SIINo. 256. JULY-AUGUST, 1974.

MEMBER~sGROUP

SULPHIDE CORPORATION PTY. LIMITEDP.O. BOX 42, BOOLAROO, N.S.W., 2284. TELEPHONE: NEWCASTLE (049) 58-1241.

A big send-off for longestserving Sulphider

Stan Graham retired on 19th July taking withhim half-a-century of Sulphide history and a wellearned reputation for loyal and conscientious serviceto the company that few have equalled.

Stan commenced work in the old Super Shed in January,1924, before most of us were born, and, apart from theDepression, has worked at Sulphide Corporation ever since.His service record is remarkable: at the time of his retire-ment he had the longest continuous service (almost 39years) of any present-day Sulphider, he was never employedby any other firm or organisation and, even during theDepression, worked part of each year at Cockle Creek.His record therefore shows an employment card for everyyear since 1924.

Before he left Stan was given a "send-off" by his work-mates at the Sinter Plant during which Day Foreman, LanceWeir and others paid tribute to Stan's service at CockleCreek. The picture (above) shows .Stan and some of hisworkmates grouped around a Primus Barbie-Q presentedto him by Lance on their behalf, From left-Leigh Neilson,

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POTTEDBIOGRAPHIES

GEORGE WATTSTransport Department loco

driver, George Watts, wasborn at Junee, N.s.W. in1924 and after moving toCardiff at an early age re-ceived his schooling at Car-diff Public and Broadmea-dow Central.

After leaving school hisfirst job was with StocktonBorehole Colliery but aftersix years of coalmining

George decided he'd hadenough of it and joined theN.S.W.G.R. firstly as acleaner and then fireman.After three years firing dut-ies with the Railways,George resigned and joinedB.H.P. where he was a locodriver for three years beforecoming to work at Sulphidein February, 1949.

In his 25 years here,George has worked whollywith the Transport Depart-ment. He started here asrelief loco driver (steam inthose days) and HarmanShovel operator. Since thetransition from steam to die-sel locomotion in December,1963, George has it muchmore comfortable in the cabof the diesel loco. Georgereceived his 25 years Long

Service Award at a functionon 2 Ist August.

George married NormaRadcliffe, at Boolaroo inj 947 and lives at Park Road,Speers Point. They haveone son, Terry, who is adraughtsman with Lake Mac-quarie Shire and married toa local girl, Narelle Hipwell.Two years ago they present-ed George and Norma witha little granddaughter-Melissa.

George played State Lea-gue soccer with Lake Mac-quarie but nowadays is in-terested in motoring, gar-dening and with Terry's sail-ing exploits in j 6 ft. skiffswith Belmont Sailing Club.

NEVILLE JOHN IRWINNeville Irwin was born at

Cessnock on 3rd April, 1939,and lived at G reta in a coalmining environment through-out his childhood. After at-tending Greta PrimarySchool he obtained his In-termediate Certificate fromMaitland Boys High.

He started work as appren-tice fitter and turner withSouth Maitland Railways atEast Greta in 1954 and com-pleted his trade cou rse byattending Cessnock TechnicalCollege. Then, in 1960. hejoined Standens Engineering(earth moving equipmentmanufacturers) at Branxtonas draughtsman and attendedNewcastle Tech. and Cess-nock Evening College forpart-time studies in Mech-anical Engineering CertificateCourse subjects and LeavingCertificate subjects at the re-spective colleges. In 1966,Neville joined the TechnicalEducation Department as ateacher of fitting and mach-ining at Sydney TechnicalCollege, Ultimo and went tolive at Dulwich Hill. Whilstthere he enrolled in a Tech-nical Teacher TrainingCourse conducted at theTechnical College annexe,successfully completing the

course in the same year.1966. Neville returned toM aitland in 1967 because offamily illness and com-menced work here at Sul-phide on 3rd April (his 28thbirthday), as Technical Clerkin the Drawing Office, laterbecoming Technical Assist-ant and currently DesignDraughtsman.

In November, 1961, Nev-ille married Annette McKew,of Branxton (also from along established coalm.ningfamily) and they have threechildren, Jennifer (11), Cath-erine (8) and David (4). Af-ter moving to Warners Bayfrom Maitland in 1970 theyhave. since 1971. been re-

siding in a new house theyhad built at Speers Point.

