The Chimes

Graeme Edwards is known all over town as Shady, a nickname he picked up many years ago. Shady came to New Norcia over eight years ago to work with the Grounds and Maintenance team. He is a qualified Cabinet Maker/Carpenter and has had extensive experience working on heritage buildings, so this role was a good fit for him and his skills.

Shady can, and does, turn his skills to anything and everything. One of the things he loves is the variety of the work, never the same from day to day. He can be working on a heritage building, using the backhoe to dig up and repair a water leak, driving the ride-on mower or tractor with a slasher, harvesting olives, or any one of another hundred jobs that go together to keep the community ticking over.

Shady lives with his wife Helen (Helly) in Bindoon on 1.2 hectares (3 acres) with Ralph the “sheepdog” and Storm. He has 4 daughters, 7 grandchildren and (surprisingly) one great-grandchild. (He says he started young). One of the things he loves about the job here is the 35-minute peaceful drive to and from work, no traffic!

Before coming to New Norcia, Shady spent some years in Karratha, where he was a manager for Baker Hughes, and was instrumental in commissioning a plant on the Burrup to manufacture drilling fluids for oil and gas exploration. He then commissioned another of those plants in Mauretania in Africa, where he was FIFO, month on, month off, for a time.

In his spare time, he loves to chill out with family and reads a lot of Robert G Barrett books from the series about Les Norton...who Shady chuckles about. Les is a big red-headed Queenslander who drinks a lot and gets in his share of scuffles. Shady spends quite a bit of time in Mandurah these days caring for his 80-year-old mother with Mesothelioma.

He still dreams of visiting Uluru one day and still thinks he might make the big jump out of a plane with a parachute! He draws great inspiration from family, watching them achieve their goals and grow and develop into mature adults and great parents.