Sergeant John Reed

I was just seven years old when with six other children from a total of ten we moved from Goolwa to Leigh Creek where my father Bob Reed was employed by the Electricity Trust of SA in 1951. Our furniture arrived in a tip truck which was owned and driven by David Miller who lived just across the road from us. Our address was number 5, Fourth Street and the road out the front was rough, dusty gravel. One of the best memories is having Dave Miller and his wife Glad as neighbours. I did a lot of baby sitting for the family and regularly went with Dave in his truck. He was contracted to cart the screening coal to the power house at Northfield and I spent lots of school holidays in the truck until the closure of the power house. Dave also carted magnesite from Myrtle Springs to the siding at Lyndhurst.

We started school at the Leigh Creek Area School which was just a short walk from home. As a child I really enjoyed the outdoors, trapping rabbits, shooting and always had a good bicycle which I enjoyed riding and Dad kept up to scratch. Each year just before Christmas we would go to Sliding Rock for a load of Christmas trees. As a small child I can recall travelling to Angorichina hostel where the RSL men from Leigh Creek would cut enough wood to last the tuberculosis hostel through winter. Also living opposite our house were Jean and Wally Sires who were good friends of our family for a very long time. Wally was a mechanic with ETSA and also worked at night fixing vehicles privately. He often would have trucks call in for repairs which excited me, especially meeting blokes like Monty Scobie and Ray Findlay from Quorn.

One of my father’s jobs with ETSA was operating the flying fox during the construction of Aroona Dam. Often on a weekend we would travel with Dad and his little Greek greaser to Aroona. While the men serviced the flying fox, cables and gantry my brother and I used to play by climbing the highest points of interest. If it was hot, we would swim at the spring right under Mount Aroona. Apart from his job at Aroona my father worked in the power house at Northfield until it closed. He was then attached to the electrical shop and weekly ran the power plant at the sub-station where the transmission line from Port Augusta terminated. This small plant provided emergency power only, should a fault occur.

As I am now well into my seventies some things are hard to remember. I do recall the buildings going up including the brick homes in Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Streets. The new ETSA administration building in First Avenue was a great building, as were the new canteen, picture theatre and hall, swimming pool, Co-op shop and the butcher’s shop. After the new administration building opened one of their old buildings was lifted over our side fence, hooked up to the electricity, painted and provided some much-needed relief for our crowded house but no one complained. The field manager at this time was Tom Robbins and he personally took an interest in our family. I worked after school at the Co-op for a long time and was treated very well by Frank Tulk the manager as well as all the staff. The airport business was a good part of this job.

The new railway line to Marree was a large project in the 1950s with the construction of the banks bridges and the demise of the trans-shipping at Copley. As teens we used to push an old narrow-gauge trolley to Copley when the old line closed and this was good fun. When the old railway line existed, I could stand at the front gate, look west and see the trains. On a weekend we would often walk to the railway station and see both the steam engines and later the diesel locomotives being turned around on the manual turntable. With the new line and loading facilities at Northfield the trains were turned on a wide loop back onto the main Port Augusta to Marree line. We often rode our bikes on the bitumen road to the new Telford siding to catch a glimpse of the huge trains and listen to the powerful locomotives under a heavy load.

I suppose one of the most important things is that the old town of Leigh Creek consisted of a population of many different nationalities and so as a child I grew up with children from all over the world as well as Aussies and the aboriginal children and we all seemed to get on very well together. As a student I can never remember the word discrimination ever being used. The children of the fettlers’ camp at Northfield were good company and they travelled to and from the siding in the ETSA taxi which took the shift crews to the power house. As a means of transport we walked, regularly rode our bicycles and then as we got older used motor vehicles. One of the best vehicles I remember was an “A” model Ford buckboard and our shooting and camping trips with Clive Parsons was enjoyment at its best.

I sat for my Intermediate Certificate in 1960 with four in the class being Ernest Simpson, Elizabeth Dowling, whose father was an operator with the Dept. of Civil Aviation at the airport, Kevin Liebeknecht and myself. After leaving school I was employed by the PMG as the postman and doing some counter work and also doing the night sleeping as a telephonist. This provided me with a few laughs and I learnt a lot that was taking place in the area and beyond, a very interesting time to say the least. In May 1961 I was selected to enter the Thebarton Police Barracks as a police cadet. I joined the police force when I was four days off being 17 and it was hard being away from home. Sergeant Jack Colmer was the officer in charge at Leigh Creek and to me and my family was a fine example of a policeman and his encouragement was greatly appreciated.

