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| Notes for Edward John RUDDER | ||||||||
| The story of my life begins with my parents. Dad, Henry Tudor RUDDER was born on 23 Oct 1892 at Kings Norton (now an inner suburb of Birmingham in Worcestershire, England. Mum, Marion Dougal Mitchell REES was born on 21 Nov 1905 at Polmont in Stirlingshire, Scotland. They did not know of each others existence until after their families had emigrated to Australia. Mum and Dad met sometime early in 1927. They were married at the Ithaca Presbyterian church in Enoggera Terrace, Red Hill, Brisbane on Monday 12 January 1931. Occasionally they spoke of riding horses to dances in the Nagoorin area during their courtship. Things like falling asleep on their horses as the horses made their way home but were obstructed by a gate in a fence. I was born at approx 1:30 AM 19 December 1938 at Bayview Hospital, Nurse Liddicoat's birthing home situated in Gondoon Street Gladstone. At the time of my birth my eldest brother, Thomas Henry, was a little over 7 years and my elder brother William Ernest was a little over 2 and a half years. My father was just over 46 years and my mother was just over 33 years. “Following the closure of a private hospital in Gondoon Street and originally owned by Dr Lyons and later taken over, in turn by Dr Butler, Dr Hart, and Dr Maye Matron Liddicoat established Bayview Private Hospital as a maternity home. This was opened about 1921 and continued until its closure in 1946. Matron Liddicoat rendered outstanding service for a quarter of a century, assisted by her two sisters. Two thousand, five hundred births were registered at Bayview, including thirty sets of twins and one of triplets.” "Gladstone ... City that waited" by Lorna McDonald p 250. This illustrious group of people included the three Rudder boys. Both of my parents ran a dairy farm in the Boyne Valley some 40 miles south of Gladstone and about 3 miles north east of Nagoorin. They called this farm "Homewood" and it was the centre of our young lives. The country was, at very best, marginal agricultural land. The dairy had been established by my grandfather and his sons Charles, Henry, Maurice and Arthur from Cremehorne. Some of my earliest memories as a dependant infant includes Dad taking me in the middle of the night to pee to ensure a dry bed. Amongst my earliest memories as a boy is a trip to Gladstone during the war (1939-45) when mum met a man with a motor car. This man took us down to the wharf to see the H.M.A.S. Warramunga which was in port. It may have been this trip to Gladstone or another that I can remember our train being shunted off the main line (Gladstone - Boyne Valley Junction) so that a munitions train could pass. The only other local war time memory that I have is one day the family was helping dad with clearing an area about 200 metres west of our house when a warplane flew overhead going from south to north. Mum and dad insisted that the children keep out of sight. It appears that the pilot was following the Boyne River to the coast. Dad said he thought it was an American plane. Some time during the war or shortly after Mum and I went to Brisbane to see her family. Uncle Ernest took us over to see the huge search lights somewhere near Archerfield aerodrome. I started my schooling at home with the Primary Correspondence School under mum’s tuition - an ex teacher. Extracts from the Queensland Students Enrollments :- " No. 48790, Rudder, Edward John; Day of birth 19 Dec 1938; Father Henry T., Dairyfarmer; Homewood, Nagoorin, Boyne Valley Line; Enrolled 3 Feb 1944, Presbyterian". During the pre school years Bill and I took the opportunity to test our parents sanity by me declaring that the wood axe (the one that remained at the wood heap to make wood pieces that would fit the stove firebox) was too blunt to cut my finger off. Bill assured me that it would cut my finger off. I scorned this belief because Dad had said you could ride to Timbuctoo on the face of that particular axe because it was so blunt. We proceed with the experiment and Mum was shocked when I appeared at her skirt with the removed joint in my hand to show her. Exit top joint of the second smallest finger of my right hand. I started my grade 2 school year at Nagoorin in 1946. Bill and I rode push bikes about 4 miles (6.4 km) to school each day and the same distance back home. This was the short route. The long route that had to be taken during flood time so that we could cross the Boyne River at the bridge on Norton Road. The trip to and from school then became about 6 miles (9.7 km) each way. In later years mum was amused by our descriptors of the water level in the Boyne. Our critical descriptors were:- “No worries!”, “Pants pulled up!” or “Pants off!” This continued until 1949 when Bill left school to become one of the youngest apprentices in Queensland. It was during this period that Bill and I became each others best friend. I realize now that I depended to a significant degree on his maturity. My lot then was to take the ride on my own. These school years were an idyllic time in my life. Sure we had to milk a certain number of cows before we went to school and bring the herd in for milking on our way home (if