HISTORY OF THE TAB IN THE RIVERINA:

Some of the people who served

Collated by Terry Bear with assistance from Barry Jones April, 2009

REGIONAL CONTROLLERS:

Bill Thom, Neville Roy, Barry Jones

REGIONAL INSPECTORS/REGIONAL MANAGERS:

Maurie Cousley, Bob Tyrell, Don Clark, Mathew Mather

AGENTS:

ALBURY – Terry Clarkson Branch Manager then Agent, Glenys Royal
- Dean Street – Carol Maher
- Village – John Bell, Rex Gream
- North – Robert Devenish
BALRANALD – Heather Mitchell
BARHAM – Mark Learmonth, Margaret Morrow, Jill O’Brien, Auriel Peel
COOTAMUNDRA – Fred Debelin, Barbara Hart
COROWA – Frank Eather, Phillip Groth
DENILIQUIN – John Webster
FINLEY – David McNamara, Carol Maher, Elsa Balchin, Sue Robbins, ?
GRIFFITH – Leo Zanotti, Ray Tampion, Ray Barrington
- West – Paul Langford, Jack Screen, Wayne Mather
GUNDAGAI – Val Clee, John Crawford, Sue Dickinson, John Crawford, John McLean
HAY – Nolene Dalton, Keiran Laurent, Joan Anderson
JUNEE – Gil Pratt, Kevin Lidden
LEETON – Norma Burns
MOAMA - Marna Webster, John Webster, Fay Dwyer
NARRANDERA – Val Clee
TEMORA – Malcolm Lockwood, Kevin Lidden, Wayne Howe
TUMBARUMBA – Maurice Murray
TUMUT – Arnold Ashleigh, Sue Robbins
TEMORA – Arnold Ashleigh, Sue Robins, Phil Jeff.
WAGGA – Kevin Laurent Branch Manager then Agent, Garry Madeley
- Ashmont – Eric Baker
- Kooringal – Allan French
- Turvey Park – Barry Sharp
WENTWORTH – Bill Peebles, Roma Khan
WEST WYALONG – Ray Barrington, Garry Madeley, ? Gardiner
YOUNG – John McKenna, Esmae Troth, Malcolm Lockwood, Garry Madeley

SUB AGENTS:

BATLOW – Jacqueline French
BOOROWA- Paddy Donoghue
BERRIGAN – Bernard Curtin
COLEAMBALLY - Laurie ?
COOLAMON - Joan Crawford, Marie Cain
CULCAIRN – Jenny Morrow
HOLBROOK – Ron Gibson
HOWLONG – Mary James
JERILDERIE – Doug Brenan
LOCKHART - Wilma Cox
MULWALA - ?
TOCOMWAL - ?

While the details of this list have been prepared with great care it may nevertheless contain inaccuracies, omissions, or otherwise be of concern to persons. Requests for amendment of the list made to Allen Windross or Peter De Low will receive immediate attention.

From the Hunter to Hungary - The Recollections of Terry Bear (Assistant Branch Manager – 30/11/1964 – Group Business Manager – 01/07/1994)

In mid 1964 an advertisement appeared in the Newcastle Morning Herald Newspaper inviting applications from people interested in positions of Branch Manager, Assistant Branch Manager and Female Supervisors in Betting Offices of the Totalizator Agency Board of NSW, which were soon to open in the Hunter Area.

I submitted an application and was selected for interview. Some 300 people had been notified and attended the Broadmeadow Racecourse, as a group we were given a basic intelligence test and a basic test of mathematics; this was followed by a personal interview. In my case the interview was conducted by Mr. John Robertson, the General Manager, and Mr. Ron Campion, the Personnel Officer, the salaries on offer were 1700 pounds for a position of Branch Manager and 1400 pounds for a position of Assistant Branch Manager.

In early November I received an offer of a position of Assistant Branch Manager, I accepted, financially it was a lateral move but the opportunity to join a new organization was too good to miss.

Sunday, November 29, 1964 - eight others and myself travelled by train to Sydney and we were booked into the Great Southern Hotel, George Street. The group was Branch Managers, Reg Allen, Frank Bates, Noel Burns and Col Stephenson, Assistant Branch Managers, myself, (Terry Bear) and Bill Hartnett, and Female Supervisors, Helen Folas (later Meagher and Agent, Mayfield)), Helen Mullhern and Val Schiffman.

Next morning we presented ourselves at TAB’s Sussex Street Office and together with a group of others, destined for Sydney TAB Offices, commenced training in the intended operating procedures. Barry Bow was the Training Officer, and we were the third group through the Training Course. Training continued all week and on the Saturday, December 5, we took part in a dummy operational race day, placing bets, selling, sorting tickets, collating, transmitting, calculating dividends and payout. Dummy bank notes were used but the coins were real. I was at the Auburn Office, and at the conclusion of the afternoon’s racing we received a message of “Well Done” and we then, as authorized, took the coin money and all had a drink.

