Latest / Salt of the Earth / Ep 122: Rick Chambers _Part B

Transcript

Ep 122: Rick Chambers _Part B · Salt of the Earth

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Last episode, we heard about Rick's family history and what an incredible history it is.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: We also heard how a young folks from the territory got his stuff, learning the value of hard work and making the most out of every opportunity.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: In this episode, the story goes further.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Rick heads up to remote stations, working with falls and irrigation, learning just how important water is to life in the appetite.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: But it's the decision he makes later that really changes everything.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Addressed in Alice Springs is heading into receivership.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Most people would have walked away.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Rick didn't.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Rick took it on.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: He took the gamble backed himself and turned it into what is now Think Order Alice Springs.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a story about resilience, determination, and seeing opportunity where others saw problems.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: This is Rick Chambers.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've had a family that when I first started Chambers Engineering, old Patty was an old Irishman, Martin Garrity, and him and I used to work together on TMT, and he was my first employee, and he started for about two weeks' work.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think he was with me for four or five years or something, you know.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I've had Patty's, he's got four sons.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've had his I've had a Garrity in Chambers Engineering the complete time that I had it, you know.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the boys grew up and Bradley became um the manager.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um young Patrick wanted to leave school, and mum said, Oh, can you kill him?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, I can kill him.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well he turned into a you know he turned into a joint of a man, and uh and Tony.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um so I had a Garrity uh come all the way through with me, so they're they're they're like my brothers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But in the in the 2000s, I said to Bradley, we've got to get out of contractor made.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's you know, like your back's against the wall, you sort of rush and roulette.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, look, we need to go into essential services.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So we ended up getting into the power of water contracts.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we'd be up at two o'clock in the morning doing a water main, but you know, like it put us in town, it was guaranteed work.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: You did you weren't you weren't throwing all the numbers at one job, yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: That put us as a major customer to the shops, so we were buying a lot of gear, and uh probably by the time it was 14 years ago, so I was sort of probably removed a bit from the company at that stage, the Bradley was running it, and uh the watershed had gone and uh was going into receivership.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to the boys, I said, Look, I might I'm gonna buy the watershed.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and they said, Why?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, I don't know.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I I've done contracting, uh I I think I might try some retail to see what the difference is.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so that's what happened.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I yeah.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And this was irrigation supplies originally.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so look, they they done um bores for stations and all that sort of stuff.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was a sad time at uh 2010, 2011.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: We were losing so many businesses in Alice Springs.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was a it was a tight time.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um we'd kept a book, there was 150 you know businesses that had changed hands or downsized or because of the drought?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, look, it was a multiple things.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was just um, yeah, Alice Springs is so it's such a strong town.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like it um, we always say we're the last to go slow and the first to go fast.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just a little section there that I said to Bradley, I said it's gonna come out of it at some stage.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I I always pushed to my crew, you know, we're gonna have the the best ship.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's got to be tight, it's got to be neat, it's you know, we if if you're gonna have a ship, it's got to be the best, you know.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were chugging through that.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: But um I I think the watershed opened up in Catherine, and I think they might have had just a little bit too much labour, and uh yeah, it was just a few things that you don't wish on anybody, you know.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: But taking a company out of receivership, that's uh a lot of hard work.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I tell you what, receivers it um well, you know, you look at it um PMT, I had to go through it with that, you know.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my father ended up going through it, you know, and then obviously the watershed, I don't know if I can say this about receivers, but I I their role is to first of all look after the employees and they don't.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: If I would say anything about receivers, like you know, there was 30 workers in in the watershed and and the only ones that got saved, I knew I had to cut right back to seven and uh rebuild this whole whole shop.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they didn't look after the other workers and yeah, I d I I despise them.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So today, what sort of products and services do you offer?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Look, mate, we do everything with water mainly.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, look, with James Engineering, uh we we made sure we were so versatile that we provided every service.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter, we've never got a quiet time, we'd flick from one to the other.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I said to the crew when I took over the watershed, look, I'm not retail, you know.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm a contractor, but I do know what I want as a customer, you know.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when I drive into the shop, if I can't get um what I want three times, I never come back.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It has to have the stock, it has to be good stock, it has to be good priced, you know, and I and I want good service, you know.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I I took over this this shop and I've got a beautiful teammate.