When writing up my Trove search notes for “instrument maker”, it struck me that I should hunt for lead-related jobs in the Adelaide Advertiser’s Situations Vacant listings for the first part of November 1948. Researchers have typically assumed that Carl Webb was living far away from Adelaide, but what if he had been working in Port Pirie when he suffered his lead poisoning event some two weeks before his death?
In 1948, Port Pirie was one of the largest lead smelting areas in the world, and where lead mined in Broken Hill was typically taken to for smelting. And remember that there’s a suspected (vague) connection between Carl Webb’s death and the motorbike stolen from Broken Hill by Freddie Pruszinski.
Mining companies linked to Port Pirie
The main lead-related company in Port Pirie was Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS): this did smelting and refining, for lead, silver, zinc etc. It was co-owned by these Broken Hill mining companies:
- The Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd. (BHP)
- The biggest mining company in Broken Hill, and a major shareholder in BHAS
- Broken Hill South Ltd.
- Operated the South mine in Broken Hill
- North Broken Hill Ltd.
- Operated the North mine in Broken Hill
- The Zinc Corporation Ltd. & New Broken Hill Consolidated Ltd.
- Mined lead-zinc concentrates from the Central mines at Broken Hill.
Note also that the Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australia (EZ Co) also sent material to BHAS for refining. Elephant-memoried Cipher Mysteries readers may recall posts here (from 2014 to 2015) relating to EZ Co topics, such as the Risdon roaster, a job advert from 6th November 1948, and another post on industrial difficulties at Risdon.
With all that in mind, let’s dive into the ‘Tiser’s November 1948 sits vac pages…
Situations Vacant – BHP
- Fri 05 Nov 1948
- EXPER. machineman for Rapid Bay works; house available, approx. March. B.H.P, 28 Franklin st.
- Thu 11 Nov 1948
- CARPENTERS, single men. for Yampi Sound, W-A. Full particulars from B.H.P. 28 Franklin st.
- Sat 13 Nov 1948
- APPLICATIONS invited from young men. age group 17-25 years of age. for positions as commercial trainees at our Whyalla works. applicants must hold Intermediate and preferably Leaving certificate, and if selected be prepared to follow the company’s staff training scheme to secure diplomas of Accountancy and Secretarial Institute. Single accommodation provided and after probationary period those selected will be admitted to the company’s provident fund. Further particulars obtainable from the B.H.P. Co. Ltd.. 28 Franklin st.
- Sat 20 Nov 1948
- UNSKILLED labor to assist shipyard tradesmen. Apply by letter or on job to Registrar. B.H.P. Co.. Whyalla
- Sat 20 Nov 1948
- DOMESTIC help at supt’s. residence at Whyalla, accom. provided. Write to Registrar, B.H.P. Co, Whyalla.
Situations Vacant – everything else
- Sat 06 Nov 1948 (BHAS)
- ASSISTANT fuel technologist, salary £450-£550: bonus £182. Apply Broken Hill Assoc. Smelters, Port Pirie
OK, it’s not a lot but it’s not nothing
The two most obviously applicable job openings were (1) the “unskilled labour to assist shipyard tradesmen” for BHP, and (2) the “assistant fuel technologist” for BHAS.
BHP’s (now BHP Billiton) historical archives still exist, so perhaps these could be checked. Similarly, BHAS has 249 linear shelf metres of archives at the University of Melbourne.
Finally: Shipyard Accidents in November 1948
I also found these news story during my searches:
- Fri 12 Nov 1948 (Whyalla News)
- PATTERN MAKER BADLY INJURED – May Lose an Eye
- Mr. Percy Combes, a patternmaker employed in the joiners shop at the shipyard, may lose an eye as the result of an accident which occurred on Monday afternoon. A pattern which Mr. Combes was turning in a lathe broke into two pieces, one of which struck him a violent blow on the face. Dr. Zimmett took Mr. Combes to Adelaide yesterday by plane for treatment by an eye specialist. Mr. Combes is a most careful and methodical tradesman and had never been involved in an accident at Whyalla. He belongs to Whyalla Bowling Club and is extremely popular with members.
- Fri 19 Nov 1948 (Whyalla News)
- Dr. Zimmet has returned to Whyalla after accompanying Mr. P. Combes to the city. Mr. Combes lost an eye in an accident at the Shipyard.