We arrived back in Newcastle on the Sunday morning. Monday and Tuesday at the Charlestown Office to unpack tickets, equipment and NCR Machines and to set up the Branch before training of the casual staff commenced. Wednesday, December 9, 1964 – Charlestown together with four Sydney Offices constituted the opening array for TAB betting on the Canterbury Race Meeting. All went well, the first bet in Newcastle was officially placed by Mr. George Wells, a TAB Board member and president of the Newcastle Jockey Club, the public interest was premium and the crowds of punters that came to Charlestown on the day was immense. Col Duff and Ted Goodwin supervised the Newcastle opening and two VICTAB officers, one of whom was Reg Sampson, who was later to become General Manager of Tasmanian TAB, assisted them, Reg Sampson’s comment of note was that he didn’t think same day payout would be achievable or successful – words that he would later have to eat.

Charlestown continued to operate under Col Duff’s supervision for a couple of weeks and then he handed over control to the Newcastle crew. Not long after the Office at Civic was ready and Charlestown was left to Reg Allen, as Manager, and myself as Assistant Manager, and the others moved to Civic to commence operations.

In the light of experience and economics, operating procedures were changing, payouts became payer/sellers, sellers began reading from the tickets rather than have customers call their bets, tickets were sold and torn in bulk rather than sold and sorted individually.

One experiment of note was the closure of the Branches for one hour after racing ceased on Saturday afternoons to allow for final calculations of dividends and the chance of a shift change /break for staff – it didn’t work. By the time that the customers in the Branch cleared it was time to re-open again, added to this was the aggression of customers waiting to get in as those clearing were allowed to get out – mayhem!

In June 1965, Reg Allen moved on and I was appointed as the Branch Manager, Charlestown, Salary 1700 pounds. I remember some of the staff, who worked with me, Lorna Patterson, Lois Martin as Female Supervisors and Phil Cadell (later agent at Tighes Hill for many years).

In the months that followed I opened the offices at Belmont with Reg Lingard. Then Gosford, with John Andrews, Peter Mills (later Manager, Inspector and ultimately Agent, Gosford) and Mary Gairn. Later I was Manager, Civic, then I opened the office at Lambton with John Latham (later Operations Manager, ACT TAB) to take over as Manager. Decimal Currency was introduced whilst I was at Lambton and dollars and cents was a boon to the TAB manual betting system.

Bob Davis had set up the Newcastle Telephone Betting Centre from Sydney and before it was operational I was put in as Manager. The system was hand written tickets, then normal collating, etc. Manual ledger cards for each customer were used and the system was prone to many mathematical errors with debits and credits - daily balancing was difficult. Pauline Marshall (later the Agent, Belmont) was a casual staffer.

My next step was Manager, Mayfield, and it was here in late July, 1966, that I received a telephone call from Al Smith, the Deputy General Manager, inviting me to move to Orange and become the Inspector for the Central West and work with the Regional Controller, George Ralph – I accepted.

Prior to shifting to Orange I worked for 7 weeks in Sydney as, and learnt the role of, an Inspector. Col Duff was the Chief Inspector and Metropolitan Inspectors were Cliff Allen, Mal Brown, Laurie Culbert, Noel Moss, Frank McCaffery, Jim Murphy, and Cliff Nash. At this time I met people like Allen Windross, then the Manager of St. Peters, whose rise through the TAB culminated with his being General Manager, also Don Dean, the Manager at Redfern, later to become Racecourse Development Officer, Agent, Drummoyne, and still later Agency Officer.

The role of Inspector in those days was, amongst other things, to cash count each office monthly, scrutinize and report on the procedures followed in offices, investigate errors and as well inspect the standard of office cleanliness. Another task was to wind time clocks set up in the NCR selling machines as a time control against the selling of illegal bets.

Regional Centres were established in major Country Cities, the Regional Controller and Inspectorial appointments, (later called Area Supervisors), to each Centre over the years were: -

Newcastle – Regional Controllers: Col Stephenson, Murray McKeough
Inspectors: Reg Allen, Reg Lingard, Ray McIntyre, Bob Clement, Bob Russell and Steve Shaw.

