31/07/2024
Looks familiar 😍
OLD CHARLIE - A LITTLE GEM FROM THE 1930s
There was once a painter in Perth who worked 40 hours a week and did all his work in the dark!
Known by the Traffic Department and to police as Old Charlie, he was possibly the only painter in the West who painted between midnight and 7 am.
Charlie was a boon to motorists and pedestrians. His job was to paint the hundreds of white lines around the city streets, footpaths and around the "bad bends" of Mounts Bay Road.
So while others were sleeping, Charlie was at work - "for a rushing motor car passing over his freshly painted white lines, would spoil the job."
Charlie did not have to get down on all fours with a paintbrush and paint by hand as many people may have imagined. Instead, he used a patent device to draw the lines. He simply turned on the tap and wheeled it along, ensuring the lines were not too thick or thin. The cleaner the road, the better the result.
While the job was not for everybody, Charlie found it interesting and took great pride in it. After all “it was not everyone that could make straight lines in the dark". Even the Perth policemen on their beat would occasionally take a lesson from "Old Charlie" on line drawing.
From time to time, while "pushing his pram", Charlie was mistaken as the hot-pie cart man and hailed down. But there was no sitting down with this painter, for he had to keep on the move to preserve his white lines against the wear and tear of the city traffic.
SOURCE - The Truth newspaper, 1930.
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Image: Old Charlie paints white lines on the road in Perth
Photograph | 1930.
Available at Online (Call number: 233092PD)
The West Australian ABC Perth Main Roads Western Australia WAtoday.com.au
