Woodside Standard Time

The construction of the Ormond Ski Club was to form the basis of many friendships and associations over the many years to follow. 

One of the other significant aspects of the Lodge was that once it was built, the members – and particularly those involved in the construction – all did a lot of skiing at Hotham and got great use out of the Lodge. We really enjoyed both the skiing and the social activities. 

I think the two critical things that the Ormond Ski Club did very successfully was that they decided that the Lodge was to be built in perpetuity for students at Ormond College, and the members who started it did not actually have equity in it. This meant the Club passed from generation to generation without people having to buy into shares and the like, which always was a messy process, in my opinion. 

The other great thing that the Club did was that they insisted that the Lodge catered for everybody who visited, and all people had to do was bring their own drinks. This meant that everybody sat down to the same dinner at night at the same time. This method of catering avoided individual groups all cooking different meals at different times and little cliques forming. Instead, everybody mixed at least during the evening meal and many friendships were made and shyness overcome. All occupants were also allocated various duties during their stay at the Lodge, and that was a very successful model, which I think is still used today. 

On reflection, with over 50 years of experience in the building industry, I think we did not understand what we were taking on at that time, but youth and ignorance were on our side. We were also very lucky in that Lewis (Lou) Milne, a director of one of the largest building companies in Melbourne at the time, took the Ormond Ski Club under his wing and very much helped it in the construction phase. If it had not been for him, I do not think the venture would have been nearly as successful. Nick Walter was the architect, and he drew up the plans and details, and Lou Milne reviewed these to make sure they were buildable. 

One of the things I things remember is that we would leave Melbourne at about 5 pm on a Friday night after a day’s work, drive all the way up to Hotham, arrive at about 11 pm and roll out our sleeping bag in one of the permanent tents that had been set up. 

We would get up at about 7am on Saturday and building work would continue to at least 5 or 6 pm. I seem to have gained a reputation for getting everybody up early, but my attitude was you were there to work, and there was no point in hanging around and sleeping in. In fact, somebody said work party time was called ‘Woodside Standard Time’ and it was about an hour early than Eastern Standard Time. Sunday start time would be similar, and we would arrive back in Melbourne by about 10 pm, very tired to start work on Monday morning in the city.  I know I could not do that anymore.

In early October 1971, I went overseas for four years, and had no involvement in the Club until I returned to Australia. At the 7th Annual General Meeting of the Ormond Ski Club held on 24 March 1974, Rod Touzel, Jim McMeckan, George Swinburne, Nick Walter and John Thompson and I were elected as honorary life members of the Club by an overwhelming majority of the members. I am very proud of my association with the Ormond Ski Club, although it was mainly for three years during its construction.

For an account of the construction of the Lodge, please see story no.70 A Significant Achievement.