Wollongong – Regional Controllers: Ted Goodwin, Terry Bear
Inspectors: Neville Roy, Terry Murphy, and Peter Colman

Wagga – Regional Controllers: Bill Thom, Neville Roy, and Barry Jones
Inspectors: Maurie Cousley, Bob Tyrell, Don Clark, and Mathew Mather

Tamworth – Regional Controllers: Bill Ashton, Reg Allen
Inspectors: Doug Musker, Garry Collins

Orange – Regional Controllers – George Ralph, Terry Bear
Inspectors: Terry Bear, Brian Stoyles, and Sam Calvert

Lismore – Regional Controller: Brian Edwards
Inspectors – John Badham, Shane Cagney, Peter Weir, John Orford, Barry Fitzgerald, Margaret Seidel, John Ellison (Ian Lamont was Branch Manager and then agent Lismore)

Goulburn – Regional Controllers: Neville Roy, Terry Bear

Dubbo – Regional Controller: Tony Wall
Inspector: Peter Phillips

Bathurst – Inspector: Geoff Brady

Port Macquarie – Inspector: Steve Lorger

I arrived in Orange in September 1966, George Ralph had set a Branch in lower Summer Street, and it was operating, the Manager was Garry James, his assistant Arthur Stedman, the Supervisor was Kath Bright. Soon after my arrival the first Agency, Lithgow, was due to open. The planning for office openings were organized well in advance by Management, the Property Division leased suitable premised and organized a fit out. The Regional Controller and the Agency Officer, Bob Lidbetter, called for prospective Agents, culled applications and then arranged testing and interviews for those selected. The local Court House was a common location for interviews. The applicants were given basic tests in mathematics and intelligence, and then interviewed. The selected Agent was, at their own expense, called to Sydney for training prior to the office opening. Later this occurred in a suitably located nearby Agency.

The offices opened on a Friday and the Inspector’s role was to arrive on the Thursday, unpack stores and set up the office, training of casual staff occurred on the Thursday evening and rosters for the weekend operations were drawn up. A bank account opened and the office opened on the Friday afternoon. Most country centres still had manual telephone exchanges and the Postmaster was given a copy of the Saturday’s race transmission schedule so he could gauge his telephonist’s rosters. Interviews with the Newspaper were also arranged, although the opening of a TAB was of sufficient local interest that most locals knew already.

In my first 15 months in Orange, eight offices were opened, they were: -

Lithgow – Agent Ron Brown, Mudgee – Agent Joe Hughes, Dubbo – Agent Bill Woodnutt, Cowra – Agent Bryce McColl, Forbes – Agent Pat Thompson, Parkes – Agent Ted Hodges, Wellington – Agent Leo Hannelly, Bathurst – Dale Riddiford.

As the number of offices increased a District Office and Transmission Centre was set up above the Summer Street Branch. Kath Bright was appointed as Manager and Joan Bailey was her assistant. The District Centre acted as a collection point for each office’s race investments, there they were collated into a district figure and transmitted to Control Centre in Sydney where a State investment on each race starter was collated and transmitted to the racecourse totalizator. Each Centre kept a record of their incoming figures and the liability of dividends payable race by race. At the end of each race day the District Centre agreed their total investments and dividend liability, by meeting, with Control Centre and each individual office agreed their investments and dividend liability with their District Centre.

The ultimate plan for TAB was computerization of all procedures and in early 1968 a teleprinter was installed in each District Centre. With the later automation the District Centre transmitted its investments by this means direct into the computer.

Within weeks of this new procedure I applied for and was promoted to the position of
Regional Controller, Grade 2, Goulburn (Salary $4627 pa), the vacancy occurred from the promotion of Bill Thom from Wagga to Head Office and the promotion of Neville Roy to his position in Wagga. I took up my new position in March. The Goulburn Region consisted of five offices: -

Goulburn - Branch Manager Allan Turner, Assistant Frank Fitzgerald, Supervisor Rita Paull, Queanbeyan – Agent Clive Corey, Cooma – Agent Jerry Paine, Yass – Agent Tony Pratten, Crookwell – Agent Leon Annable.

Later Manager Rita Paull and Supervisor Wendy Gibben staffed the Goulburn District Centre.

In December, the same year, George Ralph was promoted to the position of Chief Inspector, and in turn I was promoted back to Orange as Regional Controller, Grade 1, (salary $5015). Brian Stoyes had filled my position in Orange and in the ten months I had been away the Region had expanded to 14 offices, the new Agencies were: -

Canowindra – Kevin Whallen, Grenfell – Ted Carroll, Gilgandra – Alex MacLean, Coonamble – Jin Slack-Smith, Nyngan – Keith McChesney

From 1968 to 1975 the Central Western Region continued it’s expansion with Agencies openings, as well as the second office in three cities, they were: -

Blayney – Max Clark, Bourke – Arthur (Ten Bob) Davis, Brewarrina – Peta Wright, Condobolin – Della Roberts
Gulgong – Gloria Gossage, Kandos – Peter McQuiggan, Narromine – Olga Howarth, Oberon – Arthur (Ozzie) Davis
Portland – Judy Welch, Walgett – Ted Quinlan, Wallerawang – Joan Warren, Warren – Duncan Webb
Bathurst South – John Carrol, Dubbo West – Bob Holland
West Orange – Brian Darley.

