MEMORIES OF A CASE-MAKER   
DURING THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES

Researched and compiled by GEOFF BARRITT December 2023
This article is written in recognition of the unsung heroes of the Perth hills fruit growing area who over nearly a century from 1874 through to the early nineteen seventies made many hundreds of thousands, or more likely, many millions of wooden fruit boxes made, mainly, from Jarrah or occasionally from Karri. Banana (pear) boxes were made of an unknown creamy coloured wood. Wooden fruit boxes were being phased out during the mid to late sixties and completely replaced by cardboard cartons in the early seventies ending the era of wooden case making. The transition period for the introduction of cardboard cartons extended over a period of about 5 to 7 years initially commencing with cardboard cartons for apples in the big commercial packing sheds. Wooden boxes were still being used for stone fruit and oranges through to the early seventies. The fruit packed into the wooden boxes was transported down the Scarp to markets in North Perth in the early days and by 1929 the West Perth Markets were on selling all the fruit from the hills except for the export fruit which was delivered direct to the Fremantle Port for shipment to Singapore or London. The West Perth Markets were in Wellington St where Harbour Town and the RAC are now located. The markets were closed in 1989 & relocated to Canning Vale. Just as an aside I worked as a labourer in Ben Mercer’s section of the West Perth Markets part time from Jan to Mar 1969. Ben Mercer, by coincidence, was Arthur Barritt’s agent.
 

The unsung heroes were of course the children, mostly boys I suspect, who grew up in the fruit growing district who in the main were orchardists’ sons, but also some non-orchardists’ sons who lived in the local area, who made most if not all the millions of wooden cases required by the orchardists to pack their fruit in. Most case-makers would have commenced learning their trade during late primary school and in my case by the age of ten I was making most of the cases required for Braewick Orchard located on Canning Rd Carmel and as my skill and speed improved, I was soon making 100% of the required cases for dad (Arthur L Barritt).  Case-making was a task that was paid piece-rate by the case and paid well for gun case-makers but it was only one of the dozens of (unpaid) tasks young boys and girls were expected to do from a very early age growing up on an orchard including, in my case, but not limited to:  Packing fruit, collecting many buckets of fallen fruit that had to be cooked in a 44 gallon drum to kill any fruitfly, collecting hundreds of free-range chicken eggs and cleaning and packing them in wooden crates that held 360 eggs, shifting sprinkler pipes which means uncoupling 20 or so 20 ft long 3 inch diameter aluminum pipes with a large rose sprinkler and tap located on one end and shifting them 20 ft in to the next row of trees and coupling them all back up then walking down to the pump shed and starting the pump and walking back along the line of sprinklers to clean any sprinkler that might have become blocked. A small, mangled gilgie was a common blockage. A task repeated every 2 hours from dawn until way after dark during the summer months and in between all the other jobs. On one occasion I remember picking up a pipe that had been laying unconnected for a couple of days and a long dugite slithered out of one end. My first close encounter with a snake. Driving the red MF35 Massey Ferguson, commenced at about age 12, with a trailer load of fruit from the orchard to the packing shed, unloading same into the shed, and then returning the tractor and trailer to the fruit pickers, Dad, and Bill Gilchrist  and by the time I was 13 I was driving the tractor all day long on the weekend to rotary-hoe the weeds growing between each row of trees. Helping Dad stack fertilizer bags of chook manure onto the trailer and emptying them around fruit trees, 1 bag per tree and there were hundreds of bags to empty. Another task I remember well was hand-hoeing weeds around each tree that the rotary-hoe didn’t reach. A regular job when fruit was ripening was to spray the fruit trees with insecticide. Dad drove the tractor towing the spraying tank while I walked along operating the hand-held spraying wand.  And I must add the completion of case-making and that is hammering lids on to the packed cases and at 10:00 PM when Mr. (Alan or Jack?? Teasdale arrived with his truck to load and transport the boxes of fruit to Ben Mercer’s in West Perth Markets help the carrier load the packed fruit on to his truck. I learnt how to stack things and the “truckies-hitch” at a very young age. All unpaid while still attending school. Re-reading the above sounds like we were subjected to slave labour but that is far from the truth as I enjoyed my childhood and learnt many skills from my dad that have been useful ever since and had ample time for playing and exploring the wide world (nearly all bush) surrounding Braewick Orchard. In September of ’66 I was drafted into the Army to complete my 2 years National Service obligations.