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like um, they've put up with me walking in every day and saying, right, we're changing this today, we're changing that today, you know.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: But we provide essential services, so we supply little plumbers in town.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I just hope that um you know how I was set up, I try and give that opportunity to people with the with the right attitude because I know what it's like as a young fellow, you just want to have a go, you know.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um and there's steps there that you it's a bit too hard to go with, and and I do that with my old workers too.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've had mentors that um have helped me so much, and in chambers, like I when I went Bush, mate, I took three to four old blokes.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: There was 250 years worth of knowledge, you know, and I get out of the truck and I say, Oh Jig, tell me.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right, okay, I'll tell you about this, you know.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um and you felt safe because these boys had tracked this this land when it was just all dirt and bog holes.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Doc River, like I I put the bitchman roads in in uh 91, but Jiggy had actually built the community, you know.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, so like it the knowledge is just amazing, you know.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so back to the crew, I I try to let everybody grow and you know, blossom.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so we do solar boards and power stations for stations, um, we can supply all the pipelines, all that sort of stuff, and we supply all their mowers, their toiletry, everything, you know.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's a one-stop shop.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're out in the station and you've got seven hours to travel, you know, we want you to come in.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: We need to load you up as quickly as possible so you can get back out there because I understand my it's like being in the bush, all my crew do, and and that's the goal, mate.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: You you need to get them in, get them out, and get the right gear to them.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And as you said earlier, like water is everything.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Water is everything.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, mate, roads are everything.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've had a big rain now and the roads are washed away, they can't get the cattle out.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny how there's two essential services there, and we need roads and we need water and the essential services.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Some of your customers, uh, these farmers on big stations, are they wanting to stick to tradition or are they happy to move forward?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so there's two groups, and totally respect both of them, you know.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the families out there that might be fourth or fifth generation, and they've got the knowledge, mate.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: They've got um, you know, let's say, just say basically that you get seven good years, you get seven bad years.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So they know that they have to manage the seven good years, and then they know they have to make it through the seven bad years, you know.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: We've had a probably a massive change in the last seven to eight years or ten years.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, as you know, the station's gone up in value.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had big consortiums coming in and sort of buying them, and there's been a massive sort of input of infrastructure by these groups, and probably the concept's changed a little bit now with say solar bores, and also even in finding water.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we were out at one site the other day and they'd actually they'd sonared the the grounds, and um where they put the pipe was just this amazing, amazing amount of water.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: They made a mistake of putting one 10 metres over.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: No water.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: That this one was right on the fault line, you know, and they knew exactly where to go.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: They do the sonic uh reading and uh they read the pallets and all this sort of stuff and way above my my pay grade, you know.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: But uh so this is um now tapping into that resource which is below the ground, which is you know, like it's just amazing, you know.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so it opens up the country now, and the concept's probably changed a bit.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now we promote a trunk line, so you put a get a good ball, get five or six good balls, get a massive trunk line down the middle.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, with all the solar bores now, you can restrict the pressure so it doesn't blow the pipelines, hook them into tanks all the way through, and it's about you managing your station how you want to manage it.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you strip-graze your cattle, move them around, get them into the yards, move them on.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've got feedlots, so a lot of stations are working towards drought um protecting now.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're going for the pivots and and the water and uh getting the food out there.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: How far would you send water from that for?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'll get the figures wrong here, but I'm sure we pumped 40 to 50 Ks for one station and uh we put a couple of beas pumps in between.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: It took it took a day and a half for them to get water at the house, but they'd never had fresh water.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh jeez.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: They've been living on dam water, and when you have a shower, you know, you can smell the dam water, you know.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: The technology's there today.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got one customer who's just opened up a lot more land, you know.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said it's land he couldn't use.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: The grass is there in the good times, and now he can just move the cattle through.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: And Rick, what do you hope the next generation understands?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm going to be an old man, if I'm going to be an old man lecturing a a young person, is if there's an old man there and you go up and you treat him with respect, yeah, and and this has been my life, is I learned 25 years of their knowledge in in four to five years.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I totally respect it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that's my job then that to pass their knowledge on, you know, to the respectful young person.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if they don't show respect, I won't tell them anything.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the old fellows, you know, somebody once said to me one day, uh Roji's not that smart, you know.