Overseas Travel (2)

JAPAN TRIP AND TOSHIMI

 

In 1972 I decided to go on a trip to Japan, but I didn’t want to go on my own, so I approached Eric Parrish, who I had been mates with for a long time and he decided to come with me. Up until this time, I don’t think he’d done any trips overseas, but he was in the army or air force during the war and had been to some of the islands, half way to Japan where he spent some time, but this was to be his first trip on a passenger liner.

 

 

I did all the bookings this time, and the time came to leave so we caught a plane in Mt Isa, and flew to Sydney, where we got on a boat called the Chitral. We got in a 4 berth Cabin this time with a couple of other blokes, one of which was a dairy farmer so we had a slight connection but only slight, as we were used to working on 1000s of acres and this guy had about 200 acres.

 

We went up via Brisbane and stopped at Brisbane for a day where more passengers got on, and when I went to the lounge area on the boat I was surprised to see someone I had known for many years. It was Fr. Garvey who was the Parish Priest at Julia Creek and who used to come to McKinlay every month to say Mass, and who used to also come to our McKinlay house on these trips, and Mum would make lunch for him. As well as having lunch, he would down about 6 Stubbies of XXXX beer for the rest of the afternoon before he set off to return to Julia Creek. Lucky for him, there were no breathalysers in those days, as he would have been well over the limit, as well as us fellows that tried to keep up to his drinking habits as we didn’t like to think that a priest could “drink us under the table”.

 

He introduced Eric and me to the Japanese girl he was with, and who I think he stayed with, in Toyota, on his trip to Japan the year before. She was Toshimi Suzuki, and little did I know at the time, but she was to play a big part in making our trip to Japan very interesting, as well as quite a few of the other passengers that travelled on the Chitral to Japan on that trip. She could talk perfect English even at this early age, so it was easy for us to talk to her. Being from the “bush” where everyone speaks a bit of slang, I think she probably found us harder to understand then we did her.

 

 

The next port of call was Pt. Moresby and we went ashore there with a couple of blokes, from our cabin and from what I remember about Moresby, even though it was an English speaking town you just about had to speak Pidgin English for people to understand you. Quite a few Australians boarded the boat there and if they had lived and worked there for a few years they spoke a lot of Pidgin. I also found out they made plenty of money there, as they were big spenders in the bar and big drinkers.

 

Because our destination was Japan, Toshimi thought it would be a good idea for us to learn some Japanese, so she invited quite a few women on the boat and some men including me to learn a bit of Japanese, which was a good idea. People who live in these countries, love to hear you speak a few words in their language, which I found out later on when we did reach Japan. We had a stop over at Manila and then Hong Kong, and by this time, as well as Toshimi giving us lessons in Japanese every day, and because she had done this trip before, she became our tour guide all free of charge. She arranged a trip to the Great Wall of China for a group of us that had become friends with her through our Japanese language lessons – about 10 of us. We also went to the Floating Restaurant in Hong Kong. She seemed to be able to communicate with Chinese people, not so much speaking, but if she wrote notes they could understand the message she was trying to get across to them about what she wanted. She could do this because some of the Japanese writing system includes Chinese characters.

 

 

By this time we also met another Japanese person on the boat – Peter Goto, who was a camera technician from Sydney. He was to play a big part in out trip when we got to Tokyo. There was a fancy dress party on the boat, and I persuaded Toshimi to go as a Jolly Swagman which she did, and she won the event.

 

 

We got to Nagoya and this is where Toshimi was to leave us, as she and her family came from Toyota. Before she said goodbye, she arranged for her family to bring two cars and about 8 of us piled in and we had a tour of Nagoya, by Toshimi and her family before they took her home to Toyota, which was very kind of them.

 

Next stop was Tokyo and what a big city it was. It was very different to most other big cities I’d been to though, as it was a place where you never saw the sun, and not many trees. There was continual haze over the city because of the smog. Not many spoke English at this time, except students who were always very helpful if you wanted to know where to go or what train to get on. When you got on a train they packed you in like sardines, even had blokes pushing the last few passengers into the train from the platform. Any Japanese passenger male or female that got on a train, and was lucky enough to get a seat, immediately went to sleep, all of them, and a minute or two before their destination station they would wake up and get off. The other thing that was strange to us was that every man that got on a train, no matter what his occupation might be, wore a suit and a tie, factory workers and all, so they must have changed when they got to work .It must have been a rule of the company they worked for that they arrive at work in a suit.