A rugby league and soc-cer exponent in his youngerdays, Neville says he is nowa keen spectator sportsmanat most sports but that mostemphasis recently has beenon establishing the yard, etc.at his new home. However,with all the family keen sup-porters of Maitland RugbyLeague team, time is foundto follow its fortunes andthey have missed very fewgames during the five yearsreign by the "Pumpkin Pick-ers". Swimming in thenearby Speers Point pool andat local beaches is a fav-ourite summer pastime. Also,N eville tells us, he enjoys anoccasional night out at thetrots.

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BIG SEND-OFF FOR LONGEST SERVING SULPHIDER (Continued)

Lance Weir, Dave Berry,Jim Bourke, Stan, BarrieCoppock (obscured behindStan), Con Lambert, LenTrolman, Ken Wiltshire, RayBoyce, Les Needs, Trevorfaylor and Kevin Thompson.

Stan was born in Hamil-ton in 1909; his family latermoved to Mayfield wherethey had a small poultryfarm. Stan's father, JohnGraham, also worked atCockle Creek from the grassroots origins of SulphideCorporation. Stan believeshe even helped survey thesite and you couldn't getmore basic than that. JohnGraham continued workingfor Sulphide until 1923 theyear after the old smelterand refinery ceased opera-tions. By this time the Gra-ham family had moved outto this area and had estab-lished an orchard in whatwas known as Three Creeks,close to the junction ofBlind, Brush and SaltyCreeks with Cockle Creek..••.......•••.... ~~The photograph (below)depicts the era of Stan Gra-ham's youthful associationwith the Super Shed wheel-ing bags of super. frombagging mill to trucks.

Stan's coming to work atSulphide was therefore notsurprising. In effect, he tookup where his father left offand at the age of 14t waswheeling super bags fromthe hand sewers to railtrucks. Our picture givessome idea of what this waslike although it was a pitythe photographer had topose it. The photographreally gives no idea of thehustle and bustle of thosedays when six despatch millsloaded an average of 180tons each in an eight hourshift with the absoluteminimum of mechanicalequipment.

Stan recalls the twentiesand early thirties with somenostalgia and a serenity nowwhich anyone could be ex-cused for finding hard tomaintain in those difficulttimes. In between his spellsof temporary Depressionemployment Stan worked onthe family orchard and knewwhat it meant to rely on the"dole" - a grim word whichhas little, if any meaning,for those of us who com-menced our working livesafter 1939.

There were compensa-tions. Stan points out that

the tram fare on the N ew-castle steam tram was 4dfrom Newcastle to Wallsend;the cheapest tram ride, Stantells us, in. Australia. Italso maintained its value formany years. Inflation wasan unknown word.

It must have been quitean operation, that tramway;Newcastle to Wallsend viaJesmond, out to a junctionnear Brush Creek where it

-branched one way to WestWallsend, one way to SpeersPoint.

Stan remembers the intro-duction of the first bus ser-vice in the district initiatedby a character named "Dut-chie" Aarsen (we might beastray with the name spell-ing). It seems that this fore-runner of today's system mayhave started the move to-wards retirement of thefamous tramway.

Stan himself was well es-tablished at Sulphide Cor-poration by the late 1930'swhen he married Miss DuicieRowbottom of Jesmond.They have a son and adaughter, Trevor and Mar-garet (now Mrs. Gay) both

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BIG SEND·OFF FOR LONGEST SERVING SULPHIDER (Continued)

of whom have made theirmark at Sulphide Corpora-tion. Maybe we will see afourth generation here indue course. In passing weshould record that Stan'sbrother. John (killed in ac-tion in World War Il) work-ed at the Sulphide CementPlant before enlisting.

In his long service at Sul-phide Corporation, Stan wasa member of the Platelayinggang, worked as a greaserand fitter's assistant with theEngineering Department and,when the Smelter commenc-ed in 1961. became an op-erator in the CadmiumPlant. He transferred tothe Raw Materials Store in1967 and has therefore beena well known and respectedfigure in the Sinter and Cad-mium Plants area for almostthirteen years.

