Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 169
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[Page 169]
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railway section. The tents were calico with a fly, and were a Governmental supply; big enough to accommodate one man.
Excavation through hills and undulations, and the building up of banks, to rail level, was done with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and horse-drawn tip drays. High-wheeled timber jinkers transported the wooden piles and heavy Ironbark beams for the many timber openings (wooden bridges across the gullies) into position. Consolidation of the embankments was left to time and the weather; with some extra height to allow for settlement to the correct level. There were absolutely no motor or mechanical machines, or vehicles.
The navvies were men of several nationalities, though mostly English and Irish, only recently immigrated. In general, they were a hard working, tough living, people, but amazingly charitable in "passing the hat around" to collect money for the assistance of one of their number incapacitated by accident or some other misfortune, or in contributing to periodic collections for the local hospital.
They were paid nine shillings for a full eight-hour day's work (no tea breaks) six days a week, compared with the hitherto ruling rate of six shillings a day, for privately employed local labourers. The highest paid men were Ben Manning the black bearded blacksmith, who made all the iron fastenings for the timber openings, and the few bridge carpenters who worked with adzes, broad axes, cross-cut saws and big slicing chisels: they got fourteen shillings a day.
Most of the navvies were single or detached from their wives, and few belonged to the Parkes District. They either prepared and ate their meals in their tents, or could dine more sumptuously in a couple of so-called "boarding houses" in the main camp. These were merely high enclosed sheds built of pine poles with hessian sides and a skillion corrugated-iron roof, and there was no fancy furniture inside. Mrs Rooke, the de facto wife (for fourteen years) of the quiet old ganger who was responsible for lifting and packing the track to exact level, was the principal caterer. She maintained a big flock of