Edith McClurg
Job Description
Clerk, Typist
Period
1954 -1955
Edith worked for Cheynes Beach Whaling Company for twelve months from March 1954 to 1955, as a Clerk/Typist and general go-between for the Perth office and local management. The office was in the old Bolt building on lower Stirling Tce between the Goldfields Coffee Palace and the W.R & H.O Wills building (all those buildings now demolished).
At the time of her employment the Humpback season ran from April till Sept/Oct. It was the third or fourth year of operation and was still in the trial and error stage of development. The machinery at the station was second-hand (ex Swan Brewery), was coal fired (often poor quality and not delivered on time) so frequently breakdowns occurred.
The station manager was Fred Edmunds and the engineer Brian Doherty, both of whom must have had a big job to keep things going on limited finance.
The first “Cheynes“ chaser was originally the “Toern” and was sailed to Albany from Norway, which Edith believes was an eventful trip which somebody else may know more about. The skipper was Frank Hughes, and the mate Axel Christensen. Engineer was John Flett, a religious man nicknamed “John the Baptist” and Bill Hyland was cook. Frank reckoned this was the only seafaring job he ever had where he tied up to the pub verandah every night. The “George” was a favourite watering place for the crew.
Every Friday Edith took the wages out to the station. She went with the carrier who picked up goods from around town for the people who lived at the station. The road to Frenchman Bay was sealed only to Little grove at that time so there were some scary trips out there after wet weather.
At the station, Cliff Blackstone was Timekeeper but could also work the bone saw. There were frequent injuries on the bone saw so when Cliff filled in there Edith went to the station to do the hourly radio check with the chaser.
Don McKenzie from Esperance operated the workboat that hauled the whales into the station from where the chaser had buoyed them.
Sightseeing of whales was quite a novelty in those days and people would ring up to see when the next whale would be coming in. Some got quite irate when there wasn’t one to see nor could any prediction be made when the next one was due.
Mr. S. M. Reilly was Chairman of Directors in Perth and Mr. R. R. Holmes was the local Director.
Edith McClurg