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Geoffrey Corry interviewed by Gregg Borschmann in the People's forest oral history project [sound recording]
Bib ID 2984255
Format AudioAudio [sound recording]
Author
Corry, Geoffrey Walter, 1926-, Interviewee
 
Access Conditions Access open for research; written permission required for personal copies and public use. 
Description 1995 
2 digital audio tapes (ca. 180 min.) 
Series

People's forest oral history project

Summary

Corry, timber worker, speaks about his family's involvement in the timber river trade along the Murray River since the late 1800s; his father and uncle starting in the saw milling business (later known as Corry Brothers Sawmillers) in 1914 at Bunyip, Vic., where he later started work at age 14 years; community life at the bush saw mill; growing up between Killarney, Vic. and Bendigo, Vic.; his move to Echuca on the Murray River for work with the bullock teams in connection with the sawmill. Corry recalls a number of sawmills operating along the river a few miles apart cutting mainly sleepers for export to India & China; how timber cutting and saw milling was a seasonal job, regular flooding of the Murray River having a great impact on the timber trade; use of puntoons till the late 1940s to transport logs down river.

Corry speaks about the importance of the bullock teams as late as 1948, noting that there was nothing to gain by mechanising at that stage; the railways being the backbone of the sawmilling industry; the Depression years when government created unemployment relief jobs such as thinning gangs, employed to clear the forest floors; with WWII the demand for timber became urgent, the timber industry being classified as a priority 3 job (i.e. essential service); forest management practices of experienced bushmen working in the timber industry throughout the first half of the 1900s. Corry gives his views on conservation issues and current forestry management practices and how these issues have been dealt with in the past.

Notes

Recorded on Mar. 2 1995 in Echuca, Vic.

DCM record; National Library of Australia, Oral History and Folklore collection;

Index/Finding Aid Note Transcript (typescript, 67 leaves) 
Subjects Corry, Geoffrey Walter, - 1926- - Interviews.  |  Sawmill workers - Victoria - Echuca - Interviews.  |  Loggers - Victoria - Echuca - Interviews.  |  Forest management - Victoria - Echuca Region.
Occupation Sawmillers.  |  Timber workers.
Other authors/contributors Borschmann, Gregg (Gregg John), 1955-, Interviewer

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    Details Collect From
    ORAL TRC 2845/66
    Copy: Recording
    Petherick Reading Room (Oral History)
    ORAL TRC 2845/66 (transcript)
    Copy: Transcript
    Petherick Reading Room (Oral History)

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    Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people. All users of the catalogue should also be aware that certain words, terms or descriptions may be culturally sensitive and may be considered inappropriate today, but may have reflected the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written.