 My young 15-year-old sister Sue suddenly found herself promoted to do all the tasks I did. Following is a brief memory written by Sue:  I did all the tasks my brother did bar the cultivating. Loathed picking up the rotting fruit. Drove the tractor while Dad sprayed the trees. He did make sure I was completely covered. Although I’d wear a mask in these modern times. I helped unload the case boards and pack them into the shed. On one occasion I drove the tractor out to Pickering Brook to be serviced while Dad followed in the car behind me. (Five mile return trip). Long before I was old enough to have a driver’s license and driving an unlicensed tractor. Fancy doing that today eh? In the Autumn a regular task was to collect all the pruning’s, stack them on the trailer and dump them on to a huge heap ready for burning. A source for a fantastic Bonfire and Cracker Night until some wowsers made crackers illegal. Quite enjoyed that job for some reason. Changed the sprinklers. No snakes though. Geoff’s future wife Rosalie Carlisle, 19 at the time, caught the bus to Carmel to help out on many a weekend.
 

FRUIT BOX LID COMPRESSOR               #2
 

There were three main wooden boxes or cases as they were called during the manufacturing stage and were known as dumps, flats & half dumps. Two very minor cases were known as trays & banana (pear) boxes. A dump contained a bushel of fruit, and was used to pack, oranges, apples, and pears. A flat which was divided into two equal cells contained three quarters of a bushel and was used to pack stone fruit and half-dumps contained half a bushel and were used to pack plums for export. Trays were used to pack premium quality peaches and banana boxes (nothing to do with bananas) were used to pack pears for export.  A bushel is a unit of volume and is used to measure agricultural products. It is an archaic term dating back a thousand years or more. Since 1824 a bushel has been defined as 8 imperial gallons (36.4 litres) or 1.4 cu ft in volume. The weight of a commodity depends on its moisture content and other factors beyond this explanation. Following are a few USA examples: A bushel of pears weighs 58 pounds (26.3 kg). A bushel of wheat weighs 60lbs (27.2 kg) and a bushel of tomatoes weighs 56lbs (25.4kg). These weights can vary depending on % of moisture content. Different countries and even different US states have their own and different set standards. Australian (imperial) figures would be different and do not seem to be available. I strongly suspect a bushel of wheat in Australia weighs 56lbs imperial. (2x56=112lbs). (to be confirmed) A bag of wheat weighs 112 lbs. In the US a bag of wheat weighs 100lbs. An imperial ton is 2,240lbs whereas a US ton is 2000lbs.

Case end boards and side slats (boards) were cut from timber harvested from the Jarrah trees growing in the surrounding forest and sawn in to required sizes by numerous sawmills in the district. Case boards for Braewick Orchard were purchased from Lesmurdie Sawmill located in Canning Rd, Kalamunda situated approximately where the Kalamunda Veterinary Hospital is now located. Case boards were also purchased from a mill in Pickering Brook, most likely the same mill when it moved in 1962 to Pickering Brook. Case boards were delivered to the orchard by the truckload and stacked in a purpose-built shed and covered in sawdust and empty hemp fertilizer bags to help prevent drying out. Wattle brand nails used in the assembly of cases were purchased from W.A. Nails PTY. LTD. The nails were made in a factory located approximately where John Hughes Used Cars in Welshpool Rd, Welshpool now is. When the nail factory closed down it was converted into a factory to make straw Stramit Boards which itself has since closed and the building demolished. The nails used to make cases were called shear point and had a tip that had no sharp point to prevent the splitting of the side slats which were only 3/8” thick and a flat head with a little flat cap about 3mm in dia. One-inch nails (25.4mm) were used to make dumps and 3/4” (19.05mm) nails of the same design were used to make half-dumps and flats. 1¼” (31.75mm) nails with pointy ends and flat cap tops were used to make banana (pear) boxes. Nails came in wooden boxes weighing 112 lbs net (50.8 kilos). I do not know how many nails weigh 112 lbs, (a rough calculation suggests 250,000) but I do know the tide in the box seem to lower fairly rapidly over a season. A good day’s case making would see the tide lowered in the nail box by 4,000 to 5,500 nails. The nail box was similar in size to a half-dump. 112 pounds is 1/20^th of 2,240 lbs or 1/20^th of one ton. It is also the weight of a bag of wheat. 112 lbs (50.8kilos) is also known as a long hundredweight it is also 8 stones. 14 lbs to the stone x 8 = 112 lbs. (simple as simple can be, eh).  In the US 100lbs is known as a short hundredweight. The imperial 112lb is a long hundredweight.