 

Peter Goto was our first guide, and he took us to all the places to see in Tokyo .We had 2 single beds in our room and Peter slept on the floor between our 2 beds. He took us everywhere, and when he wasn’t there, Toshimi would come up from Nogoya and show us around. I remember she took us to a lot of temples. She took us to Mt Fuji where we went on the Bullet Train, which was a very fast and very comfortable. I spent a lot of time going to boarding school on trains from Gilliat to Toowoomba, which took 3 nights and 2½ days, 4 times a year but they were nothing like the Bullet Train, which was probably the fastest and best train in the world at that time. Toshimi took us to Japanese Inns where you do things in the Japanese traditional ways, like taking your shoes off at the entrance and never see them again until you leave for home. Also you sit on the floor to eat your meals.

 

 

Toshimi also took us where they do this cormorant fishing. You go out in a boat at night time and a guy has about 10 cormorants each one tied to each finger of both hands and he lets them out of a boat in the water on a lake, and when he sees one bird with a neck full of fish, he runs his thumb and forefinger up it neck and the bird spews the fish into container. Then he will bring in another bird and do the same and so on. All this is done at night time with the aid of a powerful light. The fish are only sardine size but 10 cormorants, can catch a lot of fish in a night.

 

There were a few other people that were on the passenger liner with us, that came along on these trips with us but by this time Toshimi had struck up a strong friendship with another Australian, Mavis Russell, even though Mavis was probably 20 years older than Toshimi or more. They went everywhere together and I think Mavis might have been staying with Toshimi, at Toyota some of the time, she was in Japan.

 

Eric and I spent 3 weeks in Japan then we flew back to Sydney then back to work in McKinlay. Toshimi, and to a lesser degree, Peter Goto, really made our trip to Japan. She knew everything about Japan, where to go, what to eat, and knew all the customs of the country, and most of all, she could talk perfect English. Some years later she ran an English Language Academy in her home town, Toyota. At various times she also acted as an interpreter for famous people that came there. Not only could she speak English perfectly but write perfectly as well. Mavis returned to Sydney but within a couple of years resigned from her job and went back to Toyota where Toshimi gave her a job in the Academy, for several years. During that time Toshimi took Mavis on many trips to a lot of different countries of the world too.

 

Eventually Mavis decided to return to Australia as she and her two year younger sister with a house in Upper Coomera and they lived together there, but even then Toshimi used to visit them and take care of any needs they might have, at least twice a year and take them to different places in Australia. They visited me here and stayed a week or so. These visits by Toshimi to Gold Coast went on for some years, and Toshimi would do everything to help those 2 elderly ladies on her visits. Sadly, through some family trouble that it difficult to understand, Mavis and Toshimi are no longer in touch. It is very sad for this friendship that started on the Chitral on a trip to Japan to end this way.

 

Toshimi is a world wide traveller, and she tells me she has been to 150 countries of the world, and she would know a lot about everyone of them. As well as this she is very efficient with computers and a very keen photographer and must have thousands of photos. She has about 10 computers and always gets the latest in cameras. I don’t know what other languages she knows but I remember she has learned seven languages. The fact that she can speak, understand, read and write English so well, has no doubt helped her when visiting all these countries of the world.

 

Overseas Travel (1)

                                            OVERSEAS   TRAVEL

Many people travel overseas these days at a very early age.  I mean as soon as they　finish their schooling, they are thinking of travelling overseas and seeing the rest of the world or part of it. Or should I say as soon as they have enough money, their one ambition is to get on a plane, and travel overseas.

