Dozens of Maitland people who have links to BHP are expected to attend the final big reunion of employees in Newcastle this Saturday – marking 100 years since the company opened there.
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Billed as the “last hurrah” BHP Reunion, it will be held at Newcastle District Tennis Club, Broadmeadow, at 12.30pm on Saturday.
This month also marks 16 years since the closure of BHP’s The Front End in Newcastle, where so many people from Maitland had been employed.
“This event will mark 100 years since BHP came to Newcastle – from 1915 to 2015,” said Aubrey Brooks, whose family worked there when the company began.
“This reunion is very special: it will mark a century of steel that was also part of the lives of so many Maitland people,” Mr Brooks told the Mercury.
“More than 11,000 people worked there over the years and we would see buses and buses bringing employees in from the Maitland area every day,” he said.
“So our invitation to Maitland people to attend this reunion of the men and women of steel is really significant.”
Mr Brooks, who is vice-president of the Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association, worked at BHP Newcastle for 38 years.
His brother worked there for 28 years, his father for 42 years and his grandfather for 37 years and started there in 1915.
“Our family members were employed there for more years than the time BHP existed,” Mr Brooks said.
“We have been running these annual reunions for 16 years and this will be the last one.
“So it is very special and we have invited everyone who ever worked at BHP in Newcastle to attend and we are expecting up to 500 people.”
He said country singer Mel Sommers, who sang at the memorial service in June, would sing his steelworks songs.
There will be free entry to ex-employees at Newcastle District Tennis Club, on the corner of Lambton and Curley Roads, Broadmeadow, on the day.
Call Mr Brooks on 4984 5264 or email him at obisan@bigpond.com for more information.
Darryl: all about the friendships
When Darryl Cook began his first job as a teenager at BHP, he was delighted to have work.
And during his 15-year spell there in various departments, Mr Cook from Stanford Merthyr made countless friends.
Now he is preparing to meet many of them again at the grand reunion on Saturday.
Mr Cook marvelled at the friendships that have endured among so many former employees.
“I was 14 when I got the job, but I could not start until I was 15,” Mr Cook recalled.
“I began my apprenticeship and during my period there I served in every part of the plant.
“I didn’t know it then, but I had joined a company where employees formed friendships that have lasted all their lives.
“At first I was working as an electrician, but they discovered I was colour blind, so I started another apprenticeship as a boilermaker.”
Mr Cook said he would catch a double-decker bus at Weston, along with workers from across the Maitland area, to the steelworks.
In 1979 he left to work in the mines and was seriously injured when a tunnel caved in.
“They dragged me out, with a broken leg and other internal injuries,” Mr Cook said.
During his time at BHP, Mr Cook worked in almost every section.
“There were so many different nationalities and this was one of the highlights of the job,” he said. “It was a good time.
“I remember safety was a major aspect of all work at BHP – they bred safety into their employees. But it is the friendships I made that was a most wonderful thing.”
“And even though this will be the final reunion planned, I am sure there will still be several more.”