I used to work many weekends at the barracks before I started my training and because of that I often used to have a 4 or 5-day break, travelling home to Leigh Creek by car, motor bike, train or the semi-trailer or trucks providing the transport service. My parents never left Leigh Creek until April 1965 when they moved to the little town of Freeling. I returned to Leigh Creek as the Sergeant in Charge in May 1978 together with my wife, Joan, and children Peter, Kylie and Vicki. Of course, the town had not changed a lot but the workshop complex was on the southern end of First Avenue with entries on that road and the main highway after previously being on the main coal basin at Northfield. Off North Terrace where “Hollywood” had been was also changed to a caravan park. Shortly after our arrival construction started on the new town which was a major state project.  Contractors moved in from many different states and a camp housing about 500 personnel was established on the northern side of Copley Creek. Another project under construction was the retention dam which was being built by a private company Tripodi Brothers of Adelaide.

With just two police officers stationed at Leigh Creek it looked like being a busy time but the request for additional staff went on deaf ears. The contract supervisor for the civil works in the new town was Wayne Liddell and he became a real friend. We often socialised together and had a couple of family camp outs at Angepena and Mulgaria Stations. Petty thefts and even larger incidents including some small earthmoving equipment, were common at the new site and this purely relates back to some of the workers who came from nearly every state. Drugs were a minor problem but whenever the executive camp manager gained knowledge, he would instantly refer the matter to the police. We were also lucky that he had a master key to every room at the camp so we had easy access. Any of the offenders detected and charged were taken before two local Justices of the Peace and wherever possible given their marching order. The justices were to be admired and took a strong stance against offenders. They were often referred to as hanging judges by the law breakers, but admired by the honest people.

Whilst at Leigh Creek there was a huge change in the Firearms Act which necessitated all firearms to be registered under a new system.  This was very time consuming both in the town and at the cattle and sheep stations. On one trip to the eastern stations both the second man, Rod Malkin, and I registered a huge number of firearms including in excess of fifty at Wertaloona Station. Driving tests both practical and written also took up time. We were often called to Arkaroola to help with driving tests after request from Griselda Sprigg. The postal staff at Copley and Leigh Creek always had a laugh when the letters from Arkaroola were always addressed to “Trooper Reed”. During the early times as a police officer we also issued permits for the transportation of cattle from western NSW when the brucellosis program was in progress. This meant that the stock transports could not travel north of Leigh Creek with stock only for slaughter. Cattle from unaffected areas did not require a permit. One of the worst incidents we encountered was the murder of a man at Pinda Springs. It happened after the deceased man who was of an extremely violent nature, would return to his camp intoxicated and become involved in ugly domestic violence with a young lad’s mother. To protect his mother during an extremely severe assault he shot his step-father and this was a sad occasion for all involved. During my three years I attended three fatal accidents. One involved a semi-trailer loaded with cattle, a head on smash in a creek bed just south of Beltana, and on the very last night a single vehicle hit a sturdy upright on the workshop fence, killing the driver, the only occupant.

Our social life at Leigh Creek was good and my wife, Joan, was involved in school activities, tennis and netball. I joined the local Lions Club in 1980 with my sponsor being Pat Holland.  I attended most activities and meetings.  One of the busiest nights we had was at Marree to farewell the narrow gauge Ghan and what a top social night it was.

I was always proud of my life in Leigh Creek and so was my whole family. My childhood days were the best and I know Mum and Dad were forever thankful to ETSA for the help we were given when arriving in a new community and starting a new life after losing the PS Renmark at Goolwa and suffering a major setback in life. Without leaving too many people out we as a family had lots of people to thank including T F Robbins, Eric and Enid Blieschke, the Millers, the Sires and all the people Dad worked with. Our family is also proud that my brother Ronald Reed joined the Army in 1960 from Leigh Creek serving his country well, including two deployments in Vietnam as a member of RAEME. Sister Rosemary Reed was a member of the RAN for some time but did not serve overseas.