"WATTLE" BRAND NAIL-BOX                #3
 

A one-bushel dump case measured 9 1/4” x 14 ¾” x 19 ½” externally. A dump consists of 2 end boards, 6 side boards or slats (3 a side) and 2 bottom slats all held together with 32 x 1” nails. Lids came later.

    ONE-BUSHEL DUMP-CASE           #4
 

A half-bushel half-dump case measured 9 ½” x 7 1/4” x 19 ½” externally. A half-dump consists of 2 end boards, 4 side slats (2 a side) and 2 bottom slats all held together with 24 x ¾” nails. Lids came later. On occasions the bottom was made using three slats.

HALF-BUSHEL HALF-DUMP CASE               #5
Note:  That this half-dump has used three slats to complete the bottom.
Fifty cases would require an addional 50 slats  and 200 nails.
 

A 3/4-bushel flat case measured 12” x 6” x 26” externally. A flat consists of 2 end boards, a central dividing board, 6 side slats (3 a side) and 2 bottom slats all held together with 48 x ¾” nails. Lids came later.

Three-qurter bushel flat-case               #6
 

Above measurements are approx. as the measurements were taken from ≈55-year-old seasoned timber cases. Cases were made using green timber and were packed with fruit, in many cases, straight off the case-making bench or at the latest the next day.

To make a case a solid base case bench is needed. In earlier days a case making bench consisted of a solid Jarrah frame with 2 first grade railway sleepers mounted on the frame to form a solid and ridged base and a further railway sleeper was mounted as a back rest or stop to keep the case under control and firmly in place as it was being made. Four slots were cut into the base and back stop to accommodate the end boards for the different types of cases. End boards were stood up in the appropriate slots and slats were laid over the end boards and nails hammered in to hold everything together. By the time I was 12 or maybe 13 Dad had purchased a steel case making bench from J. & M.B. Thomas Engineering in South Kalamunda. The steel bench had three movable angle iron guide rails with steel rollers to support the end boards with the rails held in place by bolts. Being a thick and solid steel work bench with 2 or 3, depending on the case being made, steel guide rails with steel rollers supporting the end boards in a fixed position the end boards were prevented from any sideways movement and bounce back from hammering was eliminated. Case making was significantly improved from that day hence. I thought utopia had arrived. Jack Thomas also built numerous machines for the orchard industry including, fruit graders, orange washing machines and was an agent for Silvan spray plants. An addition of an orange washing machine to Braewick Orchard eliminated hours of hand washing oranges in a galvanised babies bathtub using soapy water and a scrubbing brush. By a huge coincidence I became a major customer of Edson Mining (J. & M.B. Thomas) later in life.

STEEL CASE-MAKING BENCH               #7
Set up for Dumps or Half-dumps. Centre guide rail is not used.
To make Flats the left guide rai is moved to the left slot and bolted tight and the centre rail is used to hold the centre board.
THIS BENCH MANUFACTURD BY WALLY ANNETTS
 

Following is a detailed description of a right-handed case maker on the procedure I followed in making a case. I have chosen to describe a half-dump, but all other cases involve the same technique but take a little longer to make.