- Fri 26 Nov 1948 (Port Pirie Recorder)
- Waterside Worker Injured
- Mr. H. Oxlade, a local waterside worker, had bones in a hand broken when jammed by bars of lead at Smelters Wharf yesterday. He was engaged in loading operations at the steamer Corio at the time of the accident.
BHAS also had an Accident and Sickness fund in the 1910s and 1920s, though it’s not clear to me whether it was still active in 1948. Occupational lead poisoning at Port Pirie has also been picked up by Richard Gillespie in his (1990) article “Accounting for Lead Poisoning: The Medical Politics of Occupational Health” on JSTOR (though that’s not available for free online reading, boo).
Plenty to think about!
Somewhere there are notes I made several years ago about Harry Phipps’ (the “Satin Man”) company advertising for people with experience in aluminium foundry work in 1948. ie. recruiting a workforce of people with secondary metallurgy experience. The foundry was being built at Glenelg.
I also detailed how primary and secondary metallurgy workers could be exposed to high levels of lead, and usually were, in the working conditions of the 1940s. Strontium also.
Unfortunately I no longer have these notes which went into the matter in more detail.
Yes, the matter of the high lead and strontium levels in the hair recovered from the SM plaster bust need to be reconsidered. There should be some hair recovered from SM’s exhumation, but I am not holding my breath.
There are also sorts of other tests that could be done on SM’s exhumed remains that might reveal accidental or purposeful poisoning.
Lead and barium analysis of the exhumed remains isn’t rocket science. And there are now some exquisitely sensitive tests for digitalis alkaloids.
And X-ray synchotron testing of connective tissue from SM’s exhumed remains, and DNA SNP analysis of the DNA might show if SM was suffering from the effects of connective tissue disorder.
@ Nick – I know Richard G & can send you a copy of his article. I can also access the BHP archive but don’t have time to sift through 249 linear shelf miles! If anyone could get down to a few good inches….
Jo: please do send me a copy of his article, that would be fantastic, thanks! I’m nickpelling (at) nickpelling (dot) com, as always.
My next SM post will be specifically on the BHP archives at the U of M, hopefully I’ll be able to reduce the search space to manageable proportions.
Jo,
I am very interested in that paper and I was going to write something on the same topic. Nick can give you my email. TIA
Jo: other SM posts have got in the way, but the U of M post I promised is still en route.
I can tell you, the smelters had an accident and sickness fund, as well as dental fund as late as 1999 when I was still there working for Pasminco. It was existent right through the BHAS and Western Mining days when my dad was there, and was existent in my grandfathers time with BHAS. I’ll have ask some mates if it’s still a going concern.
Lurch: if you could do that, that would be fantastic, thanks! The big question of the day is about where the BHAS accident and sickness fund archives for 1947-1948 have ended up, because the Uni of Melbourne BHAS archives don’t seem to have them. I’ve read that Pasminco got taken over by Zinifex, which then get merged to form Oz Minerals, which then got taken over by BHP. So… should I ask BHP?
Funny thing about Port Pirie. Webb is a famous Port Pirie name. My grandparents neighbours were Webbs (at 444 ANZAC Road). For many decades there was interestingly enough a Webb’s Bakehouse that was at its peak throughout the 1940s going head to head against the Rohrsheims. Surely, if you lobbed in Port Pirie with a name like Webb, you’d get known real quick. Everyone would have asked if you’re related to so and so.
Also, not much escaped the Port Pirie Recorder. There was always an arrivals section in the paper saying who was coming to town no matter how itinerant.
Lurch: yeah, I already went down the Webb’s Bakery rabbit hole (and all the other Webbs in Sands & McDougalls 1948). And there are lots of other Port Pirie avenues to go down yet. But the first thing I’m checking is the BHAS register of employees (hopefully soon).
Do you still live near Port Pirie?
Nick
They are questioning your film star looks over on Tbt. Outrageous! Are you planning your own Christmas quiz?
Re Port Pirie:
You may or may not remember that my old friend Ann O commented about the Sparrow family. To remind you Nan Sparrow married John Barkly Bennett, and when she was engaged to him she lived with her parents dead opposite the Thomsons on Moseley Street. Like Jo Thomson she was a nurse.
