of us at the start of first year. In previous years only fifty to sixty were taken in. So the section I was attached to suddenly had ten lads barely out of school to contend with. They were reluctant to send us out into the country towns because we were under eighteen and would be living in Hotels etc. So we were put to work installing equipment in small huts, which would then be taken to the country and set up by another team. One day I was working almost at floor level and when I stood up I struck my head on a protruding bit of ironwork and had to go to the Fairfield hospital for treatment. I was left sitting on a bed in the outpatients ward for some time when another casualty was bought in they told me to sit in a chair and the other person was placed on the bed. Lots of medical people rushed in and out and finally one of them said too late she is dead. They pulled the sheet up over her head and left. I sat there for another hour before someone came to see me. It was very unnerving as I had not had such a close encounter with a dead person before. Every week we would drive the boss mad with request to go bush. After seven months I finally succeeded and was sent to Canberra. This was the start of the best fifteen years of my life. I loved the work and the travel. Some places were not even on the map. Eighteen months was about the longest time I spent in one place at any one time.

Frank

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