When the Nullabour was a dirt track ...

[Neville Briggs]

And the Governments advertising for the currency changeover was sung to the tune of
" Click go the Shears " ( a tune also known as Ring the Bell Watchman )
to-day it could something really catchy like..like..like..well any of those rock tunes, they are all the same.

How do you know they were wearing fashions Heather.

[william williams]

Neville the shirt that Manfred was wearing was what was known as a western shirt my mum used to make them from reminisces from bolts of silk two tone and I would take them with me to the rodeos and sell them for her for fifteen bob each back in those days of 1959/60 and there was a constant order for them from the boys in the circt

Bill Williams

[Heather]

Fashion: current popular custom or style. Correct me if I'm wrong Neville. My memory doesn't go back that far!

[manfredvijars]

That's interesting Bill, Lotsa the fellas out west would wear them. That one was a cotton denim type with the press studs instead of buttons. I also had a lairy yellow and red shirt. Was a bit of a snappy dresser back then ...

[r.magnay]

Yeah Manfred, I thought about the fact that you may have bought in January...but your argument is also flawed, you stated that the money came from a successful croc season in 66-67 which would suggest you only earned the money over those two years!..... I'm a pedantic bustard aren't I?....two bob is still two bob to me, just by the way!....

[Neville Briggs]

I wouldn't know either Heather, I was always nerdishly unfashionable, and Bathurst was about as far outback as I got from the Sydney coast in those days.

Manfred. I have a copy of an old book, very hard to get now; it's called Journey Among Men.
It was written by Australian writer Jock Marshall who in the late 50s travelled right around Australia in company with Russell and Tim Drysdale and Dom Serventy.

The book has illustrations of pen and wash drawings done on the trip by Russell Drysdale
( very famous Australian artist ). Later he transformed these into some of his wonderful outback/bush paintings of things such as station bosses, outback pubs and their owners, Malay pearlers at Broome and various drovers and tribal aborigines, all in what was, to most Australians I think, the strange harsh landscape of the interior.

Their journey across the Nullabor is one of the highlights of the narrative.
The book doesn't say what sort of vehicles they used except that one was a long based Land Rover type of vehicle with extra fuel tanks and fitted with water tanks, and they didn't have a caravan, they camped in swags.

[manfredvijars]

You're probably right Rosco, about the flawed memory. What I do remember for certain was that the whole rig (Car AND Caravan) cost under a thousand. Another thing for certain (and I wasn't the only one) thinking in terms of 'pounds' well after 1966. Dollars sounds a bit cheap, even for the time. So pounds or dollars I'm not certain, but it was under a thousand. But then again - I could be wrong ...

It was a great car - THAT WAS for certain ....

[manfredvijars]

Ross ... the 'bobs', deeners and zacs went out 46 years ago. Set your "two-bob" free - let it go man, let it goooooo ....

Nev, I remember my Dad having that book. There's a great antiquarian book store here in Brissie, I'll if they have a reasonably priced copy in stock ...

[r.magnay]

my first real car was an FC Holden, it cost $300, I say real car because my brother and I bought a short wheelbase Landrover which we used for 'roo shooting before that.
A few years ago Sheryl had a VT Commodore, it was a great car but one day the horn started blowing and wouldn't stop, luckily I was in town and went and pulled the relay out to shut it up. I went to the local Holden dealer to book it in for repairs and they said that because it had an airbag in the steering wheel it would cost $400 to fix it, I said OK and went ahead and got it done. when I went to pick the car up the reception was full of people and the bloke behind the counter started reeling off what had been done and told me the price, I seized the opportunity to get some mileage out of it and said in a very loud voice..."400 bloody dollars for a horn button! The first holden I ever bought only cost me $300 for the whole bloody car!"

[manfredvijars]

A mate and I latched onto an old Austin A40. We chopped the mud-guards off, cut a hole in the roof and gave it a couple of coats of Dulux (sky blue) that was our spotlighting vehicle. I learned to drive in that car. We'd drive it, unregistered and unlicensed to different farms in the area. The paddocks around home then were riddled with rocks so every trip we'd hit one or two or three. One day the inevitable happened and we busted the sump. We tried to drive, then pushed as far as we could go, then just left it.

I went back home a couple of years ago and surprise, surprise the rusted out hulk was still sitting there. The paddocks and surrounding farms have since been sold off to developers. I'm wondering when it's open season of developers and their ilk? Would love to go spotlighting again ...