A keen cyclist in hisyounger days, Stan competedregularly in Wallsend Ama-teur Cycling Club and New-castle League of Wheelmenevents. We recall how werelied on Stan twenty yearsago to keep the Works bicy-cles on the track.

And so, thank you, Stanfor half a century of goodwork. We hope that in yourretirement your health willprofit from the well earnedrest and that it will proveto be a period of real en-joyment and satisfaction foryou.

We look forward to seeingyou around from time totime.

These two pictures (of about1935 vintage), were provid-ed by Stan and are of plate-laying identities with whomhe worked in the mid-30's.The jour men standing infront of the platelayers"hum py" are, L to R, StanGraham, Jim Pinkney , JackSilcocks and Jack Freeman.LEFT: Jack Freeman (wellknown local identity of thetime) and father of Cec andMick Freeman, both ofwhom worked here. Cecwas later to become pro-prietor of a wine bar whichstood on the Main Road be-tween Cockle Creek railwaystation and the present Sui-phide Welfare Club.

WHAT! A MILLION TONNES (Continued from Page 5)break-outs, pump break- comes success and it's easydown, transfer car failures. to do a quick run through onWe remember Bill Robbo's some special personal successwords, "don't run, that starts stories attributable, to a greatworry and panic among the extent, to lessons learnedoperators, walk steadily and along the way in making oneworry about the problem as million tonnes. Don Vernonyou go - now get the con- (Bougainville Copper), Andytrol room operator to make Thomson (our present Gen-me a pot of tea!" Another eral Manager - Works En-fellow, who shall remain gineer in 1961), Jirn Orumnameless, was in the toilet, and Bob Cornelius (Ham-BANG! a slagging explos- ersley), Ron Bath andion! Frantically doing up Brian Tozer (successive Pro-his clothes, badly contused duction Managers at Corn-himself with his zipper, three monwealth Smelting, Avon-inches of small blood blis- mouth). These are just aters. Sister Roberts will few who have gone on tovouch for this little episode. greater responsibilities within

Nevertheless, from mis- our group, demonstratingtakes and troubles and a that making metal was alsowhole lot of sweat, mental the proving ground for men.and physical, eventually -WIZZ.

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THANKS A MILLION. • •Congratulations flowed in as 146 Sulphiders (144

men, two ladies) assembled for what must havebeen the biggest group photograph of Companyemployees taken this century. We have an excelle?tpicture of people assembled at the old Smelter m1899 but as far as the records show, nothing of thiscalibre since.

The occasion on 7th Aug-ust, was to mark the pro-duction of one million tonnesof zinc and lead at CockleCreek Works in what mightbe termed the "second smelt-ing era" which commencedon 6th August, 1961. Ofthis million approximately688,000 tonnes were zincand it is of some interest tonote that this tonnage ex-ceeded significantly the 25-year output of the main pro-duct from the first smeltingera, lead bullion, of which500,000 tons were producedbetween 1897 and 1922.

The modern million wasachieved on 12th July. 1974,3t weeks short of thirteenyears operation.

All those employees whosaw the first production ofzinc and lead were invitedby the General Manager,

Mr. Thomson, to come alongfor the pictures and theturn-out was pretty good -83 per cent. Overleaf is areproduction of one of thepictures. appropriately styledby the General Managerhimself. as the CLASS OF'61.

Congratulatory telegramswere received from Messrs.Frank Espie (Chairman ofAM & S), Jack Liebelt (Gen-eral Manager, AM & S), JimStand ish, an AM & S boardmember and well remember-ed and respected as ou r for-mer General Manager and,later, Managing Director.With the then ManagingDirector, M r. Struan An-derson, Mr. Stand ish waschiefly responsible for thedesign. commissioning anddevelopment of the I.S.F. atCockle Creek in the early

sixties, We were very pleas-ed to receive a message toofrom Mr. Anderson and alsofrom two senior engineeringpeople much concerned withthe Smelter design and con-struction, Messrs. GeorgeHills and Don Crawford.Other congratulations whichwere much appreciated camefrom Sir Maurice Mawby,Mr. Arthur Rew and (anearly one in) from Or.Derek Temple of ImperialSmelting Processes, Avon-mouth, U.K.

