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11th Nov 2005
A bit more Burdekin
Friday, 11th November, 2005
Breakfast at 7 and over this we had a bit of debate as to where and how we would try to see something of the Great Barrier Reef in the next couple of days. The reef itself is about 80km distant from Townsville and, therefore, a long spin in a boat which may or may not be memorable. Closer to home there were several islands on offer … most, it has to be said connecting via Cairns, to the north. I left Anne in charge and set out back to Pioneer to retake the pictures we’d sussed last night.
I managed to line up most of the images I wanted … had to undertake a bit of tree surgery to sort one, but from the looks of the CSR operation (the current owners of the mill) they’re not in to either the natural or cultural heritage … and so wouldn’t miss a couple of bushes.
I got back at 8.30 and during this time, Anne had booked a couple of days on an island within the reef national park, packed our bags and checked out of the motel. I had gone off leaving my credit card in my trousers pocket which had made the former possible. So we loaded up the car and went in search of Harold (this time) who is going to accompany us along to Inkerman mill where he has a nephew working as a senior engineer who can by-pass much of the indifference and make the very strict health and safety precautions seem slightly lesss intrusive.
At 9 we met Wayne Cislowski, described the work and showed him a few Inkerman images. One interested him in particular which was an interior shot looking along the mill machinery and he put on his garb and walked through the works in order to check out whether the present roof laddering system lined up with our shot. It did and he agreed to take me in to re-take the image … provided that I could meet the health and safety needs of the company. Closed toe boots … so I swapped sandals for hiking boots … and Wayne withdrew the other kit from the stores; fluorescent orange shirt, eye protection, ear protection, gloves and of course a hard hat.
Sweating profusely from this get-up we set off back into the mill. The gantry from which I re-took the images must occupy almost the same elevation as a 1920s one, because the camera angle onto the roof is very similar.
Outside, we crossed the tracks and took another angle and as we moved around the camera stations, it was possible to begin to pick out the core of the old sugar mill and visualise the building which had been extended, removed and in a few cases restored in the last 90 years.
One gable end, a notable feature in the 1920s image, suddenly became visible as we moved about and there it was, dwarfed and submerged in the heart of the present mill. As I was getting escorted around turning rapidly into a greasy mass in all my protective gear, Anne had managed to forge a conversation with someone who happened in to the foyer as they sat waiting. This lady had been raised at Pioneer and provided Anne with a whole load of contact numbers and directions as to where she should go.
We left Inkerman having completed what we set out to do, dropped Harold back, had a farewell coffee with Glenis. It had been a whirlwind couple of days and we’d achieved so much ... and heard so much, that it is difficult to try to capture all the information we have started to accumulate.
We drove back in to Ayr and stopped off to buy a newspaper to find ourselves splashed over page 4 complete with photograph and we then stopped at a very small café for a smoothie and in order to re-group. The newspaper story included Anne’s phone number and as we sat in the café some one called in order to claim possible Drysdale links …
The final visit necessary was to try and nail Pioneer, speak to someone called Desley and if possible, see someone called Robin Juffs who ‘is an old Pioneer Man’. If possible, the objective was to visit a building called Pioneer Lodge where the mill board of directors and various dignitaries have stayed over the years.
Deslee proved to be a good contact and agreed to smooth our path at about 3 that afternoon, so we duly turned up in the car park then entered the second office on the right and were assigned Pam.
Pam is a receptionist and was obviously not wildly keen on having to drive us around. Poor girl, she was shaped like a tele-tubby and due to the CSR uniform which all employees have to wear on site as it meets the various safety requirements, she was decked out in a thick blue CSR work shirt and jeans and due to this fact and her bulk obviously thrived on air conditioning. Her trip to ‘The Lodge’ tested her resolve to the full.
The Lodge is a low, 1950s building kitted out in veneers and formica and while housing the original full sized billiards table from Old Pioneer, it contains nothing of the painting or photographic wealth that had been hinted at. The house had only been vacated some weeks before, after a retiring manager had been in residence for some years. This seems to have been the pattern; a series of managers occupying the house in the last twenty years for relatively short periods. Its possible during this time that the place has been incrementally stripped.
I found the old visitors book lurking in one of the bedrooms and we looked though it, with Pam quietly melting I attendance nearby. It dated only from the 50s – presumably new with the house – and included a few familiar names. Lots of entries of Russell Drysdale visiting in his capacity as one of the directors and also in 1977 the visit of one Penny Drysdale !
Back at the office, Robin Juffs was somewhat reluctantly sprung from his office and he took a few minutes to warm-up but once we’d persuaded him round he was full of memory and anecdote. We left at about 5 and after taking a few shots of the mill on the way out, headed towards Townsville.
Just on the Ayr side of town, we’d been given a contact and potentially offered a bed by friends of friends, so decided to try and drop in and sound them out for a bed on Monday. A rather broken phonecall just as it was getting dark and we got directions down to Ian and Frances’ new home near Nome set in a twenty acre plot and being actively worked on!
We hadn’t really developed a plan for the night but had the Comfort Inn in Townsville earmarked as convenient and relatively inexpensive and a good stepping off point for the airport toorrow, but as it turned out, Frances very kindly offered us a bed and we thought no further.
Ian and Frances emigrated eighteen months ago from Deeside; he to work for CSIRO the government environment organisation here, she to take a chair at James Cook University in Townsville.
We went along to a local café for dinner which is run by one of the guys in charge of the a local research lab; had a great time and back at about 10 and fell into our upstairs building site.
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