Look at all these people. They're the men and women of steel. Isn't it fantastic?
Reunion organiser Aub Brooks
HUNDREDS of people packed into Carrington Bowling Club on Saturday for the first major BHP reunion since 2015, held to mark today's 20th anniversary of the official end of steelmaking at the historic Mayfield steelworks.
People travelled from far and wide for a chance to hug and shake hands, and to share a drink with old mates who in some cases hadn't seen each other since they marched out of the works and into history on Thursday, September 30, 1999.
For organiser Aub Brooks, the enthusiastic gathering was a vindication of all of the effort that he and others have put in over the years in promoting the reunions and their fundraising efforts.
"I'm overwhelmed, it's brought me to tears," Brooks said on Saturday. "Look at all these people. Isn't it fantastic? They're the men and women of steel."
This year, the reunion raised $4500 for the Hunter Prostate Cancer Alliance: $500 raised from cash donations and raffles on the day, and $2000 each from Hunter United Credit Union and Phoenix Health Fund, both organisations having grown out of the steelworks.
The afternoon kicked off with a message from Balmain Tigers legend Gary Leo, 75, who played in the club's upset 1969 grand final win over South Sydney.
He moved to Newcastle in 1975 to be captain-coach of Norths.
He sits on the alliance board having been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005. He said he had started treatment again after his PSA levels began to rise once more about 18 months ago.
"When I first knew I had the cancer, a couple of Balmain guys rang me and said they had it too, but they never talk about it," Leo said.
"I'm just out there talking to people about it, urging blokes to have a check-up. It's only a blood test."
Leo struggled to make himself heard at times but he said later that it was alright because he knew everyone was so enthusiastic about catching up with each other.
Spilling out onto the verandah - and onto the green when the Herald herded everyone together for a group photo - the air was full of talk of blast furnaces and coke ovens and skelp mills and precipitators.
Records show the works had about 2800 employees when the closure was announced in 1997. About 600 left in the intervening two years. Another 450 went to the BHP rod and bar mills, which were staying open. About 1800 people, the "vast majority" male and with an average age of 42 (or 62 now) were left at the end.
All three groups were represented on Saturday, as well as contractors and those who retired or lost their jobs sometimes well before the closure.
Lynette Garrett of Woodberry, Liz Mudd of Medowie and Paul Parsons of Morisset said they were among hundreds of apprentices who were retrenched after finishing their apprenticeships in the early 1980s, when the steelworks were laying off thousands of people under the Hawke government's industry plans.
All three received their fitting and turning trade certificates, and Garrett said "only about 5 per cent of the apprentices were kept on". She finished in 1985, Mudd and Parsons the year before.
"There were about 100 fitters, and the same number of boilermakers and electricians every year," Garrett said. "If you ask what it meant to me, it was hard work, great friends and a lot of skills that I still use now."
Tom "Magoo" McGeechae, who clocked up 37 years over two stints at the works, finished in 1997 and says it took "two years to get over it because I missed my mates so much".
McGeechae and his old mate Victor Bazelej laughed about the tower of Babel that was lunchtime.
"When I got there, all these Greeks, Italians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats, they're all going hammer and tongs at each other, abusing each other, and I'm thinking it's going to break out into a fight," McGeechae said.
"But it was just the banter. They were great mates, It was just the way they talked to each other!"
More pictures and details at the Herald online.
