“Fantastic accuracy and very precise”
Vic Summers, from Gympie in Queensland, followed his father into scrub felling and ringbarking (1600-1700 trees a day) at the age of 14. His family moved around for work and Vic, once accidentally separated from them for almost a year, survived by doing odd jobs. Later he held a contract for 31 years to supply poles to the electricity board.
Vic won his first tree felling world championship in 1940, taking out the world title eight times over 14 years. He said he missed the best six years of his chopping in the middle of the war. In 1950, however, he was the backmarker at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in every event.
The spectacular and difficult tree felling event was his speciality. On one occasion in Sydney in 1951 he dropped his board from the top of the tree, climbed down and back up again… and still won the event.
With only one eye after a workplace accident operating the pole yard, Vic was also affectionately called the “gutless wonder”, a reference to an operation in the 1950s which removed two-thirds of his stomach. One newspaper reported “Vic Summers was back. He is always a drawcard and always attracts a lot of sympathy when other axemen are halfway through their logs before he starts.”
He invented the technique of placing the board’s iron shoe using four neat, fast blows with the heel of the axe.
Vic retired at least five times but was still competing locally at 93 years of age. His secret? Half a teaspoon of cod liver oil every morning and a nip of rum at 4pm.