I left school in 1947, and I never thought of going out of Australia until a couple of fellows from McKinlay district decided to go overseas. This was Frank Banning and Graham McKerrow. They did a trip to Europe and U.S.A in 1958, and in 1959, Brian Fegan and I decided to make some enquiries about taking a trip, after hearing all about it from them. Arranging a overseas trip from of all places McKinlay was not easy as we didn’t have computers in those days, where you can just jump on line and book a trip to anywhere. The nearest Travel Agent to McKinlay would have been in Mt Isa which was a long way in those days, and an absolute rotten road .No one went to Mt Isa in those days but now it’s only  a bit over 2 hours away .From  what I can remember the Bank of N.S.W, in Julia Creek , where Brian banked I think, made all the bookings. My bank in Winton the NA B may have done some of the bookings on my behalf.

I was working at Glenbede for my father at this time, and on a pretty  low wage, and I wasn’t too flushed with money. But a month or two before deciding to go on this trip, I was in having a drink  in the McKinlay Hotel ,with Graham Fysh of Answer Downs, and he said he had a mob of old ewes (sheep) for sale. I asked him how much he wanted for them and he said 20 cents, and as there was 1700 in the mob it made the whole mob worth only $340, which was nothing. He made one condition that I if I took them, he wanted them shifted the following morning. I had a talk with my Dad, and he said I could put them on Glenbede, even though there wasn’t grass for them there either but it could still rain. I sprang into action got Blondy Hall, to help me  to drove them ,which would take 2 weeks, and picked up Mick Allen to drive the truck ,and do the cooking, and rig the “break” (yard) every night, and I was there the following morning to count them, take delivery and then we set off with them. After 2 weeks, we were getting near Glenbede, and  I could see all this cloud coming up, so I said to “Blondy” “We better push this mob along a bit quicker today ,as it looks like rain coming ”

We got them home that day, the rain did come, and the whole district got about 6 ins of rain which then made these sheep, valuable ,and I was able to sell them for $2.40 a month or two later which resulted  in me making $3500 after droving expenses and this was the money I used  to go on my first overseas trip!!!!!!!! No one ever travelled by plane in those days ,and anyone that travelled overseas went by boat, so we were booked on the Australia which was of the Lloyd Trestino Line, an Italian Company, and we booked a 2 berth cabin ,which was a bit extravagant ???

We flew to Sydney, and eventually the departure date arrived and any of my relatives and Brian’s relatives that were in Sydney at the time, came to see us off, and by the time we left we were drunk and all our relatives also. No “booze  buses” in those days. As soon as we got going, the first place we went to was the bar and have a bit more grog, as we couldn’t believe how cheap it was on the boat, so for the next month we spent a fair bit of time in the bar and met a few guys there, that we went on trips with at the various ports we called at along the way, which were many.
We called at Melbourne and saw our Uncle and Aunt and Joan and Anne who were 1^st. cousins to both Brian and I.  The next stop was Perth where we had a couple of days then we headed for  Ceylon ,which is now Sri Lanka, where I remember ,we were dining out and  I ordered Curry and, I said  I like hot curries .It was that hot I could hardly eat it ??  The next stop was Cochin in India where we weren’t allowed off the boat, but watched about 50 women unloading gravel from Railway trucks with baskets they carried on their heads. All unbelievable to us ????

The crew on the boat were most Italians, and I think on this boat, was where we learnt to drink wine, as you  were served wine  with lunch and dinner at night, and we used to con the waiter, to get wine off the tables where people didn’t drink it and bring it to our table, so we were half drunk by the time we finished our meals .The signs on the boat were written in Italian,  and we used to see signs saying Senora  and Signore, all over the place, and didn’t know that they were  Men and Ladies Toilets, until we were a week out from Sydney as we had a Toilet in our Cabin ,and used to go back down all these stairs ,every time we felt the urge.

