Supplying the hospital
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Murray Hitchcock had a contract to deliver firewood to Mooroopna Hospital. At the time, Mooroopna was the main regional hospital for the Goulburn Valley. Rushworth community had a very strong relationship with the hospital in earlier years, with local folk often engaging in fundraising projects for this important institution.
The hospital contract specified that 2 x 10 ton loads a day were to be delivered to power the boilers. Hitchcocks supplied 5 foot billets of timber. There were about 40 billets to a ton, so 400 billets would be carted per load; 800 billets per day.
Darryl Hitchcock would work in the forest cutting the timber and preparing it for loading. Forest Commission employees identified the trees that were able to be cut down. After the introduction of the new-fangled chainsaws by his father, Darryl could cut 10 tons of firewood per day. Other forest workers supplied the business with billets as well, ensuring a regular supply to the essential service. Wally Cooper and his son Russell were supplied with a chainsaw to work in this capacity and Dick Breen also supplied billets.
From Monday to Thursday, Murray Hitchcock would take two loads per day to the hospital. He often loaded and unloaded the truck by himself so in a week this would amount to 3200 billets if he did not get any help. This was an enormous physical effort but did not preclude Murray from footy training and playing football for the Rushworth Tigers each Saturday. The contract ended when the Mooroopna hospital switched to other sources of power.
Hitchcock history
Murray’s great-great-grandfather Daniel, an Englishman born in Sussex in England, arrived in Sydney in 1854 after a four-month voyage from Liverpool, but died just three years later at Back Creek. His son, also Daniel and also born in England, married Isabella Sharp, a Scottish woman. He worked as a blacksmith. Big families were the order of the day. Murray’s grandfather George was the second of nine children of Daniel Jnr and Isabella. The family grew up in the Bendigo area before moving to the Goulburn Valley in the early 1890s.
Maurice’s business
Darryl and Murray were the sons of M A Hitchcock – Maurice Albert – affectionately known by all and sundry as “Mooky”. As sometimes happens in Rushworth families, a nickname could be passed on to the next generation, as it was from Maurice to Murray. The origin of the nickname is obscure but one non-family member reckons it dated back to when Maurice was a toddler, asking his Mother for milk – “Mook! Mook!”. The same person remembered that Darryl was known as “Seldom”. Seldom seen perhaps, as he was always out working in the forest alone?
Mooky Snr was born in Rushworth in 1917 but was living in Stanhope when he started his own business. The accompanying advertisement first appeared in the Kyabram Free Press in 1937. The following year, he married Dulcie Pearce from Rushworth and they began a family. Later, the business name became M A Hitchcock and Sons, as Darryl and Murray went into the business, the latter when he was only 14 and working for 10 pounds ($20) a week and keep.
As noted in the original advertisement, a number of different products were supplied. As well as the hardy ironbark for fencing materials, mallee was used by Goulburn Valley fruit growers to prop up the branches as the fruit increased in size and weight through the spring and early summer. Maurice did all sorts of other odd jobs, like carting sleepers for the few remaining hewers like Bill Miller, who would still produce about 50 hand hewn sleepers a month.
Down at the station
As has been explained in earlier stories, the Rushworth Railway Station was a hub for firewood and timber mills. During the 1950s, the Hitchcocks had one of five mills there, along with Eddie Duke and Charlie Warden (managing a mill for Melbourne wood merchant Mr Armstead), Charlie Curtis, Mick Wall, the Perry Bros (George, Alf and Ron) and Doug Poulson. Most, if not all, of these men were descended from people who worked in the timber industry.
With firewood destined for the Melbourne market, the wood would be cut into 7 foot billets in the forest four days a week, then transported into the mill at the station. On Fridays at the mill, it would be cut into one-foot blocks and loaded into railway carriages. Any offcuts would be used to power the steam engines. The Hitchcocks supplied truckloads of firewood to Ernie Torr, a wood and produce merchant operating out of Yarraville in Melbourne.
SOURCES: Interview with Murray Hitchcock; sundry websites esp Ancestry