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I started laughing.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you're just not up to the standard that he, you know, accepts.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he won't teach you unless you're worthy.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens, and I that I those old people shut down, and you think there's a story behind that, you know.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're polite and you're respectful, and like we had a you know, we had a big cat bolt that was about 350, 400 mil long.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: We uh grounded into a spike, and then we had to hit that 22 times to, and we'd actually mushroom it down to only about sort of 100 mil long, then we had to get another cat bolt.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: The ground was that hard, and that was every peck, you know.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to earn the respect to learn how to survey, you know, and that's what we've done.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was there one day with a young fella, and he was trying to set a uh clubway up with 1% you know, server across it, and um had no idea what he's doing.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Look, mate, I'll I'll show you how to take uh a level from your benchmark, bring it down and put a grade in, you know.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I got about five minutes in and he was just daydreaming.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I said, No, that's it.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not teaching you.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I just packed it up and and I had my old Jiggy there, and uh when the young fella walked away, Jiggy said, waste of time, isn't it?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not I said he doesn't know how many pegs I had to bang into land.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was about to give it to him for free, yeah, you know?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd just say the younger generation that there's so much knowledge out there that you can actually get.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not all Google.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: And as I say, it's having that respect.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Is there a motto you stick with today for Thinkwater?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've got a lot of mottos.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my crew will tell you that, you know.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: The one we have for Think Water is uh clean shop is a happy shop.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: To get this shop going, I had to build it while the customers are driving through it, you know, and I had to build all the backyard.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to Georgie, one day we'll have seven cars wide here, you know.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: So he sent me a photo one day and eight cars wide.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I said we need to load them up and get them going.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: When you take something over, like I had a few customers come in at high rate from the old scenario, and I said to them, look, just go away for a year, mate.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: I just need to clean this mess up and then come back.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to go around and rebuild the whole lot, and um, the last thing was the floor, and we at one Christmas we had to take the whole shop out and build it and set it up outside, and then we we worked 24 hours to just grind the floor and and paint it with an epoxy.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then we had to put the store back in.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is over Christmas, and Julesy and Julesy said, Never again.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm not doing it again, seriously.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I said, You watch the difference now between women and men, and so the man walks in, you know, and uh he go he goes straight in and he gets his stuff and he walks out, and then the woman woman walks in, she does four steps and stops, and she goes, You've done the floor.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to Julesy, you've got to have a clean shop to get the women, yeah, right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when you got the women, you got the whole family, yes, you know.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we say a clean shop is a happy shop.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's an impressive setup you got there, mate.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I came past there last August, and uh you got a lot of gear.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you got a lot of gear, and and you have to, mate, because um it look nobody sees what goes on behind the scenes, but we sit down and like um, especially with like, well, first we had COVID, and then now obviously with the fuel and then getting freight, yeah, and then obviously we've got inflation.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we sit down and say, right, okay, if we haven't got this stock, what do our customers, how do our customers go to work?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because you've got to have enough stock in town to provide that.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I know with the um you know, in the last say five months, you know, the amount of stock that we've had to lock in, you know, with a resin for PVC pipe, and we we had our load stolen three times, they get down around sort of Sydney way and they're they're taken elsewhere.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we we're saying we need that load, so we had to bring the we end up bringing the load up through um around through Dalham across the market.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we you know we need the stock here so that we can keep service from the customers, you know.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a battle for old Jersey was pulling his hair out.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's a big thing for us, like we've got to have the stock so we can provide the service.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: They're the stories that people over on the East Coast don't hear about.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, they don't hear that, mate.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, like with this new computer programme, I got a a um the computer bloke here, and I said, like, we've got to make sure we incorporate the freight.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: And he he said to me, He goes, Oh, you don't have much freight, do you?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, okay, so a road train is between 15 and 18,000 for one road train, right?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um I said, you know, we're we're 600,000 plus a year in freight.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, that's a bit, you know.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: So um you you you're always trying to lock it in.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Rick, have you got kids coming through the business?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh look, um look, there's one thing I've learnt in life, mate, is that you never ever pressure your kids like that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you see kids that are pressured and and it destroys them, and then you see the kid that does want to do it and he never gets given the opportunity.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: My son and my he he comes through with us, he's done all the stuff, he's actually doing a tremendous job out.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: He's um out with the mines, and uh he runs his little fronts out there.