So They Built
p. 84 · Read in the full issue
The Answer Was No So They Built Their Own Brewery
My friend Joe Bourke, o
Morobe, was spelling in For
Moresby, and in reminiscen
mood. We had been discussin
the price of beer.
“TT was three or four years afte J. the war, and there was a bee famine on,” he said. “Shockim prices—they were charging us 6/' a bottle, in some places.”
“Out at Nadzab airfield then were 2,500 little oxygen tanks, that had been dumped out of Liberate aircraft after the war, and no om wanted them. I bought them chean “They were in good condition and light, and each will carry abou 71 gallons of beer. So I got a; idea. I’d beat that bottled racke by bringing up little tanks of beer “I went and saw Eddie Frame for space on the BP ships. ‘Yes= he said. ‘We can provide the space on condition that you make some cc the beer available to our pubs.’
“Good. I took a plane for Sydney and saw Yeomans. He liked thr idea, too, and he introduced me tt the head of one of the Sydnes breweries. He turned me down, fla'j “I tried other Australian breweries—a unanimous ‘No’.
“And that was when we decideo in 1950, to build our own brewen in the Territory—that was thr beginning of the South Pacific Brewery.
Cooking Pots
“I still had those oxygen tanks: They were oblong, and could bd readily cut into two. I offered then to the Administration as first-clas cooking pots for boy-lines.
“The Administration was inn terested, and inspected the cookingg pots. ‘But they won’t stand upq compained the officials. (Each enr of each tank was rounded).
“I said, ‘But that is really a:c advantage—it means that whe.e they are not in use they will rob over on their sides, and cannoj collect water for mosquito larvaee And I showed them how, with couple of fitted sticks, the potn could be made to stand up firmlh when in use.
“The Administration bought thrf cooking-pots for £2 each, and thee were well worth it, for that purposes I had bought them originally fin 2/- each, but I had to cut and ffi and transport them.
“Still, I made a good profit. I[ helped to finance the South Pacififi
Brewery plan.”-