By Kath Gannaway
Life was tough for most people working in the timber industry around the Yarra Valley, but according to Robbie Heritage, the men dealing with the dregs of the operation, the pulp cutters and carters, had it the hardest.
Robbie, speaks each year about an aspect of the timber industry at the annual Timber Workers Memorial Service, held at the Heritage and Heritage Pioneer Chapel at Woori Yallock.
The service will be held on Saturday, 21 October at 11am, at the Heritage and Heritage Pioneer Chapel at Woori Yallock which is dedicated to the men, women and families whose lives were, and are, part of the industry.
“I reckon the pulp cutters and carters got the worst deal in the whole process,” Robbie said.
He said the pay rates were set by the sawmill owners and there’s no doubt in his mind the pulp cutters did it harder than anyone else.
“In those days, the end of the ‘50s and the early ‘70s we had blokes like Huey Snodgrass, Kevin Ford, Bo Commans, Charlie Martino and Pablo and Andueza, who are just some of the people who worked in the bush cutting the pulp timber into six and eight-foot lengths to be carted to Maryvale in Gippsland for paper,” he said.
Charlie Martino was a young Italian lad who travelled from Box Hill to work in the bush. Huey Snodgrass was renowned for adapting his Studebaker with a 1943 Bren gun carrier to deal with the muddy conditions.
In past years Robbie has paid tribute to some of the area’s timber families including the McConachies who worked out of the Powelltown region, the Sund family from Marysville and “old” Perc Isaac from East Warburton who he speaks of with unfettered admiration.
“Perc was a great axeman,” Robbie said, adding that during the Depression he rode his pushbike to Horsham to get work.
“What a great man,” he said. “What great people, and they’re our people,” he said.
He tells their stories in his own down-to-earth style – mostly uncensored, occasionally with a bit of controversy, always with humour, admiration and love for the ‘great people’.
The Timber Memorial Service is open to the community, with a special invitation to anyone who has connections to the timber industry families past and present.
Heritage and Heritage is at 1416 Healesville Kooweerup Road, Woori Yallock.
For more details email info@heritagefunerals.com.au , or call 5964 6500.
