Personalities > Edward (Ed) Wright
Edward (Ed) Wright
Edward (Ed) Wright (1926 – ) was born in Mount Street, Pyrmont, to Walter and Caroline Wright (nee Moore). At four, he attended Maybanke kindergarten, until it closed and he transferred to Ultimo School. When he completed school at 14, his father interceded with the local Alderman, who found him a job in ‘Youth Cleansing’. Beginning as a ‘sparrow starver’, he he was part of a ‘broom brigade’ regularly sweeping the Harbour Bridge. Seconded to the Council garage in Bay Street, he was delighted to learn to ride Harley Davidson motor cycles.
At age 18 he expected to be called up for the army, but was disappointed to be returned to cleaning – this time riding a Harley Davidson with a side-box for cleaning equipment for gutters and horse-troughs. That led to his appointment as weighbridge operator – one of 600 staff at the Pyrmont Destructor (staff nicknamed it The Burner). The new section, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, was ultra-modern.
Edward became a foreman in 1962, and then Senior Supervisor until he retired in 1986 – with 600 days of unused sick leave entitlements.
Edward and Betty married in 1951.
On 20 September 2015, aged 89, Edward and Betty returned to Pyrmont and spoke to the Pyrmont History Group. This address is the source for this entry, for understanding how the Incinerator worked, and for many first-hand accounts of life in industrial Pyrmont.
