October - November 2013
MODERN QUARRYING
15
FACE TO FACE WITH
LYNNE MONTGOMERY
Monty Montgomery is acknowledged for his service to the Institute. Monty
served as chairman from 1987-1988.
Bryan Rookledge (right) receives a certificate from current IQSA chairman
Glenn Johnson, for his unstinting service. Bryan was chairman for the 1997-
1998 period.
the
Newsletter
was great fun, especially
when we had contributors like Colonel
Ponsonby-Smythe (aka Gary Browne) and
Sonia D’Arcy (aka Peter Kernick), each with
their own inimitable sense of humour.”
However, the committee eventu-
ally decided to take a more professional
approach, and for the last 15 years or so,
the
Newsletter
has changed into a glossy
professional publication, printed, man-
aged and run by an outside publisher and
editor. The editor of
MQ
has been associ-
ated with the IQSA for well over 20 years,
editing two Institute magazines, the
most recent one being
Modern Quarrying
,
which is seven years old.
The industry was fairly fragmented
in those early days and very competitive
despite the fact that there were stone
cartels controlling the price of stone.
The competitiveness stretched into the
annual conference’s dinner dance, where
there was major consternation if a Hippo
company table was placed alongside a
Tarmac table, for example.
“Operations were definitely techni-
cally challenged particularly where blast-
ing technology was concerned,” Lynne
says. “Tony Goetzsche, who was with
AECI then, would tell stories of some of
the older quarrymen charging up a blast
in some operations. This would involve a
blaster laying out the blast, cutting the
fuses and selecting the fastest and most
agile ‘cheesa’, who was handed a cheesa
stick and told to run like hell. Things have
come a long way since then, thanks to
the considerable research and develop-
ment undertaken by the major explosives
suppliers.
“We had some amazing times – hard
work, but with lots of fun as well,”she says.
“Most of the fun conferences were the
mid-year ones, where we didn’t have the
formality of the AGM.”
She cites one of these held in Port
Elizabeth, with one of the more memo-
rable papers being Bernard Pakes’ pre-
sentation on productivity. “Bernard had
put together a computer composite of a
really ugly woman, which he said was his
‘sister’, and demonstrated through various
productivity enhancement methods how
he could improve her. At the end of his
talk, he introduced his sister and a stun-
ning model in a swimsuit walked down
the centre aisle. Some of the delegates
nearly fell off their chairs.”
Lynne was holding the model’s coat
in the foyer, and as the voluptuous model
stepped out of the auditorium, Trudi
Hudley and a number of other wives
walked in. “I am sure Henry and some of
the other guys got quite a grilling after
that with the wives asking whether this
was what they called work!”
The Eastern Cape and Clive Londt in
particular, went out of their way to make
this conference memorable. One tale
MQ
has often heard spoken of was the return
to Port Elizabeth on the Apple Express,
which was hired for the day for the
Institute. Doug Ritchie, who held a very
prestigious position in the industry at the
time, took over the duties of the guards-
man complete with flag, hat and whistle.
Evan Shaw and a couple of others helped
to drive the train, with Martin Botha and
others playing ‘Wild West’ on top and
alongside the carriages.
Lynne was auctioned off for a bottle
of Johnnie Walker
and two packs of
Ca s t l e, and wa s
fairly upset that she
represented so lit-
tle value, until she
realised that there
wasn’t one can of
Castle left on the
train.
“Monty was
chairman that
year, and we
nearly left him
b e h i n d j u s t
east of Van Staden’s River
Bridge,”she says. “Because of the quantity
of alcohol consumed and the length of
time that the journey took from Loerie
to Port Elizabeth, we had to have regu-
lar comfort breaks for the guys. Monty,
with the due decorum that his position
required, decided not to simply stand
with his back to the train like everyone
else, but to go to the end of the train to
relieve himself.
“Unfortunately the train driver chose
