A friend of his father who owned a timber mill suggested Peter come along and help with the stock take.

It was a fairly tedious job counting the huge amount of stock and when finished the boss told Peter to “put polish on your boots and wear a tie next week as you’ll be working in the office”.

So Peter came to the office where the orders were taken and stayed eight years.

His boss Mr McKenzie had put on Bega’s electricity supply in the 1920s and had moved to Wollongong when the country council took over all local electricity companies including the one Peter’s father had worked for, the Bombala supplier.

Mr McKenzie’s retail firm not only had timber but everything else needed to build a home such as window frames, roofing iron, fibro cement etc.

It had its own workshop making door jambs, architraves and so on.

The hardwood timber came from the South Coast, mostly from near Milton and Batemans Bay and oregon from the United States.

When the ships came in with the timber from the States it was all hands needed to get it unloaded, including Peter’s.

He said it was a point of honour with the office staff that they would “mix it” with the yard people when they were shorthanded.

At one time Peter had to drive a truck laden with timber to deliver an order.

He had just got his car licence so he found that experience rather an ordeal and he said he drove very “tentatively”.

During his time at the timber firm Peter left to do his national service with the navy.

He would have loved to have signed on but his father’s ill health caused him to return to the timber mill where he stayed for eight years.