Sparky's Life
Sparky's Life
Small Town, Big Heart
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A new season opens with a homecoming to Wauchope, weaving origin stories, schoolyard rituals, and rugby league pride into a tradesman’s path back to small-town life. We share why leaving sharpened our view of community, craft, and what a local name still means for a business.
• new season goals and broader show focus
• Wauchope’s naming origin and early settlement
• school memories, nuns, and Friday church
• logging, dairy, and local factories shaping work
• rugby league culture and family legacy
• manual phone exchange and three-digit numbers
• Colonial Week traditions and a tight main street
• Telstra years, redundancy, and trade pivot
• apprenticeship to business owner on the Gold Coast
• decision to return and rebuild in Wauchope
• services and lifestyle advantages of a small town
• renovating a 1965 home with modern upgrades
• meeting a former resident and preserving history
• Timbertown’s closure and community memory
• invitation for listener stories and future topics
If you like what you hear on today’s show, make sure you share this podcast with your mates who are electricians or who are involved in the tradie world.
I want to reach out and help as many tradies as I can with this podcast.
I want to help tradespeople break through to the next level in their career and in their lives.
If there is anything you’d like me to talk about on future episodes, maybe want to ask a question or be on the show, you can do this by contacting us on any of our media sites
I’ll put the links to these in the show notes
And don’t forget to follow the show and leave a review
https://www.facebook.com.au/dylkoelectrical
https://www.instagram.com/dylkoelectrical
https://twitter.com/dylkoelectrical
https://linkedin.com/in/dylkoelectrical
https://www.electricianwauchope.com.au
Welcome back to everyone from Coast to Coast, up to bottom from the studios in Warhope on the beatable coast of USA planes. It's another episode of Sparky's Live with your fantastic host, Ron Yuko.
SPEAKER_02:Hello everyone, welcome back to Sparky's Life, the show where we talk shop, share stories and keep it real in the world of trading. I'm your host Brad Dilko. And yes, yes, welcome back and happy 2026 to everyone. It feels so great to be back with season 2 of my podcast show. This year I have stacks of new content. I have shifted my work-life balance around to bring you more regular shows, not only talking about the tradey world, but all things that make us happy in this world, which means other than work. This year will include interviews with people of town and surrounding areas. I will try and make this show exciting, funny and informative. But hey, I'm just a nice guy who's only trying his best in life. And also to entertain you all. So sit back and enjoy the very first show for 2026. And to kick it off, I'd like to talk about my town. The town of Warhope. Growing up in Warhope, I love my town, it has a lot to offer. And I'd like to share some of my thoughts. So let's get the show started. I have some interesting fun facts about Warhope. Why is Warhope called Warhope? Well the story is, in 1836, a fellow by the name of Captain Robert Andrew War paid a deposit on 760 acres on King Creek. He called this property Warhope, and it was this on this property that the town was first came into existence. Now another interesting fact about this uh Captain Robert Andrew War is his name was originally Warhope, but his father made him drop the OPE from his name because there was some type of family dispute. So that was very interesting to find that out. Anyway, the joys of growing up in a small town. When I was born in the town of Warhope, it had about 2 to 3 thousand people living in the area. In the 2016 census, there were 6,312 people in Warhope. Of these, 47.4% were male, 52.6% were female, Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.1% of the population. And the median age of people in Warhope was 43 years. Now the population has grown. In the 2021 census, uh the population is 7,982 people. But since then there's been a big boom in debt uh land release um in the outer areas Warhope and King Creek. So that um fig has now blown out of proportion and I'm not too sure on the total population until the next census comes out. Also growing up in Warhope, I went to St. Joseph's primary school in Warhope. It was close enough to home that I could walk or ride my pushbike or pushy, as we used to call them. I don't know why, but because you don't push them at all. Unless you're trying to ride up a very steep hill, then you have to get off and push it. Otherwise, you ride them. Most of the teachers at uh St. Joseph's were Catholic nuns, and there were a few regular teachers as well. It got to the stage where it was roughly half nuns and half regular teachers. And every Friday we had to go to church. Uh the church services were Friday lunch times, and the church was also on the school grounds. Back then in the town, there was a lot of logging of trees and forests and sawmills scattered around the local area. Dairy and cattle farming was a very big thing as well. There was a lot of dairy and cattle farming families scattered around and in the local area. A lot of the buses uh went out to all the different districts to bring the kids to and from the schools. So we saw a lot of logging and milk trucks as the roads on the roads as well. Warhope also had their own cheese and milk factories because of this, and it was located along the banks of the Hastings River. My father was a builder and played a lot of rugby league for Warhope. So he was very well known and he was a very talented footballer. It was and still is a big rugby league town. A lot of local players made it to the big time and played in Sydney for various clubs in what is known now as the NRL. My brother and I went to the same primary school when high school. I remember every Sunday was game day for War Hope Skippies. We would travel to the away games as well. My Nan had the job of washing all the jerseys. My Nan did all three grades eighteens, reserves, and first grade. Some weekends were so muddy, my Nan would have to take the jerseys outside and hose them off on the lawn before putting them in the washing machine. And Nan's washing machine back then was a double bowl setup. So what that would mean, it had two bowls. One bowl is to rinse and s and the other one was to wash. It was all done manually. And there was a big double rolling pin set uh as well with a big handle. So you can wring out the clothes out to get all the water out of them. This was used if you didn't have a spin option on the machine, and then would also do repairs on them, such as sew the emblems or numbers back on them, or reattach a sleeve or a tear. Back then they were full-sleeve jerseys. On the weekends we would go to the local park and play either touch football or tackle. Nothing too rough to do, just playing around with your mates. A lot of bike riding and fishing filled up the rest of the time. Most holidays we would go to Bonnie Hills and camp and go to the beach. The Warhope crowd would go to Bonnie Hills, which was south down the highway. And the Port Macquarie crowd would go to Southwest Rocks, which was further north up the highway. When it came to sport between the two towns, it was very biz it was very serious business and rivalry. They called it the Battle of the Hastings. Especially when it was a rugby league game against Warhope and Port Macquarie. Everyone sorta knew each other or was known in the town as it had a smaller population back then. My mum worked at the local telephone exchange near the post office. It was a manual exchange. So that meant you had an operator to connect the phone call. When you picked up the phone, the operator would ask number please. Everyone had a three-digit number assigned to their house or business. It used to be called the PMG, which was Postmaster General. Then when the post office and the telephone exchange split to have their own separate identities, the telephone exchange was called Telecom and the Post Office was called Australia Post. Over the years, Telecom was rebanded rebranded as Telstra. Back then no one had a mobile phone, as they weren't invented yet. You had to ring the person's home number, or if it was after work, the local pub, if you knew which pub they drank at. There was no computers and no internet. Most things were done by handwriting and a typewriter. Every year we had Colonial Week where the business shops owners and staff would dress up in the colonial clothing. And there was a big parade down the main street and participates would enter a street mall. There would be flowers, different coloured grape paper, and streamers used to decorate the floats. It was all good fun and a lot of people got involved. Colonial Week is no longer. It stopped many years ago. When my brother finished his schooling, he went to work in the family business. I worked in the family business for a year after I left high school. Then I got a job with Telstra in Sydney, then transferred to the Gold Coast. I left after ten years with a redundancy package. I had a string of mobile job phone jobs after that. Then I got a start with an electrical contractor as an electrical trade assistant on the Gold Coast. This led into an uh into an electrical apprenticeship. When I finished my time, I went out by myself and started my own business while I was still on the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast was getting too big and overcrowded with people moving there in droves. And there was a lot of tradespeople competing for the same work. The roads were so busy and took forever to get anywhere. So I decided to come back to Warhope and move my electrical business with me. I would have to say that's the best thing I've ever done. When I came back, even after 20 years away, people still remembered me or my family's good name and reputation. That did help me when getting work and regular clients. We mainly just service Warhope and surrounding areas, and that keeps us busy. I'm still happy to this day that I came back to my small town called Warhope. The town has everything in it that people need or require, such as a railway station, post office, library, clubs, pubs, cafes and restaurants. Food, grocery, clothing and hardware stores. An ample amount of petrol stations, real estate agents are aplenty, and banks. Sporting venues such as tennis, courts, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, and soccer fields. A show ground, basketball stadium, skate park, crossfit called a cave, and two gym establishments. Warhope Fitness and the newest being Anytime Fitness and access to the river for all the various different water activities. I'm sure there is many more to mention, so I'm sorry if I've missed anyone else out. I remember when I came back, I ran into a few different school friends that never left Warhope. A couple of them complained about Warhope being so boring and didn't understand why I came back. I responded by saying how happy I was to be back in town and the town has everything I need. It just takes a little or a big time away from your hometown to really appreciate what you have missed. Also, I met my new partner when I moved to Warhope. Although Helen was from Cobar, out west of New South Wales, it didn't happen until I moved. We are proud homeowners now. We bought an older home which was built in 1965. It's built off the ground on piers. We have totally renovated it and added a self-contained unit and storeroom off our existing separate garage. Replaced all the double-hung windows with aluminium sliders, replaced the roof tiles with Calibond, replaced all the plumbing and added solar panels. It's as good as new again, and we love it. A lot can be said about old homes. They have a lot of character and charm about them. And the workmanship on these old homes when they originally built was absolutely amazing. The tradespeople that built these old homes put a lot of time and effort into them. With a bit of maintenance and renovation improvements, they will be around for a long time to come. We actually met the lady that grew up in our house when she was little. We've invited her around a few times to show her what we've done with the house. She was quite surprised and glad that we were looking after it. She also told us a bit of history about the house and her family when they moved into it. When it was built. So it has only had two owners, her parents and now us. Just recently it was announced that the town built on timber production and the home of the theme park Timbertown will lose a little bit of its history when Timbertown closes its doors at the end of January for the very last time. I remember then when that land that Timbertown is on was nothing but farmland. I walked through Timbertown as it was getting built. Those memories will last forever. Hi there, I'm Grant Dorco. If this is your first time here at Sparky's Life, welcome. It's great to have you here. And if you're back here for more, welcome back and thank you for your loyalty and support. If you like what you hear on today's show, make sure you share this podcast with your mates who are electricians or who are involved in the tradey world. I want to reach out and help as many tradies as I can with this podcast. I want to help tradespeople break through to the next level in their career and in their lives. Two drivers going in the opposite directions could stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem at all. A woman walked into the motor registry on a Friday. She saw that there were three people ahead of her, so she left to come back another time when they weren't so busy. Where I grew up, if we called Triple Zero after midnight, the operator would have us on hold so she could wake up the police officer on duty. The town had no roundabouts, only one set of traffic lights, which were for the railway crossing. Our town was so small when you picked up the phone to get the operator, you didn't have to quote the three-digit phone number of the person you wanted to be connected to, just saying the person's name and the operator already knew without quoting the number. If you have any other examples to share, drop me a comment or a message. So that's all for now, folks. But before I go, if there is anything you'd like me to talk about on future episodes, maybe want to ask a question or be on the show, you can do this by contacting us on any of our media sites. I'll put the links to these in the show notes. And don't forget to follow the show and leave a review. Thanks for listening to Sparky's Live. I'm your host, Grant Dolco. Keep safe and catch you on the next one.
SPEAKER_00:Wishing for this road to take us far Now I've been a way too long and going home Sweet memories of a town I love but oh changed when you left I keep on asking myself in my mind Were you the one that I don't we have Sweet memories of the town I love that oh change for me I keep on asking myself in my mind were you the one Were you the one? Always on my mind Were you the one? Always there you the one that got away
