Dam builders reflect on Pindari’s 55th anniversary

Len Colbert, 92, of Wauchope, was a contract inspector at Pindari Dam from 1967-69, supervising the Citra workforce.

“A few of us, the first inspectors, were sent across to Snowy, to see how they operated, including how to keep detailed record about contract variations,” Len recalls.

“We had to make a lot of manual calculations ourselves because we were testing the concrete (in an onsite laboratory) to make sure it was up to standard.

“I lived on site with my family. I had three kiddies at the time. The kids rode the bus to school in Ashford. On weekends we’d go fishing or prospecting for sapphires. All that area is sapphire country," Len said.

“The money was good because we were paid overtime. We worked six days a week. On Bastille Day, Citra hired bakery shops in Inverell and closed them down to make a big dinner for local identities all around the area.

“I started out on Glenbawn Dam in 1954 and then moved on to Burrendong and Wyangala where I was an electrical foreman before I went to Pindari. “After Pindari I went to Toonumbar (dam) at Kyogle, doing the same thing there, contract inspector at the batch house and the quarry.

“After that I stopped doing contract supervision work because most of the big construction jobs were closing down. They eventually offered me a job as second-in-charge at Burrinjuck Dam in 1971 – and I ended up spending 20 years there until I retired in 1991 as officer-in-charge. I was with the Commission just under 38 years.

“Dudley and I are quite possibly the last of the half dozen or so contract inspectors who worked on Pindari,” Len said.

Dudley Tickle, of Tamworth, who celebrates his 86^th birthday one week after Pindari turns 55, was also a contract inspector at Pindari Dam from 1967-69.

“I’d been married about 5 years and my son was about 3 years old when we lived on site at Pindari,” Dudley recalls. “My daughter was born the day I left Pindari – that was the 28^th May 1969.

“The site was virtually all cleaned up by then ready for Operations branch to take over.

“We had a house on site. There was about a dozen married blokes with houses. Those houses were all brought there from another job, and afterwards they were moved over to Copeton.

“It was a hard climate to work in. I remember summer days when the temperatures reached 40. Everyone seemed to mix pretty well. There was a wet canteen where you could have a drink after work.

“I remember how the Commission families integrated with the townspeople of Ashford and Inverell. On Sundays we’d go into Inverell to the pool or for a picnic in the park, or to Ashford to play golf," Dudley said.

“I went from Burrendong to Wyangala for its extension and upgrade, then before I went to Pindari I was sent down to Blowering Dam under the supervision of the Snowy Mountains Authority to pick up how to be a contract inspector, as Snowy had done their work under contracts.

“Burrendong and Wyangala were built with day labour with the old Commission workforce but with Pindari it was the first time a contractor was used.

“As contract inspectors we supervised the actual work by the Citra workforce, to ensure it was done to the specifications set down in the contract.

“We never fraternised too closely (with the Citra workers) as you didn’t want people to think you were letting them get away with the things because you were friends.

“Another inspector Len Colbert and I shared alternate 12-hour shifts to check the concrete leaving the batch plant. We took test results, and had to keep control of the water/cement ratio.”

“It’s another era, really.

“After Pindari I went on to a similar role at Carcoar Dam, then Copeton and to Chaffey. Then I went down to Glennies Creek to work on the tunnel but that’s when a job came up in Tamworth in licensing. I set up all the irrigators in the Peel Valley in the early 1980s.

“I worked for Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission for 39.5 years. When I retired I had 499 and two-thirds days of sick leave owing to me – I needed another one-third of a day to make it to 500 days!”