The story of 90 years of wool classing between father & son begins in 1936, when a young boy by the name of Stanley James Hucker walked through the doors of the Gordon Technical School in Geelong. Born in 1921, Stanley was 15 years of age when he began his 3-year course in Wool Classing. 30 years later, Stanley’s second son Denis completed the same 3-year wool classing course. Beginning in 1966, Denis attended the same Gordon Technical School and walked the same halls as his father before him. Stanley finished his course in 1938. He went back to the family farm in Lake Bolac for a brief period before enrolling in the Second World War. At the completion of the war, Stanley returned home and married before gaining a soldier settler allotment, north of Willaura. This enabled Stan to use his wool classing knowledge. He ran between 1,500 and 2,000 sheep for many years, while his wool classer stencil also allowed him to go out and class at various sheds around the area. He held his stencil from 1938 until he retired at the age of 60 in 1981. On retirement, his second son Denis was working in the district, managing a local property while also leasing land himself. Upon his father’s retirement, Denis had the opportunity to lease his father’s farm, an opportunity he could not refuse. Denis had finished his wool classing course at the Gordon Technical School in 1968, graduating dux of his class. He began working with a local contractor and started classing wool in his team. Denis gained a great deal of experience working as part of this team in big sheds of up to 8 stands servicing between 10 & 20,000 sheep. It was not all smooth sailing for Denis however, and he soon learnt an important lesson. Class wool the way you’re taught, don’t listen to the owner standing over your shoulder. At a clip of Corriedales near Casterton, Denis was pushing too many fleeces into the line of fine wool. This resulted in a notice from the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX) “mixing counts too much, submit three clips for inspection”. Denis was able to submit 3 clips with no further complaints, however, this proved a valuable lesson he would never forget over his long career classing wool. In the early 1980s, when Denis was leasing two properties including his father’s, things were going well until drought struck. February 1983 was the date of the Ash Wednesday bushfires, and saw Melbourne have three days over 40 °C for only the second time on record. This period saw Denis give away farming, turning towards contracting work instead. After the difficult times of the early 1980s, the next two decades were a good time for the sheep industry. 15 micron wool was selling for prices between 4 to 5,000 cents per kilo, double what you’d expect for the same wool in 2022. In 1995 a single bale of wool sold for a million dollars. This was a good time for Denis too. His contracting work saw him employing local shearers and shed staff. His team was involved with the shearing and classing of more than 130,000 sheep. After 20 years of contracting, it was time for Denis to transition into the next phase of his life. He gave up independent contracting, preferring instead to return to being a member of someone else’s team. In 2018, having completed 50 years of wool classing, it was time to call it a day and retire completely. At the annual Gordon Wool School Old Students Association dinner held in 2018, Denis was presented with his 50 years as a registered wool classer stencil awarded by the Australian Wool Exchange (AWEX). This is a rare honour achieved by few. As of February 2020, a total of 430 wool classers had achieved this 50-year milestone. For Denis however, his proudest achievement is achieving 90 years of wool classing with his father. The National Wool Museum is proud to share the collection of objects gained from 90 years in the wool classing industry by Stanley and Denis. This ranges from Stanley’s first stencil and Wool Sample book, started when he first attended the Gordon in 1936. The collection concludes 90 years later with Denis’ 50 years of wool classing Stencil. The collection contains many more objects, all telling the story of these 90 years, and the hard work invested by this dedicated father and son duo. Thin sheet of metal with letters cut to produce a consistent pattern for the surface below through the application of ink. This wool classing stencil belonged to Stanley Hucker. It was his first Wool Classing Stencil. It was used on Stanley’s property named “Yohhatnbu” in Willaura. Stanley gained the property as part of the Returned Soldiers Settlement Scheme for his service in World War 2. The role of a Wool Classer is to sort, classify, and grade wool into various ‘lines’ so that it can be sold for best market price. Wool Classers are typically also tasked with the managing and supervising of wool-handling teams. The stencil is used in the final step of preparing a bale of wool for sale. It is branded across the front of a wool bale to indicate the quality of the wool, with the classers number used as a seal of guarantee.Cut letters. “SJH / BOLAC ”wool classing, stencil, 90 years wool classing between father & son

