Skatey...The life of Les Skate
Biography of Les Skate edited and prepared for publication by volunteer biographer
Lorraine Blythe on behalf of Eastern Palliative Care October 2019
Biography of Les Skate edited and prepared for publication by volunteer biographer
Lorraine Blythe on behalf of Eastern Palliative Care October 2019
SKATEY… ……… The Life Of Les Skate 1
- Page 2 and 3: Contents Early memories ...........
- Page 4 and 5: Skatey The Life of Les Skate That,
- Page 6 and 7: Skatey The Life of Les Skate By the
- Page 8 and 9: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Everyo
- Page 10 and 11: Skatey The Life of Les Skate In the
- Page 12 and 13: Skatey The Life of Les Skate We liv
- Page 14 and 15: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Harves
- Page 16 and 17: Skatey The Life of Les Skate We bui
- Page 18 and 19: Skatey The Life of Les Skate From t
- Page 20 and 21: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Well t
- Page 22 and 23: Skatey The Life of Les Skate The Sc
- Page 24 and 25: Skatey The Life of Les Skate I enjo
- Page 26 and 27: Skatey The Life of Les Skate My wor
- Page 28 and 29: Skatey The Life of Les Skate The Wi
- Page 30 and 31: Skatey The Life of Les Skate I alwa
- Page 32 and 33: Skatey The Life of Les Skate On the
- Page 34 and 35: Skatey The Life of Les Skate ‘I w
- Page 36 and 37: Skatey The Life of Les Skate These
- Page 38 and 39: Skatey The Life of Les Skate I went
- Page 40 and 41: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Family
- Page 42 and 43: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Then I
- Page 44 and 45: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Lynne
- Page 46 and 47: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Tim’
- Page 48 and 49: Skatey The Life of Les Skate Coldst
- Page 50 and 51: Skatey The Life of Les Skate I was
SKATEY…<br />
………<br />
<strong>The</strong> Life Of <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
1
Contents<br />
Early memories .............................................................................................................................. 3<br />
School Days .................................................................................................................................... 5<br />
Family chores, family play… and pocket money! ..................................................................... 7<br />
A new home, and the start <strong>of</strong> my working <strong>life</strong> .......................................................................... 9<br />
<strong>The</strong> shearing <strong>life</strong> … and starting to build ................................................................................. 11<br />
Building a family <strong>of</strong> my own. ..................................................................................................... 15<br />
Some early holidays ..................................................................................................................... 16<br />
Scouts; good times… and some more building!...................................................................... 21<br />
Apollo Bay .................................................................................................................................... 23<br />
My working <strong>life</strong> in <strong>The</strong> Yarra Valley ......................................................................................... 26<br />
Family homes ............................................................................................................................... 40<br />
Coldstream Football Club … a big part <strong>of</strong> my <strong>life</strong>. ................................................................ 48<br />
Holidays in our later years .......................................................................................................... 56<br />
Helping out … <strong>The</strong> Victorian floods <strong>of</strong> 2011 ......................................................................... 62<br />
Biographer’s Note: As <strong>Les</strong> was significantly unwell during the process <strong>of</strong> this<br />
biography not all the facts (spelling <strong>of</strong> names and places) were able to be<br />
confirmed.<br />
This story is as told by <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong> using his words while he was a client <strong>of</strong><br />
Eastern Palliative Care.<br />
2
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Early memories<br />
Well I am <strong>Les</strong>lie William <strong>Skate</strong> and I was born on the 10 th <strong>of</strong> October, 1928, in Koondrook,<br />
which is up on the Murray River, on the Victorian side. My mum, Marion May and my Pop,<br />
William John Clayton <strong>Skate</strong> lived at Barham on the other side <strong>of</strong> the river. <strong>The</strong> only<br />
maternity hospital was at Koondrook, so everybody who lived on our side <strong>of</strong> the river was<br />
born over there. <strong>The</strong> hospital was just a little old house run by a nurse called Nurse Rosen.<br />
Her <strong>life</strong> history has been documented and it’s very interesting. She bought hundreds <strong>of</strong><br />
babies into the world in that little old place. I don’t remember that <strong>of</strong> course, but my first<br />
memories are that we lived over at Barham on the New South Wales side. I was third in<br />
line in the family. <strong>The</strong>re were my two older sisters, Dot and Val, and myself, then Ge<strong>of</strong>f,<br />
Marjie, Bill, Neil, and Tony. Eight <strong>of</strong> us. Quite a big family for Mum and Dad to look after.<br />
We lived in a little old-fashioned house that belonged to my mum’s parents. Pop was at<br />
that stage a shearing contractor and he had a horse-team pulling logs to the mill. <strong>The</strong> first<br />
thing I really remember was when I was probably about two or three-years-old. In those<br />
days to get a Christmas present was really something. You know, we were not that well <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
Like a lot <strong>of</strong> people were out there. <strong>The</strong>se were the Depression years. And I got this little<br />
three-wheel trike. I remember when I looked at the end <strong>of</strong> my bed when I first woke up on<br />
Christmas morning, there were no presents. I just thought, ‘Oh well.’ But then I looked out<br />
down the lane and there’s my sister going hell-for-leather down the track on my little<br />
three-wheel trike! So, I got that back … and I had that trike for many years.<br />
<strong>Les</strong>, (middle) at two years <strong>of</strong> age, with his two older sisters Dot, (left) and Val (right)<br />
3
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
That, I’ve never, ever forgot, I<br />
can see it quite plainly from<br />
when I was three years old.<br />
Another thing that’s pretty vivid in my memory is<br />
where we lived. It was right on the main channel<br />
where the water was pumped from the Murray out to<br />
irrigation areas, to the orange orchards and that sort<br />
<strong>of</strong> thing. We lived right on the very bank and to cross<br />
over to the other side, all we had in those days was a<br />
plank about a foot wide, with no hand rails. I was forever kneeling on this and floating<br />
things down the stream when they were pumping. And one day I leaned over too far … and<br />
I think this happens to other people too … the water moving gets you a bit dizzy, and you<br />
tend to go with the flow. I ended up in the channel! To make it worse, that day I was all<br />
dressed up in my best Sunday clothes. I was going to walk down the street with mum to do<br />
some shopping. She had all her best stockings and everything on. Likely she’d just come<br />
out to get me and I’m floating <strong>of</strong>f downstream! So, she jumped in clothes and all and<br />
pulled me out. That, I’ve never, ever forgot, I can see it quite plainly today from when I was<br />
three years old.<br />
Nana holding Ge<strong>of</strong>f, and in front Dot, <strong>Les</strong> and Val<br />
From there we went out to a twenty-acre block <strong>of</strong> land a bit further out <strong>of</strong> Barham. I think<br />
they called these blocks Common Land. You put in a claim for them like a ballot. You had to<br />
pay something to go in the ballot and Pop fortunately won the block <strong>of</strong> land. As he was<br />
working up at the mill <strong>of</strong>f-seasons, he was able to get hold <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the old mill houses. He<br />
shifted it down to the block and being very capable with his hands, he rebuilt it, and we<br />
had a home <strong>of</strong> our own. And a little farm, which when he wasn’t away shearing, he’d be<br />
home fencing and ploughing and sowing down everything We ended up with some milk,<br />
we had about five or six cows. It was quite a nice little farm. It was enough; it was<br />
somewhere to live.<br />
4
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
It was quite a nice little farm.<br />
It was enough; it was<br />
somewhere to live.<br />
We had our own milk, cream and butter. Had a few<br />
pigs. And Pop would bring home a sheep all cut up<br />
ready for meat, when he returned <strong>of</strong> a weekend. So,<br />
we got by on all that.<br />
Dot and I, that was the eldest sister, we would milk<br />
the cows before we went to school. We’d separate the cream from the milk by winding the<br />
old hand separator. We’d put it into a small can which was carried up to the road. We were<br />
back about a half a mile <strong>of</strong>f the decent road, and it was a very muddy, and rough lane.<br />
Once we’d walk that out, we’d go on to school. <strong>The</strong>n a few days later, the bloke would<br />
drop the empty cans <strong>of</strong>f for us, and there’d be a pound <strong>of</strong> butter in it. That’s about what<br />
we got for our cream. We did have some home-made butter, but it was nice to have some<br />
dairy butter too.<br />
My second sister Val, her job at home (between school hours <strong>of</strong> course,) she sort <strong>of</strong> looked<br />
after the kids. By that stage there were probably about five <strong>of</strong> us. (Ended up with eight.)<br />
She helped make the beds, help make breakfasts, cut lunches, all that sort <strong>of</strong> thing.<br />
Probably changed the nappies on the babies and all that. Everybody had a job to do.<br />
Anyway, as time went by, I did my schooling.<br />
School Days<br />
Now Dot being the eldest, naturally was the first at school. In New South Wales they called<br />
the years, the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ninth class. And then after that if<br />
you wanted a higher education you had to go to one <strong>of</strong> the bigger cities. Dot didn’t get on<br />
very well with the headmaster. She told him that too one day, and said, ‘I’m not coming<br />
back,’ and she didn’t.<br />
Dot didn’t get on very well<br />
with the headmaster. She told<br />
him that too one day.<br />
Val was the student. Very clever that way and a<br />
gentleman up there had a property that Pop used to<br />
do all the shearing for and was quite friendly with<br />
him. A fairly wealthy sort <strong>of</strong> a bloke. He understood<br />
the situation that Val couldn’t get a good education<br />
up there and so he paid for her to be sent to<br />
Melbourne and paid for her education. She ended up with a good job down there. So that<br />
was a good start for her and she was pretty secure.<br />
Myself, next in line, I started <strong>of</strong>f pretty good. In those<br />
days you started school about seven years old. I<br />
suppose having the family around me I got a bit <strong>of</strong><br />
self-education. I got first in first grade, and second in<br />
second grade. And as I got higher my numbers<br />
dropped back! Very strange …<br />
So that was a good start for<br />
her and she was pretty secure.<br />
5
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
By the time I got to, I think it was eighth grade, Kerang<br />
I suppose having the family High School in Victoria, (about 20 kms away from<br />
around me I got a bit <strong>of</strong> selfeducation.<br />
Barham) was taking students from the school. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
had a little bus run out there. I don’t know where<br />
Mum and Pop got the money from to send me there.<br />
Not that it was very expensive or anything but you<br />
had your costs. But I did go there for two years and the first year I was pretty good.<br />
New South Wales was always a year ahead <strong>of</strong> Victoria and I went there and I breezed<br />
through what they called in Victoria, <strong>The</strong> Merit. <strong>The</strong> next year, might have been Pr<strong>of</strong>iciency<br />
or something like that, I found that pretty hard. You got Algebra and French and they<br />
weren’t my thing. Maths and Geography, luckily, I could understand. I’m glad I did because<br />
in later years I got into the building trade and I could then see where all that sort <strong>of</strong> stuff<br />
come from.<br />
During school years I’d say, I was about nine, I was pottering around with Pop’s tools and<br />
the saw jumped. Put a little cut in my hand, nothing much. My sister Val and I were always<br />
wrestling and mucking around. I remember out on the back lawn this day her fingernail got<br />
in this cut and that’s what caused blood poisoning. <strong>The</strong> red line started to go up my arm. In<br />
those days for infection you used what they called hot foments. You got a bread and butter<br />
poultice … hot! (or there was one for when you had congestion on your chest.)<br />
But it was probably the bread and butter one,<br />
straight out <strong>of</strong> the boiling water. I thought ‘Uh oh<br />
somethings happening alright!’ And up comes this<br />
blister. It was like half an egg. We pierced it and that<br />
didn’t do any good and then the poison got into that.<br />
And up comes this blister. It<br />
was like half an egg.<br />
<strong>The</strong> red line was creeping up my arm and I got this big lump under my arm. <strong>The</strong>y put me in<br />
the hospital, more to monitor it really. <strong>The</strong>y didn’t have anything to use. <strong>The</strong>y started<br />
ringing around and were told there was a serum up at Cohuna, which was fifteen miles<br />
away on the Victorian side. On an old sandy road. <strong>The</strong>y had to get it quick.<br />
Well in about fifteen minutes<br />
he was there and back! 100<br />
mph up a sandy road.<br />
Now a relative <strong>of</strong> Pop’s family had this flash Ford car.<br />
A ‘38 model. It was a car but you put the hood back<br />
and it was wide open. He used to do 100 mph out on<br />
the big plains chasing kangaroos. He had made this<br />
documentary and it’s been filmed all around the world. Tommy Board was his name. So,<br />
Pop got straight onto Tommy. Well in about fifteen minutes he was there and back! 100<br />
mph up a sandy road. Anyway, that saved me.<br />
But it was a long time before it healed up. <strong>The</strong> burn had taken the flesh right down to the<br />
bone. It was all juicy and that. And all they used to do, because they didn’t have the right<br />
balms and things I suppose, they’d just put the gauze on it and wrapped it up. <strong>The</strong> next day<br />
they’d just rip the gauze <strong>of</strong>f and the scab would all come <strong>of</strong>f. This went on for ages and<br />
ages before it finally healed up.<br />
6
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
When I was in hospital there was this Miss Martin at the school. She boarded at the hotel.<br />
She taught the little ones. Stan Brennan was another teacher at the school. Gee those<br />
names come back to you! He boarded at the hotel too. So, they became a couple, they got<br />
together. It was very nice. But this Miss Martin and I had something going … I don’t know<br />
what it was. She was so easy to talk to and I felt she cared for me. Of course, I was going<br />
fairly well academically at that stage, perhaps she was just giving me good marks! <strong>The</strong>y<br />
used to come to the hospital at least a couple <strong>of</strong> times a week to see me and bring me<br />
chocolate.<br />
Yeah Miss Martin was the<br />
number one teacher.<br />
It was wartime, and everyone was knitting scarves for<br />
the servicemen. Khaki <strong>of</strong> course. You knitted them<br />
with meat skewers. Like your largest size knitting<br />
needle plus a little bit. <strong>The</strong>y were used in the butcher<br />
shop. <strong>The</strong> butcher would have a great big bit <strong>of</strong> meat,<br />
like a great big chop. He’d cut all the meat <strong>of</strong>f down to the bone, and then he’d get the first<br />
bit and turn it all around and then get the other bit and wrap it all around tightly. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
he’d get two skewers and stick them through both ways. And they were the knitting<br />
needles. So, yes, I learnt to knit in hospital I knitted quite a few scarves. I was three months<br />
<strong>of</strong>f school.<br />
At school I had a nice little girl friend, Jocelyn Hickey. Her father owned the picture theatre<br />
and I thought I might get a free picture show now and then. But I never did! Oh well …<br />
Schooling to me was a bit <strong>of</strong> a bore. It was just something you had to do. Oh, I tried to<br />
learn and I wasn’t too bad in my early years, but I think I got distracted … maybe chasing<br />
the girls!<br />
Family chores, family play…and pocket money!<br />
I got along well with all my brothers and sisters. <strong>The</strong>re were never any worries there. You<br />
just went along and you had your share to do, and you just did it.<br />
Things like during those years to supplement our<br />
food program, I would go down to the Murray River<br />
<strong>of</strong> an evening, catch a couple <strong>of</strong> Murray cod, and<br />
bring them home. We also had a roll down net into<br />
the river, (this wasn’t legal in those days but<br />
everyone did it anyway.) You’d have a piece <strong>of</strong> meat<br />
in the net and you caught these Murray crays. You’d pull it back up and you might have<br />
twenty crays. You’d take them home, and in those days, you had the old copper which you<br />
washed in and you bathed in. You did everything in the old copper. You got it boiling, (you<br />
won’t like this) but you’d tip all the crays in and you’d cook them. Beautiful they were …<br />
<strong>The</strong> other thing I remember from those days, around when I was nine or ten years old,<br />
happened one Christmas. <strong>The</strong> infantile paralysis thing was on, what was it? ... the polio.<br />
7<br />
I got along well with all my<br />
brothers and sisters. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
were never any worries there.