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he rings me up and he often tells me, you know, like comparisons of when he was working for us and and what he sees happen now.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter, she roared off the boarding school and she's uh looks after troubled kids, but they're um they're beautiful parents, and I've got um what have I got now?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um three to four men trials.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's good, yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well done.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Rick, your your website?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to tell me that?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be Think Water Alice Friends, mate.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so you can look, it's beautiful, mate.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like when when we took over the watershed, this this is a beautiful story.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I got phone calls from stations, you know, and and they said, uh Rick, we're with you, we're backing you, you know.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I thought, oh Jesus, that's um, yeah, I really appreciate that.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, remember when you drop ten bags of cement off and and two sheets of mesh?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, oh, I don't remember, you know.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: But when we were bush and we were doing our concrete, you never take that stuff home, you know.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You you go to the station, you drop it off, you got some grid panels, drop them off, you know, and uh they'll give you a bit of meat and you have a cup of tea and you know and that bit of a yarn, and and you forget about that, you know, and 20 years later you you get this phone call, they haven't, you know.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and so then when we start, I think what I said to Josie, you'll you'll know when we're getting it right, you know, like we're trying to clean up, and then suddenly the station owners are coming in, and I said to them, I said, we've got it right.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he he said, Well, how'd he know?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, walk outside.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And there's four station owners leaning up against the car having a talk.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I said to them, say to the fellows, you want a coffee?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, we're all good, thanks, Rick, you know, and you let them talk, you know.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when the contractors come in and they talk in their back in your backyard, they're they're happy, you know.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're they're having a bit of a yarn with each other, talking about the weather and the cattle and all that sort of stuff.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: I said to Julesy, we're we're starting to get the ingredients right, you know, it's starting to come together.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a real positive, mate.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh mate, uh you're a territory man, you're not leaving.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, look, we've got uh we've got some property out from Queensland.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mate, I there's uh multiple ricks, you know.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they they say that about stress too, you know.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh a good mate of mine once said that um stress is best to find that uh one one one of your personalities has driven the car too long, and I sort of thought that was that's a very good line, you know.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so if Ricky Chambers, the road builder, has been driving too long, well then you're that's stress, you know.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Ricky Chambers, the man that can't catch a fish, he should drive for a little while.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I pop over to Queensland.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: The only reason you leave Alice Springs is because you're working too hard, you know.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: If if you work in Alice, you you've got work, you know.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you treat people right, you're set for life, you know.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I I I love going away and just you know, I'll disappear for a few weeks and I'll go out there and dig a hole, a couple excavators over there and dig a dam for no reason, and then I'll come back and help the crew and we go again.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, before I forget, uh the book you spoke about earlier uh about your grandfather and his brother was called Battlers of the Barclay.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And people can find that online.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: I had a look for it myself last night.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, um, we're up to the off-the-wall questions.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: These are just short answers, and I'm sure you studied them for days.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, which is not, mate.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll mate.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: You can answer as many as you like.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: What would your grandparents say about the life you're living now?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: They again it comes to different eras, you know.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I I I think they would be proud.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a that's a that's a pretty deep one, mate.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were tough people.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're in a little box and time just goes past you, like you you think about this in the 90s, like um we only get mobile phones, you know, for the first time.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed that every time I went past them, uh, if I was going past, I'd drop fuel off and everything off.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um you can see the strength in these people, but the change is just so big for them, you know, outside.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there's they're so proud of you, and uh, and I'm so proud of them because they were kings of their era, you know, and um and you're battling in a different era, you know.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if that if that makes sense, well it's work ethic that they'd be proud of, I think.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I think I think that well that's definitely being passed on, you know.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like if your kids are going to work today, you've got to be happy, you know.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh that's the main thing.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: What's your favourite tool, Rick?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh look, mate, there's multiple there, but I do not live without a three and a half ton excavator sitting behind me.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, it's a 14-tonner.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's not, it's a forklift, and if it's not, it's a scissor lift.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I'm in my own element when I've got my six or seven tools, and I'm just by myself, and I can just tinker around and build and create.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the boys will say the three point six tonner.