First steps require a quantity of end boards retrieved from the case board shed needed to make about a dozen or so cases are stacked close by and on the left side of the case bench followed by a quantity of slats and bottom boards are stacked up close by and on the right side of the case bench. A container filled with ≈200 grams of ¾” nails retrieved from the nearby nail box is placed close by and conveniently on the left of the case bench and within easy reach of the left hand. Finally, a well-balanced claw hammer in good condition and with a firmly fixed handle is needed and placed to the right and on top of the stack of slats.

As we are now ready to go and make a half-dump it is full speed ahead for the next 60 seconds. Firstly 2 end boards are slotted in to the 2 guide rails, or slots in the case of a wooden base, followed by 2 slats placed on top of the end boards. Two slats and the clawhammer are picked up with the right hand and the slats are positioned on to the top of the slats. At the same time a small quantity of nails is picked up with the left hand and immediately a nail is moved in the hand to a position between thumb and forefinger in an upright position with head pointing up. While the nail is being positioned in readiness on the left-hand rear slat and making final adjustments to the positioning of the slat the right hand has the hammer in the ready position above the nail. When all is ready a gentle tap is applied to the head of the nail, enough for the nail to stand up by itself followed by one solid bang which hammers the nail home. Meanwhile the left hand is readying another nail into position which is immediately tapped and banged home. Before the third nail is tapped and hammered home the slat will require a slight adjustment to ensure it is nailed into the correct position. With the left fingers holding the board and the thumb and forefinger holding the third nail it is tapped and hammered home. A fourth nail completes the left end of the case. The same procedure is followed on the right end of the case and then the case is pulled back from the guides and turned through 180° and placed back down on the bench.  The second side is a repeat of the first side and on completion of the second side the part completed case is turned through 90°and the bottom slats are positioned and tapped and hammered into position. In a minute, or slightly less, and the hammering home of 24 nails later, the making of a half-dump case has been completed and is ready to be stacked with all the other completed cases. Each nail requires one tap followed by one bang only. Flats and dumps follow the same procedure except 1” nails are used to make dumps. Occasionally a nail is bent or the board splits. In either case a new nail is hammered in and in the case of a bent nail it is removed.  Up to 10 minutes in each hour is taken up retrieving case boards from the nearby storage shed and stacking in position on the case making bench, topping up the nail container, and stacking completed cases. (see personal record set with Barry Spriggs assisting below) Three to five small handfuls of nails would be required to complete a half-dump. On many occasions I used my mouth as a nail storage and sorting area and my tongue and lips presented nails in the correct position to enable my thumb and forefinger to grasp the nail in readiness to tap and bang home. (A work safe officer in 2023 would be horrified). Other case makers such as the Owen boys and Ross Herbert, who made cases for Rokewood Orchard, had a nifty device that fed 5 or 6 nails standing up in a row into a wire slide mounted above and behind the case bench in readiness for the left hand to grab between thumb and forefinger. The forerunner of nail-gun nails. A technique I never perfected. Probably because very few of the packing sheds I made cases in had “Nail Dispensers”. The only dispenser I recall seeing was in Ray Owen’s case making shed and as there were three Owen case-makers I never made cases for Ray Owen even though I spent a lot of time at the Owen’s, Eric being the same age and effectively a next-door neighbour.

Care must be taken in creating stacks of cases behind the case maker because as the day wears on cases stacked say 8 high would take up a large area. A day’s case making could easily take up an area 3m x 8m and if care is not given at the start and as the day proceeds a case maker could soon find himself boxed in.

A good casemaker could make 50 half-dumps or 33 to 35 dumps or 23 to 25 flats an hour and keep up the pace for hours on end, all day long if required. Making trays or banana (pear) boxes was a dead loss financially as they were fiddly and slow to make and fortunately, I was not required to make more than a hundred or so, maybe less, of banana (pear) boxes. Pears were occasionally packed in a box referred to as banana box, although I don’t think they had anything to do with bananas, for export, in George Spriggs/Mooney Cool Stores and Dad packed the very best hand chosen peaches for packing into trays straight from the tree. Trays of peaches attracted the very best prices. Case making was paid on a piece-rate basis. Half-dumps were paid at the rate of tuppence (two-pennies) each, dumps were paid a threepenny bit (pronounced thrippnee bit) each and flats at the rate of fourpence each. Which works out to about $0.85 to $0.90c per hour which ever type of the 3 main cases were being made. An excellent rate of pay for any young school aged lad or lass. The hourly adult rate in George Spriggs/Mooney Cool Store packing shed at the time was $1/hr. At the very end of my career making cases, I made carboard cartons for George Spriggs and also (if my memory serves me correctly) for Rokewood Orchard in Carrinyah. The cartons were made on a rotating frame that looked like a small Ferris wheel with brackets to make 4 or maybe 5 cartons at a time. All that was required was to unfold the carton, place it on the frame and glue and clamp the bottom flats. As the wheel was rotated a finished carton was removed and new carton was added, glued, and clamped.

