The House that Doug Built

I'm sitting in it. At least in one of the many houses that Doug built. It was good to see Doug Sharpe and his wife Norma today at the farm where he has parked his caravan in front of Jod's place for a few days.

A carpenter by trade all his working life Doug lived in Emerald from the 1960's for about twenty five years. In 1981 when Lib and I bought our block of land and a small kit house, Doug and Jod were good friends and Jod worked for Doug, as did Doug's eldest son Graham who was about 17 I think. Doug and Jod must have worked together for some years as I recall that I also worked with them for a couple of months one summer, it must have been before I went to Wangaratta in May 1976. ( I have thought more about this - as at Feb 7-  I think it may have been 1973 before I went to Qld.) We were building a block of flats in Ferntree Gully and it was hot hard work with me doing most of the labouring lumping timber for the frames and rooves.

They would stop at the Clematis pub on the way home and drink themselves silly then go to Doug's house and kick on. I couldn't handle it I confess and usually made my own way home after a few pots. Doug and Norma had five kids and frankly their existence was rough and ready and boozy, their house had no floor coverings nor paint inside and the young kids were wild and free. But they were loved. Doug was an excellent tradesman and a hard worker, and a genuine good bloke. I didn't hesitate engaging him when we needed a carpenter to build our house.

It's a good house that has served us well for 35 years. We extended it in 1985 when Gord was on the way and again Doug built the extension. Jod was still with him, but I think only when Doug was busy, otherwise Jod was working in sawmills or driving a tractor.

Doug told me today he was 73. He has given up drinking, and smoking, after suffering lung cancer for which he has been treated for some years. He was a very heavy smoker, always rolling a cigarette while contemplating a problem or plan in his work, or with a beer afterwards. After he left Emerald he moved to Queensland and worked for another twenty years, some of it as a suupervisor for a building firm, returning to Victoria to Macedon where he now lives in retirement.

Doug would have been 38 when he built our house. He and Norma married young after Norma fell pregnant. Doug had a hard start in life from a very humble background which Jod has told me about but I don't recall fully, I think his old man drank heavily and always on the move. Doug was the eldest of 6 kids who were separated in foster homes at one point. Norma was the 6th of 15 kids.

It was just nice to see Doug still alive after battling the cancer, and to see Jod and he still mates. They have kept in touch through all the years.