they were in a paddock that was on the way home from school). During our school years on weekends we would join with our friends in exploring the Boyne Valley from east to west. We knew most trees and rocks from the Four Mile Scrub to the hills separating the Boyne watershed from the coastal watershed. I recall the potential for serious accidents that could befall country kids. In particular I remember 2 occasions that I would have preferred that did not happen. The first was when I was riding Darkie (horse) from Norton Creek along one of the two parallel car tracks on the road leading to home. A pheasant clumsily flew and nearly hit Darkies head. The result was that Darkie swapped wheel tracks but I did not. The second was when I was riding a bike home from school (after Bill had left to go to Gladstone). I was in a hurry because I had spent more time than I should have talking with friends on the way home. Shortly after I had turned the corner on the last 350 metres to home a goanna came in from the right. The stupid thing got caught in the spokes of the front wheel and when it's neck hit the front fork the effect was predictably spectacular and saw me catapult over the handlebars and land in a heap in front of the bike. My troubles had just begun because the goanna was not dead and I still had to get the animal out of my bikes workings. Eventually I freed the badly scarred goanna and made it for home. I recall one not so amusing incident that occurred at Homewood during the latter part of May 1950; I was 11 years old at the time. Mum’s mum passed away on 19 May 1950. Mum went to Brisbane to be with her family. Dad was working during the week for Forestry, Bill had started his motor mechanic apprenticeship with Fenton Motors in Gladstone and Tom was looking after the farm. For most of my life I have only felt the cold if my head was cold. Tom and I shared a bedroom at this stage. One night a quoll A.K.A. native cat had a disagreement with our domestic cat known as “Grump”. His name said all that there was to say about his general temperament. During the course of this disagreement it seems that Grump was loosing the battle and sought refuge inside the house. He entered through a window in our bedroom located directly above my bed. As it happened to be a cold night I was asleep on my front with the bedclothes wrapped around the upper part of my body while the lower part was dangerously exposed. The intruders landed on my bare rear end. To say that “all hell broke loose” would be a serious understatement. Tom was helpful only when he could contain his laughter. I must say though that it was this fortnight or so that Tom aged 18 and I aged 11 learnt of each other in a way that cemented a life long friendship. I guess that it was the responsibility of the farm and the need to prepare and cook meals added to our loyalty to our parents that ruled that we must at all times only take actions that would reflect parental pride. On the completion of scholarship and state school in 1951 I went to Gatton College for 2 years. The years at Gatton College were not a highlight in my life. The outcome was that I performed poorly in the scholastic sense. That is I learnt the things that interested me and ignored the things that didn’t interest me. I had a number of friends there and one even accompanied me home for one of the vacations. During my stay at Gatton College I represented the school in Men’s Basketball playing against adult teams from Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. I also filled in to make the numbers (often as 12 th man) for the school cricket team. I particularly remember one trip to Downlands College at Toowoomba. I was amazed to find myself being served by a man at the luncheon dining room. We at Gatton were always served by female waitresses. To my joy Mum and Dad came down to see me at college on the eve of my leaving the school to join Forestry as a Forest Learner. While there dad spoke with the manual arts teacher who told dad that I was eminently suited to cabinet making or carpentry. That would have been following in my father’s footsteps but not a direction that I cared for. I left Gatton College at the end of the Junior school year in 1954 just before my 16 th birthday. On 1 March 1955 I reported to the Kalpowar Forestry Office for what was to be a 43 year career in forestry. I was 16 years and 2 months of age. The Forest Learner Course was designed to train field supervisors for forestry operations. The course was a 5 year course broken up into 6 month Hoop pine nursery, 12 month hoop pine field, 6 month exotic pine nursery, 12 month exotic pine field, 6 month coastal hardwood, 6 month cypress pine, 1 month in head office and 11 month as a ganger in a place of preference followed by appointment as overseer div 3. I did both of the hoop pine bits at Kalpowar (Only about 50 km south of Nagoorin on the railway line to Monto). The nursery training was provided by Overseer Fred Lenz while the field training was mostly provided by Senior Forest Ranger Jack Gilchrist and Overseer Bert Hansen with some input from Overseer Spencer Hale. I made many friends here. In particular I remember Ted Fewings who I had continuing contact with right into