These messages paid trib-ute to all the people whohave been responsible forthe very good performanceof the Cockle Creek l.S.F.,and demonstrate the regardin which our operation andits operators are held in Mel-bourne and in smelting cen-tres around the world.

Special thanks: To FrankStaritz and George Hamil-ton for their herculean effortin locating the exact daywhen the million tonne n;,:uk·was passed. We were sorrythat George missed out onthe group picture throughabsence on company busi-ness. Better luck at the twomillion mark, George.

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What! A million tonnes?To put it succinctly - a

bloody lot of metal, mixedwith equal amounts of hardwork, blokes, happenings -some serious - some funny,all put together brings up abloody lot of merr:ories.

To look back - oh, I for-get the year, down in the oldMain Office, all the unionreps and senior companyofficials were gathered, BertDick will remember this,and the then manager, M r.Albert Edge waxed eloquentas he told us how a pro-posed smelter complex wasto be built on this site. Howmany of us said among our-selves, we will believe whenwe see!

But people actually startedto arrive, surveyors, etc.,running this way and that,

(A reminiscence from Wizz)especially one fellow ColinBishop. he didn't walk. heran all day, he was the com-pany's construction engineer,and many an argument hehad with building contrac-tors. Then blokes withnames we had never heardof started to arrive backfrom England after beingthere for several years' train-ing. "Haversack" Don Ver-non (he was on everybody'sback), David Green, MontyTaverner, Geoff Firkin. Bar-rie Coppock, etc., are a fewwhose names come to mind.Then one, Bill Robertson,took up the task of getting"the old girl to go". Billwas a Scot first, last andalways whose name wasspoken with awe, reverenceand in other ways too -

especially after he had rip-ped into you for doing some-thing wrong. Expert thoughhe was at tearing off thestrips Bill, to his credit,equally recognised work welldone and you knew when hewas pleased, just as you didwhen he was not!

Supervision and operators,engineers, chemists, cost ac-countants and all who helpedget the plant started, run-ning, and eventually produc-ing record tonnages, will re-member those long hourswhen if you weren't actuallyat work, you were on yourway to or from work or soit seemed.

Well, we had many a dis-aster, slag andlor metal

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(See Story Page 5

SOUVENIR OF FIRSTMETAL ...

Three of the original I.S.F.team associated in the pro-duction of the first metal atCockle 'Creek are picturedhere holding a small sampleof the first G.O.B. zinc castfrom the furnace in August,1961.

Reading from left to rightthey are, Lindsay Malpas(Zinc Casting Operator), BertMasters (formerly I.S.F.Shift Foreman) and MontyTavemer (formerly AssistantSuperintendent I.S.F.).

Now, after 13 years, theyhave seen the combinedmetal products grow untilthey have exceeded the mil-

_lion tonne mark.

lhanks A Million")

An unusual memento tomark the millionth tonne .ofI.S.F. metal was a minia-ture urn sent from the U.K.by Imperial Smelting Pro-cesses to General Manager,Mr. A. T. Thomson.

The picture shows Mrs.Joan Harbntt (left) and Mrs.Marj Hams admiring a de-tail on it.

Specially made for the 600Exhibition in Bristol in 1973,the urn depicts historical andindustrial facets of the city.Only 1200 were made andthe one received by Sulphideis No. 521.

BOB DAVIES ...Another Sulphide "oldie" retires . . .

Besides the retirement of the longest-serving wagesemployee (Stan Graham), in this issue of the "News"we also record the retirement of the longest-servingstaff member of Sulphide Corporation.

We refer to Bob Davies (Chief Storekeeper), who retiredon Thursday, 4th July, after nearly 37 years with theCompany.

Bob was retiring early because of ill-health and althoughhis departure will be more fully covered in our next issue,along with other staff retirees in Ted Carlier and DonCochran, the Store "boys" gave him their own send-off onthe day he finished and the pictures above were taken onthat occasion. TOP: Bob is pictured responding with sometypical "Davies-lsms" after receiving presentations fromPeter Grew and Tom Adamson. On Bob's left are NormDuddin and Tom Adamson.ABOVE: "And as the field comes past the ElectricalWorkshops, ill the race to start work. ."No! Bob is not trying to emulate ace race broadcaster,Ken "London to a brick" Howard, he :is just trying outthe binoculars presented to him by his workmates. NormDuddin, in foreground, spotted our photographer tryingfor a quick shot as he was doing so and hastily duckeddown low. Good on you, Norm.