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Everyone was confined to their own home and town. But you wanted to get out a bit, it<br />
was Christmas. So, I remember old Pop and all his friends loaded all the gear on the truck,<br />
(Pop had a ’36 model Fargo) and we went way out to a creek in the scrub. We camped<br />
there and fished and had a good time. <strong>The</strong>y were good times. Pop was a very keen<br />
fisherman and he’d shoot ducks and so forth and I spent a lot <strong>of</strong> time with him. Mum was<br />
always home making clothes for the kids and what-not.<br />
One gentleman had a little dairy and a chook and duck<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were good times. farm, just over the other side <strong>of</strong> the creek. I used to<br />
walk across a log to get over there. Of an afternoon,<br />
after school, I’d go and wash the eggs. Nowadays eggs<br />
are clean, they’re dropped on grates. But back then all the eggs had to be washed; they<br />
were all dirty. Washing eggs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ducks all lived on the creek, and when they wanted to lay an egg, they’d drop them in<br />
the creek. So, I had to walk around in the creek and get all the eggs. But this is how I got<br />
my pocket money, that’s why I did it. I’d get two shillings a week. Now two shillings a week<br />
was enough for me to go to the pictures, (I think that was about nine pence,) buy a milk<br />
shake, a threepenny ice cream, and a comic. Everything you wanted.<br />
That was how I supplemented my income … in fact there was no other income! Yeah<br />
washing the eggs … and they were nice people to work for. Oh, one Christmas time there<br />
was an extra present for me. <strong>The</strong>y gave me a ten-shilling note! I thought I was a king! And I<br />
would have spent it don’t worry! Oh … I might have bought mum something.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y gave me a ten-shilling note! I thought I<br />
was a king!<br />
‘<strong>The</strong>y were hard days but they were good days. You knew what you were<br />
living with, and what was in store for you, and you didn’t try to go outside<br />
that boundary. You were just happy for what you had.’<br />
8
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
A new home, and the start <strong>of</strong> my working <strong>life</strong><br />
So, I put in two years at Kerang High School and at that stage it was still the Depression,<br />
the end <strong>of</strong> the Depression. Before the War. And Pop hadn’t gone all that well; it was very<br />
tough times with a big family. He mortgaged our little place to keep us in tucker and all the<br />
rest <strong>of</strong> it. We weren’t the only ones; there were dozens <strong>of</strong> families up in that area in the<br />
same boat. So, he had to sell the farm and most <strong>of</strong> that went paying <strong>of</strong>f everything, the<br />
grocer, the butcher, baker and all the rest <strong>of</strong> it.<br />
We weren’t the only ones;<br />
there were dozens <strong>of</strong> families<br />
up in that area in the same<br />
boat.<br />
We moved into Barham and rented a place there for a<br />
while. Pop shore sheep for a big pastoralist out <strong>of</strong><br />
Deniliquin who owned a property down here in the<br />
Yarra Valley, around the Healesville area. And there<br />
were no shearers down in this area. His name was<br />
Henry Lindsay-Field. Henry said to Pop, ‘You come<br />
down and shear my sheep Bill.’ So Pop went down<br />
there. He took a couple <strong>of</strong> shearers with him, and he shore Harry’s sheep.<br />
Soon as the other farmers around here realised there was a shearer in the district, they<br />
grabbed him and wouldn’t let him go.<br />
When he went back home, he knew there was more<br />
opportunity down here for him and his family, so he<br />
took up that option. He loaded everything on the<br />
train and had an old Fargo truck which fitted the<br />
family in the back and the front. With the pets as<br />
He became the number one<br />
shearer in the Yarra Valley.<br />
well. He had no place really to go, but there was a little cottage, Eyton-on-Yarra, which was<br />
Lindsay-Field’s property at the time. Lindsay-Field just said, ‘If you fix that up a bit Bill, you<br />
can live there.’ So, we did, until we found another place and we rented that.<br />
I didn’t go back to school. I was picking up wool. Roustabouting is the word for it. I did that<br />
for one or two seasons. In the meantime, I was learning shearing. It was a good<br />
opportunity for me with Pop being a shearer and with the other shearers there. Every now<br />
and then I could hop in and do one, and I learnt to shear pretty good in that twelve<br />
months. But Pop was thinking about what he’d gone through … you know all his <strong>life</strong>, hard<br />
work shearing. (It is noted as one <strong>of</strong> the hardest work in the industry.) And I can vouch for<br />
that!<br />
<strong>The</strong> owner <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the other properties we worked for, Yarra Grange, was Mr Herman.<br />
He was a director on Australian Estates Wool Store. A wool company. Pop must have had a<br />
word with him one day and he got me a cadetship; wool classing out at West Footscray. So,<br />
I went and boarded there for about six months. I rode the two miles to work on my<br />
pushbike, (which I’d bought on the never-never for five shillings a week.)<br />
9
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
In the middle <strong>of</strong> the year the wool stores used to<br />
close down. By then they would have classed all the<br />
wool that had come in. <strong>The</strong> classers all went out to<br />
sheds and built up the stock again back in the store.<br />
Well I knew quite a bit about the wool from being in<br />
the sheds before, but I learnt quite a bit more. I<br />
actually classed a couple <strong>of</strong> sheds. I didn’t have a<br />
I rode the two miles to work<br />
on my pushbike, (which I’d<br />
bought on the never-never for<br />
five shillings a week.)<br />
certificate to, but it didn’t matter really. <strong>The</strong> wool was classed temporarily, then it went<br />
back into the store and was bulk classed.<br />
While I was employed at the wool store my pay was one pound, nineteen and six a week.<br />
My board cost me one pound a week. <strong>The</strong> train from home (on the weekends) was five<br />
shillings. <strong>The</strong> payment on my bike was five shillings a week. This put me in arrears. All<br />
these costs ate my wages, plus I had to supply my own lunch! So, on the weekends, to<br />
supplement the cost <strong>of</strong> my lunch I would go rabbiting, and take fresh rabbits to the lady in<br />
the canteen. She gave me a meat pie each day for my lunch. But I was still in arrears and<br />
Mum had to find an extra ten shillings a week to keep me solvent!<br />
I went away each year, classers went away to the sheds and they took a couple <strong>of</strong><br />
apprentices with them. Of course, I jumped at the chance. <strong>The</strong> first sheds we went to was<br />
up out <strong>of</strong> Jerilderie. ‘Wood Park Merino Stud.’ Top class sheep. I spent quite a few weeks<br />
there. I was picking up wool, sweeping the board and that sort <strong>of</strong> thing. I remember while I<br />
was there, I had a very bad in-grown toenail. I was hobbling about with the toe cut out <strong>of</strong><br />
my shoe. <strong>The</strong> contractor said to me one day,<br />
‘What’s the trouble?’<br />
So I showed him, and he said,<br />
‘Oh you can’t be walking around on that. You go on the wool table and sort the wool.’<br />
Which I knew exactly how to go about because I’d done it in the wool store. And<br />
immediately my pay went from three pound seven and six a week, to over five pounds!<br />
Whacko! That was good.<br />
My pay went from three<br />
pound seven and six a week,<br />
to over five pounds! Whacko!<br />
That was good.<br />
After that we went working at Mulwala, just over the<br />
river from Yarrawonga. While I was at that shed, the<br />
cook, who was very notorious for this sort <strong>of</strong> thing,<br />
would get on a bender and clear out. We had about<br />
eight shearers, four or five shed hands, the boss and<br />
the wool classer. Mr Jones, Bill Jones, he was the<br />
contractor, said to me,<br />
‘Could you, you know, peel the spuds and do a few things?’<br />
‘Well I did all that for my Pop from when I was ten years old,’ I said.<br />
So I ended up the cook.<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We had big open fires with these great big roast dishes with two legs <strong>of</strong> lamb in them, and<br />
the roast potatoes all the way around So we always had a roast for the night. One thing the<br />
cook did do, he was very good at making steamed ginger puddings. He made them in fivepound<br />
jam tins and he left about a dozen <strong>of</strong> them behind. So, all I had to do was seal them<br />
up, put them in water and heat them up. So, we always had those at night.<br />
In the daytime, I always had enough roast to have as cold meat. So, we’d have that, mash<br />
potatoes and perhaps one other vegie, and that was lunch. And then tinned peaches or<br />
pears or whatever. So, they were quite happy. Of course, I’d have to cut sandwiches for<br />
the morning teas and take them over and wash up. At least at night time the shearers<br />
hopped in and peeled the spuds for me … I hated doing that! I would have been fifteen<br />
that year.<br />
From there Mr Jones had finished his contracts and I<br />
was about to come home. I stayed in a boarding<br />
house in Mulwala for one night. But there were<br />
other Yarrawonga contractors looking for a<br />
roustabout. <strong>The</strong> word gets around among the<br />
shearers and contractors.<br />
So one <strong>of</strong> them called in on the Saturday night and said,<br />
‘You can start on Monday morning if you want to.’<br />
‘Ok.’ I said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> shearers hopped in and<br />
peeled the spuds for me…I<br />
hated doing that! I would<br />
have been fifteen that year.<br />
So I went and did two more sheds with him before I came home. Probably put a few more<br />
pounds together.<br />
<strong>The</strong> shearing <strong>life</strong> … and starting to build<br />
When I did come home, I started full-time shearing. I was only sixteen. That first year, I<br />
shore a hundred in a day … twice! I shouldn’t really brag … but that’s … well, you know I did<br />
have a bit <strong>of</strong> experience having had a little go here and there. Pop was a first-class shearer,<br />
so for me, I had to try hard. Yeah, I’d have hated for him to think that I was just some<br />
rough neck or something.<br />
I started full-time shearing. I<br />
was only sixteen. That first<br />
year, I shore a hundred in a<br />
day…twice!<br />
This was at Coldstream. Where the subdivision is now<br />
just as you approach Coldstream. Three hundred and<br />
twenty acres. It was bought by a developer who built<br />
houses all over it. But the original old hand-made<br />
brick homestead is still there amongst the houses.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We lived there till we moved down to Croydon. Anyway, then the shearing took over and I<br />
was to go away back up to where Pop used to do his contracts, up around Deniliquin. I<br />
went up there and shore there for a few years.<br />
<strong>Les</strong> and the old T- Model Ford which he found in a creek and rebuilt just enough to get him to his<br />
shearing jobs<br />
Once I got married, (I’ll cover that a bit later) I found shearing a bit closer, up around<br />
Charlton. I used to go up there for a week or two weeks at a time, then come home. Joan,<br />
my new bride and I, lived at Croydon then. I built our house there. I had never built a house<br />
in my <strong>life</strong>. But I’d done odd jobs around the farms for people. What I used to do <strong>of</strong> an<br />
evening, after the builders had knocked <strong>of</strong>f, I’d sneak around and see what they’d done<br />
and how they’d done it.<br />
After the builders had<br />
knocked <strong>of</strong>f, I’d sneak<br />
around and see what they’d<br />
done and how they’d done it.<br />
Anyway, we had quite a nice home there eventually. It<br />
was a struggle. But I was getting better at shearing<br />
and shearing prices were good. At that time, it was<br />
the wool boom, the early fifties. That was when we<br />
were married and built the house. I could earn,<br />
without any trouble, I could earn four times as much<br />
as the basic wage. It was hard work but you got paid<br />
for what you shore. So, I’d bring that money home and we’d invest it in the house. Put a<br />
floor down in a room instead <strong>of</strong> walking through the door and falling through! We reared<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
our kids there. We were very lucky there; we had a good position. <strong>The</strong>re was a state school<br />
just one side <strong>of</strong> us, and by the time the girls were ready for high school they built one close<br />
by to our house.<br />
<strong>Les</strong> in his early shearing days.<br />
Up to that stage I just kept on shearing. Eventually, because it’s seasonal, I kept on doing a<br />
bit more building and I got involved with a good friend <strong>of</strong> ours who was a very good<br />
builder. He’d decided he’d like a tree change so he bought a block <strong>of</strong> land and took his<br />
family out this way. I needed someone to help me with my building jobs, but before long I<br />
was working for Ken. I learnt all the finer parts <strong>of</strong> building from him. That worked out very<br />
well and then he went his own way and I went mine. We left Croydon in ’81 and we bought<br />
a 120-acre bush block from my sister, Marjie and her husband Ern, up at Gruyere. We built<br />
a very nice home and were there for the next nineteen years<br />
It was our one home in a million that you<br />
dream about<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Harvest time at the property in Gruyere 1982. <strong>The</strong> hay was all fork-pitched.<br />
<strong>The</strong> only thing was, we were getting older. We hadn’t really done a lot <strong>of</strong> things we would<br />
have liked to have done. My wife was a very keen gardener, and because there were lots<br />
<strong>of</strong> acres, I think she just kept spreading the garden more and more! It just got too much.<br />
An opportunity came up, <strong>The</strong> Coldstream Hills Winery was on our boundary and it was<br />
bought by a big company, Rosemount Winery. <strong>The</strong>y wanted to use the land to spray their<br />
effluent out onto it, to stop the run-<strong>of</strong>f down into the streams. So, I had the chance to sell<br />
it to them. It wasn’t in a place where it was attractive to people. Very small frontage No<br />
opportunity to clear, with heavy Council controls over it. So, we got out and we came<br />
down here. To Lilydale.<br />
So we got out and we came<br />
down here. To Lilydale.<br />
To 28 Mont Vue in Lilydale. We’ve been here nineteen<br />
years now and we’ve been very happy here. We’ve<br />
been able to do quite a bit <strong>of</strong> travelling. I’ve kept on in<br />
the building trade right up till my eighties.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Building a family <strong>of</strong> my own.<br />
When I came back to Coldstream after working in the shearing sheds, my sister Marjie had<br />
become good friends with another girl from Coldstream. Her name was Joan. Joan spent a<br />
bit <strong>of</strong> time up home and that’s how I come to meet up with her. After a couple <strong>of</strong> years<br />
later we got engaged and then a year after that we got married.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were several things about Joan that stood out to me. She was very independent<br />
person, very straightforward. I can say that she’d call an apple an apple, there’s no doubt<br />
about that! And she got that from her father who was much the same sort <strong>of</strong> person. I<br />
don’t know, I suppose I just loved her, and that was it.<br />
4 th October 1952<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We built our first home from scratch in Croydon. We had the two girls first, Lynne and<br />
Julie. <strong>The</strong>n five years later we had the two boys, Roland (Rol,) and Timothy (Tim.) Two<br />
pigeon pairs. It worked out good. When Julie came along, she was just ideal with Lynne. A<br />
really good pair. And then we had that lapse <strong>of</strong> five years, then it was the same with the<br />
two boys. <strong>The</strong>y became good mates, went through scouts and so forth together and are<br />
still good mates.<br />
We had the two girls first,<br />
then five years later we had<br />
the two boys. Two pigeon<br />
pairs. It worked out good.<br />
Joan has said that we should have spent more time<br />
together during those years. I was heavily involved<br />
with the football club for many years. I always felt that<br />
if you were involved in doing something, you do it<br />
properly or get out and don’t do it at all. <strong>The</strong>re was<br />
always so many things to look after, and I felt that I<br />
just had to be there to do it. I was there for twenty-five years. As a player and a coach and<br />
a committee man. And building the buildings. It became part <strong>of</strong> my <strong>life</strong> … I was deeply<br />
involved in it. We lived very comfortably and I don’t think my family suffered because <strong>of</strong> it,<br />
but as Joan says, perhaps a bit more time together in those years things might have been a<br />
bit better. I don’t know, they’ve all grown up alright.<br />
I always felt that if you were involved in doing<br />
something, you do it properly or get out and<br />
don’t do it at all.<br />
Some early holidays<br />
While the kids were little, we had the chance to take them on some holidays. One time<br />
was just before Lynny started school. We knew we had to go then or it would be another<br />
ten years, so I hired a caravan and <strong>of</strong>f we went.<br />
At about that stage, the main holiday area in Queensland, the Gold Coast, was just getting<br />
going. <strong>The</strong>y were starting to carve it out <strong>of</strong> the sand and the bulrushes and stuff. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