the 1980’s. Also Bill and Arthur Birse. John Payne and the Mundt family who owned the butcher shop in town. I transferred to Beerwah in September 1956 for 6 months in the exotic pine nursery with Overseer Gordon Bryce. Here I made friends with Earl Gear and many others. Gordon Bryce was the overseer in charge of the Beerwah Nursery. The 1956 fire season saw a fire develop in the old banana block at Cooloolabin Forest west of Yandina. We took off at a slow rate in our 2 ton Bedford truck with water tank, pump and motor. The overseer Fred Peachey met us and explained where the fire was. We immediately set to grade fire-breaks in strategic locations and then settled down on a 15º slope to get some sleep. Fortunately the fire had died down during the night and we were sent home. At the end of my 6 months I transferred to Beerburrum some 8 miles south. The most obvious change to my existence was that I no longer had to cook my own meals. A ranch operated where the employees turned up at a specified time in the morning to prepare their choice of cut lunch, then proceed to the mess hall where a cooked breakfast was available. Dinner at night was generally multiple course with soup, mains and dessert. This system worked from Monday morning until Friday evening. Those who stayed in camp had to care for themselves or take advantage of the Log Cabin Cafe near Mt Tibrogargan. Here I joined the Junior Farmers at Elimbah (a small town about 4 miles south of Beerburrum). I really enjoyed the fellowship with a great bunch of like minded country kids. We attended many local dances, played indoor bowls, learnt basic judo, participated in ploughing contests and many municipal commemorations. The 1957 fire season was quite severe. I can recall a call-out to a fire threatening the west boundary of Beerburrum forest from the Woodford forest. This is the only time that I have seen a running crown fire. This type of fire feeds off the eucalyptus oil from overheated crowns and can travel at speeds approaching the prevailing wind speed. On that day the speed was about the same speed that a truck could travel. In fact one water gin was disconnected from a truck and left to it’s own devices. There are no opportunities to back burn in this environment so we retreated to a fire lookout tower nearby and spent much of the night there watching and wondering what we could do if the fire came through to our pine plantations. On another fire during this season we were called on to prevent a fire from menacing the town of Elimbah. The town was saved but the outdoor toilets attached to the dance hall were burnt. My mission was to keep an eye on the bridge on the main North Coast road that spanned Six Mile Creek, and put out spot fires that were started on sapwood and spread to the bitumen. As a fire deterrent I had a lead lined knapsack full of water. (Knapsack weight 15 lb, water 30 lb). While crawling amongst the cross braces in search of better vantage points to achieve my objectives I slipped and literally tore the fork out of my shorts. To my everlasting embarrassment I split the stitching from the bottom of the buttons on the front (no zippers) to the waistband at the back. All went well until a number of townsfolk decided to provide afternoon tea to the "valiant" (I don’t think so) workers. Given the number of females at this gathering my lasting impression was that the bridge survived even though my modesty didn’t. At the end of my 12 months training at Beerburrum I transferred to Fraser Island for Coastal Hardwood training. The train delivered me to Maryborough in the early hours of the morning. I was able to find accommodation to complete that night's sleep. Saturday morning I was able to arrange food for a month. (The arrangement was that the workers on Fraser Island would have a 4 day weekend in Maryborough each month). At sparrow f__t on Monday I took my entire possessions to the wharf where the SS Adventure would take me to the island. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on Fraser Island. Tom Williams was the Forest Ranger on arrival but he was replaced by Jack Gilchrist who I had known at Kalpowar. The routine of our existence revolved around the practice of having four weeks on the island and four days off. On the weekend in the middle of a cycle we had a concession trip to the back beach. Fishing was the order of the day for those who could maintain faith. I generally went for a walk along the beach to dream of things past and things yet to come. The four days off started with a very early morning trip to Ungowa for the boat ride to the head of the Mary River and then up the river to Maryborough. I always stayed the couple of nights at the Francis Hotel. The trip could take as little as 2 hours if the tides were in our favour or as much as 4+ hours if the tides were against us and the river was in flood. I spent some time as clerk at the forestry office here because the clerk resigned and I had to fill in before a new clerk could be employed. The outgoing clerk was forgettable but I will always remember Herb Groth the new clerk. I was in awe of his capacity to add up columns of Pounds, shillings and pence. This archaic monetary system had 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. This