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right, eh?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Versatile.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's funny, mate, by going to the stations and doing the solar bores, I think I'm converting every station to buy an excavator, you know.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we never had them as kids, did we?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, we didn't.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Rick, if your old work boots could talk, what stories would they tell?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Look, mate, I burnt, I I sort of grew up as the half-baked ringer, you know.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I was red winged for years out of loyalty to my father, which I then had to change, you know.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but man, we used to burn through them, mate.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I got some burnt out um red wings from the surveying days, you know, like uh skinny little eggs and out there with red wings.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they used to melt, mate.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess they they'd say we walked a few K's, mate.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: What's one thing the territory's taught you that no university ever could?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the territory's taught you that look, you can't you can't give up, you know.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I see all these people coming here and they think they're pretty tough, and that you take them bush on a 42 degree day, you do it for a week and they're just they're blubbering, you know.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then you turn it around into winter, you know, and it's minus three, and you know, and that that's why when John McDowell Stewart came north and he he was going to take the uh jack of Off the trackers, they actually ride it.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Do you know how cold it gets in the territory?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how hot it gets in the territory?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tough place, mate.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you think you're tough, come here and work for a while and see how tough you are.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, going back 40 or 50 years, what would be your go-to trick when the generator dies?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: The fridge is full and it is 45 degrees.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, in those days they had the cold the little call rooms with the Hessian bags, and they put their meat safe and all that into there, you know.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Probably as the years went through in the 80s and the 90s, you'd go to your second second generator because you'd always try and have a backup.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today, your generator doesn't start.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've got a solar system over on one of our blocks, and my generator's running for four hours and about two years, you know.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because the solar system completely runs it, you know.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you actually get excited when you see uh finally get four sort of pouty days, you get real excited because oh the generator's gonna come on today, but I guess it's 38%, you know.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's the that's the transition, mate.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: You had the old Hessian bags and the meat house to start with.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: First thing you go and do is have it in the 80s and 90s go over and check the oil and the water and the fuel, obviously, and then uh yeah, you need to kick over the second one.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, no, today I like today, mate.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: We actually uh ring up a station, like we were up in Down one day, and we rang up a station down here in Alice and said, mate, yeah, try try to buy power with a generator, go and put some fuel in it, because we got it all on our computers, you know?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we can we can see the percentage of power they got.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so yeah, so you ring ring them up from Down and say, you know, put some fuel on it.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Rick, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's definitely Australia, mate.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: We would think what I've been around the world that many times, which has been a real sort of you know, it's been a real privilege.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean we've got beaches, we've got sand dunes.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I made the speech at my uh son's wedding.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like uh when you're born in the bush, like people don't understand like uh a cold winter's night on a sand dune, you know, with a desert oaks and the wind blowing through it, and the stars, they don't understand that.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're near the beach, the sound of the the waves, like we've got it all in Australia, and and you just need to go for a drive and our water holes, mate, you know, like with all the rain around here, like magnificent, you know.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's great.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Rick, you've lived a or living a fascinating life, mate.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You've worked hard.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: I can see that work ethic has uh been built into you early and um a great family history, and I've loved this chat, mate.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you, mate.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just um I just like to say that it's a group effort, mate.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it my team here are uh tremendous, you know.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they all put in.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: We we've just got a culture where we try to support each other.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't ask them to do more than I would try to do myself anyway, you know.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's the challenge of just making it better, you know.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: That that's the best thing.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well done, Rick.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, mate.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Rick, thanks so much for sharing your story, mate.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: From a family that crossed Australia by horse and cart to helping keep some of the most remote stations in the country running with reliable water.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a remarkable journey.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's also a reminder that success rarely comes overnight.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's built through hard work, backing yourself, learning from good people, and treating others with respect.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you've enjoyed my conversation with Rick Chambers.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: If you did, I'd really appreciate it if you could follow the podcast and share it.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: It helps more people discover these incredible stories from rural and regional Australia.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: Until next time, I'm Darren Greek.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.