were all these pink, blue and yellow cement sheet buildings all the way along the coast.<br />
Oh, it was weird! We went up there and stayed at Miami Beach which was nothing, just<br />
tussocks down to the sand. At that stage the big corporations were just starting to get in.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y’d built this twenty-storey building right in the middle <strong>of</strong> the sand and the tussocks!<br />
You couldn’t believe it! Not too many years after that they opened up all the canals up<br />
there, inland. <strong>The</strong>y built the area all up around the waterways and the area just boomed.<br />
We saw it in a very early, raw stage. We had a great time there.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Off to <strong>The</strong> Gold Coast in the FJ Holden Special and the rented caravan. Joan, Lynne, (left) and Julie.<br />
<strong>The</strong> van wasn’t a very big van. <strong>The</strong> double bed had a curtain across. I remember Lynne and<br />
Julie would get up on the bed and then open the curtain, (we’d be sitting back the other<br />
end) and they put on a performance … a concert for us. That was part <strong>of</strong> the fun. It was<br />
lovely on the beach too. <strong>The</strong> girls could play there and sit on the rocks and there was<br />
hardly anybody there. We had about three weeks there and loved it!<br />
When it was time to head south for home, we thought that as we had seen all the coast<br />
going up, (and very enjoyable those places were too) that we’d head west and come down<br />
on the inland side <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Great Dividing Range. So, we got over to Toowoomba and headed<br />
<strong>of</strong>f from there. It was very steep country in that area. <strong>The</strong> FJ Holden was pulling the van<br />
alright but it was a very heavy van. <strong>The</strong> car kept boiling like mad and I had to keep stopping<br />
and waiting for it to cool down.<br />
Eventually I got over the top <strong>of</strong> this ridge and we got down to whatever the next town was.<br />
I pulled in to get fuel and I told the bloke about the car boiling. He said, ‘I know what’s<br />
wrong, I’ll fix that.’ He lifted the bonnet up and got the hose and hosed it from the inside,<br />
and blew all these grasshoppers out <strong>of</strong> it! We’d driven into a grasshopper plague and<br />
they’d filled all the core up, stopping the air from getting through. So simple when you<br />
know.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
From there we drove down to Glen Innes and the landscape became more and more like<br />
bush and forest and I thought, ‘I’ve had enough <strong>of</strong> the forest, we’ll whip back over to the<br />
coast’ <strong>The</strong> nearest road on the map was the Gwydir Highway. It was about a hundred miles<br />
long and came out at Grafton. We’d stayed at Grafton on the way up, in the one caravan<br />
park that was there. So <strong>of</strong>f we head <strong>of</strong>f along this Gwydir Highway. <strong>The</strong>re was a bit <strong>of</strong><br />
sealed road, then you got sandy road, then it ran into a dirt road! <strong>The</strong>n there was nowhere<br />
to turn except right … and that became very steep! I thought, ‘Oh well, it will only be a<br />
hundred yards or so to get down the bottom .…’ It went for a couple <strong>of</strong> miles!<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a bit <strong>of</strong> sealed<br />
road, then you got sandy road,<br />
then it ran into a dirt road!<br />
Admittedly down the bottom it was beautiful, there<br />
was the Gwydir River trickling over the rocks. And<br />
beautiful green flat land beside it. But, going down<br />
that hill…! <strong>The</strong>re was only one cut into the mountain.<br />
You couldn’t have passed a car coming the other way and I wouldn’t have been able to<br />
back up. Whoever was coming the other way would have had to go a mile backwards!<br />
Anyway I held her going down the hills and got to the bottom, and Joan said,<br />
‘Would you have been able to stop?’<br />
‘No!’ I laughed.<br />
I was in first gear with my foot on the brake. I had to keep easing <strong>of</strong>f, otherwise I would<br />
have burned the brakes out. But I just had enough control. And when I hit the bottom …<br />
phew!<br />
At that point there were these streams coming down into the Gwydir River. No bridges. It<br />
was only shallow and I was about to drive through when we saw a couple <strong>of</strong> young blokes<br />
in an old green Land Rover on the other side <strong>of</strong> this little stream. One <strong>of</strong> them called out,<br />
‘What are you going to do?’<br />
‘I’m going to drive over!’ I yelled.<br />
‘Don’t do that yet mate, you’ll crack your brake drums, because they’re red hot! Wait for<br />
them to cool down!’<br />
Well I would have been in real trouble if that had happened.<br />
We were lucky they had been<br />
there.<br />
When we got going we wanted to get back to Grafton<br />
because we were out <strong>of</strong> gas. Gas was our only cooking<br />
facility. It was a very slow track. Once we went over<br />
the flats <strong>of</strong> the river the mountain went almost straight up. <strong>The</strong> road was cut in the side<br />
with the river below. It was beautiful really. And we followed that around and around.<br />
You’re going slow … time’s against you … you never going to get there … and then we came<br />
to this great big wire gate and I thought, ‘Oh this will be lovely if this is locked.’<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
But it wasn’t. I think it was a dog pro<strong>of</strong> fence or something. We got through that and got<br />
going again and we finally arrived at Grafton and pulled into the caravan park. I said to the<br />
bloke,<br />
‘Yeah, we’re back again.’<br />
(I think he remembered me; they didn’t get a lot <strong>of</strong> travellers in those days.)<br />
‘Which way did you come?’ he asked.<br />
‘Oh, we’ve come from Glen Innes.’<br />
‘Gawd!’ he said. ‘Nobody ever goes on that road!’<br />
From then on we followed the coast down till we got somewhere near Sydney and scooted<br />
around that. Probably came down through Goulburn, which was a good drive. We finally<br />
got back home. Yes, it was a real adventure.<br />
We were able to go back north a couple <strong>of</strong> times with the boys when they were very<br />
young. We rented a house in Sydney once. Another time we stayed in a unit in Narooma I<br />
remember. We went out on the putt-putt boat and caught a lot <strong>of</strong> fish.<br />
One time we went over to South Australia, around Victor Harbour. Tim would have been<br />
about three then. We had always wanted to see that area. So, we head <strong>of</strong>f. It was a very<br />
hot time <strong>of</strong> year and we stayed in Mt Gambier on the first night. (That’s a funny little old<br />
joint.) <strong>The</strong> next day was going to be a hundred degrees, so we got up about 2 am, and<br />
head <strong>of</strong>f. <strong>The</strong>re were rabbit plagues at the time and being dark still, we had the lights on.<br />
Well we still couldn’t see the bitumen because it was covered in rabbits! We got through<br />
all that eventually.<br />
We’d booked ahead at a place already. <strong>The</strong> people<br />
had just moved down from the Gold Coast and I<br />
remember they had a photo <strong>of</strong> there on the wall … it<br />
was just as I described it, yellow and pink cement<br />
sheeting! And in the glass cabinet alongside, there<br />
was this enormous great ornate cup with handles on<br />
it. <strong>The</strong> daughter had won Miss Gold Coast or something! As soon as we had paid, we head<br />
for our room. All we wanted was a cup <strong>of</strong> tea at that stage. Well the room was filthy. Lifted<br />
up a cup and out shot a cockroach!<br />
Well the room was filthy!<br />
Lifted up a cup, and out shot<br />
a cockroach!<br />
Well we still couldn’t see the<br />
bitumen because it was<br />
covered in rabbits<br />
When we looked out the window at the ocean, we<br />
could see they’d built a retaining wall, about three<br />
foot high out <strong>of</strong> Besser blocks, on the beach. What we<br />
didn’t know was that they’d never bricked it together.<br />
It was just sitting there. After we had rested a bit we<br />
walked down to the beach. Julie picked Tim up and set<br />
him on the top <strong>of</strong> the wall … and what happened? It collapsed and Tim was on the bottom!<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the blocks jammed and smashed his arm. Well that was the end <strong>of</strong> it! I went and<br />
told the bloke … and he accused us <strong>of</strong> knocking over the wall! I said, ‘Right, we’re out <strong>of</strong><br />
here.’ I don’t even remember whether we got our money back.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Well that was the end <strong>of</strong> it! I<br />
went and told the<br />
bloke…and he accused us <strong>of</strong><br />
knocking over the wall! I<br />
said, ‘Right, we’re out <strong>of</strong><br />
here.’<br />
Of course, it was holiday time and the whole place<br />
was booked out. So, I ended up going to the Police<br />
Station. One <strong>of</strong> them organised a room in an old guest<br />
house for us. <strong>The</strong>y were full but they made room for<br />
us. <strong>The</strong>y saw the problems we had had. Tim was in<br />
hospital for the night. From then on it was alright and<br />
we enjoyed Victor Harbour after all. We did a bit there<br />
and had a good time.<br />
Another memorable trip I had was with the boys, when Rol was in the scouts. He would<br />
have been about ten or eleven. <strong>The</strong>y had a trip away to Ayers Rock. <strong>The</strong>re weren’t enough<br />
boys from one scout group for the coach so we made it out <strong>of</strong> three groups. Myself and<br />
another father were in charge <strong>of</strong> our lot. I knew the coach driver from the local bus<br />
company fairly well. So that worked well and we had a good drive up there. We climbed<br />
Ayers Rock and they all enjoyed it.<br />
My boys weren’t too bad but there were a couple <strong>of</strong> devils in the Croydon Scouts. (We<br />
were the West Croydon scouts.) One particular devil in the Croydon group went on to be a<br />
leading footballer for the Essendon Football Club. But back then, oh, he was a devil! He<br />
climbed everywhere where he shouldn’t have, and my blokes were following, and I was<br />
trying to get them back. Oh Gawd, that was an experience. But it was good.<br />
My boys weren’t too bad but<br />
there were a couple <strong>of</strong> devils in<br />
the Croydon Scouts.<br />
In those days there were no facilities. <strong>The</strong>re were<br />
these sheds like old horse stalls, all open, with a<br />
few showers. You put two shillings in and you had<br />
to go like mad before the water ran out. We<br />
catered for ourselves because we had a good cook<br />
on board. Each night one group or the other had<br />
to help out. That worked out alright.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Scouts; good times…and some more building!<br />
Originally Rol went down to Kent Ave, to the Croydon Scouts. But we wanted to form our<br />
own group. <strong>The</strong>re was this little bit <strong>of</strong> land called Ainslie Park, just back behind us in<br />
Croydon. After a bit <strong>of</strong> wheeling and dealing with the council they finally gave us the land. I<br />
told them what I was going to do and they poo-hooed it. ‘No, we don’t want any halfbaked<br />
buildings left lying around …’ That really got me going!<br />
‘No, we don’t want any halfbaked<br />
buildings left lying<br />
around…’ That really got me<br />
going!<br />
Anyway, I knew the bloke who was the Building<br />
Inspector down there pretty well. After a while, I think<br />
because he really knew that I did know what I was<br />
doing, we finally got the go-ahead. With another<br />
father who knew his way around a bit business-wise,<br />
we had a lot <strong>of</strong> companies help out. We scrounged up<br />
all the ro<strong>of</strong>ing material for nothing. It had been<br />
discarded for slight imperfections. That saved thousands <strong>of</strong> dollars. I got the steel frame for<br />
cost, less my discount, because I was doing steel buildings at the time. I bought the bricks<br />
through brick traveller. <strong>The</strong>y were seconds and I got them for half price. <strong>The</strong>re was nothing<br />
wrong with them! <strong>The</strong> flooring … it was beautiful, big thick flooring that came out <strong>of</strong> a big<br />
cool store at Wonga Park. It went back together beautifully. I sanded it up and it was great.<br />
So, we had a ro<strong>of</strong>, a frame, bricked in, and the<br />
flooring. We did buy windows. So, we had our<br />
building. I was on the inaugural committee, and had<br />
a lot <strong>of</strong> help from other fathers in those days. This<br />
became the West Croydon Scout Group. We had<br />
bottle drives and collected bottles which we stacked<br />
along the fence at our place in Croydon, till the<br />
bottle’o came. We collected newspapers and they<br />
were all stored in our double garage in Croydon until they were collected. That was our<br />
main source <strong>of</strong> revenue. We had a few little family gatherings to fundraise but basically,<br />
that was it.<br />
So we had our building.<br />
<strong>The</strong> flooring…it was<br />
beautiful, big thick flooring<br />
that came out <strong>of</strong> a big cool<br />
store at Wonga Park. It went<br />
back together beautifully. I<br />
sanded it up and it was great.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Scout building<br />
that <strong>Les</strong> built in<br />
Croydon with<br />
materials he<br />
‘scrounged up’<br />
Scouts provided the boys with some great times and I enjoyed my time helping out. Once<br />
we up the Goulburn River with them. We helped them build canoes out <strong>of</strong> fibreglass. We<br />
got sticky stuff all over us. But they built them, then <strong>of</strong>f we went. <strong>The</strong>y canoed themselves<br />
down from Alexandra way down to Seymour. We had to camp overnight on the bank <strong>of</strong><br />
the river. <strong>The</strong>y had their gear in plastic bags and they took plastic rubbish bins and all that.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y had to have a buddy, because they were two-man canoes and Rol and Tim always<br />
worked together. It was good and they enjoyed it all. I’m sure they still have good<br />
memories <strong>of</strong> it. As well as all the friends they made. It’s a great thing the Scouts.<br />
Rol and Tim always worked<br />
together. It was good and they<br />
enjoyed it all. I’m sure they<br />
still have good memories <strong>of</strong> it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Guide group had come into existence. <strong>The</strong>y had<br />
been meeting in somebody’s house in West Croydon.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n it must have got too much for them so we<br />
decided they could use our garage. I had facilities and<br />
everything there. <strong>The</strong>y used that and then when the<br />
main scout building was finished, they were<br />
incorporated into that. Lynne and Julie were Guides, but not for very long. I think it was<br />
too slow for them!<br />
22
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Apollo Bay<br />
But our favourite holiday place was Apollo Bay. We bought this little block <strong>of</strong> land<br />
reasonably cheaply. That was all we had though, we just scratched up enough for it. <strong>The</strong>n I<br />
started to get some second-hand timber,and I was also able to get I’d what I had left over<br />
from jobs. I began to build a little holiday house. I built it all in the backyard in Croydon.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n I took it to bits again and we carted it all down to Apollo Bay on my brother Neil’s<br />
semi-trailer. Over a period <strong>of</strong> a couple <strong>of</strong> weeks I put it all up. <strong>The</strong> family came down and<br />
we would camp there. It was like indoor camping. That was the start.<br />
Our favourite holiday place was Apollo Bay.<br />
<strong>The</strong> much-loved holiday house at Apollo Bay<br />
23
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I enjoyed it a lot. It was like another world down there for me. We used to go down about<br />
every two weeks. As soon as we arrived, I’d say, ‘Get out the fishing rods!’ All the family’s<br />
unloading the car and I’d be down there fishing with the boys.<br />
Rol, (left) <strong>Les</strong> and Tim<br />
<strong>The</strong> day’s catch<br />
‘It was like another world down there for me.’<br />
24
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
And then I’d do some more building. Until I got it pretty comfortable. We holidayed in it for<br />
forty years. When I’d built the bottom section, I’d built it in such a way with heavy timbers,<br />
that I knew that I could put another storey on top. Which I did and that gave us another six<br />
squares <strong>of</strong> living area. And a beautiful view. We were happy there for many years. A lot <strong>of</strong><br />
people, family and friends, had a wonderful time down there. Yeah, it was great!<br />
A lot <strong>of</strong> people, family and<br />
friends, had a wonderful time<br />
down there. Yeah, it was<br />
great!<br />
<strong>The</strong>n in later years we moved from Croydon up to Gruyere. We started to travel a bit which<br />
we hadn’t done before. We’d had lots <strong>of</strong> little trips with the children, but nothing big. We’d<br />
got to a stage where we seemed to have other interests, and we wanted to do other<br />
things, so we didn’t go to Apollo Bay as much. We thought about selling it. But Tim and the<br />
kids enjoyed it a lot, they were into surfing and everything. So, we <strong>of</strong>fered it to him and he<br />
took it over and modernised it a bit.<br />
Eventually the travelling became a bit much for him and his family. He could see the kids<br />
driving down there, a four-hour drive, decided it was time for a change. He had somehow<br />
started surfing at Cape Patterson and he ended up purchasing a block there and sold<br />
Apollo Bay. He built a beautiful home down there. It’s a bit more than a holiday home …<br />
it’s like a castle! He loves it and they can just hop in the car after work at night and head<br />
