Vineyard Crew: Grant

My early childhood was spent on our family sheep farm out on the Morgan to Burra road. We had no power, no telephone, baked our own bread and grew our own vegetables. When I was 7 years old we moved into our home in Morgan. When I was still in high school I applied for a job at Oxford Landing. My father, Norman, and my brothers Des, Bevis and Ian were already working there, and I started work in January 1965

Over the next few months other young blokes from Morgan and Cadell started. We rode a van that ran from Morgan and picked up the workers along the way. On one particular day the old combi van had to pick up 18 people, and we were crammed in like sardines.

The work was hard, all the trenches having to be dug by hand. At vintage most of the younger lads did the loading, and the picking was done by locals from surrounding areas. The picking was done into old tin buckets and loaded by hand into grape bins.

Then there was pruning season. I worked 7 days a week, daylight to dark. The pruning was all done by hand, and it bought out the competitiveness between all us younger boys with each trying to outdo the other.

After my first pruning season I bought my first car, an FJ Holden. I could now put to rest my push bike. My FJ Holden was as bad as my push bike; I had to push it more than it went. Later when I turned 18 I bought my first brand new car, a Kingswood Holden. Three of us Oxford landing boys, Wayne, Aub and I, were best mates and bought three of the same colour and model Kingswoods. These cars were used in a few local weddings and confused the local cops.

In October 1973 I married my wife, Chris. We made our home at Waikerie, and we have three daughters, two grandsons and one granddaughter, the joys of my life. After 44 years, I still intend to continue the rest of my working life at Oxford Landing.