Long career at mill is over
He says he is the last of his generation. Eddie Ratcliffe is the last of the immigrant textile workers who sailed from Britain to Tasmania to ride Launceston's post-war textile industry boom.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After 52 years with the same employer, Mr Ratcliffe, 67, will retire next week as plant engineer for the James Nelson Textile Group.
He started work as a 15-year-old apprentice fitter and turner at the Mowbray weaving mill in 1952.
In those days, he says, thousands of people were employed in textile mills around Launceston - 2000 at Coats Patons, 1500 at Kelsall and Kemp, 200 at James Nelson, another 200 at Waverley Woollen Mills and more again for Thyne Brothers.
In May, 1951, the Ratcliffes set sail with 50 other textile families, recruited by Nelsons to establish the James Nelson mill in Northern Tasmania.
Keen to start a new life after World War II, they were offered the chance to immigrate, establish factories and train Australians in textile production.
Mr Ratcliffe's father was a fitter and turner, and in those days sons were guaranteed an apprenticeship to follow in the family trade.
"I came as an apprentice fitter at 15, was foreman, assistant manager and now plant engineer - a glorified fitter and turner," Mr Ratcliffe said with quiet irony in his North Country accent.
Once the mill was built and the machinery assembled, the British workforce recruited local labour and soon the Nelson factory had 200 workers.
"We had the mill up and going by Christmas and started to weave yarns from the UK," Mr Ratcliffe said.
"It was very labour-intensive in those days. People came in from Scottsdale and places like that. The buses used to line up the full length of the bottom of Coats Patons to take the workforce home."
Men did the factory's manual work and women were employed as weavers.
"People were just starting to afford cars, and lots of new houses were built," he said.
"For us it was terrific. Picture Coronation St and suddenly we were in Tasmania. I have never been back. There was freedom and opportunity here."
Mr Ratcliffe never married but his brother and two sisters have provided a large, local extended family with nine nieces and nephews.
The smell of machine oil, the humidity of the weaving mill and the overwhelming noise of machinery will all be missed by Mr Ratcliffe.
"I have always enjoyed my work," he said. "I have always worked with good people who were good com- pany. Not many people get the chance to work in the same job their entire life.
"In the days when my father was a fitter, the mills ran the towns. They were textile towns.
"Now there are only two left in Launceston. They were landmarks.
"There was always mateship. I am the last survivor."
Australia's weaving industry has "a very limited future because off- shore you can get cheap labour".
Mr Ratcliffe believes he has seen the industry's best from developing acetate and rayon weavers to poly- esters in thousands of different blends for a myriad uses.
"I don't know what I will miss the most, but retirement will change my life completely," he said.
Plans are still to be shaped, but his immediate post-retirement goal is clear - representing Tasmania in the national veteran tenpin bowl- ing titles in Townsville next month.