After India the next place was Suez, but we didn’t go through the Suez Canal but went on a trip to the Pyramids, which was fantastic to see. The bus dropped you at a point, about 2 or 3 kms .from the Pyramids and the method of transport to get up to them was to ride a horse or a camel ? I remember I chose a horse but what a horse!!! I kicked it in the ribs, but it wouldn’t move, but then an Arab kid got behind it and  hit it with a whip, all the way up to the Pyramids .I knew a fair bit about horses ,but his one was the laziest I’d ever ridden. We went inside one pyramid but not much to see only a tomb I think, but what a feat in building them just by manpower ,no mechanical aids or even horses.
Next stop was Messina in Sicily ,and what I remember most about Messina, it was the first stop we came to near Italy .Now most of the passengers on the boat ,were Italians and even though, as I have said before, we got plenty of wine on the boat, the Italians thought it was rubbish ,as it was Australian  made, so all the Italians went ashore and came back with 3 or 4 bottles of good Italian wine. As far as wine went we didn’t know the difference, as we never drank  wine before we got on this boat---no one drank wine in McKinlay---- only beer or rum!!!!!

We went from here to Genoa, and here we got off the boat, after being on it for a month. We had become friendly with a guy called Rolly on the boat trip, as well as a few other drinkers we met at the bar every day and night, and he  wanted to go to Stockholm in Sweden where his parents lived. He’d driven trucks in both Aust. and all over Europe.

Brian and I decided to buy a car ,make our way up through Europe  and take Rolly with us, to help us with the driving, or rather teach us a bit about driving in Europe, which to us was something very  new  as we’d only driven in places like McKinlay and Julia Creek, and now we even had to drive on the wrong side of the road, and try to read signs written in foreign language ,and we couldn’t  read a word of any foreign language ,only English or should I say, Aussie slang, which was mostly spoken around McKinlay. And so the journey began!!! I can’t remember all the places we stayed at in Europe.

In Holland

We headed for Venice and left the car outside somewhere, and it was strange to see a city on the water, and we had a ride on a Gondola. Of course Rolly was driving at this stage but slowly both Brian and I took a turn at driving. We had to, as we only had Rolly, until we got to Stockholm, as his parents live there, and that was to be the end of the trip for him, but we had a while to go before this happened.

From here we went into Switzerland and I remember we stayed a night there. We stayed at Hotels all the time we were over there and could always find someone in the office that could speak English, but mostly only one person. We went from here to Berlin, and the wall between East and West Berlin was still up then, and the only way we could get into the East side was to go by taxi but we weren’t allowed to get out of the taxi and walk about, but it was noticeable that you could still see the results of the war on the East side, and the whole city was very drab and not many trees, whereas the West side was all modern, and had all been rebuilt, since the war.

From here we headed over to the other side of Germany to Hamburg, and the first place we visited was the Reeperbahn , which we had been  told about, by the two bush fellows that went before us. Was unbelievable to see all these girls all dressed up and sitting behind glass windows looking like models. Of course they were all prostitutes, or “hookers “and there must have been 100 of them all waiting for business. There were also nightclubs in this area and we met and talked to guy that was outside one of these clubs trying to persuade people to go in to the club. As people came up to him on the street he could pick  which country they came from and talk to them in their particular language, and was seldom wrong ,and could speak many languages.

From here we went into Denmark, and I think we had a short ferry ride over to Sweden and I remember on our way up to Stockholm, 2 things happened?? Firstly we were pulled up by the police, and they put the breathalyzer on whoever was driving. We were amazed, as nothing like this ever happened in Australia in those years and I remember on trips to Townsville, we used to stop at every pub and have a session. The second thing that happened was that the Fiat car broke down. We done a cylinder head gasket  and after maybe a day loss, we got it fixed, thanks to Rolly, as he could speak the language. We would have had a lot more trouble had Rolly not been with us, as Brian or I couldn’t speak a word of any other language.

We eventually arrived in Stockholm, and met Rolly’s parents who were very nice, and apparently a lot of people in Stockholm live in Units or Flats, in the city,  and they have these holiday houses out in the country where they spend weekends, and Rolly’s parents had one of these, which they kindly let  Brian and I stay at, and also Rolly with us  for the two weeks we stayed  in Sweden. We had a good time there and had lots of parties .One of the strange things about this holiday house is that they had an outside shower and it was supposed to be healthy to strip off and have a shower out in the snow. I remember I tried it once but once only? I didn’t want to be healthy any more!! Rolly gathered  up a few girls and brought them out to some of the parties They were good fun and could speak  good English, but we never found Sweden to be “the land of free love” that  everyone had told  us it was? We were introduced to  a drink there called Ackrovit, and it was a lot more powerful than OP Rum. It was clear in colour but boy was she powerful.

