Ken Purdham
Bachelor of Arts History & Politics
Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing
In my view, unionism is a belief. It’s the standing together in collective strength for the good of everyone because the voice of many is more likely to be listened to than the voice of the individual. Unions are no more than people standing together in an organised way. As organisations they provide an educated element to a cause, a technical resource and an order of working people. As such unions put forward compelling arguments that the individual may not otherwise be able to. But it’s the standing together of the many that gives strength to the voice of the people. Without that strength, the voice more often than not, is ignored.
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ETU Historian
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Fred Cowie came back from the second world war as a ‘Rat of Tobruk’. He became an SEC linesman but could never have envisaged that one day he’d become a life member of his union or be known as Freddie Hooks. His son Freddie Jnr and his close mate Mick Law, who was there, remember how it was.
In July 1962, several transformers were delivered from Melbourne and dumped into a paddock off Dead Horse Lane close to Swan Hill. A gang of linesmen – Fred Cowie, Pat Griffin, Basil Hamilton, Ernie Price and Mick Law were sent to load the transformers onto a trailer and install at various locations. Mick was driving the winch truck.
There was a 22kv line running along Dead Horse Lane although the linies believed it was only carrying 7.5kv. What the boys hadn’t seen was another HV line cutting across the paddock and hidden by the Mallee scrub.
They loaded three trannies onto the trailer then Mick backed his winch truck in towards
the fourth. The ground was sandy and boggy in places. Fred, Ernie and Basil began
to connect the D shackles of the steel slings as Mick crunched his truck into four-
Mick looked back and saw smoke. He jumped out of his truck and ran around it. The smoke was coming from Fred and Ernie who were hooked up to the slings and on fire. Basil was desperately trying to pull them off and yelling; Mick do something. For Christ’s sake do something!
Between them, they managed to free Fred and Ernie but neither were breathing. They went straight into their resuscitation training, Basil working on Fred and Mick desperately trying to bring back Ernie, and as they worked the slings kept connecting with the transformer and flying into the air in showers of sparks. Those moments were burning into Mick’s memory forever;
…anyway, Fred come good and it was the most amazing – he – looked at his hands, they
were black, just black bones and the whites of his nails they were still hanging
on to something, and he looked at them and he – and he turned around and Ernie had
a jumper on under his overalls, old bag-
Yeah. Anyway, Fred, looking at his hands, at himself, knowing his situation said, ‘Put him out Mick, put him out, poor bugger,’ Why would he think of somebody else then – unbelievable, unbelievable!
Pat Griffin, who was tying the other transformers to the trailer, looked across and saw what was happening. He jumped into the other truck and raced off to get help from a farmhouse about a mile in the direction of Swan Hill while Basil and Mick tried to comfort their mates;
… Fred was talking, and Ernie was swearing, and Fred said, er, I want a leak. Basil, I want a leak. Anyway, Basil went down to his trousers and they was all gone; everything was all gone, poor bugger…
The accident finally shut down the HV supply from Swan Hill, in fact, as Mick remembers, it shut down Swan Hill. But it meant there were no more sparks from flying slings and the area was electrically safe.
The ambulance arrived and as Mick watched the two ambulance officers got out of their vehicle; what they saw set them back on their heels;
…they swung around and there was two of them jumped out of the ambulance and the poor bastards, you should have seen their faces when they seen Fred; he was talking away saying; ‘bloody, what’s happened here?’
They recovered very quickly, and they had blankets out and they worked well. They loaded Fred in first and Ernie’s thinking he’s going to be left behind and he’s yelling – ‘Hey! Hey! Come back here you bastards.’ Anyway they come back and got him, of course, they weren’t going to leave him there…
Fred and Mick were taken to the Swan Hill hospital. Howard Brooks, the SEC District Manager, arrived on the scene, and he put Mick, Basil and Pat into his car and followed the ambulance. There they were laid out on hospital beds clearly in shock, and as Mick remembers;
…they said, we’ve got some drugs here and you take a couple of these, and you’ll wake up at seven o’clock this evening. They didn’t affect me, and it didn’t stop Basil – I can’t remember Pat…
However, the Swan Hill hospital was never going to cope with the horrific injuries of Fred and Ernie. The doctor didn’t hesitate, had them put into his own private plane and he flew them to the Royal Melbourne hospital.