down there. All that’s turned out for the best and I’m very pleased they’ve got that. He<br />
deserves it.<br />
<strong>The</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> my <strong>life</strong> is really this modern time now.<br />
We’ve taken bigger holidays like two or three weeks<br />
away, touring in coaches around Australia, to all<br />
sorts <strong>of</strong> places. We’ve been to most places in<br />
Australia. We’ve looked through a lot <strong>of</strong> our photos<br />
and they always bring back the memories.<br />
All that’s turned out for<br />
the best and I’m very<br />
pleased they’ve got that.<br />
He deserves it.<br />
25
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
My working <strong>life</strong> in <strong>The</strong> Yarra Valley<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dairy Industry<br />
During my <strong>life</strong> I’ve had various types <strong>of</strong> work. Always needed to put bread and butter on<br />
the table I suppose. Wherever there was a job, if I was asked to do it, I’d go and do it. It<br />
kept me in pretty good stead in later years, as I gradually acquired a lot <strong>of</strong> experience.<br />
Wherever there was a job, if I<br />
was asked to do it I’d go and<br />
do it.<br />
I had the shearing and the building but I also did quite<br />
a bit <strong>of</strong> agricultural contracting. Ploughing, discing,<br />
and sowing. It come about that we had a little<br />
property at Coldstream that we were share farming.<br />
We needed a tractor, so we bought one and my job<br />
was to go out and earn enough money to pay it <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
At that stage, up around the Woori Yallock, Yellingbo area, a lot <strong>of</strong> properties were being<br />
bought up by lawyers and doctors and such who were given quite a concession by the<br />
Government, tax wise. <strong>The</strong>y bought all this cheap land and I had the opportunity to go and<br />
help clear it, plough it and so forth for them. That was quite an experience.<br />
In those early days, the main industry in the Yarra<br />
Valley was the dairy industry. At that time the<br />
government had become a bit alarmed about some<br />
<strong>of</strong> the very old dairies that had been operating for<br />
two or three generations. In those days the milk was<br />
pumped from the cows through brass pipes. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
We needed a tractor, so we<br />
bought one, and my job was<br />
to go out and earn enough<br />
money to pay it <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
pipes picked up the calcium out <strong>of</strong> the milk and left a build-up inside the pipes. So, they<br />
changed that to stainless steel. <strong>The</strong>se were much easier to keep clean. <strong>The</strong> Dairy<br />
Department said, ‘You’ve got to put in stainless steel, you’ve got to upgrade your dairy and<br />
if you don’t, we won’t renew your licence.’<br />
So, through people I knew on the land, I started to do up the dairies and that was really<br />
where I got into a bit more <strong>of</strong> the technical side <strong>of</strong> building. I got to know the Dairy<br />
Inspector in this area pretty well and he more or less just directed me from one dairy to<br />
another. I ended up renovating or building quite a lot <strong>of</strong> dairies in the Yarra Valley.<br />
I started to do up the dairies,<br />
and that was really where I<br />
got into a bit more <strong>of</strong> the<br />
technical side <strong>of</strong> building.<br />
I think there would have been more than a hundred<br />
dairies in the area. Nowadays we’re down to about<br />
two or three. Milk comes from other areas now,<br />
around Gippsland and up north in the irrigation areas.<br />
Yes, building those dairies was quite an experience.<br />
26
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I ended up renovating or building quite a lot <strong>of</strong><br />
dairies in the Yarra Valley.<br />
This upgrading <strong>of</strong> the dairies made a big difference. <strong>The</strong>y all had needed new machinery<br />
and pipes and so forth. <strong>The</strong>y had old wooden bales and the concrete was all cracked and<br />
grazed. I was supplying metal pipe bails and salt feeders to make it a lot easier for them.<br />
Some <strong>of</strong> the properties I could just go in with my pocket knife and cut the green string,<br />
that’s all that was holding the rails up.<br />
Yet the people were quite clean, they just didn’t realise … it just went on, one generation<br />
after the other. I remember one family in particular, dairying down Tarrawarra Lane. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was the man, his wife, the mum and someone else. <strong>The</strong>re were about four <strong>of</strong> them<br />
anyway. After I’d finished, it only took two to do the same work that four people had been<br />
doing. That was a big asset to them.<br />
From then on, I put in steel bails, self-feeders and overhead tubing carrying feed to the<br />
bales. It was a good era. Once the dairies had all come up to scratch for the Dairying<br />
Department, the industry went full steam ahead. I went on from there to build all sorts <strong>of</strong><br />
farm buildings. Steel sheds, hay sheds, machinery sheds and that kept me going in<br />
between my shearing commitments.<br />
I went on from there to build<br />
all sorts <strong>of</strong> farm buildings.<br />
Steel sheds, hay sheds<br />
machinery sheds,<br />
these nice brick dairies are still standing.<br />
After a while I saw a big change in the dairying<br />
industry in the area. I don’t know why the<br />
government saw fit to do what they did. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
reckoned there was too much milk being produced<br />
and they started paying the dairy farmers out. So<br />
much a cow. Of course, a lot <strong>of</strong> them had been there a<br />
long time, so they took their money and went. And all<br />
I remember thinking to myself at that stage, ‘Goodness me, what’s going to happen to the<br />
Yarra Valley?’ <strong>The</strong>y tried beef but the properties weren’t big enough to run beef. And then<br />
fortunately, as I mentioned before, there came these rebates to wealthy people. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
came out to the Yarra Valley and bought up the properties that had been dairy farms. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
put up their wineries and a whole new industry was born.<br />
I remember thinking to myself at that stage,<br />
‘Goodness me, what’s going to happen to the<br />
Yarra Valley?’<br />
27
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Wine Industry<br />
Eventually I had the opportunity to build a winery. <strong>The</strong> Yarra Yering Winery on Briarty<br />
Road. <strong>The</strong> owner, Dr Bailey Carrodus, wanted something to start <strong>of</strong>f with, a big steel shed.<br />
So, I built it. <strong>The</strong>n he got me to enclose it all with bricks and he used that as his temporary<br />
winery. He had big ideas for the future. I had subcontractors to help me with the building. I<br />
had every tradie needed to build the construction, and most <strong>of</strong> them were my mates.<br />
(<strong>The</strong>y weren’t when we started, but they were afterwards.)<br />
He had big ideas for the<br />
future.<br />
That Yarra Yering winery started <strong>of</strong>f with the very<br />
basic things, four walls and a concrete floor. His<br />
grapes were starting to come through, so he used that<br />
shed until such time that we built a big cellar out from<br />
it at ground level. We dug down three to four metres<br />
and put a big retaining wall against the footings <strong>of</strong> the building. We put big concrete walls<br />
around this great big hole in the ground and poured a big thick slab on top <strong>of</strong> it which we<br />
had to form up to hold the concrete. That was my first experience with forming concrete. I<br />
knew the concreter, and he said to me,<br />
‘I’ll supply all the stuff, you can put it together <strong>Les</strong>.’<br />
‘Ok.’ I said<br />
‘I’ll shout you to dinner.’ … he promised.<br />
He never did!<br />
If you can imagine an area as big as a house, with beams and pillars holding everything up.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we had to put in all these metal sections, each about a metre square. <strong>The</strong>y all<br />
interlocked and sat on top <strong>of</strong> the beams. Dr Carrodus had an engineer/architect design it<br />
all. When I stripped it, he said to the Doc, ‘That’s the best strip I’ve ever seen.’ I think I put<br />
so much work into it and perhaps worried about it more so, than someone who could get it<br />
done quickly.<br />
I think I put so much work into it, and<br />
perhaps worried about it more so, than<br />
someone who could get it done quickly.<br />
That worked out so well. He had a beautiful cellar. He went on and filled it up, and I said to<br />
him,<br />
‘You must have a million bottles <strong>of</strong> wine here, why don’t you sell some?’<br />
‘Nope! Not ready yet.’ was his reply.<br />
I knew they were having a bit <strong>of</strong> a battle with money, but he said he would not sell. He had<br />
his mind set on something and he stuck to it.<br />
On top <strong>of</strong> the slab, which was the floor <strong>of</strong> the original steel building that I’d put up, we<br />
built about a fifteen square home. All built out <strong>of</strong> Besser blocks. All the boys called it<br />
Pentridge!<br />
28
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
An early photo <strong>of</strong> Yarra Yering. Clearly showing the Besser blocks!<br />
But he knew what he was doing. He’d been all around the world and had collected things.<br />
He had a lot <strong>of</strong> beautiful Persian carpets and runners and stuff. When he ran them out<br />
down these big passages, they brought the place alive. He also had lot <strong>of</strong> very valuable<br />
paintings and up on the stark grey walls they looked beautiful. He knew exactly what he<br />
wanted.<br />
He knew exactly what he wanted.<br />
A tasting room at Yarra Yering. <strong>The</strong> austere<br />
quality that Bailey Carrodus created can still be<br />
seen<br />
It took me a long time to call him Bailey. He used to call me Mr <strong>Skate</strong>! I said to him one<br />
day, ‘I’m a bit sick <strong>of</strong> this Mr <strong>Skate</strong> business. Could you call me <strong>Les</strong>? And could I call you<br />
Bailey?’ And so it was.<br />
He stuck out for his wine. He made a very good wine. I always reckoned he was the best<br />
wine maker in the Yarra Valley. <strong>The</strong> way they make it now, adding all the ingredients into<br />
tanks and making it bubble and all that sort <strong>of</strong> thing. But his grapes were picked <strong>of</strong>f the<br />
vine, the juice was squeezed and was put into barrels to ferment. That was the way wine<br />
had been made for the last thousand years. In the end he won an export award to Britain,<br />
and almost overnight, he sold his wine. He could demand about seventeen dollars a bottle,<br />
(which is a fair bit <strong>of</strong> money if you’ve got a million bottles!) His top wine demanded eighty<br />
dollars a bottle, even on the local market. It was a beautiful wine.<br />
29
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I always reckoned he was the best wine maker<br />
in the Yarra Valley.<br />
Dr Bailey Carrodus. Described as a visionary who re-started the wine industry in the Yarra Valley and also<br />
gave <strong>Les</strong> his first chance to build a winery.<br />
He always had a plan in mind. In later years other wineries, when they got such a stock<br />
they wouldn’t stick to their prices, they wanted the cash. So, they would sell it <strong>of</strong>f at lesser<br />
prices which horrified some <strong>of</strong> the original owners. <strong>The</strong>y had built it up to about seventeen<br />
to twenty dollars a bottle, then it was being flogged <strong>of</strong>f at five dollars! Once you go down<br />
to that you can’t go back again.<br />
But Dr Carrodus was different. When he was financially stable, we built another big store<br />
shed, all done with the grey Besser blocks and then we did another one for him, which<br />
soon outgrew its use. He was still making his wine up in the first shed that I’d built. <strong>The</strong>n he<br />
decided was going to build a proper winery down the hill a bit.<br />
30
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
So that was another big excavation. We excavated down six metres deep, about thirty<br />
metres long, and about twenty metres across. Imagine the amount <strong>of</strong> earth that came out<br />
<strong>of</strong> that! Luckily, we had big trucks carting it, and he had plenty <strong>of</strong> room way up on the bank<br />
to place it.<br />
Another early photo showing the development <strong>of</strong> the winery.<br />
We built one big cellar storage under the ground. <strong>The</strong> concrete floor in it was all layered<br />
with slots and grates. He wanted to get the dampness <strong>of</strong> the earth coming through. That<br />
was the way it had to be made. That bought us up to the next level, which was more barrel<br />
storage, at ground level. On top <strong>of</strong> that was his winery with his press and great big boxes<br />
all lined with enamel that you put the grapes in and pressed them. <strong>The</strong>re were stairs from<br />
the bottom to the second storey. My son Tim designed a lift so he could get the barrels up<br />
to the ground level.<br />
He wanted to get the<br />
dampness <strong>of</strong> the earth coming<br />
through. That was the way it<br />
had to be made.<br />
It was a very wet area. He was right on the side <strong>of</strong> a<br />
mountain. He picked that for the soil. But an<br />
avalanche <strong>of</strong> water used to come down that<br />
mountain. And I had this great big hole in the ground.<br />
It was one <strong>of</strong> the wettest seasons; we had six inches <strong>of</strong><br />
rain. I had to keep the water out and stop the sides<br />
from falling in which would have been a disaster. I was a bit lucky but I knew if the water<br />
got near the edge, say about a couple <strong>of</strong> feet from it, it would sink in and then it would fall<br />
in.<br />
So, I bought lots <strong>of</strong> big rolls <strong>of</strong> black polythene. I took it back about a couple metres and<br />
pegged it all down and draped it over. So, when the rain came down it went over the edge<br />
and down to the bottom. I had good drainage at the bottom. We were down, remember,<br />
six metres. So, I had to put big pits in and dig a big drain six metres deep to get the water<br />
down to the bottom where it gradually ran out. We only had one little earth fall. That was<br />
after the mesh had been put in. We had to dig it all out with a shovel. If that had happened<br />
all the way around it would have been a disaster.<br />
31
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
On the east side was the second building that we’d built for him away from the main<br />
buildings. Storage. And a big concrete apron. When you dig down every two to three<br />
metres, you’re supposed to put a lay back the same size. But on the other side he had his<br />
grapes growing. He wouldn’t part with his grapes. I said,<br />
‘Doc you know we could have a real disaster here.’<br />
‘What would be the worst scenario?’ he asked.<br />
‘Could cost you a hundred thousand at least to clean it all out, then you’ve got all that<br />
extra back filling.’<br />
But he wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t part with his grapes. But when the council came to<br />
inspect pre-building, they went back and told the powers-to-be what I was doing. Hadn’t<br />
done the laybacks. So they sent two engineers out and I said to them,<br />
‘Well, that’s what I think I’ve got to do, you tell me what you’d do.’<br />
<strong>The</strong>y went away and they never came back.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n finally his winery was to be built. <strong>The</strong> big hole<br />
in the ground. We couldn’t start till late October<br />
because it was so wet. And he wanted it finished for<br />
vintage by about Anzac Day, so boy did we have to<br />
go! But we got it ready for him for when the first<br />
But he wouldn’t budge. He<br />
wouldn’t part with his grapes.<br />
vintage grapes came in. <strong>The</strong> Yarra Yering winery was the first real job where I became quite<br />
educated about building. And I think I got through it quite alright.<br />
Dr Carrodus’ first vintage wines. 1973<br />
<strong>The</strong> Yarra Yering winery was the first real job<br />
where I became quite educated about building.<br />
And I think I got through it quite alright.<br />
32
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
James Halliday was the head honcho in the wine industry. He’d bought the property right<br />
next door to where we lived. He and Dr Carrodus were quite friendly and they used to look<br />
after the wineries. He was the next one to come and ask me to build his winery. It was to<br />
become Coldstream Hills Winery. He and his wife Suzanne worked extremely hard on that<br />
winery with minimal resources. It was a very hard place to do anything as it was just a<br />
rocky hill. <strong>The</strong>y had picked that because over in Italy and Spain and even parts <strong>of</strong> France<br />
probably, the vines are grown in rocks. He got a machine in with big rippers which just<br />
opened up trenches about six hundred mm deep and whatever the intervals were. First <strong>of</strong><br />
all, they dropped chook manure along the trenches from little trucks. <strong>The</strong>y’d go right up<br />
the top <strong>of</strong> the hill and come down (it was about forty-five degrees). <strong>The</strong>n they filled in the<br />
trenches. <strong>The</strong> fencer then came in and drove his pine posts into the trenches at the<br />
interval points, and the grape vines were soon growing along them.<br />
James Halliday gave <strong>Les</strong> his next opportunity. This photo shows the slope <strong>of</strong> the land that <strong>Les</strong> talks about.<br />
<strong>The</strong> construction <strong>of</strong> Coldstream Hills at the very top <strong>of</strong> the hill was another challenge for <strong>Les</strong><br />
