Behrendt Harald

Harald Behrendt

Job Description
Maintenance Worker, Boilermaker, Welder

Period
1976 to 1978

Harald's role at the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company was to partake general maintenance, welding, fitting replaced steam and soluble pipes. He also made shafts out of jarrah wood and also to craft wood into killer harpoons.  He also remembers that 5 gallons of fuel was given to the workers at the station every week to run their cars to and from work.

Harald was called out to fix a deck which collapsed at the station, the slip between the bottom deck and the top deck. It took Harald, Andy Woonings, Ray Woonings and Kim Stubbs 15 hours to repair.

Another incident he recalls was in 1977, a helicopter which serviced the lighthouse put out a distress call, and remembers seeing the spotter plane circling where the helipcopter went down.

In 1978, Cyclone Alby came through, taking out all power at the station. The whales which were caught were on the deck getting very ripe, thepower was out for three days. The were 13 or 14 whales to be processed, most of which had gone rotten, so they had to be cut up and washed into the sea, as they were unable to be processed.