Bega Pioneers' Museum has countless files on people and places. This one was written by Len Spindler about his life in the Valley. This extract is set in the Depression years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
WHEN we were working in the cornfields we got a bit cunning and would chip dozens of rows in about 20 yards and in the middle of the paddock nothing was done at all.
We actually didn’t gain much because when the corn was ready to pull we’d get the job, and in the middle of the paddocks there would be weeds as high as the damn corn, to stumble through all day.
Charlie Campbell would say that there must be better ground in the middle, as the weeds grew bigger. If the top of the bags met when laced, Charlie would make us fit in more cobs, and every cob counted as we only got sixpence per bag. Although there was no money in corn pulling, hard work and awfully cold in mid-winter, I kinda liked it.
Some pullers used a four gallon drum to pull into and others would throw in a heap and bag up later. The story goes that George Delamar was a crack puller and could keep a cob in the air all the time.
I have pulled corn on Jellat in mid-winter, peeling splinters off the post to make a little fire to warm my hands enough to hold the husker. This was a piece of wire, sharp one end which straps over two fingers.
We were paid sixpence a bag. A top puller would pull 30-40 bags per day. I couldn’t pull any better than 20. That was about ten shillings.
With our third child on the way I got permission to build a hut half way up Evans Hill, so Dad and I started. The shack had two rooms and took 12 months to build.
The roof iron we bought for about five quid, which was full of nail holes which I’d plug up with putty every time it rained. For the walls we split the slabs and every join we nailed with strips of tin over. I found the tin at the tip.
The fireplace was made of tar drums. Later I added a verandah using sheets of stringy bark with poles across, tied down with wattle bark straps. If this is done properly it will keep out the rain.
Our cooking pots consisted of a camp oven and two saucepans. We had tin mugs and plates and a wire safe hanging outside on the verandah with a wet cornbag over it to keep butter, milk and food a bit cooler.