That was their part <strong>of</strong> growing the vineyard. <strong>The</strong>n my job came along. We only had a little<br />
bit levelled at the top <strong>of</strong> the hill that the previous owner had taken <strong>of</strong>f. We had to take<br />
more <strong>of</strong>f. <strong>The</strong> top <strong>of</strong> that hill was some <strong>of</strong> the hardest rock you can imagine. We also had<br />
to make the road which was just outside their boundary. A friend <strong>of</strong> mine had done a lot <strong>of</strong><br />
work for me ripped fifteen foot <strong>of</strong>f the top <strong>of</strong> the hill and put it down the bottom. He said,<br />
33
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
‘I wouldn’t do that for anyone else!’ <strong>The</strong>n we levelled an area big enough for the winery<br />
and proceeded to build it. We had to jack hammer out the trenches for the drains. We<br />
eventually got there.<br />
It wasn’t a real big project in those days but the firms that bought it later on (it’s owned by<br />
Treasury Wines now) between them and Rosemount and the others, they built onto it and<br />
made it bigger. While it was Coldstream Hills, James and Suzanne were a bit like Dr<br />
Carrodus. <strong>The</strong>y wanted to make a name for themselves in the wine industry. And they did.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were getting that seventeen to twenty dollars a bottle. Eventually James, who was<br />
quite a clever bloke, (he’d been a solicitor and worked for big firms in the city) took<br />
shareholders in and he eventually sold to Rosemount.<br />
James (Halliday) and<br />
Suzanne were a bit like Dr<br />
Carrodus. <strong>The</strong>y wanted to<br />
make a name for themselves<br />
in the wine industry. And<br />
they did.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new owners then did just the same as the others<br />
had done … they wanted to see the money, so they<br />
dropped the price down. That would have broken<br />
James’ and Suzanne’s hearts. But it has worked its<br />
way back up to a good level again now, with<br />
competition and a big demand for wine.<br />
Coldstream Hills Cellar Door<br />
34
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
So that was Coldstream Hills. Now one <strong>of</strong> the top directors <strong>of</strong> that company was a fellow<br />
named Tony Jordan. He was a world-wide acclaimed wine maker. He was given the job by<br />
a French crowd, Domaine-Chandon, to find a property, to put in a vineyard and start a<br />
winery. He found a property called Green Point, on the Maroondah Hwy between the<br />
highway and the Yarra river. He proceeded to put in the vineyard.<br />
Because Tony was connected to James and had seen what I’d done there, he asked if I was<br />
interested in doing it. So, I looked at the plans and oh boy, it was a whopper! <strong>The</strong>y got<br />
architects from Sydney, Allan, Jack and Collier, who were world-renowned architects. I<br />
thought it would be pretty good working for them!<br />
So I looked at the plans and<br />
oh boy, it was a whopper!<br />
<strong>The</strong>y sent a trouble-shooter down from Sydney and<br />
they had a meeting up at the house at Coldstream<br />
Hills, not far from where we lived. <strong>The</strong>re were two<br />
other big city companies bidding (probably never built<br />
a winery in their lives). <strong>The</strong>y interviewed them first<br />
and I was the last one. I think the bloke had already made up his mind, he knew that I was<br />
a one-man band. He was firing all these questions at me and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I<br />
said, ‘Sorry I’m not interested.’ So, I went home (a few hundred yards up the road).<br />
About half an hour later a knock came on the door. It was Tony Jordan.<br />
‘Come in.’ I said.<br />
‘Look <strong>Les</strong>, do you want to do it and how do you want to do it?’ he asked.<br />
‘Well I’ll do the building, and you pay all the bills!’<br />
We shook hands on it and that was that!<br />
I went on to build it over four years. It was built in four separate sections. It’s one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
most beautiful and best wineries in the Yarra Valley.<br />
I received an accolade when I finished building<br />
Domaine-Chandon that I have always been<br />
very proud <strong>of</strong>. Those architects, who as I said,<br />
were known world-wide … they’d done some<br />
fantastic work in other countries. <strong>The</strong>y said<br />
my eye for detail was as good as they’d seen<br />
anywhere in the world. I think I was very,<br />
very, fussy!<br />
35
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong>se photos all show <strong>Les</strong>’ work at Domaine-Chandon. When asked to name his greatest<br />
achievements, <strong>Les</strong> replied, ‘My family … shearing 200 sheep in a day … and building<br />
Domaine-Chandon.’<br />
Entrance<br />
Homestead<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Riddling Hall<br />
Domaine-Chandon Winery<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I went on from there to Eyton on Yarra. That winery had been started by a chap who had<br />
big visions <strong>of</strong> doing this and doing that and the poor man ended up going under. <strong>The</strong> fellow<br />
who bought it owned the Eyton on Yarra property on Dalry Rd out <strong>of</strong> Healesville. So, this<br />
winery was to be called Eyton on Yarra. Anyway, I got that job and the architect sort <strong>of</strong><br />
hashed out what was there, I pulled a lot <strong>of</strong> it down, but in the finish, we made a very nice<br />
winery. <strong>The</strong> crowd that own it now, is Rochford. Tim did all the steel on Eyton on Yarra and<br />
he helped me with pretty much everything on that winery. He was getting his education<br />
into the building game.<br />
I pulled a lot <strong>of</strong> it down, but<br />
in the finish we made a very<br />
nice winery. <strong>The</strong> crowd that<br />
own it now, is Rochford.<br />
After that I did the last stage for Dr Carrodus. His<br />
own winery. And while we were just finishing it <strong>of</strong>f,<br />
an architect and one <strong>of</strong> the owner’s sons from Yering<br />
Station called in one day to see what was going on<br />
there. <strong>The</strong>y were keen to buy out Dr Carrodus at that<br />
Tim was getting his education<br />
into the building game.<br />
stage. <strong>The</strong>y had a snoop around and it wasn’t long before they came back and asked if I<br />
was interested in building a winery for them. (Yering Station) By then I was getting on, so I<br />
said to my son Tim, ‘Do you want to do it?’ He jumped at the chance. That’s where the<br />
changeover happened.<br />
I said to my son Tim, ‘Do<br />
you want to do it?’ He<br />
jumped at the chance.<br />
Tim had done his apprenticeship with the Board <strong>of</strong><br />
Works as a welder. He was a top welder there. He<br />
didn’t like the way they worked so he had come and<br />
worked for me doing all the steelwork. Plus doing<br />
other things. I don’t know how many wineries we’d done, but there’d been a lot. Tim had<br />
an engineering brain as good as anyone in the world. He built the whole thing from<br />
scratch. So, he took over the business and I worked for him for another ten years until I<br />
was eighty-one.<br />
So he took over the business and I worked for<br />
him for another ten years until I was eighty-one.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Yering Station Winery became quite a fabulous winery. It’s very nice to walk around and<br />
have a look at. We’ve been there for a few meals but I find they give you a big plate with<br />
very little on it! And then they charge you the world for it! I’d prefer to go for a pub meal …<br />
No, really, we’ve been invited back and it’s very nice. <strong>The</strong>y’ve treated me very well … the<br />
name sticks there.<br />
Yarra Yering Winery today<br />
After that, Tim more or less went his own way. We built a couple <strong>of</strong> houses and renovated<br />
the Yeringberg winery, which is probably the oldest winery in the district, it dates way<br />
back. I finished up on that one, building a house on the property for one <strong>of</strong> the daughters.<br />
Tim just kept on going, and the wineries just kept on flowing. He did a few houses, but the<br />
wineries were always coming up.<br />
So, all these wineries were in <strong>Skate</strong> Construction’s name and when Tim took over, he just<br />
followed on. I doubt he’s ever had to put in a price for a winery. He gives them an estimate<br />
and that’s it. I never really understood the business side <strong>of</strong> it, but I can see it now, because<br />
I’ve seen the way Tim runs the business. But when I look back … for example, I look at the<br />
Domaine Chandon Winery, because it was something first up. I made a living, but that’s<br />
about all. My tradies were getting more than me in the finish. <strong>The</strong>n if there was anything<br />
left over I would have it. But I was happy.<br />
Something that I want to say, something that I<br />
feel good about, is that it was a very good start<br />
for Tim. My work stayed in very good stead<br />
for him, and he’s gone on and made a very<br />
good success <strong>of</strong> it<br />
39
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Family homes<br />
I’d like to talk about our two daughters and their first two houses, which they bought<br />
opposite each other in East St Kilda. Lynne had spent a bit <strong>of</strong> time boarding in this area.<br />
This particular spot was one <strong>of</strong> the oldest areas, the streets were very narrow. <strong>The</strong>y were<br />
all mostly little single frontage villas lining the street on both sides. <strong>The</strong>y were mostly in<br />
very dilapidated conditions. I dare to say they had never been renovated in their early<br />
lives.<br />
At that stage things were starting to move, <strong>life</strong>styles were changing. At that point those<br />
houses were selling for around $25,000 – $27,000. If you’d had a bit <strong>of</strong> money behind you,<br />
you could have bought the whole street. Anyway, Lynne managed to save up enough and<br />
she bought this place in very poor condition. But that didn’t throw out too much <strong>of</strong> a<br />
challenge to me. I was able to jack it up, straighten it up, and add a bit on to it. It ended up<br />
quite a comfortable two-bedroom home, with a nice kitchen, bathroom and so forth.<br />
But that didn’t throw out too<br />
much <strong>of</strong> a challenge to me. I<br />
was able to jack it up,<br />
straiten it up, and add a bit<br />
on to it. It ended up quite a<br />
comfortable two bedroom<br />
home,<br />
She lived there for three or four years or thereabouts, until she was able to get a block <strong>of</strong><br />
land up here in Lilydale. She borrowed the money and I built her a nice home there and<br />
that’s where she has settled for the last thirty years. Which is very handy for us as she’s<br />
just around the corner.<br />
<strong>Les</strong> at work on Lynne’s house in East St Kilda<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Over the years the building <strong>of</strong> houses became a family affair. <strong>Les</strong> here supervising work on Lynne’s shed.<br />
In the meantime, whilst we were renovating Lynne’s little house, Julie had got to the stage<br />
where she was looking for somewhere to buy. A house directly opposite Lynne’s house in<br />
East St Kilda came on the market, and she was able to buy it. <strong>The</strong> houses there were<br />
almost touching. On one side you could squeeze down, but on the other side you couldn’t.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was virtually about six inches between the houses. So, everything had to be done<br />
from inside. That meant I had to support the frames and pull up all the floors so I could<br />
work underneath.<br />
Lynne and Julie kept <strong>Les</strong> busy on their<br />
first houses.<br />
<strong>The</strong> land here would have been<br />
pretty much undersea a few<br />
million years ago, and now it is<br />
all black sand. You can never<br />
find a bottom to it to put a<br />
stump in. <strong>The</strong> houses were all<br />
higgeldy-piggeldy. So, I had to<br />
dig out all the trenches by hand,<br />
and I got loads <strong>of</strong> railway<br />
sleepers and I laid them as base<br />
logs in the bottom <strong>of</strong> the trench,<br />
so the weight was spread out.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong>n I put my stumps on top <strong>of</strong> the sleepers. I jacked the walls up straight. Where they<br />
were rotten, I had to replace the wall plates. I had to do that right through. <strong>The</strong>re was a lot<br />
<strong>of</strong> manual work … carting dirt out and carting timber in through a narrow passage. I did a<br />
lot <strong>of</strong> this on my own, but I did have some help from Rol, because by this stage he was<br />
working with me.<br />
That house worked out very nicely. Julie being a<br />
designer, knew what she wanted. We were able to<br />
change a few little things to suit her and made it<br />
Julie being a designer, knew<br />
what she wanted.<br />
more convenient and comfortable for her. She ended up with a nice little house there. She<br />
stayed there for few years too. Those houses, after three or four years, had jumped up to<br />
$75,000! Julie then bought an original house up at Mt Dandenong. More work! But not to<br />
such an extent as the first houses.<br />
Julie went on from there down to Fairfield. She bought another old villa which needed a bit<br />
<strong>of</strong> work done on it, but basically it was alright. It was a very handy block. She stayed there<br />
for a while. So, after doing that up a bit it was also a very nice little place. She designed a<br />
few things herself, lovely lead-light doors and things like that. <strong>The</strong> market was on the upand-up<br />
in those days which helped Julie a lot. She went from Fairfield to Bulleen, where I<br />
also did a lot <strong>of</strong> work on the house. It was on a slope and a lot <strong>of</strong> water was coming from<br />
the back, so I did a lot <strong>of</strong> landscaping and work on drainage. That worked out well too.<br />
So after doing that up a bit it<br />
was also a very nice little<br />
place.<br />
She designed a few things<br />
herself … lovely lead-light<br />
doors and things like that.<br />
From Bulleen she went down to Chelsea. She bought<br />
a nice little unit there and I did a few little things to<br />
improve it. It was right on the beach. It’s become a<br />
very valuable site and she still owns it. She’s been<br />
away on various jobs, to Mackay and now in Canberra. She rented there for a while and<br />
now she’s bought her own unit, so she’ll retire there, in Canberra and she’ll have the nice<br />
place to come back to in Chelsea, when she comes down for a stay.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Lynne’s very happy where she is now. She worked for Caladenia, the Alzheimer’s place in<br />
Mooroolbark for a good many years as a coordinator. She retired from that, if you could<br />
call it a retirement. She still gets involved there for various things. (Joan’s also been very<br />
involved there as a volunteer. I did a few bits and pieces there too.)<br />
<strong>Les</strong> giving a demonstration <strong>of</strong> shearing to a group<br />
from Caladenia, where Lynne worked as<br />
co-ordinator<br />
More family assistance<br />
with Lynne’s shed.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Lynne’s got a lot <strong>of</strong> things going on that she does for herself … language classes, and<br />
dancing classes. She has a busy <strong>life</strong>. (Looking after me too!) It’s very good for us that Lynne<br />
is still here in Lilydale. At the moment with the condition I’m in, she is here every day to<br />
see me. Being the nurse. She fusses around me, makes sure I take this pill or that pill (or<br />
that I don’t take that pill!). She’s very good.<br />
It’s very good for us that Lynne is still here in<br />
Lilydale.<br />
When Tim met Ros, she had a little place up here in Lilydale. He moved in there for a while<br />
and I helped him put on a little landing, and another bedroom on that too. <strong>The</strong>n they<br />
bought a block in Berkley Place in Chirnside Park. It had quite a view. It was a steep block,<br />
but with Tim’s engineering brain we dug it out, put rooms underneath, put big concrete<br />
walls up, then built the house up on top <strong>of</strong> that. <strong>The</strong>y had a nice home there.<br />
Master at work<br />
<strong>Les</strong> teaching grandson Timothy how to use the<br />
‘whacker packer’<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
But Tim always wants to move on and test his skills. <strong>The</strong>y ended up buying a five-acre block<br />
in another part <strong>of</strong> Chirnside Park in a more rural area, on the north side <strong>of</strong> Switchback<br />
Road and proceeded to build a state-<strong>of</strong>-the-art home. Which it is! I’m not game to touch<br />
anything there. It’s all touch button. You talk in your phone and the blinds go up. All that<br />
sort <strong>of</strong> thing.<br />
But Tim always wants to<br />
move on and test his skills<br />
<strong>The</strong> first thing he built there was quite a big workshop<br />
which he’s added on to now. Because <strong>of</strong> the business<br />
he can get all the steel he needs. He has a full-time<br />
welder work there and he does all the steel. <strong>The</strong> rest<br />
<strong>of</strong> it is storage … for his boats and our old vintage<br />
car…the Chevy. Plus, all his workshop equipment that he needs for jobs.<br />
<strong>Les</strong> with his 1928<br />
Chevy, that is stored in<br />
Tim’s shed where the<br />
restoration took place.<br />
It took <strong>Les</strong> and Tim<br />
only 12 months to do<br />
the restoration over<br />
2012-2013. Word has it<br />
that <strong>Les</strong> had to be<br />
banned from going on<br />
weekends so he didn’t<br />
drive everyone mad!<br />
<strong>The</strong> second photo was<br />
taken on <strong>Les</strong>’ 90 th<br />
birthday. He and the<br />
Chevy were the same<br />
age.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Tim’s pretty well organised. <strong>The</strong>y have a very good setup there. Lovely home, lovely big<br />
garden. Everything you could want. But he is talking now about looking for something else.<br />
