John Bourke worked as an apprentice instructor at the Yallourn Central Work Shops. John has provided the following information regarding the reels he made.
“Dear Warwick
Thanks for the photos of two reels of the many I made over the years. In regards to the Seamartin I made several, three of which were a dead copy of the original, several of different materials and a couple the same as the one in the photo. The material in this one is of aluminium and a type of Teflon, all shaft material is 18/8 stainless steel, the reel support is the cast bronze and the gears if I am not mistaken are hardened steel or they could be cut high tensile brass, I cannot remember which, this particular reel was made about 1983-4.
The drum reel is one of six that I made in 1987, the spool was made of high grade aluminium bar stock and the body made from aluminium tube side plates from aluminium plate. The reel has stainless steel gears and the stainless drag plate. Two bearings on spool, needle roller bearing on crank. These reels were not finished with all the drag lever stops and adjustment this was to be finished by the blokes that received them as they supplied me with some of the materials. I never played my name on any of these reels. In the past I did make two other lever drag reels of a much larger size but I gave them to my mates (whereabouts unknown).”