guy had spent years as a postal clerk and, as it turns out, drank himself out of dozens of jobs over the years. (No one could drink so much alcohol at forestry on Fraser Island to cause the loss of their job). Even today I would back his speed and accuracy against any bush person on an electronic calculator. It was during this period that I planted an avenue of Slash Pine (Pinus elliottii) at Central Station (the locale of our accomodation). My use as a clerk only terminated when my time was up because old Herb often called in sick! Some weekends I would walk over to Lake Birrabeen 2 for a swim or to talk to some of the timber contractors. I was very impressed by the father and son timber cutting combination in Jack and Max Crough who frequently cut competitively in local shows. One of the other contractors located at Central Station, Laurie Postan (his brother Andy operated as a contractor in the Poyungan scrub area) once made comment that I could be trained to perform in woodchopping events). My time up I transferred to Barakula, a forestry camp/settlement some 27 miles north of Chinchilla. I left the western train at Chinchilla and booked into the Commercial Hotel until I could get a ration run truck to Barakula. Here I met Sam Benstead the Forest Ranger and the people that I was to work with, Overseer Alby Downs. The six months was all too short because Sam decided that I should see and do everything. Noble thoughts but impracticable given the enormity of the area and the complexity of the work there. The first four months saw a different job daily which looked like making me a 'jack of all trades but master of none'. I was able to get the general drift of cypress pine management and western hardwoods management but it was not an area that I could see myself in for a lifetime. The last two months I spent with Dave Cameron and his inventory survey gang. This was a novel experience because I got my meals cooked for me. The survey labourers award provided for a cook for 4 or more men. I thoroughly enjoyed the nature of this work and gained some insight to the direction that I might ultimately take. During this period we were called on by Dalby Research to remeasure some detailed yield plots. Another fascinating experience. During this period we were located at a canvas camp on Hellhole Creek. The Yellowbelly fishing was good though unreliable. One weekend a survey trainee, Phillip Pickering (who I had known at Gatton College) and I were the only ones about. Phillip went to the water gin to get a drink. He must have hit or knocked it fairly firmly because it fell off the jacks that held it up and a wheel rim landed right across one of his feet pushing the foot into the earth. He was pinned. Hellhole Survey camp was about 45 miles from Chinchilla. The Hellhole forestry Overseer cottage was about 2 miles away so I ran like the blazes to try to get help. No one was at the residence. I finally hailed a passing motorist, explained the situation and waited so that I could direct the help to the problem. Some time later an ambulance arrived and we went back to Phillip. Shortly after we were on the road to Chinchilla hospital. In the 1980's Phillip came to forest research branch at Upper Roma Street in Brisbane as a salesman for scientific instruments. We recognised each other and I was embarrassed by Phillip's assertions that I had saved his life. It was not anything like that at all. After all the excitement I left Barakula and went to complete the final part of my training. That is the month in Head Office. For this period I stayed at a hotel on the south side of the Brisbane River across the Victoria Bridge. This time included visiting all sections in Head Office to learn their functions, how they worked, their responsibilities and their points of contact in the Districts. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I found that I liked most of the people that I encountered. Some young men who were installing TV at Mt Cootha stayed at the same hotel that I did came to see me off at Roma Street station for my trip to North Queensland where I was to serve for 2 months as a ganger before being assigned an overseer position. This was in early May 1959. I stepped off the sunlander at Gordonvale to catch the White Car to Atherton. All went well and I arrived at Atherton, booked into the Grand Hotel just over the road from the Forestry office and waited for a work day to arrive. Instead the District Forester (Tom Ryley) turned up on the Saturday morning to say Hello and say that I was welcome to the District, that I would be used for treemarking and that I would spend my ganger period learning the rainforest species with Research headed by Ed Volck and to get to know the workings of the Timber Research group headed by Ted Rees. During this period I would stay at the barracks at Wongabel. A vehicle would be supplied for me to get to and from Atherton. The typist at Research turned out to be a girl who I had met while I was at Kalpowar, her people had a grazing property towards Monto????. I was assigned to Sam Dansie the overseer in charge of field operations within research. He took a practical approach to teaching me how to distinguish