dxboz Posted July 22, 2017 Share Posted July 22, 2017 Love your posts Bobj - keep em coming x 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted October 3, 2017 Author Share Posted October 3, 2017 Reading a post on another forum reminded me of a couple of incidents during my time working with the Main Roads Dept. in the East Kimberley area The first was at Parry Creek Lagoons Wildlife Refuge area, on the way to Wyndham. I had to view an old gravel pit for possible future work and had to cross the Refuge. On the way is a small hill and, in a corner was a small camp that had 4 large bird cages full of rare finches, possibly about 100 birds, mainly star finches and blood finches with some zebra finches...I pulled up in the WA Govt. car and let the birds go. No-one was about and I doubt if anyone would have done anything in a wildlife refuge had they seen me freeing the birds... The second was similar, going to a gravel pit on the Gibb River Road, towards El Questro station. I knew of a number of overhanging rock shelters in that area, so decided to have a look at them for the Aboriginal paintings. Now, the WA Govt. car was very useful...I pulled up about 20 metres away and saw 2 men digging for native implements. As soon as they saw the WA registration plates AND the big radio antenna, they packed up and got out fast...When they left, I had a squiz at their 'work'. They had dug a hole about 1 metre wide, 2 metres long and 30 cm deep with lots of sieved material... Cheers, Bobj. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 On 04/10/2017 at 05:55, Bobj said: The second was similar, going to a gravel pit on the Gibb River Road, towards El Questro station. I knew of a number of overhanging rock shelters in that area, so decided to have a look at them for the Aboriginal paintings. Now, the WA Govt. car was very useful...I pulled up about 20 metres away and saw 2 men digging for native implements. As soon as they saw the WA registration plates AND the big radio antenna, they packed up and got out fast...When they left, I had a squiz at their 'work'. They had dug a hole about 1 metre wide, 2 metres long and 30 cm deep with lots of sieved material... Cheers, Bobj. Was there anything exciting in the hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted October 7, 2017 Author Share Posted October 7, 2017 1 hour ago, The Pom Queen said: Was there anything exciting in the hole. I presume they had taken a few spear heads. There were some stone chippings scattered around the site. Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted February 13, 2018 Author Share Posted February 13, 2018 A bloke just drove by on a tractor and the old cogs of my mind started meshing...In 1964, I got my driver's licence at Broome, Western Australia. I was at the Main Roads camp at the 29 mile peg, on the Broome-Derby section of the Great Northern Highway; the boss told me to get on the tractor and start vibe rolling a section of the new deviation we were working on. Told him I couldn't drive, which didn't please him. After a couple of days learning, the foreman told my boss that he, the foreman, had arranged a driver's test for me. I got on the tractor, a Chamberlain Super 70, with big, balloon tyres and drove it to the Broome boundary, I was transferred to the boss's ute and a bloke took the tractor to the cop shop where I transferred back to the tractor. "Right, young fella, back down the driveway," the police officer said. I did so and the officer motioned for me to go forward and do a right hand turn, I did, then he came up to me and asked me what were ALL the one way streets in Perth...Errr..."Rightoh, you've passed! Now, what plant will you be working on?" My boss replied that I would be on tractors, graders, 'dozers, rubber tyred rollers and utes. So I got an "A and J'' licence...to cover all road plant, except scrapers. And...No cost... Don't think too many people can claim so much on a licence from backing down a laneway on a balloon tyred tractor... Cheers, Bobj. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bayside Posted November 20, 2018 Share Posted November 20, 2018 Great post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted June 21, 2019 Author Share Posted June 21, 2019 In 'Aussie Chat', there is a thread, 'Two Weeks In'. Not wanting to alter this excellent thread, I thought about my first two weeks in Australia; I got a job on my second day in this magnificent land, in Dalgety's woolshed in Altona. I was a woolclasser by trade and didn't have the Australian certification to be a 'classer, so I was put 'on the floor' getting bales of wool ready for the big wool sale. The boss was apologetic that I was put in at the bottom, but made amends and promoted me to the chief chappy in charge of the new fangled wool presses, 2 of 'em and in my third week, had a pay rise. Alas, I was not to stay there as my mate drove over from Perth and drove me back to stay with him and his family. Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 About time for an update @Bobj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 40 minutes ago, The Pom Queen said: About time for an update @Bobj Memory box aInt what it used to be. cheers, Bobj. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BacktoDemocracy Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 On 21/01/2010 at 20:12, Bobj said: Getting bogged... As we were surveying the new alignment to the 'top dam' (future Lake Argyle) we had to work throughout the Wet and, on one occasion, having finished for the week, we headed home to Kununurra. The 'road' was just a line of survey pegs and a grader track to clear the grass. Luckily, we set off early Friday morning as it had rained on the Thursday night, about 3 inches. Now, it was a matter of drive 300 metres, bog, dig out, drive another 500 metres, bog, etc. Took us 14 hours to get on to the Duncan Hwy, a distance of 17 km. After a fishing session on the Keep River, NT, we were returning to Kununurra and the heavens opened...The track was over the black soil plains, known as Weaber Plains, Now, black soil is so 'plastic' that it gets exceedingly slippery and we got caught in it and had to abandon my ute to walk 5 km to Aquitaine's base mining exploration camp. Luckily there were 4 young blokes caretaking and we used the camp's mini moke to get to the ute but alas... that got bogged and it was another walk to the camp and stay the night. Next morning we all walked back to the vehicles and drove out as if nothing had happened. No, the barra didn't spoil as I had an old 'fridge to keep them in. When I was living in Derby, WA, the Wet was in full swing and the Main Roads Dept. had delivery of a brand spanking new 4wd for survey work, a Toyota lwb 6 cyl diesel. The head surveyor decided to check it out in the back yard of the MRD and we all trooped out to watch the 'big event' He deliberatley bogged the vehicle facing a boab tree, about 6 metres from the tree. Should mention that the diameter of the tree was about 1.6metres (5 ft). He tied the winch around the tree, set the winch motor on and ...pulled the boab on top of the 4wd!!! Had to get a grader to clear everything up. Fishing... Standing on the bank of the Ord River one day, I hooked a decent barra and, as the river flow was quite strong, I had to follow the fish downstream. As I was doing this I inadvertantly stepped on a rather large king brown snake... It whipped up, I jumped up and fell R Sover landing quite close to the snake. How I didn't get bitten, I'll never know. The barra? Lost it... When I lived in Glen Innes in 1974 my mates and I found a beaut little dam once while we were fossicking for topaz up near Torrington in the New England high country. It musta bin 100 metres long and 30 metres wide. Always carried a few light handlines just for such occasions. We camped there for 2 nights and never had a bite, Our last morning there an old mate came along and asked how we were going; we told him that we had had no bites. " Not surprised," he said," there's a 100 ft waterfall just down the other side of the dam...Still, we got some excellent topaz and a couple of aquamarines. Cheers, Bobj. Bob, you should write this into a book, all of this part of old Australia is disappearing at an incredible rate and needs to be there for the next generation, I reckon you'd love "The Man Eaters Of Kumaon" by Jim Corbett, the biography of a young man in northern India at the turn of the 19th century, very much in the vein of your exploits, running a rail depot and hunting down man eating tigers and leopards, a world that is irredeemably lost, some of good some of it questionable by todays standards but all of it fascinating. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 Thanks to @HappyHeart, I remembered a barramundi session in the Ord River, below the radial gates one Good Friday many years ago.** I went to the river's edge below the gates and as it was just after The Wet, the barra were congregating at thebottom, in front of the gates and, due to the force of water coming out ofthe first gate, the barra could not get up into the dam. I cast a lure into the edge of the maelstrom and caught and landed a barra, That was the first of 10 barra, all weighing 16 lb. I cleaned them, put them in the back of the ute, went home and shoved them in the deep freezer. On the following Tuesday,I had to go to Hall’s Creek for work andput the barra in eskies then, on the way to Hall’s Creek, dropped them off at a couple of Main Roads camps to supplement the blokes’ diet ** Just remembered, it was 1968 Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyHeart Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 28 minutes ago, Bobj said: Thanks to @HappyHeart, I remembered a barramundi session in the Ord River, below the radial gates one Good Friday many years ago.** I went to the river's edge below the gates and as it was just after The Wet, the barra were congregating at thebottom, in front of the gates and, due to the force of water coming out ofthe first gate, the barra could not get up into the dam. I cast a lure into the edge of the maelstrom and caught and landed a barra, That was the first of 10 barra, all weighing 16 lb. I cleaned them, put them in the back of the ute, went home and shoved them in the deep freezer. On the following Tuesday,I had to go to Hall’s Creek for work andput the barra in eskies then, on the way to Hall’s Creek, dropped them off at a couple of Main Roads camps to supplement the blokes’ diet ** Just remembered, it was 1968 Cheers, Bobj. 1968?!? I can’t remember 2008 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted March 26, 2022 Share Posted March 26, 2022 A very brief synopsis of a 5 day trip I am just back from to the Darling Downs, Chinchilla, Miles, Roma, Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley..So many interesting places to visit and enjoy country hospitality, it’s been a tough 2 years for them. Jimbour House, built in 1842, Historical Village Museum, Roma Sale yards, the largest in Australia, about 6,000 cattle sold at a sale, takes from 8am till about 8pm, Visited Mount Hope farm that also does bed & breakfast, plus has a barn set up for functions and which also had gas wells on the property, all needed to supplement their income. Gas wells were everywhere in the Roma area. Condabilla fish farm near Chinchilla breeding Murray cod. Scotty’s garage in the Lockyer Valley had a shed full of motor memorabilia, and then totally unexpectedly an American Diner at the back, complete with a working Wurlitzer juke box!