Modra Lloyd
| Type of person | Individual |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1923 |
| Place of birth | Sister Green's hospital |
| Date of death | 2009 |
Lloyd Modra 10/01/1923 –19/08/2009
Lloyd Modra contributed a lifetime's work to the culture and progress of the town.
Lloyd was born in Gawler, at Sister Greens, on January 10, 1923 and passed away last Wednesday, August 19. He was 86, years-old. His strength of character, intelligence and sense of humour will be sadly missed. . The following tribute is an extract from local author Martin Johnson’s book… City of Now — from 'Chatting with Lloyd Modra’
“ONE hundred and ten shovel-fulls equalled one ton of sand using a number three cyclone shovel," Lloyd said, adding, "I wore out a shovel every 12 months."
'It was either hard work or weak steel his son Tom laughed. His wife Dawn, laughing also, laughter is the order of the afternoon. This was the antidote for the worries and woes of life. You could see it in their eyes the smiles that came readily to their mouths
I'm sitting with them in the kitchen of the family home. Our thoughts being carried away on the back of a flat tray K.M. Bedford truck doing deliveries through the Gawler streets.
ALL TYPES of carrying carefully and promptly attended to, L.G. Modra Overway Bridge Road – so the ad ran in The Bunyip from more than 50 years ago.
This included broken eggshells from Browns Egg Factory_located where the Shell service station is today in Murray street-- to chaff for Scotts Chaff mill (Roseworthy)
“Four of us would start at seven in the morning” Lloyd explained , “one filled the bags with chaff while another sewed them up. My off-sider operated the cutting machine leaving me to handle every sheaf . By eight minutes to one in the afternoon we had cut 21 ton. I would have filled Evanston Racecourse with all the things I have carried over the years.”
This included gravel from the Goldfields, bran and pollard , sand for Cement Linings- where Foodland is today”. Lloyd also delivered five-ton loads of sand that he would shovel from the railway trucks that carried 40 tons of the fine material. “Took a day and a half to finish the job “he smiled
After the morning deliveries of whatever-was-going , Lloyd would collect the parcels from the goods shed at the Gawler Railway Station and deliver them to the various traders of the town, the day finished off by shifting people’s furniture or a dozen other things (Talk has it the units opposite the tennis courts were built on top of a Dodge sedan that Lloyd dumped there when it was a hole dug out for the clay used at the Hallet brickworks in Paxton st)
“I carted 30-odd thousand bricks for the company, all loaded and unloaded by hand, at six bricks at a time , I could unload 2500 of them in an hour” Lloyd declared.
Lloyd can also be credited with the carrying of the last parcels from the Parcel Office at the Gawler Railway station after 31 years as a carrier , this was in the mid 1980’s “I bought that truck brand new “ Lloyd reminisced, “from Quarton Wher & Starling General Motors nearly opposite the town clock,cost me 1,218 pound, this was in 1953, seven years after starting his truck driving career with Henry Bennet when “I carted grog from West End Brewery to all the Pubs in Gawler”.
“Like all those times now lost to the passing of the years, it was time for me to go”
And as I stood to shake his gentle hand , I could feel that part of Gawler life still running through his veins, a life we can only imagine Like Lloyd , who carted “Gawler” through its streets on the back of his Bedford flat bed tray truck, his hands happy about the steering wheel, and a song in his heart
Memories of Modra Lloyd
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