between the hundreds of species growing in the North Queensland rainforests. He succeeded beyond my wildest imagination. I also noted that I liked the job that he had. I had other duties there assisting in the establishment of experiments controlled by foresters. Some of the work was interesting while some was not. The time spent with Ted Rees was all interesting but not in the areas that I was drawn towards. I am afraid that I was never particularly drawn to or compelled by regulatory aspects of getting the job done. Having completed the mandatory ganger period I was appointed Overseer Div 3 at Kuranda principally intended to perform treemarking duties. Lionel Dansie (Sam’s brother) the Overseer Div 1 at Kuranda died prematurely. At the tender age of 21 I was put in charge at Overseer Div 2 level. I inherited a job that required 6 days per week treemarking and sales assessments as well as the requirement of supervising the gang of native labour. These people were short in stature but very long in efficiency. They had things to teach 1990’s efficiency experts. The time passed happily with the December collection of CADAGA (Eucalyptus torelliana) seed for the Brisbane street tree market. Each time I pass such a tree (one in Terry & Mel's front yard in Boyne Island) I am reminded of the seed collection. All street trees bear the obvious genetic imprint of it's ancestry. I applied for and got the position of Overseer Div 1 in Forest Research at Atherton in February 1960. This was the position formerly held by Sam Dansie. I took up residence at the Wongabel forestry barracks near Scrubby Creek. The next ten years were among the happiest of my life. They were also the poorest. I loved the people and the work but not the pay rate. The position meant that I was responsible for the measurement and maintenance of field experiments and detailed yield plots in rainforest, open forest and plantations. My operational patch was from the latitude of Mossman to the latitude of Townsville. About May 1960 I met Coral McElhinney at a Tolga dance. I was to learn that I had then met my future wife. (See the notes attached to our marriage which includes aspects of our social life). During my tenure of this position (1968) I was upgraded to Forest Ranger Div II position. With a wife, one child and another expected I realised it was time to get off my butt and seek promotion rather than enjoy doing what I was doing. So in 1970 I applied for and got a position in production forestry as Forest Ranger in Charge of the Danbulla reserve group. Danbulla is the former agricultural land area that was cut off from markets by the development of the Tinaroo Dam. It was during this period that two-way-radio was installed and our life was no longer our own. My principal duties included an annual planting program (including nursery). This nursery was run by a bloke (Michael Castle) that I had befriended at Beerburrum some 13 years earlier. This work while interesting was not paying any more money than I was earning in a job that I got enormous job satisfaction from so I applied for promotion. Before long I was appointed to Forest Ranger Division 1, Amamoor a small town between Gympie and Imbil. I was in this upgraded position for about 2 years when my former boss of research in Atherton (Ed Volck) asked if I would come to Brisbane to oversee the development of the statewide research database of (get this "PUNCHED CARDS") for this new computer processing systems that had been developed. The pay was better at Amamoor but the job satisfaction was not so I agreed that I was prepared to try out for the job so in late 1974 I headed to Brisbane to become a member of the most detested tribe ever known to District Forestry people (HOP - Head Office Poofter) Responsibilities were:- To manage and maintain the Forest Research Branch data bases of experiment and detailed yield plot measures in an accurate, complete and up to date condition. To provide Forest Research Branch staff with a data processing service. To provide other Departmental staff with processed information as required. To assist in the development of software required to process forest research data. To maintain a subset of software used to process forest research data. Three things happened during the 15 years that I held this job. Firstly the job satisfaction was complete. Secondly there was much to be learned about computers and their mystical ways. Thirdly I had a son who was "breezing through primary and secondary school". I loved this job from day one. You know "duck to water stuff". Within 3 weeks I was writing GEROGE batches to process data through the steam and valve computer that was housed in the now Casino. This computer had about one tenth of the power of the machine that I am typing this stuff on and it was meeting (almost) all of the governments computing requirements. By late 1984 it was clear to me that I had to get formal qualifications in computing if I was to get ahead in this new field. There was also the need to set a study example to our eldest son who I knew was going to flounder in year 2 at Griffith University. I applied to QTAC to enroll at the Kedron College of Advanced Education. About 399 others also applied and there were