A photograph of Charlie Thomson's truck carting felled trees.
In those days, as demonstrated in the photograph, loads were often overlength and overweight.
Charlie was one of the contractors who supplied timber to the Drouin Co-op Butter Factory. He farmed a 122-acre bush block in Invermay Rd, Athlone.
Logs from felled trees were loaded onto his truck and taken to the nearby Sam Reed's timber mill. They were then taken into Drouin.
Charlie built his house from his own timber. He used a builder who was "paid" in timber.
As well as clearing the land and doing contract work, Charlie and his wife milked 13 cows by hand. Machinery and equipment was purchased at clearing sales.
One of Charlie's daughters remembers eating camp pie and sauce sandwiches as her dad unloaded five foot (1.5 metre) logs at the Drouin Butter Factory. Any timber longer than 1.5 metres could not be lifted.
The hill behind the factory often had 10 to 15 rows of these 1.5 metre length timber logs, with an estimated 100 ton (100,000kg) of timber in each row. Sometimes the fireman had to roll logs end over end to get the logs to the boiler.
Information courtesy of Stories of Drouin, a cooperative oral history project between The Committee for Drouin, Drouin History Group and 3BBR FM to preserve local stories.
To hear more of Charlie Thomson's story, visit www.storiesofdrouin.com.au