A time clock, sometimes known as a clock card machine, punch clock, or time recorder, is a device that recorded the time an employee entered and left the factory. In mechanical time clocks, this was accomplished by inserting a heavy paper card, called a time card, into a slot on the time clock. When the time card hit a contact at the rear of the slot, the machine would print day and time information (a timestamp) on the card. One or more time cards could serve as a time sheet or provide the data to fill one. This allowed a timekeeper to have an official record of the hours an employee worked to calculate the pay owed an employee.Metal time card rack.time sheet, time card, factory, employee, work life, punch clock, textile industry

The State Electricity Commission of Victoria 1921 to 1993 was responsible for electricity generation in Victoria and the operation of three Provincial Tramways. It had a strong safety focus for the time. This first-aid box would have been provided to work places containing first aid equipment and materials. It has been made with interior slots or dividers to hold items. Demonstrates an SECV First Aid Box.First aid box made from sheet metal, with hinged lid, press locking clamp on the front, with a divided interior or fitting to hold items, painted white on the inside and black on the outside. Has the SEC logo, marked "First Aide" in red letters on a white background and numbered "2787" on the front side.Has SEC logo and number 2787. Has a hand date stamp of "16 Apr 1970" on the inside of the lid, top left hand corner.secv, tramways, first aid, equipment

Has a strong association with tram crews and the rosters crew workings, possibly D.J. Everett. Prepared by crews from sheets to enable them to know what service times to run, meal times, details of crew changes etc, based on their allocated shift or run from the roster.Thirty eight (38) page red metal spiral binding, notebook with card board covers. Each sheet faint ruled, both sides. Front cover had a drawing of a Scots lassie with a Scots terrier on a lead and a drawing of a street scene in the background with the words "Scotland" in script. Rear cover has a drawing of a castle on it. Each sheet, most left hand side only has the hand written details of each SEC Ballarat run - giving sign on times, notes, timetables, which run taken or taken by, meal times, notes with regard to special instructions, finish times and total hours worked. Image 1 shows covers and image 2, one of the sheets with the runs printed on both side of the page. On a scrap of paper, written on the back of a Ballarat Summary timesheet for a Thursday in 1968 is the run details for 22 run. Has been folded into 4. See also Reg item 4073 for a later book and 6876 for a typed versionOn rear cover - phone numbers for M. Morris, Tierney, Tram depot and tram office.trams, tramways, ballarat, rosters, employees, shifts, timetables

Yields information about the track maintenance activities of the track gang in Ballarat, the work they did, notes, names and other information.Collins Australian Diary, No. 324 printed by Collins Bros, dark blue card covers, sewn sections with ruled sheets providing a diary for 1971, one week per double page. Has "useful information" sheets at from the diary. Used by the SEC Ballarat track gang to record their daily work, leave, welding, track cleaning, truck driver etc. Names of gang often mentioned in the diary undertaking specific jobs and when on leave. Last day work recorded - 24/9/1072. Loose contents Inside front cover Workshop requisition to fill pot holes and note re rail requirements for Daylesford and Hamilton. Clip to page with metal paper clip. 29/8/1971 - note re account numbers and on rear of a pink requisition form - work list for gang. 12/9/1971 - Workshop Requisition form - green dated 6/5/1971 Inside rear cover Circular for a Male Cleaner in Traralgon Workshop Requisition for work at the Zone substation - Ballarat South Circular to authorised drivers re used of defective vehicles. Has W. Vermeend name typed in top left hand corner. SEC Long Service Regulations circular - has name D.Wiseman handwritten in top right hand corner. 5 sheets of blue carbon paper.tram, trams, sec, ballarat, depot, trackwork

