May he rest in peace !

A friend of mine who came to Glenbede about 10 times and also brought his family with him some of the time. He died,and his daughter brought his ashes out to Glenbede ,and scattered under this tree. His name was Allan Bell,so she and I carved his name on the tree. Only she and I would know about this. He died when he was 54 from cancer. May he rest in peace !

Highway

Highway from Sydney to Darwin.

McKinlay air strip

McKinlay air strip QANTAS landed here every week in 1924.

Fancy dress dance

Going to a fancy dress dance. My father and mother 3rd. and 4th from left and the others are my mother's sisters with their boyfriends.

Glenbede house

The origional Glenbede house burnt down in 1980,along with a lot of photographs which my Japanese friend sent me a small album of photos on trip to and in Japan which I still have.

My mother and me

My mother and me at Townsville Hospital in background.

My mother

My mother the day she left to go on honeymoon 80 years ago

My father

My Dad with dog and his neighbour about 1924

Dirt road driving up to Glenbede

Dirt road driving up to Glenbede house, All roads around McKinlay look like this, except the main highways leading to Mt. Isa, Darwin, etc. I make these roads and maintain them with my Grader.

Bar Mckinlay Hotel

This was in Crocodile Dundee film-the 3 rd. film made in McKinlay, too

Racetrack McKinlay

Horses on Racetrack McKinlay.

Dinner for Christmas 2006

Fish I caught in front of my beach house, for Christmas 2006.

Guy caught a fish !!!

My brother Noel's grand-son Guy caught a fish.

My beach house

This is the photo of my beach house. My beach house is not the one circled, but up to left of the photo where the plainest path leads towards the sea, a small white house with a blue roof is beside my building.

Our old house in McKinlay

Our old house in McKinlay. Mary and Carmel went to state school here until 7th Grade.

Road trains

There would be 200 grown cattle on these trucks,and they travel 1000 klms. a day

The Church in Julia Creek

The church which Fr. Garvey had shifted, from Julia Creek to McKinlay, in 1961,and then he organised,the building of the present church in Julia Creek,which is a more modern building----it was a big project for him to organise. My dad and I helped to do a lot of jobs on the church after it arrived in McKinlay such as painting. He was there helping with this work as well,and he and Dad drank plenty of "stubbies" after the days work---He loved a drink.

My memory on our wood stove

This is the type of stove-wood stove that my mother ,then Dad and I used for cooking,up until 1960,after which we got a gas stove. Also my mother had one in the McKinlay house. I was the one that had to cut up the wood in short lengths for both stoves--a hard job which I hated.

Group at Tighe Re-Union in Brisbane

So happy time.

Visiting my HOME in Outback in Oct. 2007

Came back from trip on 23rd Oct.
Went from Nth. Entrance to Bulahdelah and to Townsville,4 days later to McKinlay for races,1 week later,then to Brisbane for my family Re-union on the 20th ,from Brisbane back to the farm,then next day back here.
Travellered about 6000 klms.in 3 weeks,but struck good weather most of the time and no rain.

School Years

Boarding School Year:
I first went to Boarding School when I was 9 yr old along with my brother,who was 2 years older.It was a school run by Catholic nuns,and the school was 800 klms away from Glenbede, so went by road and rail. A very young age to be away from your parents for 6 months at a time.

My Family

I used to live in Outback for almost all my life where a postman delivered mails once a week, my mother had to go 32 km for food, 80 km for clothes or to a doctor.

Where did I live ?

At Glenbede in early days,we used to get mail from the nearest Post Office once a week on a Sunday,which came by truck,so the correspondence school in Townsville sent you an excercise book of school work to do in a week,so you did it helped by my mother in my case,and returned it by the same mail truck the following week, completed and it was corrected by the same person in Townsville each week,given credits,and sent back to you along with another book for the following week to be done.You only studied long enough to complete the questions in this exercise book,along with learning tables and spelling etc,that the teacher in Townsville told you to learn,which sometimes you learnt while riding a horse with my father as we went to muster sheep on the Farm or other farm jobs as in my very young days,we only had one car,so a lot of work was done on horses,especially in the war years,as petrol was rationed,and you only got a smalll quota of petrol,which was only used for essential purposes.

Driving

Well, I could drive a car by the time I was eight years old. Most kids on outback farms can. But of course you can not drive on roads where other cars use.You get a license until you're 17. One day I just walked into a policeman's office. And he gave me a license. No test, of course ! He already knew. I had been driving cars on the farm for years.

Olive In Outback

This house is now owned by my niece and is where we stay when we go up for races in McKinlay.