Unfortunately. however, Bob 'was taken ill on the eveof a staff farewell function for him, Ted Carlier and Don

'Cochran on 8th August and taken to hospital. We trustthat by now you are much better again, Bob.

J

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Opposite Page:MORE PICS FROMA.T.C. OPEN DAY

Last "News" we pub-lished pictures of familygroups photographed atthe A.T.e. Open Day.

In this issue we fol-low up with further pic-tures taken on thatoccasion.

(1) Mr. and Mrs. Ar-nott with son, Peter (IstYear Electrical), (2)Darryl Aldrich (1st YearFitting and Turning)with his mother andgrandmother, Mrs. John-ston. (3) Mrs. Walkerand son, Ross (1st YearFitting and Turning).(4) Greg Tudor (2ndYear Boilermaking) pic-tured with his parents.(5) Mr. and Mrs. Sul\i-van with son, Peter (1stYear Fitting and Turn-ing). (6) lan Nesbitt (1stYear Boilermaking) withhis mother, cousin,Tracy and sister Kim.(7) Tim Taylor (2ndYear Boilermaking) withMr. and Mrs. Taylor. (8)Mr. and Mrs. Davieswith son, Tom (1st YearFitting and Turning). (9)Mrs. O'Reilly with son,Terry (1st Year Fittingand Turning).

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You Can't Keep AGood Man DownGood to see Ron Howie

(Yard Foreman) back onthe job again after the seri-ous accident he suffered lastyear on the way home fromwork.

Ron told us he was off worknine months to the day when hestarted back. He also said (andnot without good reason) that heis very wary of traffic comingfrom all angles as he approachesthe Crossroads now.

In addition, Ron has askedus through the medium of theNews, to thank all those Sul-phiders who sent him cards orvisited him and for their manyother kindnesses during his longperiod of hospitalization andconvalescence.

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SCHOLARSHIPSROUND-UP

A short time backC. C. News journeyedto four of the five localhigh schools to photo-graph winners of Sul-phide Corporation HighSchool Scholarships for1974.

These High Schools were,Booragul, Cardiff, Torontoand, for the first time, Glen-dale, which this year hasadvanced to Fifth Formstatus. Warners Bay scholar-ships will be presented laterin the year.

The heading picture showsPersonnel Officer, EdgarHamonet (right), who repre-sented Sulphide Corporationat Cardiff, Glendale andToronto, congratulating RossCoates on gaining a SulphideScholarship during the Car-diff presentations.

Pictures of the scholarshipwinners are shown at right.Reading from top to bottomthey are:Booragul High: Simon Ger-

aghty (Sixth Form) andIanette Hayden (FifthForm).

Cardiff High: Colin Newell(Fifth Form) left, andRoss Coates (Sixth Form)right, are shown here withSchool Principal Mr. I. W.Parks, B.A.

Glendale High: Keitli An-derson (Fifth Form), thefirst Glendale student toreceive a S.C. Scholar-ship was photographedwith the School PrincipalMr. D. F. Conway,B.Econ. Keith was Duxof Fourth Form in 1973.

Toronto High: Peter Munro(Sixth Form) left and fanHeyne (Fifth Form)right pictured with Prin-cipal Mr. C. I. NeallrA.S.T.C.

Whilst at GlendaleHigh School we learnedof three children therewhose fathers workedat Sulphide and whohad distinguished them-selves in some way.

These students were Mar-garet Malpas (daughter ofRefinery operator, Lindsay

Malpas), who came first inForm Two History. KerrieEtheridge (daughter of StanEtheridge, C.R.A. Research),Age 12 Athletic Championand David Wolter (son ofMick Wolter, also of C.R.A.Research), who gained aLifesaving award.

The picture shows David,ill the centre, with Margaret(Iejt ), and Kerrie (right)

Also, when at TorontoHigh we were fortunateenough to obtain the photo-graph (above) which showsHoward Marshall (of ourDrawing Office staff) who isPresident of the School's P.& C. Association, presentingthe P. & C. Association's"A" scholarship to JohnGorsuch .......................................•...................