Not in the area they’re in now, over in the built-up area. On the highest peak he can find. If<br />
he has to buy the house, he’ll just knock it down and build the castle on the hill.<br />
Rol bought his first house in Loughnan Rd, in Ringwood. I spent a fair bit <strong>of</strong> time on that.<br />
He bought this little old place. It was a house that when you saw it, you knew you could do<br />
something with it. It was on a very steep block up Loughnan Road, looking down over<br />
Ringwood. We dug out and built underneath.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we built on top which gave them a new big<br />
bedroom, an en suite, a dressing-room, a new big<br />
living area, and a kitchen. Underneath they had their<br />
double garage. It worked quite well; it was a good<br />
start for him.<br />
It was a house that when you<br />
saw it, you knew you could do<br />
something with it.<br />
It worked quite well, it was a<br />
good start for him.<br />
From there Rol and Tim went into this joint venture <strong>of</strong><br />
a ski-water-jump park. Rol sold the house at Loughnan<br />
Road and they both put money into the new venture.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y bought land out at Gruyere and that’s where Rol<br />
still lives now. After the completion <strong>of</strong> the<br />
construction <strong>of</strong> the water-jump, (that is a story in itself!) they had great success, it was<br />
fantastic. Australia wouldn’t have had our world champion ski jumpers, including Kirstie<br />
Marshall, if it hadn’t been there for them to train on.<br />
Australia wouldn’t have had our world<br />
champion ski jumpers, including Kirstie<br />
Marshall, if it hadn’t been there for them to<br />
train on.<br />
<strong>The</strong> long-term idea was that the general public would also come and pay and have a bit <strong>of</strong><br />
fun. But it fizzled out after a while. <strong>The</strong>re’s only a limited number <strong>of</strong> people who do that<br />
sort <strong>of</strong> thing and in the end, they couldn’t keep it going. I was warned about it by Tony<br />
Jordan. He was the man who controlled Domaine Chandon. He said to me one day, ‘I don’t<br />
think this will work <strong>Les</strong>, it’s a limited market.’ He knew you had to have clients. And so, it<br />
didn’t go on.<br />
So Rol made his home up there. He was still working in the carpentry business up until he<br />
had a fall and damaged his shoulder. He had always been a motorbike enthusiast, because<br />
Karen’s, (his wife) father was called ‘Mr Honda,’ because he imported all the Honda stuff<br />
from Japan. So, Karen was deeply into motorbikes too. <strong>The</strong> big building there that they had<br />
for the ski people, became Rol’s motor bike repair shop and that has become his business.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I think they love it so much they will stay there<br />
forever.<br />
<strong>The</strong> property had a very old home on it that had been moved there. I have just finished<br />
renovating and adding to it and it’s come up very nicely I think they love it so much they<br />
will stay there forever. I’ve never stopped going up there for the past three years, since<br />
Tim’s house at Cape Patterson was finished. <strong>The</strong>re’s always something for me to do around<br />
the property and I love going there and helping out.<br />
<strong>Les</strong> working around Rol’s property at Gruyere. 2019<br />
47
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Coldstream Football Club…a big part <strong>of</strong> my <strong>life</strong>.<br />
My experience in football at Coldstream started back in 1952, when we started our club.<br />
We had a cricket club that had been going for a couple <strong>of</strong> years, so we were able to draw<br />
on the cricketers to help build up a football team. We chased around and a lot <strong>of</strong> the<br />
farmer boys came to play. <strong>The</strong>y turned up in their hob-nailed boots to play! One <strong>of</strong> my jobs<br />
was to drive in these leather nailed stops on the Saturday. <strong>The</strong>n knock them out on Sunday<br />
so they go home and work! I used bags and bags <strong>of</strong> stops. Eventually they could afford a<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> footy boots. But that’s how we started.<br />
A lot <strong>of</strong> the farmer boys came<br />
to play. <strong>The</strong>y turned up in<br />
their hob-nailed boots to play!<br />
<strong>The</strong> 1949 Coldstream Cricket Club that provided some players to start the football club. <strong>Les</strong> is in the<br />
back row, second from left. His brother Ge<strong>of</strong>f is in the front row, first left.<br />
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<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We were able to have an agreement with a very large farming family in the community<br />
that owned this big block <strong>of</strong> land in Coldstream. We were able to get ten or twelve acres<br />
fenced <strong>of</strong>f, from a big hundred-acre block, so they really didn’t miss it. <strong>The</strong>re wouldn’t be<br />
many people who would allow that sort <strong>of</strong> interference with their property. But they were<br />
happy to give to us on a ninety-nine-year lease, for ten shillings a year or thereabouts. Just<br />
to make it legal.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re wouldn’t be many<br />
people who would allow that<br />
sort <strong>of</strong> interference with their<br />
property.<br />
So, we renovated the ground. I rotary hoed it, sowed<br />
it down, put up goal posts and ran a fence around it. I<br />
went up the bush and felled trees. My brother-in-law<br />
and sister had a farm at Gruyere. (Which was the one<br />
we bought part <strong>of</strong> eventually.) He’d set himself up<br />
with a little sawmill. It was pretty rugged, but good<br />
enough to saw our slabs and timber. If it was a bit cockeyed it didn’t matter. We nailed it<br />
all together and made a great long shed with a division in the middle for the umpires.<br />
Because it was all green timber, after a couple <strong>of</strong> summers, the boards all shrunk and half<br />
your stuff would fall down through the cracks! If you dropped a sixpence down, you had to<br />
crawl underneath to get it back.<br />
But it gave us a start. We put up with it for quite a<br />
few years, until ‘64 or ‘65. <strong>The</strong>n we moved over to<br />
our new ground which was on a subdivision. When<br />
they subdivided in those days, they had to allow so<br />
much for recreational areas. So, we were guaranteed<br />
at some time, to get a new ground. But that depended on how much work we did, and<br />
how much we got out <strong>of</strong> the council.<br />
After I chased and chased, we finally got it.<br />
While we were at the old Coldstream ground, hardly any <strong>of</strong> us had any football experience.<br />
Four or five <strong>of</strong> us had been at Yarra Glen for a couple <strong>of</strong> years before that. Jack Campbell,<br />
Des Goodwin, Kevin Sheehan, Stan Rowan, and myself. But when I say experience, we<br />
really just went out there, ran around and chased the ball!<br />
I did have one claim-to-fame there though, at Yarra Glen. A gentleman had bought a farm<br />
out at Dixons Creek. He wanted some hay carted and I had an old truck. I carted his hay for<br />
so much a bale, (Joan came and helped me) and I got know him. He happened to be Colin<br />
Watson, Brownlow Medalist who played for St Kilda. I had a little bit <strong>of</strong> input into him<br />
coming to help us at Yarra Glen.<br />
Of course, being an elite footballer, he could see what he was facing … he just came at sat<br />
on the fence really. Anyway, that year, we were playing in the seconds and we got to play<br />
in the Grand Final. It was played up at Yarra Junction. Well I was a poor footballer (but I<br />
was the youngest there too). I was the nineteenth man and I remember Colin saying to me,<br />
just to boost me up, ‘We always like to keep a good nineteenth man handy!’<br />
49<br />
If it was a bit cockeyed it<br />
didn’t matter.
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I was jumping out <strong>of</strong> my skin. We didn’t win. We had beaten them through the year but<br />
they put in a player that had played seconds for Richmond and he just killed us. It only<br />
takes one good footballer in a weak side … but that was my claim to fame. I was coached<br />
by a Brownlow Medalist. But it never rubbed <strong>of</strong>f on me!<br />
But that was my claim to<br />
fame. I was coached by a<br />
Brownlow Medalist<br />
Those early years at Coldstream … because we were<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the lesser sides, we got terrible hidings. But still<br />
everyone turned up. By the time we got to move over<br />
to the new oval, we’d picked up a few new boys that<br />
had moved into the area. <strong>The</strong>re was one family, the Wines family, who were very natural<br />
athletes and they stood out at our club. One descendant <strong>of</strong> them is Ollie Wines. He now<br />
plays for Port Adelaide.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Yarra Glen Football team in its earliest years, circa 1950-52. <strong>Les</strong> is in back row, third from right<br />
So, we kicked on a bit. Our first coach was just a local bloke who had played a bit <strong>of</strong> footy,<br />
so we didn’t learn much. <strong>The</strong> following year we got a paid coach who had played for<br />
Croydon. He’d gone to Richmond for a bit but he didn’t click, or he didn’t like it. After him<br />
we had a series <strong>of</strong> different coaches who were past their time. <strong>The</strong>y were playing coaches<br />
and you hoped they’d give you a lift, but they were only there to get their money. Anyway,<br />
we did learn a bit.<br />
50
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We had done a lot <strong>of</strong> work at the other ground getting it ready. We had basically just been<br />
left with a great big cut in the ground with yellow clay. We had to put topsoil on that and<br />
hope we’d get good grass. But when you put topsoil on top <strong>of</strong> clay, the top soil gets full <strong>of</strong><br />
water and the clay just takes over. Our boots just sank in the clay. So, we started to drain<br />
it, we put all sorts <strong>of</strong> drains through, but it was very difficult to drain.<br />
We put up the posts. We did have some old lights that had been given to us. We’d put<br />
them up at the old ground, but unless you were right under the lights you couldn’t see<br />
what you were doing. But we put them up on higher poles over the new ground for a little<br />
while and it did help.<br />
In the long run though, in these later years, the Coldstream Football Club has one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
best grounds and facilities in the whole competition. I’m proud to know that. That our hard<br />
work paid <strong>of</strong>f. A lot <strong>of</strong> things went into it, sowing the right grass, the drainage … it just all<br />
got better as we went on and it has turned out very well. As a cricket ground and as a<br />
football ground.<br />
It just all got better as we<br />
went on and it has turned out<br />
very well.<br />
At that stage I was still putting up steel buildings. So, I<br />
was able to get one through the firm I dealt with. It<br />
was like a big tin shed. We whacked that up, divided it<br />
up, and that was our change rooms for quite a while.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we realised that we needed something better. So, on the north end <strong>of</strong> it we built the<br />
big clubroom. Pretty much all clubrooms were just a room at each end and a division in the<br />
middle. We wanted to upgrade ours. Put in showers, a proper runway where they ran out<br />
on to the ground, and stuff like that. So, then we went a bit further.<br />
<strong>The</strong> steel building was pulled down. (That went up to my brother Neil’s place. Neil at that<br />
stage was getting quite involved with the football team.) We built the next section. All this<br />
was done in brick. We did our foundations and bricked them up. All this was done to carry<br />
another storey on top which was done out <strong>of</strong> steel. This accommodated the rooms for the<br />
timekeepers, and a balcony for viewing. <strong>The</strong>n they needed facilities for making money, and<br />
for having meetings and parties and such. So, we built another big section. Each addition<br />
was done much in alignment, with a little curve, to match the fence. That was quite a big<br />
job.<br />
That was quite a big job.<br />
We needed a lot <strong>of</strong> concrete to pour the footings.<br />
We ran the brick work up a little bit. <strong>The</strong>n we had to<br />
do the concrete floors before the brickwork went up any higher. So, the concrete trucks<br />
could pour the concrete directly from the trucks. Otherwise we would have had the cost <strong>of</strong><br />
the pumps and hoses that would have been needed. As well as the cost <strong>of</strong> the blokes<br />
dragging them in.<br />
51
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
I was pretty busy with my own job at the time. I’d order concrete for seven in the morning<br />
at the footy club. I’d be up there and I’d pour a load <strong>of</strong> concrete, screed it <strong>of</strong>f, and trowel it<br />
up. I’d have another load delivered to my other job at nine, so then I’d go and do that.<br />
Once I had screed that <strong>of</strong>f, at about eleven or twelve, the footy club one would be dry<br />
enough for me to polish up. So, I’d go and do that, then I’d go back and polish the other<br />
one. All in a day’s work! That was alright. I could do it.<br />
All in a day’s work! That was alright. I could<br />
do it.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n we built that up and made it into a great big reception area. <strong>The</strong>y had big overhead<br />
glass cabinets for all the memorabilia, the trophies and the photos and stuff. And big<br />
viewing windows looking out over the ground. We built the kitchen so they had a servery.<br />
And that had lift-up doors so the people outside could be served there, the canteen and<br />
get their pie and sauce.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Coldstream football team circa 1967-70. <strong>Les</strong> is second row, far left (kneeling.) Rol is in the front left,<br />
and Tim is in the middle.<br />
52
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong>n they wanted to go bigger. We couldn’t go any further around without blocking <strong>of</strong>f the<br />
driveway, but by coming back we had enough room. So, we built another big area that was<br />
probably the size <strong>of</strong> a ten square house. I organised all <strong>of</strong> that. We did the footings and<br />
bricked it all up, (but that was done by my bricklayers). To get the idea <strong>of</strong> how many bricks<br />
… it’s 100 feet long, in three sections. Probably thirty-feet deep. My nephew, John<br />
Mitchell, was a bricklayer. He worked all during the week. And then weekends he’d be<br />
laying bricks for us. He laid thousands <strong>of</strong> bricks on that place and it was all voluntary work.<br />
He received an award from the club in recognition <strong>of</strong> his efforts.<br />
My nephew, John Mitchell,<br />
was a bricklayer … He laid<br />
thousands <strong>of</strong> bricks on that<br />
place, and it was all voluntary<br />
work.<br />
I was always at training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I<br />
was always on the committee as well, as President or<br />
Secretary or Treasurer or whatever, so there was<br />
always a meeting every couple <strong>of</strong> weeks. Meetings,<br />
they were a bore to me, and they were always at night<br />
time. So, all that kept me pretty busy.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Coldstream Football Club 2019<br />
<strong>The</strong> Coldstream Football Club has one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
best grounds and facilities in the whole<br />
competition. I’m proud to know that. That<br />
our hard work paid <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
53
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
A good friend <strong>of</strong> mine was Des Goodwin. He was the first <strong>life</strong> member <strong>of</strong> the footy club. He<br />
ran a Boys’ Club, which was run as a subsidiary <strong>of</strong> the State Police Boys’ Club. He wasn’t<br />
connected to Coldstream at the time. He used to go around <strong>of</strong> a weekend and pick up all<br />
these boys, from all over the place. Very few from Coldstream (three or four at the most).<br />
He took them all around the Yarra Valley to their football games.<br />
A time came when Des got too busy and I also think he could see that Coldstream was<br />
ready for a junior football club. I had a pretty close relationship with him and he asked if I<br />
would take them on. I doubt if he would have conned anyone else! He had a philosophy …<br />
He always said, ‘If you need to get anything done, ask the busiest person.’ Anyway, I took<br />
them on.<br />
He always said, ‘If you need to get anything<br />
done, ask the busiest person.’ Anyway, I took<br />
them on.<br />
I had much the same pattern to cover. I had to go around and pick up boys from Mt Evelyn,<br />
Ringwood, Lilydale, wherever. At that stage the Under 16s hadn’t really been formed much<br />
in the Eastern District Football League. So, it was reasonably easy for me to sign up boys<br />
from other places. Which, about a year later, became much more difficult as these kids<br />
ended up going back to the clubs where their parents were. So, we didn’t get much<br />
parental support either. With me going around and picking their boys up, meant that they<br />
weren’t getting involved. This made it very tough.<br />
We needed two cars for the pick up on the<br />
Saturday I had a ute; Joan had the FJ. We<br />
filled them up with kids, with our own four<br />
sitting on someone’s knee! But we had a team.<br />
In the first year we went alright. Ended up about in the middle <strong>of</strong> the ladder. <strong>The</strong> second<br />
year, we were even better. <strong>The</strong>re was only one team who beat us each time we played.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were a very good team, Surrey Hills. <strong>The</strong>y were in very good position because there’d<br />
