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
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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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