General News
24 February, 2023
Squatter signs off 50 years of knowledge
By Samantha Smith Half a century has passed - to the day - since a young Len “Squatter” Coffey set foot onto the grain receiving site in Beulah. “I started in February, and we were still receiving grain, feed wheat, from a bloke in Rosebery...
By Samantha Smith
Half a century has passed - to the day - since a young Len “Squatter” Coffey set foot onto the grain receiving site in Beulah.
“I started in February, and we were still receiving grain, feed wheat, from a bloke in Rosebery, so I started in the sub-terminal, and when the next year came around I did the silo at Rosebury for three years,” he said.
Since that day, Squatter has spent countless thousands of hours collecting a vast amount of knowledge about the bunkers and silos across the region - knowledge which will leave the industry with his retirement today.
Beulah site manager and co-worker Jeff Thewlis has known Squatter for many years, and said was a diligent, loyal worker who never complained, and never left a job unfinished.
“Anything I have ever asked him, never a problem, he always got the job done,” he said.
“His knowledge that he takes with him is going to be sadly missed at Graincorp, because that sort of knowledge over that period of time - you’re never going to get that back again.
“Squatter is a legend in his own right. He is known and respected widely in the farming community, not only through the southern Mallee and the Wimmera but in the broader area of Victoria.
“Every time a farmer or transport truck comes in, the first thing they say is, ‘Where’s Squatter? Is Squatter in today?' They just want to have a chat with him.
“That is the respect he has earned over 50 years.”
Squatter has worked on every site across the Wimmera Mallee, been in every silo, and watched many of them being built.
He is also a prominent feature of the Silo Art Trail, depicted with one of his horses on the Rosebury Silo.
“Over 50 years I’ve worked at Naracoorte, Serviceston, Lillimur, through to the Murray at Carwarp, Barham, Sheep Hills, all around Horsham, around here, Edenhope,” he said.
“One year, Boots and I sewed every bunker tarp from Yaapeet to Goroke, every single tarp.”
He has some good memories of comradery and fellowship, working with mates and making friends in the farming community.
“It’s the blokes you work with who make the job,” he said.
“(When I first started) an old bloke from round here said to me, ‘Oh, what would you know about wheat?’
"And I told him, ‘Well, that’s the catch, I don’t need to know anything. I’ve got a machine in the sample stand that tells me everything, so all I need to know is what time you are coming in so I can be ready for you’.
“He started off having a few shots at me because I was a young bloke, and (by the end of harvest) he would come down and sit in the silo and listen to the cricket.
“We wore him down.”
But it has not all been an easy road, with a severe accident 30 years ago nearly costing Squatter his arm
“I was cleaning the cups down the bottom of the silo, cleaning the hopper pipe, and I heard (my co-worker's) foot on the concrete so I pulled my arm out of the elevator just as he turned it on,” he said.
“140 stitches, three broken bones ... I had to show WorkCover what happened with a piece of poly pipe and it just chopped (the pipe) right off.
“He was my mate, so we settled it out of court. I didn’t want him going to court.
"Then one day he went to sleep watching the cricket and didn’t wake up. He was about 44.”
Contrary to what his colleague and friends say, Squatter thinks he has slowed down in the past two years.
“I trained racehorses for 20 years and they were some big days, getting up at 3.30am to train them then going to work," he said.
"One year I loaded 400 trucks out of here by myself.
“And this year we were the only silo in the area that didn’t get bogged down. Not once.
“But I wouldn’t like to be going to work and not pulling my weight. I never want to be called lazy or useless.”
Squatter is looking forward to spending more time with his horses, his family, and running his bed and breakfast.
“Time to mix it up a bit,” he said.
“My nephew wants me to do some droving for him a couple days a week.
"I’ve got brothers wanting me and nephews wanting me, and I will be able to do more during the week with the horses."
Squatter is also looking forward to expanding his bush trail rides to include weekday excursions.
“Usually I’m rushed after work. I get a lot of kids out of Warrack and here after school (for riding), and I get asked to do bookings for the horse treks through the week, which I couldn’t take before," he said.
“I will miss harvest, miss seeing all the people I’ve known over the years, miss the work.”
Mr Thewlis is keen for Squatter to come back and share his knowledge with the younger generations.
“You could come back for harvest,” Mr Thewlis said.
“He is still always on the shovel or on the broom when I look up, showing up the other younger generation, pulling weeds and keeping the place neat.”