PICK AND SHOVEL ARMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 August 1942, Page 6

PICK AND SHOVEL ARMY

48,000 WORKERS ENGAGED

(N.Z.P.A. Special Australian Correspondent)

■SYDNEY, August 16.

At present 48,000 workers are engaged -in Australia’s Civil Construction Corps, and it is expected that this figure will eventually be increased to 70,000. About 16,000 of the additional men will be drafted by the end of the year. So far, the conscripted men have come from the 45-55 age group. Many of them, until a few weeks ago, were shop-assistants, clerks, barbers, waiters —or in any one of a dozen other non-physical occupations. A few were professional men.

All are finding their new work arduous. But the majority make light of the difficulties and say they are glad of the chance to “do their bit” by helping to construct the vitallyimportant defence works for which the Corps is responsible. Some men grumble about the work and the living conditions —and many about the hardship of being uprooted from their accustomed way of life. A small percentage show themselves unable to stand up to the work. Fewest complaints are about wages. Most of the men admit they are earning more money than ever before. They are paid a minimum rate of £4/16/- a week when not working overtime. Sundays and public holidays they are paid double time; they receive fares and travelling time if they live away from the job, and free food and quarters if they live on the job; medical attention is free. Labourers earn up to £9 a week, including overtime and allowances. Skilled tradesmen working in the corps earn even higher wages. This, then, is Australia’s pick-and-shovel army, engaged in such essential works as the building of roads, aerodromes, and munitions plants. The great bulk of the Corps personnel are volunteers. Many are tradesmen, some are medical rejects from the Army; a few are mere lads not yet eighteen—too young to shoulder a rifle, though not too young to swing a pick. Now married men in the 3545 age group, having large families, may be drafted into the Construction Corps instead of into the Army. Pressmen inspecting a £4,500,000 explosives factory, now taking shape “somewhere in Australia,” talked with some of the 3,000 Civil Construction Corps workers who are building it. They found that the men’s living conditions were excellent —though many men felt they were unsuitably employed. One man, obviously misplaced, was an artist. It was acknowledged that, with his experience as a New Zealand trench mortarman in the last war, when his sketches of army life attracted world-wide attention, he could be more usefully employed in special camouflage work. The new factory will employ 14,000 persons, including 8000 women. Its buildings are widely dispersed, occupying hundreds of acres. Each building is constructed in a deep pit surrounded roof high with protecting earth mounds. In operation, it will be a fitting memorial to the work of the men of Australia’s Civil Construction Corps. Only their toil is making possible the continued expansion of Australia’s industrial war effort. Some idea of what that effort entails was given in a broadcast by the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Mr. C. A. Crofts. He said: “One adult in every five in Australia is engaged in a defence .industry; more than 20 towns are making munitions; Australia is able to produce anti-aircraft guns for export, and 200 ships are fitted with Australian-made guns; shipyard production is seven times greater than before the war; Australia is making all her own training ’planes, is producing bombers, and will soon be producing pursuit ’planes.