I was born in Beechworth, Victoria, I lived in Stanley, seven miles out from Beechworth, app 10 K's. I lived there till 1964, when we moved to Walkers Mill Shelley, the mill was on the Shelley to Walwa Jingelic road, about 10 miles from the town of Shelley. Shelley itself had the distinction of having the railway station railway with the highest elevation in the Southern Hemisphere. Four of our family went to Shelley State School, 3 boys & a girl, then we did schooling by corresponded.

 

The saw mill had power during the day and at night we had to start a small generator, we'd put ether in top of the breather, crank the handle and pull the handle out and get our hands out of the way very quickly, I was 9 or 10 then.

 

We moved to Berringama in about late 1965, things got worse there and we were in extreme poverty and constantly hungry. We remained there till sometime in 1966, after decimal currency came in, when the Welfare Department came and took us away for so called Care and Protection.

 

I am a person who is interested in transport, such as trains, trucks, warships, especially Aircraft Carriers. I have always been interested in trains, from my earliest memory.

 

I started in the railways in 1971, after I got out of the Welfare System, I started at the very bottom, as a junior labourer, I did various jobs till I became a First Aid Attendant/Office Assistant South Dynon Loco Depot and in November, 1975, joined the locomotive grade as a Trainee Engineman, (Fireman), I became a qualified loco driver in Geelong in 1980, and transferred to the Electric Running Depot in Batman Ave, Melbourne, nicknamed the, Sparks. Back in them days we drove Wooden bodied Red trains, (Tait's), Steel Blues Trains (Harris - English Electrics), Silvers, (Stainless Steel Hitachis), and Commeng's.

 

I worked on the railways till 1986. I bought a single drive N7 volvo with no sleeper cab and very little money, I started towing trailers for Vaughan Transport, I worked there for a year till I could no longer drive my truck due to a broken left hand mirror, the truck was leaning on it. I tipped it over heading towards Cootamundra, NSW. I was app 4 weeks out of insurance. That was on a Friday and the people at Vaughan Transport gave me a job driving local, on next Wednesday.

 

Later I drove trucks at a few companies via Forstaff on local work and wharf work, I then worked for another year with Vaughans driving Ivan Barics No. 2 truck, a 2670 T line, till my partner got very ill and I had to leave Interstate truck driving and took up local work again, with the very odd labouring job.

 

I later returned to Interstate working for Alf Marsden Transport for about year, where 98% of loads were tarped up. I later became an owner driver/ courier van driver, for SS Taxi Trucks.

 

I returned to Train Driving at the end of 1990, have been back driving trains for over a 20 years now. During that time I drove trucks part time for employment agencies and others I knew. I bought a Scania 111, single drive, and an ex Vaughans 41 ft Pantech, the very same Pan I tipped over in about September 1987. I still have both, they were parked up in Moe, unregistered, but I have since moved it to a property in Mooroopna North.

 

It's interesting how when I was away from trains, mainly driving trucks, for just over 4 years, that's over 1,500 days, that when I returned I had a few nasty comments from some drivers about how I didn't do any good on the outside how I went broke, (I didn't), that I spent my time holding a stop flag up at a road gang. Really? ... I did that for THREE days out of over 1,500 days away. I didn't hold the flag up all the time, the reason they wanted drivers like me with heavy licences was because you needed at least a heavy rigid to drive the Road Roller Machine and other road machines. There are some pretty nasty ones out there, funny thing is I usually refer to them as accidental railwaymen.

 

AS for driving trucks, they couldn't do the job, even if they wanted to. I'd like them try to drive a truck, let alone hand load it, put up 8 ft high gates, two curtains, then unroll and tie down two cap tarps, on top of the load, then drive it to Sydney, then untarp it, hand unload it, then reload and re tarp it and drive back to Melbourne. Then do it all again in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, or where my destination was too. They wouldn't get out of Melbourne.

 

I recently got the sack from driving drains, after 23 years, plus 6 years previous, a total of about 29 years driving, and a total of 34 years in the locomotive grade, 39 years all up in the Railways. I over shot a platform, I was suffering extreme fatigue and suffering the affects of from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the result of 5 suicides and various misses and hits where they survived, such as one young girl about 12, who I thought was dying on the platform, but who only spent about 2 days in hospital.

 

Quiet a few people noticed that I was depressed and mentioned it, but I was too far gone to really notice it and I was also suffering extreme fatigue and MTM never had a proper fatigue management plan. They will claim they did, but all they had was a piece of paper. They sacked me on May Day, the international day of the Worker. Nice touch.

 

I am slowly recovering at home, but it is my firm belief that I will never be right, certainly I will never be the same I was, MTM put paid to any chance of a reasonable recovery.