been a boy’s home down on Warrigal Rd, which had closed. <strong>The</strong>y had a pretty wild and<br />
strong football team. Well Surrey Hills picked the eyes out <strong>of</strong> them and ended up with all<br />
these big strong boys. Anyway, that was alright. That was the second season. All my boys<br />
were in the year that they turned sixteen. Well, we won our way right through to the<br />
Grand Final, beaten along the way only by Surrey Hills.<br />
54
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
All my boys were in the year<br />
that they turned sixteen.<br />
Well, we won our way right<br />
through to the Grand Final<br />
<strong>The</strong> game was played over at Boronia. We didn’t have<br />
a big gathering <strong>of</strong> people there to watch it,<br />
unfortunately. We were going along alright because<br />
we were kicking straight and they were kicking<br />
crooked! As someone said, ‘That means you had a<br />
good backline.’ And we did. We had some kids there<br />
who would not give up and they were able to hold them out. And there were a couple <strong>of</strong><br />
changes I made … one was right at the start. I changed the kid we had playing in the<br />
centre. He reckoned he was crash hot as a centreman. Well he was too, he was clever, but<br />
he could never have beaten their centreman. So, I put him out on the wing and oh, he<br />
hated me! But as the game went on, he played his game and he did his bit.<br />
I took a boy named Johnny May away from centre<br />
half-forward and put him in the centre, on this good<br />
bloke, and he got on top <strong>of</strong> him! Each time it was<br />
kicked out, (and it was kicked out a few times<br />
because they were kicking behinds) Johnny would<br />
get in front and he’d mark it. (He went on down to<br />
Footscray, he didn’t play Firsts, but he did play some <strong>of</strong> the top games here. Nice bloke<br />
Johnny.)<br />
Anyway, just a little bit more<br />
on that game…My nephew<br />
Gary… (I could talk about<br />
them all!)<br />
We were going along alright<br />
because we were kicking<br />
straight and they were<br />
kicking crooked!<br />
Anyway, just a little bit more on that game…My<br />
nephew Gary, (I could talk about them all!) he was<br />
one <strong>of</strong> those kids…just so determined and no matter<br />
how good the bloke was that he was on, he would<br />
never let him go. Everybody lifted! It came right down<br />
to the last minutes and we were two behinds in front.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were getting the ball around the bottom flank.<br />
All they had to do was kick it out into the ground, one <strong>of</strong> their blokes get it, kick a goal and<br />
it would have been all over.<br />
Now one <strong>of</strong> the boys that I had playing, was Ian<br />
Mays. He was playing full forward. <strong>The</strong> Mays family Everybody lifted!<br />
were always top footballers at Lilydale. So, a bit <strong>of</strong><br />
that had rubbed <strong>of</strong>f on Ian. He only played that one<br />
year. He was a mate <strong>of</strong> some <strong>of</strong> my boys from Ringwood. He hadn’t been allowed to play<br />
football because as a kid, he’d been a bit <strong>of</strong> a dare-devil. Someone dared him to jump <strong>of</strong>f<br />
his own ro<strong>of</strong>, so he jumped <strong>of</strong>f and broke both his ankles! And then he got a disease in his<br />
bones, osteomyelitis I think it was. He used to come out and have a run, but there wasn’t<br />
much he could do. Oh, but he was a beautiful high mark.<br />
55
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Well he was playing full forward and he’d done his bit. I was thinking, ‘We’re going to get<br />
beaten here.’ <strong>The</strong> next thing, on no advice from me, I saw Ian running from the goals, way<br />
I was thinking, ‘We’re going<br />
to get beaten here.’<br />
down to where the ball was, and every time the ball<br />
was thrown in, up he went and Bang! Thumped it<br />
away! And then the time ran out and we won by two<br />
points! Oh, it was drama after drama. Yeah it was. I<br />
remember, I ran out on to the oval, and…<br />
Johnny May, who was quite a big boy, came<br />
running at me and I jumped into his arms! …<br />
I’ll never forget that match.<br />
Holidays in our later years<br />
In more recent years Joan and I have taken many organised tours to many different places<br />
around Australia. Often, we went with a group <strong>of</strong> friends. Once, we went to Cairns on a<br />
train that was called Holiday Train. We stayed on the train during the day and at midday<br />
we would stop somewhere along the way for a meal. We’d jump back on again, and by<br />
night we’d be at another city or town where we were accommodated for the evening.<br />
Eventually we got to Townsville.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n our destination was Thursday Island. We flew out <strong>of</strong> Townsville with a company that<br />
had two old war time DC3 twin-engine aeroplanes that had been mainly used for carting<br />
troops and stores around during the war. <strong>The</strong>y’d done them up and they used them for<br />
tours that started at Townsville. <strong>The</strong>y were called Gooney Birds. We flew firstly out to<br />
Weipa, on the gulf. We stayed there overnight then we headed for Thursday Island. But<br />
there was no airport there so we landed at Herron Island.<br />
We were taken from there on a fishing boat across the strait. Now it was a very hot day,<br />
that day, and I got a bit squeamish. When we arrived at Thursday Island there were these<br />
beds out on the veranda. <strong>The</strong> two pilots had to go and have a sleep, so I had a lay down<br />
too. In our group on this trip, there were eight <strong>of</strong> us, including Joan’s sister Pat and her<br />
husband, Ted. <strong>The</strong> others went <strong>of</strong>f and enjoyed their visit to the church and so forth, which<br />
was all part <strong>of</strong> the tour. I came good, and I remember going up and looking at the<br />
cemetery up on the hill.<br />
56
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
In our group on this trip,<br />
there were eight <strong>of</strong> us,<br />
including Joan’s sister Pat<br />
and her husband Ted.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y put on a big meal. <strong>The</strong>re was a beautiful<br />
assortment <strong>of</strong> fruit, which you’d expect up in the<br />
Islands I suppose. When that part <strong>of</strong> the trip was over,<br />
we went back across the strait on a ferry.<br />
It was pretty rough going across … we were out on the<br />
ocean then. We came back into the Gulf and we unloaded at a small port there. We were<br />
driven by coach out to the airport and loaded onto the plane and eventually took <strong>of</strong>f. As<br />
part <strong>of</strong> the flight, the plane had some mail and other things to drop <strong>of</strong>f at the mission<br />
station up there, which was Edward River Mission Station, so we landed there.<br />
It happened that during the war Ted had flown these DC3s. He had been a wireless<br />
operator and had also trained trainees, flying in these planes all over Australia. Whilst we<br />
were waiting to take <strong>of</strong>f again, we received word to say that the plane had blown a piston,<br />
and we wouldn’t be able to take <strong>of</strong>f. Ted, my brother-in-law … I suppose with hours <strong>of</strong><br />
flying he could hear every sound, said, ‘I knew there was something wrong. I thought we’d<br />
done a piston!’ He hadn’t wanted to alarm us!<br />
<strong>The</strong> second one <strong>of</strong> their planes was out on a flight<br />
delivering food to other missions. So, they radioed<br />
him and he called back in. It was a very hot day, not a<br />
good day for motors to be running. He looked at us<br />
all and said,<br />
‘<strong>The</strong>re’s no way I can take <strong>of</strong>f with all <strong>of</strong> you.’ So we thought,<br />
‘Oh well we will be drawing straws to see who camps with the dogs tonight!’<br />
But they served us a meal, a great big barbeque with fish and chops and steak thrown on<br />
it.<br />
And there was Jackie with the cigarette butt hanging out <strong>of</strong> his mouth and all the ash<br />
dropping on the barbeque! I thought, ‘This mightn’t go down too good!’ We started to get<br />
a little bit worried about what we were going to have to put up with, there being no proper<br />
accommodation at all really. Eventually the bloke took all the details, and weighed<br />
everything. It was well over weight. But he said ‘I’ll be right once I get up there, I can go<br />
right up to the lighter air.’ And he did. We got up there and he got us back to Cairns.<br />
I was very happy to get back on land again!<br />
That was quite an experience<br />
‘I knew there was something<br />
wrong. I thought we’d done a<br />
piston!<br />
57
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
From there we hired an eight-seater van and decided we’d go inland, down through all the<br />
good food growing country. <strong>The</strong> Atherton Tablelands. We visited quite a few interesting<br />
little towns along the way. One in particular that springs to mind, I don’t remember the<br />
name…but there was this lady.<br />
She kept a terrific dining<br />
room.<br />
It was only a little town and she’d been there a long,<br />
long time. She was the Mayor and she pretty much<br />
ran the town. She ran the motel which was just men’s<br />
huts that had been moved from the mining towns. But<br />
she kept a terrific dining room. People came from<br />
everywhere! I had thought, ‘How is she ever going to fill that dining room?’ Well, that night<br />
it was filled up!<br />
It happened to be Ted’s birthday, so I went to her, and I bought a bottle <strong>of</strong> whisky. Well<br />
maybe I shouldn’t talk about people like this, she really was a lovely lady, but she was<br />
already half tipsy by then. She had a couple <strong>of</strong> very good lasses looking after the dining<br />
room. <strong>The</strong>re was no doubt we had a beautiful spread. She sort <strong>of</strong> took a bit <strong>of</strong> a liking to us<br />
because we were the new ones in town. She liked to put her arm around me!...<br />
Anyway, the night went alright. <strong>The</strong>n in the morning<br />
<strong>of</strong> course, being called a motel, we expected some<br />
sort <strong>of</strong> a meal. But there didn’t seem to be anything<br />
happening, so in the finish I had to go and knock on<br />
her door. I knew she lived adjacent to the dining area. So, I knocked on her door, and the<br />
poor old dear came out, with the long hair and the false teeth out, looking like she really<br />
needed some repairs done! I think she was quite embarrassed and, in the end, we went<br />
into the kitchen and got our own breakfast. It was a bit funny. I don’t know how many<br />
times she had told us the night before that Joh and Flo always dined there. And I wouldn’t<br />
really have been surprised!<br />
<strong>The</strong> poor old dear came out, with the long<br />
hair, and the false teeth out, and looking like<br />
she really needed some repairs done!<br />
Well maybe I shouldn’t talk<br />
about people like this, she<br />
really was a lovely lady,<br />
Another quite laughable thing that happened there … it was Show Day. <strong>The</strong>y had quite a<br />
reasonable museum there, old wooden stables built a hundred years ago, that sort <strong>of</strong><br />
thing. Ted and I were looking around and we saw this nice big piston from an aeroplane.<br />
And the caption underneath said, ‘This is the last piston from the working DC3s.’ Well we<br />
knew first hand that it wasn’t! It just shows you what they can get away with! We had a<br />
laugh about that too.<br />
58
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
We kept travelling and the next place we came to had a ‘Big Bullock’. Like the ‘Big Banana’,<br />
that sort <strong>of</strong> thing. We arrived and <strong>of</strong> course the first thing we needed to do … well, it was a<br />
nice little toilet block. I hopped out and went over and Bet, Joan’s sister, who was a bit <strong>of</strong> a<br />
character, came too. On the door, you know how sometimes you see different captions,<br />
like ‘Guys’ and ‘Gals’ and such …well on these doors, it said, ‘Flip dry,’ and ‘Drip dry.’ Poor<br />
Bet didn’t know which one to go in! But we helped her out there.<br />
That was fun and all part <strong>of</strong><br />
the journey.<br />
It was good coming down through that area and we had seen a lot <strong>of</strong> the inland country.<br />
That journey ended back in Brisbane, where we had left our vehicles, and we headed<br />
home.<br />
I still say though, that our first trip to <strong>The</strong><br />
Kimberley in 1985 was the best trip we did.<br />
We did do really good things on the other trips, but this trip to the Kimberley really<br />
enlightening me. I had really wanted to see it. For more than just the scenery too. I had<br />
always believed that the colours in all those painting by Albert Namatjira and other artists,<br />
could not really be like that. But they were!<br />
It was just beautiful.<br />
That was on a trip that took us from Katherine, to the Kimberley, and on to the big Lake<br />
Argyle Dam, which I also had very much wanted to see. Believe it or not, I might not have<br />
been here today, I could have been buried up at Kununurra ...<br />
Back when they were developing Kununurra as an irrigation scheme, a very good friend <strong>of</strong><br />
mine was connected to the Lands Department. He was a cow-cockie. He knew what I could<br />
do, so he said to me, ‘You should be going up there <strong>Les</strong>.’ He even had all the papers for me<br />
to fill in to select a block. I was even working out in my head how to get a tractor, and a<br />
couple <strong>of</strong> trailers and load everything on.<br />
‘You should be going up there<br />
<strong>Les</strong>.’<br />
but I didn’t in the end.<br />
I’d worked out that it would take about a month to<br />
drive all the way up there. But the thing that held me<br />
back at that stage was the family. We were married<br />
and we had the two girls and it just didn’t seem right<br />
at the time. I probably would have gone otherwise,<br />
59
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
So, I had good reason to go and have a look to at what was there and how it had<br />
developed. It was fascinating for me. In the early stages, as soon as the water was used for<br />
irrigation, everything grew quickly. It was all fresh land <strong>of</strong> course. <strong>The</strong>n came all the wild<br />
geese and the ducks and all the insects, and those first farmers simply couldn’t stay on top<br />
<strong>of</strong> it. <strong>The</strong>y eventually went broke trying to grow and harvest the crops, vegetables and<br />
such. Apart from the destruction <strong>of</strong> a lot <strong>of</strong> the crop by the pests, to market the produce,<br />
it all had to be carted down to Perth, and <strong>of</strong> course in those days they didn’t have<br />
adequate transport facilities. But in time all <strong>of</strong> that was overcome and everything started<br />
to fire up. Yes, I loved seeing the Kimberley. We ended up heading down the west coast.<br />
It was a good coach tour, and we enjoyed it<br />
with Pat and Ted again.<br />
<strong>The</strong> second time we went to that area, we came out from Broome. We went with <strong>The</strong><br />
Outback Spirit company. We went to <strong>The</strong> Bungle Bungles, where the camps were all selfcontained.<br />
<strong>The</strong> tents were very comfortable and really, you wouldn’t have known you were<br />
in the outback. We took a helicopter trip over the Bungle Bungles and a walking trip<br />
through them. I remember when we were walking back through the big gorge all the tracks<br />
started looked the same. Instead <strong>of</strong> turning right I kept walking. <strong>The</strong> guide had to yell at<br />
me, ‘Where are you going mate?’<br />
We’d been to Broome twice, but we still wanted to do the Gibb River Road. <strong>The</strong> company<br />
Outback Spirit were kicking <strong>of</strong>f at that stage and they had good equipment, so we went<br />
with them. We travelled along the Gibb River Road and at one point we went out to a<br />
station and stayed there and got the dope on how they ran it and all that sort <strong>of</strong> thing. To<br />
go and buy a loaf <strong>of</strong> bread was 200 kms down the road. But the people who lived there<br />
seemed quite happy with it. <strong>The</strong>y’d turned their properties into tourism places. <strong>The</strong>y had<br />
satellites and such and were pretty well self-sufficient. It was all very interesting. We went<br />
to El Questro. Not the real up-market one, the low-key one. It was still good. You could<br />
walk around there and have a good look.<br />
Yes our trips to the Kimberley were my<br />
favourites.<br />
What other bus tours did we do? We did some inland trips. We went to Lightning Ridge.<br />
We went to Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and the Flinders Ranges. We went to Kakadu and<br />
Litchfield National Park. We saw a lot <strong>of</strong> the interior <strong>of</strong> the country. We also went up the<br />
east coast, across the top and down the west coast. But we haven’t really done the desert<br />
places. I never really had a feeling for those areas. When we did the west coast, we went<br />
right down to the very bottom, and then headed east. We went across the Nullarbor Plain.<br />
So we have really circumnavigated Australia,<br />
and seen plenty <strong>of</strong> the inland too.<br />
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<strong>The</strong>re were other good things that came about as a result <strong>of</strong> our travels. To go back to my<br />
very early days … some friends from those years up on <strong>The</strong> Murray, were the Millers. Butch<br />
Miller was my mate. <strong>The</strong>y lived just over the channel, just across the bridge. Charlie Miller<br />
and Pop were shearing contractors: ‘Miller and <strong>Skate</strong>.’ So that family and our family were<br />
close. Yeah Butch was a good friend at school. But as time passed, they moved away and<br />
then we moved away. I did go back and shear with them sometimes.<br />
