FRIDAY 9 MAY     ADELS GROVE

On shop/reception again. John on grounds.

The range of jobs assigned to the men was quite varied. Obviously, some tasks were more favoured than others.

Canoe hire was a welcome item on the roster, despite the early start involved in order to be at the National Park and set up by 8am. Whoever was on that drove a rattly old ute down there. Sometimes they had to bring a canoe or two back with them at the end of the day, for repairs. The canoes were fibre glass, open Canadian canoe style, and they could get damaged by paddlers who were not greatly skilled.

Cleaning the campground and main building amenities was one of their least liked jobs. Fair enough. But one of the men simply didn’t do this, when he was rostered on – ignored that part of the role and relied on one of the rest of us to do it instead, knowing that we would not leave them dirty for the guests. He was not a popular person with the other men.

They would go out on the wood getting expeditions in pairs and enjoyed getting out into the bush. Large quantities of snappy gum were needed to fuel up the three hot water donkey heaters about the place. Back at Adels, chopping it was not so much fun.

John enjoyed being on the roster to do the donkeys – lighting them about 3pm, then keeping them stoked for the evening run on the hot water. Whoever was on this would go down to the campground, just before bedtime, and do a final stoke, so there would be hot water in the morning. They would be stoked again, first thing in the morning, then allowed to die down until the afternoon.

John decided to take it upon himself to revive and look after the vegie garden, since we looked out on this from under the van awning. He fitted this in around his rostered tasks, often working on it at the end of the day, after all his other work was done.