A recent caller to ABC radio station 702 recalled Ernest Ridding, the Glebe resident who recycled fridges and donated an estimated 3,000 fridges to people in need.
This reminded me that I had met Ernest Ridding some time ago. I was looking for a hinge for an old ice chest, and the man in the hardware shop suggested that I ask Ernest, who was living and working in a house on the corner of Catherine and Westmoreland Street. The sign at the front of his repair workshop read: “Ernie’s charity recycling. If you want to talk money, piss off.”
He was barefooted, had long white hair and a beard and was wearing an immaculately clean shirt and shorts. Ernest invited me into his workshop, where he had a large collection of spare parts for fridges, stored in neat racks and clearly labelled “right hand hinges” etc. Although they looked as though they came from old fridges, they were far too modern for my needs. Ernest left me to look around the workshop, as he had “an appointment with a chip-heater shower”.
I also remembered that Ernest had stood as an Independent candidate in a State election. As I have great difficulty throwing things away, I had kept his Election Policy. This had appeared in my mailbox years ago. I don’t know why my mailbox was chosen, or how many copies were distributed.
Luckily I was able to find the document, which I think was written in 1988. It consists of 18 pages, closely typed using a manual typewriter and Gestetner type stencils. It is printed double-sided on varying sized sheets of recycled paper. When I think back to my struggles with this pre-computer and pre-photocopier technology, I can only admire his hard work.
The document outlines Ernest’s policies for “Ridding the State of …” a list of nine problems: poverty, medical madness, mental institutions, backward pupils, unemployed, useless wastes, effluent, Police verbal and farmers’ problems.
I had intended to retype some of these policies for the Bulletin. However when I read them I realised that although many of us may broadly agree with some of his policies, they are peppered with comments that we would now consider “politically incorrect”. I have therefore extracted details of Ernest Ridding’s life story from this document. There were a few spelling mistakes, which I have corrected, remembering how hard it was to make corrections with “nail varnish” on the old stencils.
My Mother gave me a body, possibly seeded by someone who never had the guts to stay around, so when I arrived, the names began, a son a boy, possibly a bastard. Born 22/8/ 27 at Lubeck, near Horsham in Victoria.
I do not know anything about my parents, my knowledge today tells me they were in no condition to be breeding.
I was dumped on the State of Victoria at 6 months, and all my schooling was done at the Salvation Army Boys Home at Box Hill.
About 1955 I went to Balranald to try Market Gardening, and within 2 years was set up by lying Cops and Doctors and committed to the Mental Hospital at Kenmore (hence my title G.K.N. Graduate of Kenmore Nuthouse). …. I was there 20 months and was released about October 1957. … (Ernest was diagnosed as a “paraphrenic”, which resembles paranoia.)
In 1967 I left a job of 7 years with the P.M.G. and joined the Helping Hand Mission at Crows Nest.
In 1972 I started my own Mission (Ernie’s Independent Mission).It lasted 2 years until helpers got too greedy. I started with a Mini Minor car and in 2 years had built up to a Morris J2 van, a Fargo van and a 2 ton Daihatsu truck. All earnt by recycling bottles, cans, rags, scrap metals, even washing off postage stamps and selling in bundles of 100s, and collecting Lan Choo tea coupons.
Those that donated their waste, were given anything else I was given. Even a concrete mixer, I told the recipient I would swap it for his daughter. But I never got my end of the bargain. I even got the remains of several farms after auction, and these were used to restore storm damaged properties at Londonderry. All this was made possible from recycled wastes. But then greed gets the better of most people, so I gave all the trucks away to needy people.
I now spend most of my time repairing refrigerators and giving them away to anybody in need. Everybody should have a fridge.
If someone brings me a fridge I usually swap it for a good one.
I personally do not believe in having possessions. I work with anything others consider unrepairable, therefore I walk away from anything I build up. This makes a lot of sense.
Past experience such as the Nuthouse has taught me to trust nobody.
The building is condemned but free of rent, which suits me. I do not waste money repairing broken windows as someone will no doubt break them again.
Glebe lost one of its “identities” when Ernest Ridding died in 2001, aged 74. His old home, which has been sold recently, has a redevelopment notice on the fence.
There is a plaque in the garden of the St John’s Community Centre commemorating Ernest Ridding. The inscription reads:
In memory
Ernest Francis Ridding GKN LLM
“Ernie the Fridge Man”
“In giving, he inspires us to give”
Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir A.C. CVD
Governor of New South Wales
18 September 2007
(The letters “GKN LLM” at the end of his name were a reference to his time at the Kenmore Psychiatric Hospital in Goulburn and stood for “Graduate of Kenmore Nuthouse, Legally and Lawfully Mad”.)
5 comments. Please add yours.
I never got to meet Ernest even though he was a half brother due to circumstances and no information until later in his life we had no contact until later years .
He was a great man who thought of others before himself.
Needless to say that I didn’t stumble across this article about Ernie. I searched for any reference to this interesting and extraordinary guy.
I am a dual citizen living in the UK. Back in the late 80s as a c.28 year old I worked for the Australian Medical Association which was then based in Glebe opposite the Uni.
I came across Ernie and his fridges and found him an amazing character. A tad acerbic but he warmed to my interest in what he was doing.
Thanks Edwina for posting the article. Glebe, in the my few years of knowing it well, was a wonderful slice of city Australiana.
I remember chatting (technically he was doing all the talking, I grunted in acknowledgement) with Ernie whilst risking life, limb and tetnus, scavenging for useful computer parts in his house. I gave him an old computer monitor to ratify the bargain, he gave me free run to take whatever I needed.
I ended-up spending all day there, building several servicable PCs from what I found. He endevoured to donate them to the needy.
Nice old guy. It was sad when he passed. End of an era.
Ernie gave me a fridge when I was a struggling student in the ‘80s I offered him $20 but he refused to take it – he was a big hearted man, good man, I had a beat up old van and delivered a few TVs & washing machines to people for him. A few years later when I no longer needed the fridge I took it back for someone else to use
I never saw Ernie wearing shoes, just shorts & a shirt, he was vegetarian, lived mainly on rice & vegetables, was fond of cake which I’d occasionally bake for him, he didn’t like one chewy date loaf though as he was short on teeth.
He had an electrician friend who volunteered & made sure the electrics were safe. Ernie would make toys from odds and ends for kids & he never discriminated or judged the people he gave things to.
Beware though if he thought someone was trying to con him out of a freebie when he thought they could afford to buy one elsewhere – they copped a vociferous potty mouth & were told to bugger off!
We had a few brief chats, he was always busy – he showed me a certificate of his release from Kenmore & told me about being the last GKK
Many attempts were made to evict him from his home & cluttered yard but no one succeeded
Honoured to have known you Ernie
Rest In Peace good man
Val
I lived behind Ernie for 28 years and he would let us use anything he had to make thing Go Carts Ninja Stars all sorts of things.He was a very good man never asked for anything but there were a lot of arseholes in Glebe who would smash his windows for the life of me I can’t understand cause a few of them who did this he fixed there moms Washing Machine in the early days when his eye site was good he would fix TV Fridgers and washing machines only when his site went they wouldn’t let him fix fridges cause of gas and TV in case he done something wrong and hurt himself.One time my mums washing machine broke down and Dad had lost all the money at the Trots and Dogs so mum made a call to the washing company Simpson they sent a man out to have a look he said it would cost $60 which was 25 years ago which was a fair amount of money so I said mum ask Ernie he come over took it away and two days later she was good as new his said it was only a rubber band that made it spin RIP Earnie You are a true good hearted man from Glebe.