|
|
"Big changes were happening on Bulimba also. The yanks were in the process of establishing a barge-making facility alongside Apollo Road. The area that they picked had a large tea tree swamp in the middle of the land. They solved this problem by sending all their heavy earth moving equipment to the area we knew as “first gully” (now occupied by the Exclusive Brethren’s church) and taking enough of soil from the hill to fill the swamp in.
Another problem they had was the fact that there were about twenty houses along the waterfront that were in the way. They loaded all the houses onto low loaders and put them wherever they could find a vacant block of land close by. In a two week period in 1942 Cowper Street received six of them. As soon as the land was cleared they set about putting in place their barge facility.
The workforce comprised about 800 Chinese labourers who were housed in barracks built along Baldwin Street and terraced down the hill. The barges that they were building were about sixty feet long by about 25feet wide. They had a chisel bow at each end. The barges had one refrigeration cold room at each end with a self-contained plant room in the middle. One cold room was for frozen goods while the other was for perishables. The barges were designed to be taken as deck cargo to New Guinea and then towed by tugs to where they were needed.
|
As soon as an island was secured by the yanks around the corner would come the barge loaded with coca-cola and ice cream. As the barges were steel, the Chinese were taught to weld and they worked three eight hour shifts. At six o'clock every morning, (which was the change of shift) the whole district would be awakened by loud Chinese music blasting over the speakers."
One story that should be recalled relates to the brothels on Bulimba. These were set up by a couple of local "Girls" and their minders to cater for the young Chinese barge builders. They had plenty of money and were willing to pay for their pleasure. The largest establishment was set up in “first gully” which ran up the school hill from Lytton Rd. about where the western boundary fence is now for the Exclusive Brethren’s Church.
It operated at night with the girl standing at the head of a queue of about thirty Chinese. Next to the girl was a “Minder” who took the money and timed each customer. All the business was carried out standing up. We would sneak into the bushes and watch the action. We thought that we would liven things by collecting a bag of ball bearings from the aeroplane dump and firing them with our shanghais at the Chinese men waiting their turn in the queue.
When we scored a direct hit all hell broke loose and we only just beat the possies that were chasing us to Bolan Street. Another madam operated out of a large 1938 Buick which would pull up at the water trough which was on the corner of Lytton Road and Apollo Road. A couple of the Chinese would hop in and about 10 minutes later they would be back and another set of customers jumped in. We never ever found out where they went, but after our near death experience with the ball bearings we decided that there were much safer hobbies than playing "Spot the Chow!"
Information sourced from: