When I joined ('79) there was no butchers rate. However there was a bloke named Graham Farmer who was a butcher at Nirimba I think (or was that Cerberus)? He did his apprenticeship outside beforehand I thnk and he was the only butcher I met in my time.

Good to see some of these old topics getting a second lease of life .And everyones input is much appreciated Yes a lot of the old rates have gone by the wayside over the years They call it progress we now only have our memories of what it was like cutting up a block of topside on a cold winters morning Regards Quinny

Butcher shop , HMAS Sydney , '66 . Happily cutting up topside into steaks . Thing was , the butcher shop was virually on the "uppers", out the door was a walkway , guard-rail and over the side!! So the trick was , slice off lump of fat and toss over the shoulder ,out the door and into the 'oggin . Saved carrying heavy bins down ladders to the shit shute . Every thing is beaut ,till a huge scream behind me sent a shock wave down my spine ...........I'd just scored a bulls-eye on the X.O. Huge investigation , the two rated Butchers who had shown me the trick pointed the bone at me and played dum .............14 days Chooks ...end of story

Ha Jaffa, remember Kev Gootcha CPOButcher I"ll never forget him and Pincher Martin CPOCK ? drinking lemon essence for morning brew, gee those two could put'm away. I believe Kev was a gun boxer in his young days and even fleet champion for his weight. I can still see those 2 sucking on the sauce up the S/S Galley at Cerberus. Catch ya

Butcher's rate
Hi all. Hope you don't mind a non-cook type intruding but I thought I might be able to add some info to this for you as I have quite a bit of info on the history of categories and rate badges for the RAN. In 1964 under the RATSTRUC review there were 26 Butchers in the RAN with 13 being at sea, mainly on larger ships such as carriers and destroyers etc. It was decded at this time to disband the branch Because, according to the report "only 25% of their time is taken up with actual butchering duties, it is proposed that a number of butchers be cross trained to Stores Assistants, thus hastening the exit of the Butcher Branch from the RAN". By 1974 under SAILSTRUC there were 6 Butchers and 3 Printers left in the RAN and these sailors were being allowed to phase out with either a transfer to another branch or through attrition by leaving the navy. No more were recruited from this time. I hope this helps. Feel free to drop me an email or refer to my web site: www.ratebadges.zoomshare.com.

Rate Badges
No probs Allen always glad of any constructive input > i had occasion to visit your site and downloaded a cooks Rate Yes you have put in the hard yard and its an excellent resource For people Like myself Cliff sent me details of the site .Butchers went the same way as Officers cooks and untill you mentioned it I was unaware that we had a printers branch in pussers The things you learn any way mate keep up our good work Regards quinny

Hi mate. Thanks for the feedback. You are right about the OC's going the same way as the Butchers. As for the Printers: The Printer branch was employed to basically do what IPC did, print recruitment stuff, course documents etc. All were based at Kuttabul and there were no sea postings, for obvious reasons. All were PO's & CPO's and my understanding is that they were all qualified printers before entering. When the decision was made to end the branch they were offered TOB to Writer or DAOR whic most took. The other branch that was around for a short time was Data Operator. They came in around 1963 and were gone shortly after 1974. They essentially were employed for the data collection and transmission systems being brought in at that time. they had the RO badge with a D undernath. When phased out they were offered TOB to Writer, RO or TO. Many RO's were not happy about them coming over to their branch for some reason.