Wayne Blows the longest serving employee of Great Lakes Council

The Great Lakes Council employee started working for the then Stroud Council when he was only 15.

His parents were running a dairy farm on the family property at Booral but were doing it tough, so Wayne left school to help them.

“They couldn’t afford to pay me so I looked around for a job and could get an immediate start on council,” the 67-year-old said.

“I would go to work and help out when I got home and on weekends.

“I started at Tea Gardens with a napping hammer breaking up rocks on the road.

“I then went to Hawks Nest where there were only two streets in the town, the rest were gravel.

“Workers camped on site during the week and went home on weekends.

“Stroud Shire was really big back then before the main office was built in Forster and I worked all over the place.

“One of my jobs was to build bush fences at Lighthouse Beach.

“I was told it would be a two-week job but I was there for 18 months.”

Wayne said it was quite back-breaking working but there have been so many changes over the years to make it better.

“There were no backhoes, you had to dig the roads up with picks and maddocks.  And that was before jackhammers were made.

“We had to load the gravel trucks with shovels, there were no loaders back then.

“I’ve seen hundreds of workers come and go . . . Some have been great but I’ve seen a few scoundrels too.”

Wayne came very close to giving up work in 2011 when his wife Alison passed away from cancer.

“We had been together for a long, long time and I felt really lonely . . .It was hard coming home to an empty house.  I thought if I gave up work it would be even worse, so decided to keep going.

“I am contemplating retirement in March next year when the pool closes.  I look after the pool during the summer months and I wouldn’t let them down so would see the season out.

“It’s not definite yet, but that’s what I am thinking about.”

Wayne is the longest serving employee of Great Lakes Council.