Revolution – the chainsaw
In the mid-1950s, chainsaws were introduced to Rushworth by Maurice Hitchcock, revolutionising the way that work was done in the forest. In the blink of an eye one man could cut far more timber in a day than had been humanly possible in the past. This innovation, in conjunction with replacement of horse drawn vehicles with motorised trucks caused major changes to the local timber industry.
The number of men working in the forest would dramatically decline after that time, although many continued to work in the old ways as a means of supplementing their income. One such old timer was Alfred Thomas, who had been born in 1891 in Bealiba, another Victorian gold mining town. Alf was in his 60s when these significant changes were taking place.
Moving to Rushworth
Alf, the tenth of twelve children in his family, was married in his hometown of Bealiba in 1911 and the couple had two children before he served in the First World War between 1915 and 1919. Sadly, the war seems to have cost the pair their marriage as they divorced in 1919 after his return from Europe. He moved to Rushworth after the war and remarried, this time to Ida Smith.
The Smith family had been in Rushworth since the late 1850s. Ida’s grandparents were both Irish convicts, transported to Tasmania for seven years for what now seem like trivial theft offences. After their release they married and moved to Victoria, and ultimately to Rushworth, where they lived for the rest of their lives. Ida’s grandfather “Old Jack Smith” had been a resident of the town for 50 years when he died in 1909.1
Timber cutting – the end of an era
Alf Thomas continued to work in the forest in the old ways, cutting timber by hand and transporting it into Rushworth station by horse and cart. In the 1950s he supplied five-foot billets to Bill Corner, who in turn was supplying firewood for the boilers at dairy companies at Stanhope and Girgarre.
The chainsaw revolution had begun back in the 1920s, when Andreas Stihl invented an electric machine that required two men to operate because it weighed a massive 64 kg. Shortly afterwards his business partner developed a petrol chainsaw. After World War 2, the first one-man chain saws were developed, using “lighter materials, metal alloys and improved engine designs”.2
Jonsereds chainsaws
As noted above, Maurice Hitchcock introduced chainsaws to the local area after becoming an agent for Jonsereds chainsaws. Over the years, the Jonsereds company has been incorporated into the well-known Husqvarna brand.
“Mooky” decided that the best way to display his new product was to hold a demonstration of how it worked and what it was capable of doing. Because the forest workers were operating at many locations he decided that the best place to demonstrate the new machine was in a pub yard after knock off time, when there was sure to be a number of workers engaging in what was known as “The Six O’Clock Swill” i.e. getting down as many beers as possible after work before the pubs officially closed at 6pm. Word of mouth would do the rest.
There were sceptics in the crowd at Brice’s middle pub, suggesting that there was no way that such a new-fangled machine would be able to cut through the famous Rushworth forest hardwood, the red ironbark. Looking back there must have been a sense of amazement as the Jonsered chainsaw did indeed cut through logs easily, and in record time.
Perhaps there was also some trepidation amongst those who could foresee what this meant for the ongoing employment of those cutting timber out in the forest. Old timers like Alf Thomas would gradually disappear from the forest and the numbers of people employed in the timber industry would decline dramatically.
References: 1 Rushworth Chronicle 11.6.1909 per favour Rushworth Cemetery Trust website/Alan McLean; 2 Victoria’s Forest and Bushfires Heritage blog by Peter McHugh 12.6.25; Other – Ancestry website, Interview with Murray Hitchcock
