Keith Jackson | Woodworkers of the Southern Peninsula

Keith Jackson - House and Jetty Builder

Keith joined the Woodworkers of the Southern Peninsula in 2007 which makes him one of the longest serving members of the Club. And somewhat a quiet achiever. He claims to have spent much of his time at the Club on the lathes being a keen wood turner focusing on bowls. Age is taking its toll on Keith – he now uses a walking frame (and all that entails) – something he is not pleased about. But in spite of this limitation, Keith retains a positive attitude and is a regular at the Club workshop. He uses the ‘black stool’ (Keith claims that stool as his…) to sit at the lathe – works just fine. He also works at his own lathe at home and delights in not having to have the workplace neat and tidy all the time.

Keith is like many in the Club – born and worked in England before leaving ‘old blighty’ and making Australia home. Keith hales from a more familiar part of England – Norfolk. He was born in North Wootton a town located between, and not far from, Kings Lynn in one direction and Sandringham Estate (and Palace) 5 miles in the other direction – approximately 150 Kms north (NNE actually) of London. (Keith never did catch up with Queen Elizabeth 11). His father was a farmer – not something Keith wanted to do – too hard. Upon completing his apprenticeship as a carpenter and at the age of 21, he was promptly dismissed as his apprenticeship employer could no longer pay just apprentice wages but must pay him as a fully qualified tradesman.

No doubt about it – employers are the same worldwide – averse to paying more than they have to. It was also an opportunity for Keith to try his hand at something totally different – initially on digging machines before taking up crane driving, especially big cranes.

Over the next twelve years, Keith worked in many locations up and down the UK – Felixstowe (116 km northeast of London), South Wales, Middlesbrough (north Yorkshire on the England east coast), Canvey Island (London). Much of this time, he drove big ‘crawler’ cranes mounted on barges and used to build or repair piers. A major part of the work involved the driving of piles using diesel driven pile-drivers. This would be rather specialised work when one thinks about it.

He also drove tower cranes building taller structures such as cooling towers, etc. On one such site, the crane reached some 100 metres high – height that Keith had to climb up the ladder when starting work. Keith admits to needing 20 minutes to climb the tower crane plus needing a 15 minute ‘recovery break’ on reaching the cabin. Often wondered who serviced these tower cranes – turns out it was onsite fitters. At least Keith didn’t have to crawl out on the boom….

In 1982, Keith moved to Australia. He would have preferred to continue driving cranes but – voila – no work in that profession was to be had here in Melbourne. So back to the profession he was trained in – carpentry. No retraining needed – his UK ticket was all that was required. Using his home in Rosebud as base, he worked on domestic dwellings along the Peninsula as well as more remote sites like Drouin, Creswick, Walkerville, Geelong. Keith commuted to those remote sites – quite a commitment. All the while, he worked for himself….

In 2000, Keith built a new house for he and Janet in the backyard of their property on the corner of Jetty Road and Inglewood Cr. They then sold off their original home. Their current house really is a delightful home and very conveniently located. Padua College down Inglewood Cr does present a bit of a challenge during school drop off and pick up times.