Ron Elliott
Job Description
Oil Filtration
Period
1976 - 1977
Ron Elliott was born at Lake Grace, W.A. on 25th November 1949. His father worked for the Lake Grace Shire. The family moved to Ravenshorpe where his father worked for the Ravensthorpe Shire as a truck driver.
Ron was the eldest of three children, two boys and a girl. He was educated at Ravensthorpe Primary School. He finished his schooling at fifteen years of age and first job was in a grocery shop at Ravensthorpe then moved to a farm owned by the grocery shop proprietor, driving trucks, tractor and looking after pigs. His next job was working in copper mines at Ravensthorpe. The family moved to Albany and Ron worked at Borthwicks meat works, then traveled around Australia.
He came back to Albany in 1975 and worked at the Albany Woolen Mills and then in 1976 went to work for Cheynes Beach Whaling Company on Oil Filtration and was trained by Doug Woods.
A day in oil filtration
At 7am the refrigeration plant was turned on. The water pump was turned on to circulate water through the tank and once the temperature dropped to 42 degrees F. the oil pump beneath the machine was turned on, and the pressure gauge checked (it had to be 40lbs per square inch pressure).
For the first four or five hours the oil flowed freely – towards the end of the day the screens would block up with wax and less oil would come out. The refrigeration plant had to be turned off if the temperature got too high (47 degrees F., or below 42 or 44 degrees F. This had to be constantly monitored. (It was not a problem in the winter months or at night).
The oil slowly trickled through a pipe into a holding tank and was emptied every half to an hour into a 44 gallon drum (blue with a red band). The drums were sealed and taken away by truck for export.
After 10 hours the refrigeration plant was switched off. The oil in the machine was pumped back into an overhead tank (main feeding tank), steam pumped through the machine to soften the wax built up on the screens. The hot wax was pumped back to the big oil tanks. By the time this was finished the next shift took over and started again.
If there was a power failure the wax would build up in the pipes and clog them up. Oxy torches were used to heat the pipe and high pressure air to blow it through. This was a big job and required at least half a day.
The last job for the day was hosing down the floors with boiling water, on tap from the boilers.
Oil filtration
As you walk into the oil filtration plant there was a tank stand with a tank (200 gallons approximately) of crude whale oil. Every 24 hours this was refilled. There were 12 hour shifts, 24 hours a day.
Every 12 hours, there were three 44 gallon drums of filtered oil obtained. Three times during the day the Chemist Charles Ashboth, would take a sample to check the level of wax.
The finished oil was for special purposes. It was filtered, refined oil.
Elliott Ron