Of course Angela had established that Bennett was related to Doff, although the now banned Mr Sanders claimed the discovery as his own. The Sparrows were well known in the Glenelg area and Nan was friends with the (in)famous Premier of SA, Don Dunstan. There have recently been some awful posts about Don on FB, claiming or implying that he was a lynchpin in the all-encompassing SA elite paedophile ring. Even Bogroll has joined in the witch hunt.
Where did the Sparrows live before they lived in Glenelg? You guessed it. Port Pirie. This is Ann’s brilliant comment from 22 August 2022:
https://ciphermysteries.com/2022/08/05/on-carl-webb-truth-beauty#comment-469101
“Jolly Joker” Cyril was a bigwig in Pirie – he left there in 1933:
“THERE was a large and representa-
ive gathering of citizens at the
Barrier Hotel lounge yesterday after-
noon to bid farewell to Mr. Cyril K.
Sparrow, who is leaving Pirie for
Adelaide…Mr. .J. L. Sampson said Mr. Sparrow
would be hard to replace. ‘He had
been the first man approached when
any charitable function was being ar-
ranged, and he never failed to
respond. Many first-class artists had
been in the town, but none more ver-
satile than the departing guest’…
In a characteristic reply Mr. Spar-
row thanked his friends for their
kindly references to Mrs. Sparrow and
himself. Since his transference to
the city [Adelaide], short though the time had
been, quite a number, of uninformed
persons had ventured the opinion
that he would not be sorry to leave
Port Pirie, This was not so. Dur-
ing his 10 years’ residence here it
had been his privilege to associate
with as fine body of citizens as
would be met anywhere in Australia.”
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/95815619?searchTerm=%22cyril%20sparrow%22%20%22port%20pirie%22
Perhaps Charlie had got to know the Sparrows through the Doff/Bennett connection and Jolly old Cyril recommended a spell in Pirie as a tap dancer or summat to entertain the workers at the smelting works.
Well, it’s a better idea than the nutty microdot/spy theory.
As you says Big P “The main lead-related company in Port Pirie was Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS): this did smelting and refining, for lead, silver, zinc etc. It was co-owned by [four] Broken Hill mining companies.”
This included North Broken Hill Ltd.
Our old mate “Freddie” Pruszinski worked for the North Broken Hill Company and was a member of the Workers’ Industrial Union of Australia Zinc Sickness Fund. You yourself Pilch linked the following:
“Mr. Pruszinski was born
and educated in Broken Hill.
He ‘was employed at the
N.B.H.C. as a miner. He
was a member of the W.I.U.
of A., Zinc Sickness Fund,
and the West Rifle Club,”
Perhaps he was won over by Charlie’s tap dancing on a visit to Pirie and agreed to take his socks down to Somerton Beach as a favour. And a rifle.
Who knew that Keith “Captain Beaky” Michell grew up near Pirie?
Hissing Sid is INNOCENT!
https://youtu.be/IRNdqtpZHHQ?si=dvMsEQNse8pu-mMn
Actually Sid reminds me of the diabolically ophidian Dusty Sanders. GUILTY AS CHARGED!
Who knew that Robert Stigwood was born in Pirie?
Of course he was manager of the Bee Gees and produced Saturday Night Fever.
“Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother
You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive”
Wouldn’t call Dusty a brother but he’s certainly a mutha. I could well imagine him as the Donald Pleasance character, Doc, in the film version of Wake In Fright, living out a drunken, debauched, cynical existence in “The Yabba” (a fictional version of Broken Hill). I spect the old bastard went kangaroo hunting most weekends when he lived in Oz. Now he’s in New Zealand via Vietnam. What a blighter!
As another Richard Pruszinski himself put it:
” There is so much this Sanders guy has completely wrong.”
https://ciphermysteries.com/2015/02/26/richard-frederick-arthur-pruszinskis-short-broken-hill-life#comment-453950
Ann O chimed in with “her” own thoughts on poor Fred:
https://ciphermysteries.com/2015/02/26/richard-frederick-arthur-pruszinskis-short-broken-hill-life#comment-469049
She would give everyone her regards if she hadn’t been trampled to death by a herd of pigs on Chipping Sodbury High Street this last July.