Supplying the factories
For many years the Rushworth forest was the source of firewood for factories in the Goulburn Valley, as well as large institutions like the Mooroopna Base Hospital. The wood was used in boilers to provide steam power. From the 1960s, demand started to decline as industry moved to other sources of power.
Stanhope Butter Factory and Girgarre Cheese Factory were two of the nearby companies that sourced their firewood from the Rushworth forest. Alfred Charles Corner, always known as “Bill”, ran a business that was the sole supplier to both factories over a period of 36 years covering a period from the late 1920s through to the mid-1960s, when he got a job working for the Lands Department until his retirement.
Bill’s grandfather (also Alfred), a native of Surrey, England, was one of the first miners to arrive in Rushworth at the start of the gold rush in 1853. He also mined at Redcastle and selected land at Moora in the early days. Because of the long association with Rushworth, the Corners have many family connections in the Waranga area and in the timber industry. For instance, Bill’s father-in-law Albert “Bonnie” Duke worked at sawmills, including the Curtis mill at Erwen station, and Bill played footy with brothers-in-law Dick, Eddie and Jack Duke in the 1930s.
All in a day’s work
Bill would rise early and be heading out into the forest in his truck by 6 am on the dot. Ron and Hazel Risstrom, who were recently married and living in the former Imperial Hotel in High Street, knew exactly what time it was when Bill drove past on his first run into the forest for the day.
This would be the first of three trips a day to pick up timber and deliver it to one of the factories. The two factories received their firewood month about.
Bill employed a number of men at various locations around the forest as far away as Graytown, cutting and stacking the wood prior to his arrival. The billets of timber were five feet (just over 1.5 m) long, and Bill generally loaded and unloaded his Bedford truck by himself. This hard physical labour contributed to his great fitness and enormous strength on the football field in the 1920s and ‘30s.
At the end of a long day, Bill would go out and check on his flock of about 300 sheep. Somehow, he managed to fit in some recreational pursuits around his huge work schedule, such as playing footy and having a keen interest in trotting.
Timber cutters
Another part of Bill’s work involved having regular contact with his forest workers, so that he could be sure that a full load was waiting for him when he arrived at the worksite. He did not have a telephone, so this meant personal visits to the homes of the workers after hours. The worksites were allocated by the Forests Commission, with royalties paid based on the amount of timber taken from the forest.
A bank book covering the period from 1952-7 reveals the names of some of the men who worked for him at the time. They included Vic “Wizzy” Howard, who later went into partnership with Bill. When Bill went to work for the Lands Department in 1964, Vic took over the whole business. The pair had been teammates in the great Rushworth football teams of the 1930s.
Other men who worked for Bill included Les Saunders, Wally Cooper, Bill McLeod, Roy La Peyre, H and R Francis, Walter Martin, G Miller, Herb Schumann, Vic Cruz, Frank Rondinella, Alf Thomas and “old” Jim Lloyd. There was quite an ethnic mix amongst the workers. Les Saunders and Wally Cooper were Aboriginal men, Frank Rondinella Italian and the others were all descended from migrants from various parts of the world, including South America.
Business contacts
Having the contracts for the two factories for such a long time, Bill established good relationships with the management and owners of the dairy companies. At one point, Toorak businessman Bill Crothers owned the Stanhope Butter Factory. He and Bill were great friends despite their very different backgrounds. Bill and his wife Doris (nee Duke) would receive postcards from exotic locations around the world. On one occasion they stayed at the Crothers’ Toorak home. Bill Crothers treated them to a night out at a Chinese restaurant, something they had never experienced before. Let’s just say they did not appreciate it nearly as much as their regular meat and three veg at home.
When Frank Mathieson was the manager at the Stanhope factory, Bill was concerned because he hadn’t been paid for two months, which affected his ability to pay his workers in a timely manner. Mathieson suggested that Bill take out an overdraft. Bill erupted, proudly stating that he had never had an overdraft and never would. A short time later, he walked out of the office with a cheque in his pocket.
References: Interview with Gail Corner 25.2.2025
Forest nature note
As the weather gets warmer, you will be starting to see some of the reptiles that have been out of sight over the winter months. Common garden skinks are often seen, although there is something like fourteenskink species noted in the box-ironbark forest. It’s worth having a closer look to see whether the one you are looking at is somewhat more exotic than you thought. Some of the bigger lizards, like blue-tongues, make an appearance on warm, sunny days from now on.
