For one residents of our Illawarra Home a visit to the old Port Kembla steelworks brought back memories of yesteryear.
For safe shipping to operate at Port Kembla in the early 1900s, it was essential to develop and build an eastern break-wall for ships to safely enter the harbour to dock unload and load their cargo.
One of our Ridgeview residents, Ted, played a big part in the building and construction of this very important project.
Ted operated and maintained the 40 tonne steam crane that offloaded and positioned the 40 tonne blocks that were the medium for the construction of the break-wall.
As a tribute to Ted Jobson a group of seven Ridgeview residents, who also had some prior working history in and around the Port, along with Ridgeview RAOs Vikki, Bec and bus driver Wayne visited the steam crane exhibition to take advantage of the opportunity to take photographs of Ted with his old steam crane (old “Steamie” as Ted fondly referred to the crane as).
They also met with Trevor Brown the NSW Ports Environment Manager, who was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with Ted and discuss his connection and details with the operation of the old crane and building the eastern break-wall.
“What an experience this was! Just to see the look on Ted’s face and having him impart his stories of his old working life was priceless,” Wayne said.
Afterwards they enjoyed a lunch at the Port Kembla Leagues Club.
Many thanks to RAO Vikki for her passion and commitment to make this all happen for Ted and the group.