Background
I was blessed to have many good friends who looked after me and fed me and did my washing. It was after Mum left I decided to be very naughty and get into financing a new car.
Chapter 7a (Word)
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In my early 20's I did some trips with my brother Richard, who was Number 1 Interstate Driver for Miles Furniture in Sydney, a Lounge Suite Manufacturer. I had the privilege of several trips with Richard:
One to Brisbane (Capital City of our Northern State of Queensland)...in the middle of a Transport Strike in that state.
One to Melbourne, (Capital City of our Southern State of Victoria.) ...and another to Adelaide (Capital City of our
Southern Central State of South Australia)... via the Hay Plains.
On the trip to Queensland, we stopped at Glen Innes overnight. We left a carton of Strawberry Milk at the back of the Prime Mover on the deck outside. In the morning it was frozen solid. Unfortunately, we could not wash our faces in the pools of clean water on the road as they were frozen solid! On arrival in Brisbane, due to the transport strike in Queensland, we were only allowed to unload the shipment of furniture then unable to do anything else.
I should add here a couple of things. Firstly, my brother somehow got out of membership of the TWU*, for a major part of his driving career. He forgot to re-join once. They sent him a reminder, just once. He never replied and never heard from them again.
Another rather funny story he told me, one day during one of our trips was the following:
From time to time he would pick up hitchhikers. After a while, seeing he liked mostly being on his own for hours and hours, he would get tired of their company. He had this little trick he would play on the unsuspecting passenger. He would be driving along and occasionally close ONE EYE. It was the eye the passenger could see. After a while, he would tell the passenger he needed to stop in the next town, and if they wanted to continue along with him to be ready to go later on. They never came back. Hehe.
On the single trip I did to Melbourne with Richard, we parked overnight near the depot in Footscray. This was where he was to unload, the next day. We had arrived quite late, well after the company was closed for the night. We would sleep in the trailer, with furniture packing as our mattress. More of those were used as a blanket. Quite comfortable, actually. The packing was used to keep the furniture safe on the trip. Next morning, on rising, only one place to wash. namely in the pools of water left in the parking area, from overnight rain.
Later that morning, we went for a hot breakfast in a cottage, which included Hot Milk Coffee and ample lashings of egg and bacon; at a place that must have been a regular "trucker's" haunt.
The big trip I did with Richard; was to Adelaide. Via the Hay Plains. There was some truck trouble on that trip and a delay in Balranald - while we waited for a part to come from wherever to help us on our way in the Bedford prime mover (pictured) at that time. Adelaide was my first time alone, 900 miles from home. Richard had dropped me off in the middle of Adelaide and made plans to pick me up again a week later on his return from Sydney.
What an interesting week. Each day I went on trips around Adelaide and up to Mt Lofty. One day I took a Pioneer coach tour to Victor Harbour. I think that was my most spectacular trip. Another day I got on the tram from the city to Glenelg.
I was glad to have a safe place to stay as a young single fellow for that time. My lodging was at the Women's Christian Temperance Union 'Willard' Guest House at $AU2.00 per night. It was a very "temperate" place including archaic plumbing in the bathroom and a bed you needed a ladder to get into and out of FROM THE INSIDE!! Hehe! (That sinking feeling.) For $2.00 a night including meals; excellent value, in 1973.
At the end of that week, Richard picked me up. On the way back, across the Hay Plains on a big stretch of straight highway, it was exciting to be holding the steering wheel of Richard's truck. He was making a "roll-your-own" or "tailor-made" smoke, and I was "minding" 14 tons, or more (tonnes) these days in metric weights and measures of furniture behind us, while he rolled it. At a later part of the journey, getting closer to home, we were coming down towards Jugiong, NSW, in the middle of the night.
It was very foggy, and the passenger (me) was packing it (a little scared) and it must have shown on my face..due to the apparent hazards of the fog, to my mind. Richard, of course, accustomed to being alone, also totally comfortable with the fog, all of a sudden freaked out and slammed on the brakes!!
"GET OUT!" he shouted. I was scared. I really thought Richard was going to chuck me out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night!!
Richard tended to be pretty dramatic at times and you believed him when he said some things. As a small child, I remember him hiding in the bathroom at home and as I would come around the corner to the bathroom, he would dive out and scare the wits out of me! This is the same person who had gone berserk, it seemed in the truck that night. I am glad he didn't leave me out there in the never-never.
The year after the trip with Richard, to Adelaide - I flew over to Perth in Western Australia. I had been saving for this trip for a long time. It was booked through the old 'Grace Brothers Travel' and cost the 'princely' sum - for that time, any way of $AU256. Most, even basic holidays, these days, cost heaps more. The value was terrific. It included return airfare from Sydney; 7 nights accommodation at a pretty swish Hotel, in Perth, the Capital of Western Australia; Unlimited Pioneer Coach Tours for the Seven Days. Breakfast cost extra at $AU1.85 a day - a lot of money in those days. I had been upgraded from the Park Towers Motel to the Gateway Inn, so the only difference was extra for Breakfast.
I went on tours most days to outlying areas that were within a day's journey. However, I got tired so I just "vegetated" in my room some days, or went looking around the city area. I wanted to take a taxi up to King's Park, one day. So off we went up there. Then the kind taxi driver actually turned off his meter so I could get up on a lookout to survey the park from higher up. My only disappointment was; I had a filter on my "Olympus Trip 35" Camera that actually ruined a lot of the photos because some days were a bit grey, rendering the particular "Daylight" filter on the camera I was using, totally useless.
I had a fabulous time that week. The only let down was getting home. They had trouble with our aircraft and we got delayed so long that, by the time we finally took off, due to work time regulations for airline staff we were put down in Adelaide for another night. I should have let the organizers choose my accommodation for the night as the hotel I named as it was the only one I knew, (Grosvenor) had me in a little tiny pokey single room. In my pictures, you have seen the style of my accommodation in Perth so you would understand my disappointment.
Author Notes
*TWU-Transport Workers' Union.Picture Index: Top Left: The Miles truck in which I travelled with Richard, now deceased, on this first trip to Adelaide, and later to Melbourne and Brisbane. and some links; Top Right: A trucker's stop, where we had the most delicious breakfast I have ever experienced. Second Left: On The Hay Plains in Southern NSW. "90 miles" of flat, straight, fortunately, sealed, road; Second Right: Mt Lofty or 'The Adelaide Hills' Sundial; Third left: The old Adelaide to Glenelg Tram. Glenelg was on the Southern Coast; Third Right: Standing on the overpass across the Kwinana Freeway in Perth, Western Australia; Fourth Left: A more recent view of the City of Perth in W.A. from King's Park; Fourth Right: The Swan River reclamation in 1973, with new freeways running over it. Also taken from King's park. Sadly the day I went up to King's park was dull and overcast and unfortunately, I had a "Daylight" filter on my old Olympus Trip 35 camera. It messed up all my photos. I guess you don't use a 'Daylight filter' in overcast conditions. Sigh. Fifth left: Me in the luxurious Gateway Inn room in Perth, 73. Fifth Right: Ansett Airlines 727 aircraft. For my flight back to Sydney. Sadly Ansett is no more.
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