 30-KILOGRAM APPLE CARDBOARD CARTON (AMERICAN).              #8
 

Cardboard cartons could be made at a much faster rate than wooden cases, so the piece rate was cut substantially, resulting in a significant reduction (75%) in an excellent source of income for young fellas still attending school.  

One day when I was making half-dumps in Mooney’s Cool Store. I decided to have a go at seeing how many cases I could make in an hour if I had help. The packing shed and cool store was empty of all workers except a young Barry Spriggs who was 2 years my junior and myself. He agreed to help, and his task was to keep me supplied with boards and nails and take away completed cases. My job was to make cases and nothing else. The stopwatch was started and away I went making cases at a rapid rate. 60 minutes later Barry informed me that time was up, so I stopped and counted my efforts. 59 completed half dump cases were stacked up after exactly 60 minutes of case making. A feat I never repeated. The speed of making each case was normal - it was the assistance that made the difference of about an additional 9 cases.  I should ad for those who might think bad thoughts not one nail was bent and not one board was split. I was probably 14 at the time.

I guess as a result of making cases for George Spriggs/Mooney’s Cool Store my reputation as an available case-maker my skills were called for from far and wide. Over a period of about 5 years, I made many thousands of cases from one end of the Hills Fruit District to the other. From Carmel/Walliston in the north to Pickering Brook/ Carrinyah/ Karragullen in the south I rode my purple Malvern Star bike, with no gears and pedal brakes only, to fruit packing sheds far and wide. Most names and orchards I have forgotten but a few have stuck in my mind. The furthest from home that I can recall riding my bike to make cases was Littlely’s in Karragullen a fair ride on a 24” bike with no gears up hill and down dale and carrying my claw-hammer and lunch. One weekend I made dump cases for Mrs Moffett in Carmel and was paid three pounds and a few coins. That equates to 750 pennies which means I made 250 dump cases. Three pounds for a young fella in the Sixties was a small fortune. 750 pennies or £3/3/- ($6.30) would buy you about 20 gallons (90 litres) of petrol. £5/-/- a week was the going rate for an apprentice at the time.  -/10 (about 8 cents) would buy you a bottle of Coke with -/2 back on the empty from the same shop that you just purchased the Coke from. On another occasion I was asked to teach students at the Seventh Day Adventist Carmel College how to make cases. What a con that was, as after making 4 or 5 cases I was informed the students now knew the ropes and was paid the grand some of 2 bob (2/- $0.20) and was informed my duties as a case maker at Carmel College had ended. I suspect being a Church of England, went against me? Finally, when I was just a young’un, I was making cases for an Italian orchardist in Carrinyah when I was asked by the boss to join the picking crew for smoko who were working just outside the packing shed door. The boss gave me a sausage and vegemite glass of vino to drink. Sitting in the dirt between peach trees I drank my very first alcoholic drink. 10 AM mind you. Between smoko and lunch, I gave my thumb an almighty wack with the hammer. One of the few times I lost a thumbnail as a result of making cases. No more vino, or any other alcohol, while working has been a rule for all of my life since.

