By Glyn Rees
A little significant snippet of Allora history almost slipped by of late concerning a timber water trough over 15 metres in length that is a focal point in Allora’s serene Dalrymple Creek Park.
Thirty years have passed since the former stock water trough was relocated to the park in Allora’s northern approaches, but the memory hasn’t faded for retired truck driver and well-known Allora character Don ‘Crawf’ Crawford.
An Allora resident for most of his life and a truck driver of 46 years, it was Don in association with local firm Denny’s Engineering that hauled the trough from 15 kms west of Allora and lowered it in place to become a noted attraction of ‘the Best Little Town on the Downs’.
Built in 1948, the 1200-gallon reminder of the local rural past itself boasts an abundance of history.
Built by Jack Busiko and Bill Blocksidge, the trough was cut from a dead bloodwood tree in the Pechey State Forest.
The length of the trough was reduced to around 15 metres to enable room for cattle to walk around it’s ends in Wally Stark’s cattle yard at Ellinthorp west of Allora.
Jack Busiko worked with the Stark family at Pechey until 1940 before moving with the family to Ellinthorp.
Mr Busiko returned to work in the forest at Pechey in 1944 and arrived back at Ellinthorp in October 1948 with the trough as a birthday present for Mr Stark.
When the trough was originally delivered to Ellinthorp in 1948 it arrived on an Army GMC 6×6 truck.
Trough builder Mr Busiko said it took two days to make the trough after marking the required width using a piece of string soaked in blue water coloured by dissolving a nob of laundry blue.
A cross cut saw was used to cut the line on each side – each cut being a foot apart, leaving enough timber for the ends.
A maul and wedge were then used to split timber off, before chopping in about every five feet until a blood ring was struck. A mattock was then used to lift each section out and the trough sides trimmed.
Amazingly the whole of the Stark’s dairy herd could be watered from the trough at one time, and carp were added in the trough to help control mosquitoes.
The Stark family sold the property in 1980, with the new owners Don and Margaret Duff donating the piece of timber history to the Allora Shire Council.
Then Allora Shire Chairman Cr Jim Deacon accepted the trough on behalf of the Council, paying tribute to Mr Busiko when the trough was installed in the park on March 5th 1991.
Thos attending included members of the Stark and Duff families, elder Allora residents and members of the Allora District Garden Club.
Garden Club Treasurer Mrs Cherry Smith congratulated and thanked Denny’s Engineering and crane driver Don Crawford for playing such a significant role in bringing the historical project to fruition.
The whole venture is still fresh in the mind of Don, and mind it wasn’t all plain sailing navigating the R600 Mack truck from Ellinthorp to Allora with the giant trough.
“We couldn’t go more than 20km-an-hour given the load and the fact the 15 metre log was being hauled on a 7.5 metre trailer.”
“We pulled up in the main street (of Allora) momentarily and our front wheels were lifting off the ground. Don and Margaret stood on the bumper bar to stop the truck raring” laughed Allora’s own ‘King of the Road’.
The trough was unloaded in the park on concrete pads constructed by the Council with Don using a stiff leg crane that is still in Allora in the possession of former owner of Denny’s Engineering, Mr Bob Denny.