Out of our trip around Europe, I think the time we spent in Sweden was the best time we had but we had to move on, and we were on our own from here on, and Brian and I took turns in driving, which we handled alright. We knew we had to change to the other side of the road when we got into Norway, but what we didn’t know was where Norway started, and when to change sides, but Brian was driving, and suddenly I saw a bloke wheeling  a wheel barrow, by the side of the road. As we went passed him he dropped the wheel barrow, and looked  at our car in amazement and scratched his head, and I said to Brian “we must be driving on the wrong side of the road by the actions of this bloke with wheelbarrow” so we pulled over to the side of the road, until a car passed, and sure enough we were driving on the wrong side of the road .It was hilly country and winding roads, so we could have had a “head on” had I not seen the man with the wheelbarrow.

We continued down through Denmark, and then into the north of France, where we put the car on a ferry across to Southampton, drove up to London, where we stayed for a couple of weeks. We liked London and found it easy to drive around the city mainly because we were driving on the right side of the road for us. We saw all the sights in London, that every other tourist sees there, in the two weeks we were there, and one strange thing happened? We went to a pub one night where they sold Aussie beer, and blow me down, if I didn’t meet a guy called Shane Ryan who, not only went to Downlands Boarding school with me for four years, but was in the same class. This was 13 years after we both had left school? One of Noel’s mates, Henry Laurence, who went through dentistry with him, was in London at the time too so we visited him and his “pommy” wife, Pam a few times. They were good fun.

From London we went up through the north of England up through Scotland, then put the car on a ferry ,over to Ireland. We saw the place where our grandmother came from Armagh. We went from there down to the south of Ireland .We put the car on  a ferry back to England down to Southampton ,on the ferry again back to France , down to Paris where we spent some time going to all the “girlie places, such as the “Follies Bergier” and the  Moulin Rougue. We had some trouble reading the signs from the policemen on point duty in the traffic—they seemed to have hands and arms going everywhere, none of which we could follow, so we didn’t drive much around Paris, and went everywhere  in taxis.

Travelled down to Madrid in Spain and the big event there was going to the Bullfights, as we’d never seen anything like that in Australia, and it was pretty cruel to watch, but spectacular. From here we went to the French Riviera, where all the film stars went but we weren’t impressed with the beaches there, and couldn’t be compared with the beaches at the Gold Coast  or Sydney Beaches ,and we didn’t see many film stars either, and Brian was disappointed .Went up to Marseilles where our Grand-father “Frenchie “ Olive came from and came to Aust. and became a shearer, and later ,had a Cordial Factory, in Kynuna, and eventually 2 sheep properties. Olive Grove and Mayfield near McKinlay. We went on to Genoa from here sold the car back to the bloke we bought it off for $100 which was half what we paid for it which wasn’t too bad seeing we had been travelling in it for 6 months.

We travelled from here to Rome by train, and visited the Vatican and any other tourist places, then got a train back to England, caught a boat - the Mauretania to New York in USA. We stayed there a week and saw all the sights, and then we went on buses, from one side of USA to San Francisco. We stayed at various places enroute, the best being Las Vegas where we done a bit of gambling at the Casinos. We never saw a silver dollar in all our travels across USA until we got here, only paper dollars, but there were millions of them here to play the “pokies” with. There were no Casinos in Aust. at this time, so all this was new to us, and what an “eye-opener” Las Vegas was. The other impressive place on our travels across USA was the Grand Canyon .and we saw a Rodeo there at Flagstaff and was very impressed. It was an all Indian Rodeo, and these Indians were very good at roping.

From here we went to Los Angeles, and saw Hollywood and the sets where all the films were made .Even saw a film being made. .After having a couple of weeks around San Francisco and Los Angeles, we got aboard the Orinsay, and sailed back to Australia via Hawaii, having a couple of days there, and here we did think the beaches compared favorably with  Australian Beaches, but this was the only place in the world they did compare?? From here we continued on stopping at Fiji, and then back to Sydney, and then back to McKinlay and the “bush.”