YET ANOTHER"PADDY" HUNT THISTIME ..

There's no two ways aboutit, the ranks of Sulphide'slong serving members arethinning out appreciably atthis point in time . . . •

Changehouse attendant,Francis Patrick (Paddy)Hunt, is the third we reporton in this issue.

Paddy, who started herein October, 1945, was givena farewell presentation atthe Changehouse on 26thJuly to mark his retirement.

Personnel Manager, JackThomas, paid tribute toPaddy's service with thecompany and on behalf ofthe Personnel Departmentpresented him with a wallclock.

In the photograph (TOPRIGHT) Paddy, on the right,is shown receiving the pre-sent from Mr. Thomas . . •(RIGHT) Paddy is picturedwith other Changehouse at-tendants, Bill "Panko" Swee-ney, Noel Lloyd and JackRedman.

One of Paddy's sons, Carl,works here in our Commer-cial Department ar.d waspresent at his father's fare-well.

RETIREMENT!

5••SAFETY•• NEWS

LOST TIME ACCIDENTS-1974Department Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total

PRODUCTION 2 1 2 5 3 1 3 17

ENGINEERING 2 2 I 3 Nil Nil 4 12

SERVICES Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil

TOTAL 4 3 3 8 3 1 7 29

Careful! . A DEAD Batterycould be a LIVE Bomb!!

We suppose most motorists have seen the "flat" batteryof a car "jumped" to start the vehicle. The procedurelooks deceptively simple. Just couple the terminals of thedead battery and a booster battery together with jumpercables and the dead battery will receive enough assistanceto turn the engine over and start the car.

Good! ... But there is one drawback, which could haveserious consequences, to be guarded against.

It is reported that during the operation many car batterieshave exploded, showering the motorists with sulphuricacid.

WHAT CAUSES THEEXPLOSION?Every car battery pro-

duces hydrogen gas as partof its chemical process.When a car battery is beingcharged - as would be thecase when two batteries arelinked to each other withjumper cables-more of thishydrogen gas is produced.

If the gas is allowed toaccumulate in a small area,any spark or flame could setit off, thus triggering anexplosion.

To avoid battery explos-ions, you must, firstly, avoidconcentrating the hydrogengas and, secondly, be especi-ally careful not to ignite anyspark or flame that might setit off.

NECESSARYPRECAUTIONSFor your own and others'

safety, the following neces-sary precautions should betaken.• Don't smoke when work-

ing near your car'sbattery.

• Do nothing that wouldcause a spark near yourcar's battery ... A fav-ourite test of many mo-torists is to clip the twocables to the booster bat-tery and then touch theother ends of the cablestogether. If a spark iscaused they are assu redthat there is current.

This is highly dangerous!If the hydrogen gas in

or over the battery makescontact with the spark itcan explode, with possibleserious repercussions.

• Remove the vent caps onboth batteries and seethat the fluid is at theproper level before con-necting the cables . . .Leaving the battery ventcaps off during the charg-ing cycle allows the gen-erated gases to escapemore readily.

• The last cable connectionshould not be to thegrounded terminal of thedead battery, but to aground away from thedead battery. Attach the

last cable clamp to theengine block, generator!alternator bracket or anyother ground at least afoot away from the deadbattery.

The reasoning is sound:This last connection

will complete the electri-cal circuit and when thistakes place there is aptto be a spark and natur-ally you want to keep anyspark away from the hy-drogen gas in the battery.

A final reminder. - Re-member that the last con-nection in the jumping pro-cedure should be to clip thegrounded terminal of thebooster battery to a groundat least a foot away fromthe dead battery.

If you cannot tell whichterminals are grounded andwhich are not, then it is ad-visable to have someone whocan make the connections.

WARNING ON EYEDAMAGE ...

A substance whichcould cause severe dam-age to the eyes is beingmarketed in containerswhich are practicallyidentical to those usedfor eye drops, the RoyalVictorian Eye and EarHospital has warned.

The substance - me-thyl ethyl ketone perox-ide - is the hardeningagent used in a com-mercially available plas-tic filler, it said.

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