The first is not actually at Wavell High, but in Wavell Heights. Trevor Walz is power-cleaning about 85 kilos during early 1969

The location is interesting. One of the Wavell lifters, Pete Frostick (now deceased) had a supportive family. He was allowed to bring his collection of fanatic schoolboy lifters home to train on the enclosed back verandah, which was covered with vinyl tiles. One weekend, Pete's father had a small table covered with dishes of agar to raise orchids, right next to where we were lifting (snatches, the lot). He said it was okay, so long as we did not drop the bar; which of course did happen on other occasions

In the second photo, Mick Reilly tips 120 kilos forward, using a definitely un-Eleiko like bar). Even at that tender, irresponsible age we decided that prize orchids were worth more than a PB in training.

For an indication of how deadlifts can ruin your health, take a look at young Evan Davies (long vanished from the lifting scene). He eventually pulled up 140 kilos in this manner. Perhaps that's the reason he quit.

The general layout and ambience of Wavell gym is captured in this snap of Peter Frostick pressing. The gym was always busy at lunchtime, and our trainer and mentor, Pat Pacey, had provided abundant weights made of steam train pistons (steam trains were scrapped in large numbers in 1969, so as one of my favourite pastimes (train-spotting) ended, it provided the stuff for my new obsession)!

These were built to dimensions, not weight; and were brittle, being cast iron with piston ring grooves around the edge. Fortunately, Queensland steam trains were made symmetrical (there were some three-cylinder steamers in other States), so if you kept the weights stacked in pairs, it wasn't too hard to make up a symmetrical bar of some odd weight! The bonus was that by juggling the odd poundages around, one could provide a pound by pound increment.

Some of the loads looked messy, observe yours truly with a load of jerk supports. After some use, with dropping on the grooved edges, pieces were lost with the result that weights were not only inaccurate, but decreased over time. There was one occasion of shrapnel flying across the room, when steel weights were left lying too close to the squat rack.