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted March 26, 2022 Author Share Posted March 26, 2022 A very good trip, @ramot, thanks for that. in the early days of Queensland, Chinchilla was infested by prickly pear, so, too, the Darling Downs and the town erected a Community Hall in honour of the little caterpiller, cacto blastis, that ate all the cactus up Only place in the world with that honour. There is also a great area around there where one can dig up petrified wood. Cheers, Bobj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted March 27, 2022 Share Posted March 27, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Bobj said: A very good trip, @ramot, thanks for that. in the early days of Queensland, Chinchilla was infested by prickly pear, so, too, the Darling Downs and the town erected a Community Hall in honour of the little caterpiller, cacto blastis, that ate all the cactus up Only place in the world with that honour. There is also a great area around there where one can dig up petrified wood. Cheers, Bobj. Hi Bob, we learnt all about the cactoblastis moth, and held some petrified wood, it was so heavy! It was such a good trip. Wish more people would go out and about to discover more of Queensland and Australia, we have visited every state since we’ve lived here. ps sorry to post on your thread, meant to post on the general travel part, teach me to post late at night. Think I might repost on CTF so more people see the post Edited March 27, 2022 by ramot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 On 14/01/2010 at 13:31, Bobj said: Another trip to Wyndham in January 1968, we were spraying bitumen along a section of the town's streets and had to stay a few days. Our sleeping quarters was 2 x 6 man caravans, completely stripped of fittings, save for eyed screws which were threaded into the ceilings to hang our mosquito nets on. Now, Smellbum has just had a hot night, about 32 C; well each night in Wyndham that time was 110 deg F (43 C)...The Bastion, an ironstone hill, absorbs the sun's heat and releases it at night and, when it is cloudy as was the case, the heat cannot escape into the atmosphere. Didn't mention the fact that Wydham is on the edge of mudflats...Also, Wyndham has the dubious record of over 300 consecutive days (Aldo mate, that means one after the other) of 90 deg F or more (32 C) During that job, we had every street closed to traffic while we were spraying...Some silly bloke decided he would go for a 'spin' on his motor bike and...He spent a week in hospital with bitumen burns and gravel rash to one side of his semi naked body, he only wore a pair of shorts...The bike was a mess and I understand that it took him well over a week later on, to clean the mess up. After a long, hot day looking for gravel for the soon-to-be road on the Duncan Hwy to Hall's Creek (new deviation due to the impending new dam to be built on the Ord River which would flood the old Duncan Hwy) my boss and I stumbled on a magnificent pool in a watercourse. It was lined with pandanus palms (screw palm) and had the remains of a bygone Aboriginal camp. We found several stone implements including 4, or 5 stone axe heads. Hopefully, they are still there. Avtually, we came across quite a few pools in the beds of old watercourses, but not quite as beautiful as this one. A bit further on, along an escarpment is a tiny trickle of water issueing out of a spectacular gorge. The gorge itself, is only about 15 metres wide and about 50 metres high...and full of yellow butterflies, millions...well, thousands of them. The old time station hands built a small wall, about 2 metres high to hold back the water, otherwise, the water would seep into the boulders and their stock could not drink during the latter days of the Dry. No, it's not on any maps. but is about 7 km south of the WA/NT border inspection station. Before the 'new dam' was to be built, we (Main Roads Dept ) were instructed to locate, survey and build a road to the dam site, this was in 1968. We found a veritable paradise doing that job; we found springs, billabongs, caves and hundreds of Aboriginal paintings and artifacts. Yes, where the dam stands now, I have swum there... As the dam was being built, I had the absolutely wonderous pleasure of going inside the outflow tunnel. It was a tremendous job and the American Boss in charge of drilling and blasting told me that the quartzite the hill eas made of, was the hardest he had ever worked. The tunnel is so big that a Cat 988 front end loader was used to lift 2 blokes uo to the roof of the tunnel to put in rock anchors. It now gushes out 45,000 cu.ft of water a second. Now, the dam has been built, the spillway blasted and we used to take our airbeds, blow them up and jump into spillway creek and float downstream... Only difficult part was walking back along the rocky bank...Great fun, indeed. Was fishing on the Keep River for barramundi and this bloke came up to me asking if I could give him a lift to his camp. Seems that he was in his tinny and the prop struck a submerged rock. He managed to hand paddle the tinny to the bank, lift the boat enough to make it safe and walked to my camp. I took him back to his camp and we went to where he dragged his boat and there, right next to the boat was a 12 ft croc!! A few shouts and thrown sticks and the croc moved off to the shelter of the water. A snig on the bow of the tinny and up the bank she came. First time I went up north to The Kimberlies was in 1964. I got a job as a labourer in one of the MRD camps. In those days, the camps were 10 x 8 ft tents; one per bloke. I was just out from Bradford and enjoyed this magical, new life. one weekend, I went for a walk into the bush, marvelling at the new and diverse life about me. It was so fascinating that I got slightly dis-oriented...er...lost my way and had to spend one rather frightening night in the bush. Very early next morning I heard a motor and followed the noise. A cattle train had pulled up at the 29 Mile Camp and the driver was having a cuppa as I arrived back. Thirsty??? I drank gallons of tea. Cheers, Bobj. The old Main Roads Camp 8 miles out from Broome, 1965 I lived in the extreme left one.Shiiii*, 58 years ago. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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