Skatey...The life of Les Skate

Skatey
The Life of Les Skate
In the middle of the year the wool stores used to
close down. By then they would have classed all the
wool that had come in. The classers all went out to
sheds and built up the stock again back in the store.
Well I knew quite a bit about the wool from being in
the sheds before, but I learnt quite a bit more. I
actually classed a couple of sheds. I didn’t have a
I rode the two miles to work
on my pushbike, (which I’d
bought on the never-never for
five shillings a week.)
certificate to, but it didn’t matter really. The wool was classed temporarily, then it went
back into the store and was bulk classed.
While I was employed at the wool store my pay was one pound, nineteen and six a week.
My board cost me one pound a week. The train from home (on the weekends) was five
shillings. The payment on my bike was five shillings a week. This put me in arrears. All
these costs ate my wages, plus I had to supply my own lunch! So, on the weekends, to
supplement the cost of my lunch I would go rabbiting, and take fresh rabbits to the lady in
the canteen. She gave me a meat pie each day for my lunch. But I was still in arrears and
Mum had to find an extra ten shillings a week to keep me solvent!
I went away each year, classers went away to the sheds and they took a couple of
apprentices with them. Of course, I jumped at the chance. The first sheds we went to was
up out of Jerilderie. ‘Wood Park Merino Stud.’ Top class sheep. I spent quite a few weeks
there. I was picking up wool, sweeping the board and that sort of thing. I remember while I
was there, I had a very bad in-grown toenail. I was hobbling about with the toe cut out of
my shoe. The contractor said to me one day,
‘What’s the trouble?’
So I showed him, and he said,
‘Oh you can’t be walking around on that. You go on the wool table and sort the wool.’
Which I knew exactly how to go about because I’d done it in the wool store. And
immediately my pay went from three pound seven and six a week, to over five pounds!
Whacko! That was good.
My pay went from three
pound seven and six a week,
to over five pounds! Whacko!
That was good.
After that we went working at Mulwala, just over the
river from Yarrawonga. While I was at that shed, the
cook, who was very notorious for this sort of thing,
would get on a bender and clear out. We had about
eight shearers, four or five shed hands, the boss and
the wool classer. Mr Jones, Bill Jones, he was the
contractor, said to me,
‘Could you, you know, peel the spuds and do a few things?’
‘Well I did all that for my Pop from when I was ten years old,’ I said.
So I ended up the cook.
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