The duties of a Regional Controller included representing the TAB and the General Manager in attending special race days; promoting TAB and personally delivering distribution cheques to race clubs, many pleasant days were spent with Al Smith and other TAB officials, including three TAB Chairmen, attending Country Cup Meetings.

Other duties included liaison with the Senior Police Officers in the various cities, the main problem was continuing S.P. betting opposition.

The economics of Agency operations changed thinking on further openings and to service the smaller towns, Sub TAB’s operating in existing business were introduced, we opened two in the Central West, each transmitting their investments to nearby Agencies where figures were combined, they were: -

Dunedoo – A General Store – Agent Mark Bloomfield (later Agent Bathurst and Agent of the year).
Molong – Dry Cleaning – Agent Ken Jones (later Agent, Gloucester then Narooma).

The Region had become too unmanageable and management assisted by splitting the Region in 2, Central Western and Western, Tony Wall was appointed as Regional Manager, Western, (Tony later became Racecourse Development Officer).

In 1978 the conversion of country TAB offices to TABMARK I computerized betting was well underway and Regional Staff were involved in follow up work after the conversion team members had left. In August, following problems in the Illawarra Area, I was invited by Col Duff to move to Wollongong to take charge of the South Coast and Southern Tablelands Regions, I accepted and received a personal allowance of $300 pa for controlling two Regions.

No problems were encountered in the move and the conversions of the outlying Agencies to TABMARK I continued, 3 new Agencies and 8 Sub Agencies were opened, they were:

Queanbeyan West – Greg Bradley (later Agent of the Year), Keiraville – Agent Allen Robbins, Albion Park – Agent Sonja Davies
Gerringong – Fishing Tackle/Garage – Bill Williamson, Greenwell Point – General Store – Joan Davis, Culburra – Squash Court – Joan Davis
Milton – Used Goods – Mike McCormack, Bermagui – Dive Centre – Bob Collins, Tathra – General Store – Greg Wilson
Pambula – Sports Store -?, Jindabyne – Hotel/Ski Gear – Graeme Bookalil

* Bermagui had the distinction of selling the last NCR ticket in the State.

In 1982 I attended the Illawarra Turf Club with the then General Manager, Len Corkill, and was invited to assist with the establishment of a manual system of betting suitable for operations in the State’s Hotels and Clubs, I accepted. The system designed was based on a 2-part ticket. The ticket layout was deliberately similar to those used in TAB’s Tabmark terminals. Following lengthy delays due to TAB Agents making representations to the NSW Minister for Sport and Recreation, Mike Cleary, the first official betting in licensed premised occurred in the County Inn Hotel, Robertson, and the Kearsley Hotel, Kearsley, in 1983, I handed over the project to John Ellison in 1984.

In 1984 a proposed change to the Sales Division of TAB offered the opportunity for promotion to a position of Regional Group Controller – Country South, I applied and was successful, the position was an enlargement of the duties I already performed and covered all of southern NSW, including Broken Hill and the ‘famous’ first appointed manager there, Fred Byrne. Along with some retitling, a position I held until I retired in 1994.

My new position allowed me to meet some of the long standing Agents of the Riverina: -

Wagga – Kevin Laurent, Suburbs - (Kooringal) – Allen French, (Turvey Park) – Barry Sharp, (Ashmont) – Eric Baker, Narrandera – Val Clee, Balranald – Heather Mitchell, Wentworth – Roma Khan, Griffith - Ray Barrington (the first Agent, West Wyalong), Leeton – Norma? Albury and Suburbs – Robert Devenish, Carol Meagher, Rex Gream, Glynnis Royal, Tumut – Arnold (Ash) Ashleigh, Tumbarumba – Maurice Murray, Finley – Elsa Balchin.

The Riverina also had a number of Sub Agencies, Batlow,Holbrook, Howlong, Mulwala, Tocumwal, Jerilderie, Berrigan, Coolamon, Culcairn.

However, there was one more aspect to my roles in TAB, in 1992, the General Manager, Allen Windross, invited me to be Resident Manager of the Hungarian Project and be based in Budapest for 12 months from June, 1992, this was appointment was a highlight of my TAB career and was a marvellous experience.

I returned from Hungary in July 1993, resumed by position of Group Business Manager and I continued in this role till my retirement on July 1, 1994.