SEAGULLS*

I've just been for a long walk around the mountain and to Little Munro Bay.

This is the first walk I've done for nearly two weeks as I've been back and forth to Auckland a few times and haven't had much of a chance. I kind of had to force myself today but once up and into it, it was enjoyable The walk is nice with lovely views across the harbour and passes the marine reserve.

Parts of the walk also look across to Marsden Point oil refinery.

Development of this started in the early 1960s and was massively increased in the late 1970s by Rob Muldoon's government and their crazy 'Think Big' ideas.

Before the refinery was built the land here was beautiful coastal dunes with one of Northlands most beautiful white sand beach.

'Think Big' changed it to this:

Go figure.

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I sat by the remains of the historic Reotahi freezing works and looked across he water to the refinery and the port there that ships oil products in and out and also ships out timber. I was reminded of one of the best jobs I've ever had working as a casual watersider in Wellington during the university break. This was the summer of 1971/72 I think. We were called 'Seagulls' by the regular watersiders who we called 'Wharfies'. Mike Tony and I worked there for several months and earned a lot of money. I don't know where Richard was working that summer.

'Seagulling' was great as you invariably had a different job each week and sometimes each day. We each had a temporary watersiders ticket which we had to surrender to the wharf office each morning at 7AM. From these a draw was made and the lucky people had jobs allocated to them (the unlucky had to go home but in 1971/72, pre-containerisation, there were plenty of ships coming in and lots of work going). The ship work you were allocated to obviously varied by type of ship whether loading or unloading. If it was a big ship with big holds and lots of goods then the job could last for many days (the incumbent had automatic right to turn up to the same job each day without going into the ballot again until the job was finished). Big jobs usually involved frozen lamb or beef carcasses, wool bales, pig-iron, cars and other big items. Small jobs were usually imported beer and wine, foodstuffs, luxury goods etc. The worst job was pig-iron as it was dirty and hazardous. Lamb carcasses were OK (except for the sharp bone ends) but beef carcasses were back-breaking. Dirty or difficult jobs brought extra money however by way of bonuses that the Watersider Unions had negotiated.

Bonuses were paid to workers by the ship owning companies. The payments for these came through a few months later when the ships had completed their journeys. This was a real windfall as a student to receive a big cheque months after being back at university. There were bonuses for all sorts of things: cold money for working in the freezers; wet money for working in and about the freezers; dirt money for dealing with machinery, pig-iron, bitumen products etc; dust money for working with grain, pig-iron, fertilisers etc. You get the idea. Some of the negotiated bonuses were a rort for example 'embarrassment money' for unloading toilet pans.

The unions were quite strong in those days and we as casual workers both benefitted from this but also ran up against it. When we first started we were all gung-ho and enthusiastic and tore into the work with gusto. This was frowned upon by the union guys the Wharfies who made it clear that we had to slow down to spin the work out. This led to some confrontations with students but these buggers weren't to be mucked about with. They'd toss you into the harbour if you crossed them.

Pilfering was endemic. I remember seeing a guy - a union guy - stuff a side of beef inside his jacket before going out the gates. Holds with imported beer or wine were open slather and cartons would be torn open and contents drunk or stolen. No wonder there was a big push for sealed containers and in a few years the labour requirement on the wharves would be drastically reduced.

One of the best jobs that I had, apart from the higher paying 'dirty jobs' was working in the wool sheds. I used to like the smell of the wool bales (which is why I enjoyed working in Gear Meat's felmongery department 10 years later). An overhead crane would whizz along on a fixed track in the ceiling and we would fix the hooks to the bales and signal to the crane driver to hoist them. These wool sheds have now been converted to luxury apartments on Wellington's waterfront.

Another good job was looking after dunnage. Dunnage was the pieces of lightweight wood that was used to create a separation between goods on pallets in the holds. The dunnage person would stand around at the top of the hold waiting for the workers down below to either hand stack a pallet or manoeuvre it in place by using a crane and, when in place call up for dunnage. The dunnage person would then chuck down a few pieces of wood. This happened at ten minute intervals - I kid you not.

Sometimes work gangs were organised by splitting the team in three. One lot would send stuff down to the hold. One lot would stack and the third lot would lie down in the sun - 'resting'. The teams would do a rotation every half hour - I kid you not.

* Not to be confused with The Holy Seagull the mythical being that Robert talks to and borrows money from.