I have tried to estimate how many cases I might have made from 1956 through to 1966 and it is an impossible task to be anywhere near accurate. Following is an estimate. The main summer school holidays coincided with the stone fruit season and two further school holidays coincided with firstly the apple season and then the citrus season. Which means I was available to make cases for 10 weeks of school holidays plus weekends plus after school on Braewick Orchard. Many a day I would have made 200 half-dumps for George Spriggs during the stone fruit season and later made many thousands of dumps during the apple season. I don’t recall making flats for George. Elsewhere I made many a flat during the stone fruit season across Pickering Brook and Karragullen and on Braewick Orchard. A conservative estimate is 5,000 – 10,000 but it could easily have been 20,000 or more. To make 10,000 half-dumps would have taken me 50 days spread over 10 years. An estimate of 10,000 seems conservative. Following is some interesting statistics: 10,000 half dumps required the nailing in of 240,000 nails and the moving of 80,000 boards not once, not twice but 3 times for a total 240,000 boards. My hammer would have tapped followed by a bang 480,000 times.

In the main I have chosen to use imperial measurements as metric weights and measure were not introduced in Australia until the mid-seventies.

MEMORIES OF HELEN SKEHAN (nee OWEN)

As young girl growing up on the Ray Owen family orchard on Canning Rd, Carmel - I was chief packer among the Owen offspring and left my brothers Clive, Ken, and Eric to carry out case-making duties, filling the grader and other ‘mundane’ tasks. I must say I strongly agree with Geoff’s comment re children of orchardists becoming workers at an early age. I needed something to stand on when I started packing, being too small to be able to reach into the cases unless given help! In the early days, before our own shed was built, Dad ‘borrowed’ his dad’s shed, which meant we could not start until all their fruit was packed, stacked, and ready to be picked up by the carrier. This meant for a frantic rush to finish packing all the fruit before the late-night arrival of the carrier.  I can recall being put in the car to sleep when I was just too weary to continue packing. Although at that age I probably didn’t pack that many cases! I dare say I was not the only one with such memories!!! But that was life, and we did not see it as a problem - that came later when we had to squeeze in homework in the hours after arriving home from the old Carilla bus, grabbing something to eat, and packing or case-making, or nailing on lids until knocking off before midnight! Not every night, but regularly enough to be tiring. Fortunately, the busy stone-fruit season was relatively short, and life was easier when we had a cool-store, so all ripening peaches etc did not need urgent attention. We should all have kept diaries but unfortunately, we didn’t.

MEMORIES OF VIC FERNIE CASE-MAKER -

I don’t believe banana boxes were made of pine; I think they originated in the eastern states banana industry probably a local timber much harder than pine. Before bins banana boxes were used extensively as picking boxes because they were wider and not deep as a dump. At home we would use just as many if not more trays for peaches/nectarines. I worked for Mac Beard from 1965 to 1967 thru the season period, the first cartons I can remember coming out of the orchards were cardboard trays of peaches. They were an absolute pain as you couldn’t rope or secure them, and they slid easily. The perfect example of this was demonstrated one Sunday night when I got a late call from the boss in the passenger seat in the F700 to turn right into the OLD club just before closing time, we watched these trays fly over windscreen so majestically. The cartons for export apples started in the big cool stores, Working with Mac B every market day we would pick up USED repaired pine tomato boxes from CARNARVON in North Perth, flats, never any jarrah FLATS boxes. Pine boxes had a stencilled name just like jarrah. It’s just a thought I don’t know why there were no jarrah boxes, maybe jarrah shrank too much as it dried out.

BANANA BOX USED AS A PICKING BOX ON ALLEN FERNIE'S ORCHARD               #9
 

  A PICKING BOX USED BY THE ANNETTS FAMILY OF CARMEL ROAD, CARMEL             #10
 

  COMPLETED HALF-DUMP SITTING ON STEEL CASE-MAKING BENCH             #11
 

Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.

Reference:           Article:         Written & researched by Geoff Barritt, Braewick Orchard, Lot 81 Canning Road, Carmel  1946 - 1966
                                            The following provided input into writing the article;
                                                       Helen Skehan (nee Owen), Susan Vedel (nee Barritt), Vic Fernie, Ross Herbert, Ross & Kay Annetts.

                                           Steel case-bench, wooden Jarrah cases and nail box supplied by Ross & Kay Annetta

                          Images:        2, 8 9          The Internet
                                               3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 10 11       Geoff Barritt
                                               

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