In 1918 Painters were Expendable!

I was recently sent this wonderful photograph by June Rundle who found it amongst her mothers effects. June told me:- 

This is a photo of the Town clock being painted back in 1918.   Mr George Blackwell was my grandfather (my mother’s father – yes my mother Phyllis Blackwell married Herb Blacker – just to confuse everyone).   George came to Kalgoorlie from Adelaide during the Great Depression to find work and set up business as the Adelaide Timber Co. in Forrest St. down beyond the Railway Station. Incidentally my first position on leaving school was secretary to Bryan Carson of Stables & Clarkson Solicitors whose office was the corner upstairs window. I worked there from 1966-68.

The undated newspaper article with it said:-

Clock Tower to be Painted
Riggers are Erecting Scaffolding
£4481 Job on Public Building Underway.

Riggers yesterday were erecting scaffolding about Kalgoorlie tallest structure. 800 Fittings and 4500 feet of steel tubing weighing 8 tons will make up the self-supporting scaffold. The framework will extent almost to the top of the 15ft flagpole atop of the dome.

The man in charge of the scaffolding, Pat O’Sullivan, foreman of the Mills Scaffolding Co of Fremantle, finds nothing unusual in perching precariously above a busy street. He worked as a rigger on the CML building, 200ft above St Georges Tce in Perth.

A Kalgoorlie contractor, Mr C H Baker expects to begin painting the tower next week. The tower dome will be painted grey and all the cement work above the first floor will be pastel green. The building was last painted in March 1952.

In 1918 Painters were Expendable.

Mr G Blackwell of Campbell Street, Kalgoorlie send in the above photograph from his album. It shows a lad in 1918 with a ladder on the dome propped again the flagpole. The picture shows Mr Blackwell’s brother-in-law, the late Mr Sam Shearing standing with one foot on the top of the ladder some 120ft above Hannan Street

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My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

Comments

  1. Dorothy McCreed (Softley) says

    Herb Blacker was my mother’s grocer he would pick up her list and deliver the groceries a couple of days later.Things were different those days.My Paternal Grand father arrived in Kalgoorlie in1895. I have donated lots of memorabilia to the museum never to be seen again

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