What I have neglected to mention was that Brian suffered from terrible back pain for the whole time we were on this trip, and some mornings he couldn’t put his socks on .He had been to specialists in Sydney, and I recall he spent something like 3 months in plaster in hospital in a Townsville Hospital. He was diagnosed as having “spondolitis” which meant the cartilage between a few of his vertebrae was being eaten away. He took the opportunity of this trip to go to a specialist in Stockholm in Sweden and another in New York, and they confirmed the diagnosis of the Sydney doctors that at this time there was no cure for it and he put up with it for the rest of his life, and wore corsets most of the time. I must say though, that this complaint didn’t stop him from doing anything, as he could ride a rough horse, play a good game of tennis, and he had 9 kids as well   !!!!!                             

We’d been away 7 months from the time we left Sydney, and had plenty of stories to tell in the pub once we got back to McKinlay. Lance McDermott was the publican at the time and he enjoyed all these stories. Dad and a guy called Tom Bennett, looked after Glenbede while I was away, but by the time I got back I don’t think Dad and Tom were getting on too well, so Dad was pleased to see me back home. I have been for many trips to different countries since, but this was the “TRIP OF A LIFETIME “ 

 

THE SIGN WRITER

THE SIGN WRITER During the latter years of my time at Glenbede,I had plenty of visitors , as having 12 nieces   and nephews ,and a brother and 2 sisters in Sydney, there was always some of them out visiting me, at one time or another, and quite often they would bring friends along, as well. I would have to say,that my brother Noel was the most regular visitor, as he used Glenbede ,as his holiday destination nearly every year between the years say 1970 to 2001. He used to take his holiday from Dentistry, to coincide with the Annual Branding of the calves at Glenbede, which is a pretty big event, on a cattle property, as nearly every beast on the place, has to be mustered. Also in early days before 1974, I never had a decent cattle yard on Glenbede ,but John Fegan let me use the Eulolo cattle yards which meant it took extra time, by the time you drove them there branded them, and then drove them back to their paddock on Glenbede. There was no branding cradle on Eulolo at this time which meant                         you had to head rope every calf, pull them up to a yard post then put a leg rope on a front leg and a back leg on the same side of the beast, pull them down and brand them all, and castrate the male portion of them. Sometimes the branding job would take 3 days, so we would drive back to Gleneden a distance of 20 klms., cook a feed, stay the night and cut lunches for the next day, and come back to finish the job. Nearly every year that Noel would come up, he would bring a couple of his friends with him ,or at times 3 or 4, guys with city professions, and even though they knew little about cattle, or mustering, they filled in doing some jobs, such as driving a Toyota behind a mob of cattle , and keeping the tail of the mob up, and it later years I had a 2 way radio, on my quad bike, and one in the Toyota, so could give them instructions as we went along. In earlier years when Noel and I were on horses, and no radios, everything was much harder, and by the time they went home, I had usually lost my voice ,from shouting instructions, above the noise of the cattle bellowing. One particular year, Noel brought up 3 guys that he had met at the Bankstown Sports Club, which is a big club in Sydney, and one of these guys, Harold Neville,I think was the President of this Club and the others were on the Committee of the Club, Harold was also Noel’s Dental                         Mechanic,so Noel had been to the Club and had met these guys, and had a few drinks with them an invited them out to Glenbede for the branding. One of the other guy was "wrinkles"   ( forgotten his real name) who was a diamond dealer, and the other guy was Norm Barkle, whose nickname was “Dobsy” and was an electrican, for the City                         Sydney Council, and one of the first jobs he undertook at Glenbede was to see the frig. was full of beer, and he made sure, he got his quota at the end of every days work. We all did of course ????? Dobsy took over my Honda 100 motor bike, and had a camera slung over his shoulder ,and rode along at the tail of the mob of cattle,or at other times drove the Toyota behind them, if some other person wanted the bike. In these early days Noel and I were on horses all the time at branding time. Anyway we got the branding done, and Dobsy proved to be very handy around the place. Only had an engine driven 32volt power plant