But I always felt that I would have liked to<br />
stay close to them, and eventually I did.<br />
After a while they bought their properties down Hamilton way. We heard about Butch’s<br />
seventieth birthday through a friend and that’s how we met up again. <strong>The</strong>n he came up for<br />
my seventieth. I knew Butch was one for not going anywhere. But they’d started to get on<br />
top <strong>of</strong> everything; they were doing quite well. We were about to go on a trip on the Ghan. I<br />
said to him, ‘What about going on a trip on the Ghan?’ <strong>The</strong>y did, and from then on, we’ve<br />
kept in touch.<br />
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Helping out…<strong>The</strong> Victorian floods <strong>of</strong> 2011<br />
In 2011 there were catastrophic floods up in the Loddon area. Water came down from the<br />
Campaspe and because the Murray was already flooded, it couldn’t take the water. So, it<br />
spread out across the land and stayed inland and ended up getting into the Loddon River.<br />
This river and its tributaries then ran back into the Murray a long way further down,<br />
(perhaps two to three hundred kilometres further down) towards Swan Hill.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y didn’t want Swan Hill getting flooded so in order to avoid this they more or less<br />
sacrificed the farming area <strong>of</strong> Benjeroop. All the water was directed down into an area that<br />
had periodic floods, but nothing like this. It became like a delta to several smaller rivers<br />
and was left to take its own course. So, it backed up, and backed up, till it flooded the<br />
Benjeroop and Murrabit West areas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> floods at Benjeroop February 2011<br />
After a couple <strong>of</strong> months <strong>of</strong> the area being inundated, the water receded. It had been well<br />
up over the tops <strong>of</strong> the fences, the boats had been sliding across the tops <strong>of</strong> them.<br />
When it dried out enough they started looking<br />
for volunteers.<br />
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I hadn’t heard that much about that particular area, but I knew Charlton very well. It had<br />
been badly flooded too by the Avoca River. I was more or less set to go there when I saw<br />
an article in <strong>The</strong> Weekly Times. It was written by the daughter <strong>of</strong> a gentleman named<br />
Lindsay Schultz. He was a farmer and a feed merchant. He was also the chief flood warden<br />
<strong>of</strong> Benjeroop. Luckily for him, his bit <strong>of</strong> land was on high ground. But he was right in the<br />
middle <strong>of</strong> it.<br />
His daughter Kelly wrote about how much<br />
Lindsay had put his heart and soul into<br />
rescuing people and trying keeping the place<br />
viable.<br />
I had been up in that area in my younger days and I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll give him a ring.’ In the<br />
meantime, my brother Ge<strong>of</strong>f, who had done a lot <strong>of</strong> work with fire and rescue groups, was<br />
preparing to go to Charlton. When he heard I was thinking <strong>of</strong> going to Benjeroop, he said,<br />
‘Well, I’ll come with you, but I’ve only got a couple <strong>of</strong> weeks.’ So <strong>of</strong>f we went. We joke a bit<br />
about this now … we could just hear Lindsay and his helper Billy thinking, ‘What have we<br />
got here?’ when they saw these two old fellows turn up. I was eighty-two and Ge<strong>of</strong>f was<br />
not much younger. Anyway, we proved that wrong. Ge<strong>of</strong>f had his caravan and I stayed in<br />
an hotel on the first night, but I knew I couldn’t keep paying for that. Lindsay was right on<br />
the Murray and he had a fully equipped big houseboat and he <strong>of</strong>fered it to us to use. That<br />
was good.<br />
It became my accommodation for the time I<br />
was there, <strong>of</strong>f and on for about five months.<br />
As soon as we’d got there, I’d asked,<br />
‘Have you got anything for us?’<br />
‘You can start tomorrow,’ he said.<br />
He drove us all around the place and showed us four or five houses. We started the next<br />
morning. <strong>The</strong> first was the house <strong>of</strong> a chap called Jack Challis. Jack was a shearer-come<br />
farmer. So, we got stuck into it, started wrecking and pulling it down. In one day, we had<br />
all the dirty stuff out … oh it was a terrible, shocking job to do. When the water and mud,<br />
and the dead frogs and God-knows-what, got down behind the plaster, it was just putrid.<br />
Anyway, we got it all shovelled out and got it dried. About a week later we had all the new<br />
plaster back in.<br />
So we got stuck into it, started wrecking and<br />
pulling it down. In one day we had all the<br />
dirty stuff out…oh it was a terrible, shocking<br />
job to do.<br />
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Now the money for the equipment and the material was supposed to be supplied be the<br />
Red Cross. <strong>The</strong>y had raised hundreds <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> dollars. We never saw one penny <strong>of</strong><br />
it. I was very crook on that. But the locals had banded together. <strong>The</strong>y had turn-outs in the<br />
local hall and all sorts <strong>of</strong> things to raise money. And that was the money that Lindsay<br />
Schultz administered and we were able to buy the plaster and materials that we needed.<br />
So, we got that house right. It had been moved there and it was on blocks about a foot <strong>of</strong>f<br />
the ground (which was the minimum). <strong>The</strong> new law said that you had to be 600mm above<br />
the ground. (500mm, and then another 100mm above the flood level.) So, we fixed that<br />
up.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y had raised hundreds <strong>of</strong><br />
thousands <strong>of</strong> dollars. We<br />
never saw one penny <strong>of</strong> it. I<br />
was very crook on that.<br />
So, I went on … there were another couple <strong>of</strong> little<br />
houses. Ge<strong>of</strong>f had gone home by this stage. I had a<br />
couple <strong>of</strong> helpers, good fellows, retired farmers. And<br />
they were also great company. <strong>The</strong> first was a nice<br />
brick home right in the middle <strong>of</strong> the farm. It was on<br />
floorboards but they were virtually right on the<br />
ground. So, I started on that and fixed it up. I just cut the plaster around and got rid <strong>of</strong> that<br />
and cleaned it out and put the new plaster sheets on. Hung they doors because they were<br />
all swelled up.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were nice people there too. <strong>The</strong>y’d lost<br />
their tractors and everything…it had all gone<br />
underwater.<br />
<strong>The</strong> next one was a lady who had about six kids. I don’t remember who they all belonged<br />
to! But she did look after them. She was pretty cluey too; she knew what she could get<br />
from the government. This was way down in the bend <strong>of</strong> the river. It was the original,<br />
beautiful old homestead … but it was wrecked. At that stage the government was shifting<br />
houses around from other places and this lady was able to get one. <strong>The</strong>re was the old<br />
shearing quarters and I did that up. I put new floors and new doors in it. It was a twostorey<br />
shed. Oh, the kids loved climbing up and down in there!<br />
In between that there were another two houses.<br />
One was pretty well wrecked and the other was in<br />
pretty good order. <strong>The</strong> one that was a wreck we had<br />
to debate whether to knock it down or try to fix it. It was owned by a young bloke and it<br />
was on his father’s property. He had two boys but he was divorced. He badly wanted to fix<br />
it up so he could bring his boys home. So, we got stuck into it. Any other builder who might<br />
have come along and looked at it, would have said we were mad. I’d taken a lot <strong>of</strong> stuff up<br />
from here too. From Tim’s … trailer loads <strong>of</strong> materials. I put it all together and we got it<br />
nice and got it painted.<br />
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Oh, the kids loved climbing<br />
up and down in there!
<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
He badly wanted to fix it up<br />
so he could bring his boys<br />
home. So, we got stuck into<br />
it.<br />
His brother lived in the other house on the property…<br />
it was a dairy farm. It was a better-looking house, but<br />
when it had been built … well I don’t know what the<br />
bloke was thinking … he obviously had absolutely no<br />
idea. He just carved out a trench about a foot deep<br />
around the perimeter <strong>of</strong> the house, chucked a bit <strong>of</strong><br />
rough concrete in it, whacked his wall plates on and built his house on top <strong>of</strong> it. And then<br />
poured concrete (which he mixed himself) inside each room. So, there was no waterpro<strong>of</strong>ing<br />
… nothing!<br />
Being on the ground I had to jack that up 600mm. I only had about three jacks and that<br />
clearly wouldn’t do the job. I rang up a bloke who was advertising as a house lifter in<br />
Bendigo and he loaned me about forty jacks! That was pretty unique. When you are<br />
jacking you must have equal jacks. If there was the slightest tilt, it would all just fall down. I<br />
took on a lot <strong>of</strong> risks.<br />
In fact the Bendigo bloke did say to me,<br />
‘You’re taking a hell <strong>of</strong> a risk…’<br />
So, I had to find a way to make it more stable out on the farmland. Lindsay, the feedmerchant,<br />
had plenty <strong>of</strong> wooden pellets which I could use. So, we got underway. I’d jack it<br />
up two inches and drive in a wedge. In between each stump I’d put a pallet and then move<br />
on and jack it up another two inches and in would go another wedge and then another<br />
pellet. That’s the way we went around the house. Day after day after day.<br />
Eventually it was all sitting on the big pallet and I could get under to dig the hole. Took us<br />
about a month to get that up. Boy was I glad when I got up to 600mm. It slipped once! I<br />
had a Trewhella jack on each corner, and I had string lines pulled all the way around. Every<br />
time I moved it, I measured along the string. One day I actually felt it slide and I raced to<br />
the corner and gave a couple <strong>of</strong> ‘ups ‘on the jack and got it stable again. <strong>The</strong>re were a lot<br />
<strong>of</strong> people working inside too … oh we took some risks!<br />
But it was the only way to get it done, and we<br />
did it.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was a group <strong>of</strong> young people who all got together to help in cases like this. (I can’t<br />
remember the name <strong>of</strong> the group.) <strong>The</strong>y would paint or clean up or whatever. In this case<br />
there were about twenty <strong>of</strong> them and the community housed them up there in the local<br />
hall. <strong>The</strong>y painted the house and it didn’t take them long! <strong>The</strong>y came on the Friday and by<br />
the Sunday night it was done. It wasn’t a perfect paint job, but it was good to get it done.<br />
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<strong>Les</strong> receiving recognition from the local community for his efforts in Benjeroop. Lindsay Schultz is<br />
making the presentation, and Joan is on the left.<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>Les</strong> is very humble about his <strong>life</strong>’s achievements. However, it would be remiss<br />
to fail to mention them. He has contributed enormously to his local community<br />
as well as travelling to north-western Victoria in his eighties, to assist the<br />
community <strong>of</strong> Benjeroop. His accomplishments include:<br />
A Foundation member and a Life Member <strong>of</strong> the Coldstream Football Club.<br />
An Honorary Member <strong>of</strong> the Lilydale Agricultural and Horticultural Society.<br />
An Honorary Member <strong>of</strong> the Lilydale & District Historical Society<br />
An Honorary member <strong>of</strong> the Scout and Guides Associations<br />
As well as his tireless efforts in the construction <strong>of</strong> the Coldstream Football<br />
Club and the West Croydon Scout Building, which have been documented<br />
here, he has been actively involved in the building <strong>of</strong> the Coldstream War<br />
Memorial, as well as the Men’s Shed in Mooroolbark.<br />
In 2012 he was awarded the Mayor’s<br />
Lifetime Achievement Award at the Yarra<br />
Ranges Council’s Australia Day Awards.<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Recipient 2012, <strong>Les</strong>lie <strong>Skate</strong><br />
In 1998 <strong>Les</strong> gave a demonstration <strong>of</strong><br />
shearing at the <strong>of</strong>ficial closure <strong>of</strong> the Yarra<br />
Grange Woolshed<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Yarra Ranges Council have plans afoot to ‘resurrect’ <strong>Les</strong>’ old T-Model<br />
Ford, (featured on the front cover) and to give it a permanent place in the<br />
community space. In keeping with his characteristic humility, <strong>Les</strong> is quite<br />
embarrassed by this. He reveals…<br />
Out at Coldstream they’re trying to build the area up. <strong>The</strong>y have a committee there coming<br />
up with ideas <strong>of</strong> what they can do. So, they’re going to build a footpath from Coldstream,<br />
down to the footy ground, along the side <strong>of</strong> the highway, and all the way up to Dame<br />
Melba’s gates. On her front veranda, she had these two big peacock chairs. <strong>The</strong>y are being<br />
reproduced out <strong>of</strong> steel, and they’re going to be put outside the gates.<br />
Now all the way up this path they are going to put some sort <strong>of</strong> statue or a plaque that<br />
commemorate significant things <strong>of</strong> the area. A year or two ago they called meetings to get<br />
people interested. Myself and two other older fellows were interviewed.<br />
I told them a few <strong>of</strong> my different stories. About the subdivision that originally had our little<br />
farm on. I told the story about the old T-Model Ford that I had gotten around in. It ended<br />
up being buried under the footy ground. (Like all farmers did in those days we tossed a lot<br />
<strong>of</strong> our old junk into the creeks.) This ended up being where the footy ground was<br />
eventually built. Well, everybody made a hell <strong>of</strong> a story <strong>of</strong> it and it’s still going. <strong>The</strong>y are<br />
going to make a model <strong>of</strong> the old car coming up out <strong>of</strong> the ground along this footpath!<br />
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<strong>The</strong> final pages <strong>of</strong> this biography are intended to highlight the three elements <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Les</strong>’ <strong>life</strong> which he has expressed as being the dearest to him. His holidays at<br />
Apollo Bay and travels around Australia; his work; and his family<br />
Cleaning fish at Apollo Bay<br />
When asked how he relaxed, <strong>Les</strong> replied…<br />
I sleep! Or … when I was at Apollo Bay. That was a different world for me.<br />
Of his many and varied travels around Australia…<br />
If I was asked which trip was the best it would be hard to answer as each trip<br />
had different things to see and individual characteristics. Years ago, trips like<br />
these were a pipe dream. Thank God Joan and I were able to do and see all<br />
these places together, it has been the happiest time <strong>of</strong> our lives.<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Gruyere, circa 1982. A<br />
man happy in his work.<br />
Gruyere (Rol’s<br />
property) 2019<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>Les</strong> with brothers Neil (left) and Ge<strong>of</strong>f<br />
Back row, from left; Margaret, Ge<strong>of</strong>f, Bill, Neil, <strong>Les</strong>, Lorna, Murison<br />
Front, from left; Kath, Dot, and Joan<br />
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<strong>Les</strong> and Joan’s family at Rol and Karen’s wedding<br />
Back row from left; Tim, (holding Ally,) Ros, (holding Nicholas,) Lynne, Rol, Karen, <strong>Les</strong>, Joan, and Julie.<br />
Front, from left; Jake, Thomas, and Timothy<br />
Now you hear <strong>of</strong> a lot <strong>of</strong> families<br />
having squabbles amongst themselves.<br />
But we have been very fortunate. We<br />
are a very close family. We are always<br />
out to help each other. We are so lucky<br />
to have such a close family, especially<br />
after all these years.<br />
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<strong>Les</strong> and Joan at Joan’s parents’ farm at Coldstream before their marriage.<br />
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‘I don’t know, I suppose I just loved her, and that was it’<br />
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<strong>Les</strong>, ‘tidying up’ at Rol’s property. June 2019<br />
I’ve never really had a lax day. <strong>The</strong>re was always something to do. I think<br />
people thought, ‘Oh <strong>Les</strong>, he’s semi-retired, he’s not doing much, we’ll get him<br />
to come and do it!’ It’s progressed from there. Anyway, I enjoyed those years<br />
right up till I was eighty-one and I’m still doing a bit, even though I’ve got this<br />
chronic complaint. But that’s not worrying me. I go <strong>of</strong>f to my son Rol’s place,<br />
he’s got thirty acres <strong>of</strong> bush. I go up there and keep that clean and tidy for<br />
him. Plus, I’ve renovated and extended his house. I enjoy what I’m doing. If I<br />
want to stay home, I stay home. If my wife wants me stay home, I stay home!<br />
We get by.<br />
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<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> content <strong>of</strong> this story remains the property <strong>of</strong> the author<br />
<strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />
Edited and prepared for publication by volunteer biographer<br />
Lorraine Blythe<br />
on behalf <strong>of</strong><br />
Phone: 1300 130 813<br />
www.eastpallcare.asn.au<br />
October 2019<br />
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