Disaster Dan Resigns At Long Last, page-458

@daicosisgod; eight kids in my family! Humble circumstances meant I had to earn an income as soon as possible - started out mowing lawns, carting hay, picking fruit, shovelling gravel, cutting wood, driving trucks, spray painting, ... even then I still had to win scholarships to remain at school!

In the 1960s as a university student I used to get a job each Christmas holiday with either the Country Roads Board or a construction company. During the academic year I drove taxis, served petrol and even delivered cakes to cafes / restaurants throughout central Melbourne.

Re those level crossings, I lived in those areas during my university days.

As Melbourne grew in size the congestion magnified leading to other knock-on problems including air pollution and loss of amenity for residents. The Kennett Government's decision to flog off Victoria's Metro for peanuts was the final knee to the groin and it appears that in Liberal Land that Melbourne's SE suburbs had no future - the loss of auto manufacturing from the Clayton-Springvale area in 1992 was devastating.