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by Brian L. Favelle, Jennifer L. Favelle (nee Gonsalves) and Frank J. (Roger) Woollard
Copyright © 2006 Campelltown & Airds Historical Society Inc. All rights reserved.
("Grist Mills" Vol. 3 No. 3, December 1986) Thomas William Gonsalves was born in 1911 and at the age of two his family moved to Palm Beach. Later he travelled to school by boat at Newport. His father Tom and four brothers were all deep sea fishermen. Tom married Beatrice Gilbert in 1933 and went to Forbes as a shearers' cook but while there met the owner of a saw mill and he was given employment at Grenfell and Cootamundra, working with Alpine or Mountain Ash timber.
For nine years he lived at Laurel Hill near Tumbarumba working for Kopsen's Mill, where he constructed special machinery for making boat oars manufactured in a small factory behind his home. He moved in 1946 to Campbelltown and purchased a large block of land at 20 Sydney Road (now Queen Street) from George King for 75 pounds.
At first (in 1947) Gonsalves built a double garage to live in and, with the help of neighbours Ted and Don Ireland, built the factory and later a dwelling. The factory produced about 800 boat oars and 100 pairs of sculls per month and sometimes small boats and caravans as well. The number of workmen varied from two to five.
The oars were made from eight inch by two inch milled Mountain Ash timber received by rail from Laurel Hill. Oars were marked out with a carpenter's pencil using an oar-shaped template allowing two oars from each plank. They were trimmed for length using a suspended docking circular saw which fashioned the blade and handle of the oar.
The next operation was the turning of the handle on the lathe, which also included the grips. Then the material was returned to the shaping saw for splicing and shaping the blade and then smoothed on the sander. The sanding belts used were made at the factory using a strip of canvas about nine feet long and six inches wide faced with a mixture of boiled glue and fine blue metal gravel. The final dressing was with a hand spoke shave before transfer to the drying racks in a separate building.
In addition there was a steamer constructed of sheet aluminium and used for correcting warped oars. The steam process took up to two hours, after which the timber was pliable and any irregularities could be corrected.
Making sculls was a more complex procedure. They varied in length. The sculls were made from carefully seasoned Mountain Ash and required lamination of the blade from three pieces of two inch by two inch timber, bound with urea-formaldehyde glue and clamped together for about six hours. Apart from procedures common to oar making, there was a special machine consisting of a nest of circular saws on a common spindle ranging from six inches to ten inches diameter. The previously shaped board V-surface was presented to the saws, acting transversely across the arm of the V and gouged out the curve. The convexity on the back of the blade was made with the shaping saw, sander and spoke shave. Finally the sculls were capped with copper tips and a leather collar to fit in the rowlocks and were given two coats of varnish.
After Tom Gonsalves' death in 1956, the factory was run on behalf of his widow by a son-in-law Brian Favelle. Brian had been apprenticed to George Hudson Pty Ltd., Glebe as a wood machinist and attended Ultimo Technical School. He was working for Ron Harris Timber Co. in Patrick Street, Campbelltown before taking over the oar factory.
After this time, Brian formed a partnership with Roger Woollard, who had been an employee for some time. In all, Roger worked at the factory for about fifteen years.
The oars were sold to Pioneer Forest Products, a subsidiary of Kopsen's Ship Chandlers in Kent Street, Sydney. From 1957 wooden packing cases were made for Crompton Parkinson Pty Ltd., Campbelltown and also cases for the Vulcan Fireworks Co. The factory closed in 1973.
The factory site was later occupied by Rod Lawrence Ford Pty Ltd in Queen Street, Campbelltown.
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