In the meantime, Fred’s twelve-
Mick Law went back to work the day after the accident, but his mates didn’t grill him about it; they just gave him space and said they were glad they weren’t there.
Freddie Jnr was taken to the hospital to see his dad. His dad and Ernie were in beds side by side and as he walked into the ward, Freddie was hit by the smell of burnt flesh.
Fred was a chain-
Freddie Jnr was not told of the extent of his dad’s injuries but it began to come clear when his dad told him they were going to take off his right forearm and then later, the left. Ernie Price lost fingers and thumbs and the doctors used his little fingers to give him thumbs and the ability to, at least, pick things up. As Mick remembers that, at least allowed him to pick up a pot of beer. Before his accident Fred had sworn himself off the grog but that was, as Mick remembers;
‘til the Chinese doctor got into his ear. The Chinese doctor told him you go buy a couple of bottles of beer when they were walking around in the hospital…
After six months Fred was moved from the Royal Melbourne hospital to a rehabilitation hospital in Hampton. He had a corset fitted to support his abdomen and inner thighs as he learnt to walk again. Then hooks fitted to what was left of his arms.
And so Fred began eighteen months of rehabilitation with hooks for hands, a bag for genitals and a medal sized scar that had begun to form on his chest from the burnt flesh beneath his skin. He called it his sheriff’s badge. The challenge for Fred was could he rebuild his life.
Mick, Basil and Pat were taken into the union office to talk, in detail, about the
accident as the union began to look to Fred’s future. They solicitated the law firm,
Holding-
He went back to work at the SEC, became active within his union and a member of the
Bendigo and District Amputee volunteer group. Being back on the grog, it can be argued,
became a life-
Fred had found a secure platform on which to rebuild his life and he did. His son Freddie and his close mate Mick could down together and swap stories, their conversations making it clear Fred Cowie was not going to just accept his lot;
Freddie: …one of the stories, and I actually got it from one of the managers at the
SEC, he’d been down to the union office, which Mick’ll tell you where it was, the
Lake View hotel, and he got back a bit late and he was working in Meter and Test,
and there was a fellow up there that Dad didn’t get on well with, Mr Knight, and
Knight told him to get up to the manager’s office, he was going to deal with him.
And Mr Knight got asked where he was going to work, -
…of course, he had the issues with the two artificial hands which they fitted out there and basically the muscle structure of his inner thighs, that was gone as well, so he had to learn to walk and manipulate these things. One of his proudest achievements was being able to light his own smoke…
Mick: …Ah, he’d light it in the pub. He’d get the box of matches out and get the bloody claw in there and get her out and ‘I’ll light it for you – that was one of his party tricks…
Freddie: he’d get up the pub and get himself a beer by betting with every silly bugger that he could pick up a bit of ash off the cigarette without breaking it…
Fred spent a lot of time visiting hospitals and schools talking about being an amputee, and when children stared at his hooks, it didn’t bother him. While their parents would cringe with embarrassment, he showed the kids how they worked and told them that’s what happens when you bite your nails.
Fred Cowie learnt to drive a car again, became Bendigo ETU sub-
And so it was that Fred Cowie carved out a new life for himself setting the example of how to rise above adversity and perhaps without even realising it being an inspiration to those people who had the privilege to get to know him. Fred was forever more known affectionately as Freddie Hooks and died in 2003 aged 87.
When a workplace accident happens, it’s very hard to empathise or understand the horrors of the moment until you hear it told by those who were there. In this story, Fred Cowie’s son and his close mate Mick Law remember those days and how after an horrific accident Fred Cowie not only survived but rebuilt his life.
Freddie Hooks
