Cliff Clark, 87, recalls standing in the now-dilapidated Flinders Street station ballroom and being told: “Men! You are the cream of Victorian youth.”
Mr Clark, of the 1944 Victorian Railways Apprentice Reunion Group, was among 133 young men who started working as an apprentice on the state’s railways 70 years ago.
“Our little hearts nearly exploded,” he said, recalling the welcoming speech.
As 23 of the men last week celebrated their 70th anniversary at Newport Bowls Club, Mr Clark reminded them of the welcome, and everyone clapped with joy.
The Newport railway workshops relocated from Williamstown in 1888.
“My two older brothers had already left home in Maryborough in central Victoria because it was during the war and there was a lack of work, and so it was sort of natural: I’ll come and join you,” Mr Clark said of his decision to join the railways, where he became a carriage painter.
“I want you to understand that from 1921 up till 1993, each year between 100 and 150 young men of Victoria joined the Victorian railways as apprentices.
“But the government of the day, they were literally training us for general industry as well.
“There were 133 of us in our intake. Seventeen of those people became technical school teachers.
“Now, I know technical schools have closed down pretty well now, but there’s still a few TAFE colleges about, and so it went on.”