at this time,and he fixed up a few electrical problems ,around the place, and he was handy with a hammer and nails and did a few jobs down at the Shearing Shed--made all new boxes for the Shearers to put their combs and cutters in. He would just see things that would want doing, and find the material around the place, and the tools to do it with, and in time, would do it. Anyway after the branding was finished, and they all booked their plane tickets back to Sydney, and as I was seeing them off at Mt Isa. I said to Dobsy ,“you better come back next year for the branding “ .He said “I wouldn’t be able to come back next year ,as I had to borrow money from a finance company to pay my fare up this year ,and I’ll have to pay that all back” I was talking to Noel on the phone a few months later and he said “did you hear about Dobsy” I said “no-- what happened to him” Noel said “he won the Lottery” I think he shared it with another bloke but Dobsy ended up with half a million dollars  ???? He was back next year ,with his wife Gwen, in a Caravan, which he parked beside the front steps of the house and was back every year for the following 10 years,usually in July, so when he would tell me he was coming, I would make sure there were plenty of “Stubbies” in the frig, as I found the first year back that Gwen could drink as many “Stubbies” as he could !!!!! But this was the start of a long friendship with Dobsy and Gwen. They had frequent visits to the Pub in McKinlay,and they got to know almost as many people that I knew around McKinlay, but on many occasions they got lost coming back to Glenbede at night, so the next thing Dobsy started doing was making signs.He had signs to everywhere, signs to the Cattle Yard, signs to the Mailbox, signs to Keloshiel which was an adjoining property to Glenbede, also made signs showing where there was a sharp bend in the road going to McKinlay ,and put reflector lights on this one, so as he could see this bend coming up at night time. One night we went to the McKinlay Pub in different cars, and he and Gwen left just after me late at night, after quite a few “stubbies” I arrived at Glenbede, and after looking up the road to look for his car lights I couldn’t see them. I waited and waited, and eventually I saw his light coming from the Julia Creek road which was the opposite direction to what he should have been coming from. There are 2 turn offs into Glenbede, coming from McKinlay,and he had by-passed both of them, and eventually got to McAllisters crossing, which was 25 klms. past the Glenbede turnoff , before he realised he’d gone too far ,and turned back and this time found the right road to Glenbede. Next day there was another sign made, so as he wouldn’t get lost again. His most famous sign was one where there were 2 roads forked, one leading to McKinlay,and the other leading to the Mail box, where he used to quite often go and get the mail, which was 10 klms from the house. He made up a simple sign which said Pub to the left and Mail to the Right, with a drawing on it showing the roads to take to these                         2 destinations? ?  This sign was noticed by someone and they took a photo of it ,and put it in the R.M.Williams Outback Magazine, This sign and all the others he made was still there when I sold Glenbede. I put in 3 grids on the road McKinlay ,during the time he was there                         instead of opening gates, which he didn’t like to do, so he made grid s igns to put beside each grid also. If you live in that country you have to know where you are going ,as it is notoriously famous for having no road signs to any where but thanks to Dobsy, and his many visits to Glenbede,it was the best signposted property, of any other in N.W.Q’LD. He made most of these signs, on his visits to Glenbede, but sometimes, he’d make up a sign, at his home that he thought was necessary ,and bring it back at his visit the following year. The other thing about how good their visits were, was that when they were there, Gwen did most of the cooking during their 2 weeks stay (and always only 2 weeks),which was a luxury for me, for my visitors most of the time, were men visitors, and I didn’t find too many that could cook a feed !!!!  They had wives at home that did all that for them? During these years that Dobsy and Gwen visited me once a year ,they actually lived at Wamberal near Gosford, and in my retirement I live 20 mins. from there now, at The Entrance. They had a lovely house there, and on my holidays, I always visited them and had a meal with them. The first time I went there I had as much trouble finding their place , as they did finding there away around Glenbede ,but I am a “bushie”,a nd couldn’t read the signs, even though there were plenty there, as there is now at Glenbede, thanks to DOBSY.