Yields information about the condition of the ESCo tram fleet at the time of the SEC takeover of the operations their appearance, the reconstruction work and trackwork to rehabilitate the system. Demonstrates an important era of the Ballarat Tramways through the SEC preparing an album of photographs. The completeness of the record adds to the significance.Photo Album - comprising folded manila card covers, 11 photo sheets each with two, one with three black and white photos. Has three metal - steel fold back clips holding the sheets together. Folded so that the metal clips are not exposed on the outside. Has the title "Photographs of Ballarat Tramways Rolling Stock & Track Reconditioning Works". Album contains 23 photos, glued to the manila sheets - assembled by the SEC. All SEC photos except as noted below. Each of the photographs have been separately registered, as shown in the table below. Scanned images made of photos. Conservation Notes prepared - within the cataloguing sheet. Inside cover Typed notes, dated 1935, of the early trams of Ballarat, trailers ex Sydney, new trams ex Melbourne in 1930, and a further 5 in 1931. Lists the original Brill trams still in service (9 Number), and a noted on the recent scrapping of No. 11. Also had a note re the Sebastopol cars and the timber quality used in their construction - see hi Res image btm3000h-cover.jpg (added 16-12-2015) Folio Reg. Notes Item No. 1 3001 ESCo 14 see also Reg Item Image 755 for early copy. 3002 ESCo 21 ditto 1354. 2 3003 ESCo 1 ditto 756 3004 ESCo 1 ditto 758 3 3005 SEC 30 1357 and N204 3006.1 Interior photo 3006.2 Interior photo 4 3007 189 1356 and N203 3008 SEC car? 5 3009.1 Track work at Grenville St 3009.2 Track work at Grenville St with 27 in photo. 6 3010 Official party for launch of new rolling stock 1935 - Richards & Co photo 3011 No 30 on ditto - Richards & Co photo 7 3012.1 Interior photo of ex MMTB car 3012.2 ditto 8 3013.1 Track reconstruction photo 3013.2 ditto 9 3013.3 ditto 3013.4 ditto 10 3013.5 ditto 3013.6 ditto 11 3009.3 ditto - City Loop (See note below) 3009.4 ditto - Grenville St It would appear or is possible that folio 5 is out of position relative to No. 10 and 11. This is given the location of the photographs contained and would be more consistent with that of No. 11. Also the silverfish damage to the photographs would be consistent. The folio arrangement has been left as found, although catalogued to the follow style of photographs. Photos not to be taken out of the album unless for photographic copying. Use image files.Handwritten notes re trams history under each photo on sheet 1 in pencil., On front cover in ink "Ballarat Tramway Preservation Society Catalogue No. 601"trams, tramways, ballarat, reconstruction, tramcars, esco, mmtb, new trams

Yields information about the process of preparing lists of ex MMTB tramcars that were used in Ballarat and demonstrates the record keeping of the SEC in relation to time worked by employees.List of Ballarat Tramcar numbers against their original MMTB numbers which have then been ticked off. Written on the back of an SEC Daily Time Sheet for the Afternoon Shift - form No. FTK 2-1-2 - printed in red on off white paper. Item was contained within Reg Item 5507 - Foolscap binder with green covers, black binding edge and metal clips - see btm5507-list.pdf for actual location. trams, tramways, sec, wages, tramcars, mmtb

Yields information about the work to rebuild the bridge over the creek on the Mt Pleasant Line.Newspaper cuttings pasted onto a single foolscap sheet, titled "Bridge Work Cuts Tram Line" dated 7/6/1955, with handwritten notes associated with the work on the Mt Pleasant line, Barkly St, Pennyweight Creek, underneath. Loose within the book was another cutting titled "Impossible", featuring a tram at the work site and the Detour sign - dated 5-7-1955, noting the work in almost complete. Contained within Reg Item 5507 - Foolscap binder with green covers, black binding edge and metal clips. barkly st, mt pleasant, bridges