places for 40 students. I thought that my career as a student was to be short lived. The college held aptitude tests for the 400 applicants over a couple of nights. I was delighted to find that I was in the top 10 % with aptitude to start the course. Generally things went well and as we progressed through the "early years hoop jumping" my marks improved significantly and in my last 2 years I received distinctions & high distinctions. Only 7 of the original 400 graduated early in 1989. Terry did have trouble in second year but he also graduated in 1989. During 1989 I applied for the position of Computer Systems Officer IV in the Information Technology Branch. To my surprise I got the job. My surprise was short lived because no one in the Information Technology Branch knew anything about Forestry. Responsibilities were: - · To design and code screens for the Marketing information system using DBQ. · Maintain and modify existing screens of the Marketing information system. · To prepare a data model using NIAM for the species list used by all systems within this service. · To provide assistance in the development of TREDAT (a tree performance database) as required. I enjoyed this time because I am basically a "bench" person. That is I like to have a job to do and the space to do it. I even turned out to be efficient in turning out non returning software. That is software that met the users needs. I was still not in the top 25% of Forestry earning power so I applied for a supervisory role within the team when it became vacant. In August 1991 I was appointed to the position of Computer Systems Officer III, Applications Development Unit Information Systems Division, Corporate Services, Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane. Responsibilities were: - . To lead a team of Computer Systems Officers to collect User Requirements for the Forest Sales Management Information System. . To analyse, design and supervise coding of screens for the Marketing information system using INGRES. . Test and document developed screens of the Marketing information system. This project was a delight in one sense and a serious flaw of human endeavour on the other. It was a delight in the sense that users were seriously involved and end users actually got software that they could use. The serious flaw resulted form the fact that more than 80% of the software had already been written in DBQ (a local database that went no where.) I believe from scuttlebutt that some $3 million dollars had been spent on the FORestryMarketingInformationSystem (FORMIS) project. But for bad project management this system could have delivered a Mercedes engineered information system instead of the T Ford design programs that are currently masquerading as a system. I enjoyed the work though and I have to say that all of the software engineers that worked on the project were reared in the top drawer. During most of 1993 I was appointed as Acting Technical Co-ordinator (Forest Sales Management Information System (FSMIS)), Applications Development Unit Information Systems Division, Corporate Services, Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane. Responsibilities were:- . To analyse, design and supervise coding of screens for the Marketing information system using INGRES. . Test and document developed screens of the Marketing information system. In about September 1993 I applied for a higher classification. I was subsequently appointed Information Systems Officer Division of Operations, Forest Service, Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane. Responsibilities were:- . To supervise a team responsible for the processing sales information. . Provide technical advice to the Forest Service Information Steering Committee relating to : · systems development and project priorities. · strategic initiatives. · information technology budgets. · policy and support from Information Systems Division. . Provide an interface between the Forest Service business unit and other QDPI groups with an interest in or responsibility for Information Technology. . Maintain an overview of and provision of technical input to the Forest Sales Management Information System (FSMIS). . Provide detailed technical and business advice to consultants employed to study :- Network requirements, host requirements, financial management system interface to the sales system and system auditors. This was my last Forestry job. I can't say it was a job that I enjoyed but it did provide me with a reasonable superannuation payout. When the work environment became impossible to work in (too many people appointed to jobs that they could not do) and 80% of my time was spent trying to boot _strap people from alien cultures to enable them to function, I resigned. So in about August 1998 I left my beloved Forestry and went contracting for a couple of years with the Department of Natural Resources. I was engaged to rewrite the TREEDAT system. The original systems data was in such a mess that I had to recommend that the best system to develop was one that recorded specie features and performance on specific sites: not one based on tree performance. | ||||||||
| Last Modified 5 Apr 2009 | Created 15 Jul 2010 using Reunion for Macintosh |