Painting the Ormondville Goods shed - 1999

When not needle-gunning rusty wagons (and nearby eardrums), creating very useful shelves and signboards, or water-blasting the station’s unsuspecting arachnid population (and anyone passing by!!!), Bob (left) can often be found painting things at Ormondville. 

Here, on 9 October 1999 - and to the relief of ORPG’s self-proclaimed vertigo sufferers and the more vertically challenged - he has found that he is just tall enough to get that last little speck at the top of one of the new goods shed doors. 

Unfortunately, both the previous doors, after surviving Ormondville’s wind for untold generations, were destroyed in spring 1998 during a gale that also uprooted antediluvian macracarpa (or pine?) trees standing nearby. John (right), who unlike the aforementioned trees was yet discover the effects of gravity, ably assists Bob with the undercoating process.

[Okay, okay! ‘Antediluvian’ means ‘before the Ark’. That is, the one where the animals went in 2x2. Couldn’t resist using it – just for you lot! - VB]  (Photo: Alva McAdam) 

Bob and John on 13 November 1999, hard at work on yet another paint job at Ormondville. The goods shed’s water tanks are ‘modern’ additions required for fire safety purposes, as the previous ones on the same site, were ‘removed’ by some kind person sometime after work to preserve the complex began in 1986.

Some might say that the objects that resemble junk inside the door are in fact historical items deserving of preservation in their own right. Others wait for those who make such seemingly far-fetched claims to miss a working bee, so they can...! (Photo: Alva McAdam)