IT seems there is never a shortage of stories to share when a group of former road builders come together every year in Bendigo.
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The group, made up of former Country Roads Board, Roads Traffic Authority and VicRoads workers, are holding their 20th reunion on Wednedsay, November 26.
Former CRB skilled builders' labourer John Shelton said every year since 1994 the group had been getting together on the last Wednesday of November.
"We go for lunch, it generally finishes up around 2pm maybe 3pm, but last year there were six or seven of us who were telling stories around the table over a beer and they got bigger and better as the time went on," he said.
"I didn't leave til half past five. We had a fantastic year last year."
Mr Shelton said the initial suggestion for a reunion was put forward in 1993 by Bill Chamberlain, who was employed at the former CRB depot in Lansell Street.
"We were all just talking amongst the boys one day and he thought it would be good to have a reunion, because everyone's retired and you lose track of them," he said.
"Bill thought a function of this type was good way of catching up."
Mr Shelton said the group of former road builders, who he likened to a family, loved to talk about "anything and everything".
"Every year you go there, you always pick up off someone something you've never heard before, something that happened in the big family," he said.
"The stories that are told at these reunions are mind-boggling
"Some of these guys started off, in the early days, with horse and car and the pick and shovel.
"Then they migrated up a little bit further to the automotive vehicles and equipment, up til today, where they're using monstrosities."
He said he was part of the "bridge gang" for a while.
"I was there for a number of years, working down on the Broadford-Wallan interchange working down there," he said.
"A lot of the Bendigo boys worked over there, building roads."
Mr Shelton said he was just one of many workers who helped build 32 miles of the Hume Freeway at the interchange.
"In those days it cost more than a million dollars a mile, so it was a big job," he said.
"I spent three years of my life down there, living down there, only coming home once a week.
"That was the thing, you had to camp away a lot, and that’s one of the reasons I put in for the job at the store, to be back home again."
He said everyone had a story to tell from those times, when roads builders moved around a lot and had to tough it for long periods of time, often in extreme conditions.
"They did it hard in the early days. They only had tents to live in," he said.
"They were hard days. And the little trucks they had, they were only four or five yard capacity trucks and compared to what they've got now, that’s amazing."
He said technology meant road workers worked in different conditions to back then.
"I think they've got it easier than what we had, although they’d snicker if they heard that," he said.
"I’m not putting them down, they do a good job, but we had a lot more manual work to do that what guys have these days.
He said Bendigo and its infrastructure had changed a lot in his time.
"Bendigo has grown so much from those early days," he said.
"It is a city but to us lot it was a small country town.
"I think Bendigo now is probably like Melbourne was 20 years ago, it’s got that busy."
He said technology meant road workers worked in different conditions to back then.
"I think they've got it easier than what we had, although they’d snicker if they heard that," he said.
"I’m not putting them down, they do a good job, but we had a lot more manual work to do that what guys have these days.
"You'd hardly ever see a guy on a shovel now, they've all got diggers and all automotive things. Automation has taken over everywhere."
He said the former depot in Lansell Street used to be a major hub for many roads builders.
"We had a workshop in there, we had mechanics, down in the backyard we had those in the precasts area who made all concrete and beams for bridges," he said.
"Then in all major towns - like Echuca, Swan Hill and Castlemaine - they all had road patrols, they used to keep roads patched if there was pothole in it."
He said the reunion hoped to attract past and present workers from the Bendigo area, but anyone was welcome.
He said this year one of the group's founders, Ted Wrenn, was flying from interstate to attend the reunion and hoped it would inspire those closer by to attend.
"I got in touch with his son and he rang the other week and said he would fly down from Queensland for it," he said.
"He’s 85, and he’s flying down from Queensland."
The 20th reunion will be held at the Camp Hotel on High Street at Eaglehawk at 11.30am.