remminissing 1971

While we are waiting for august to come around I thought I would take a trip back in time to when I first went around Australia. It was 9th July 1971 the day before we left, I was working at the Newcastle State Dockyard as a boilermaker and one of my coworkers had planned a trip that would take us from Newcastle to Cape York then across to Katherine Gorge, down to the Alice and Ayres Rock(Ularu)onto Onardattar then to Broken Hill and home. I had to resign from my job as I did not have enough leave to cover the trip.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHY 
Being a serious photographer this would be a good chance to photograph Aussie.So I bought enough 35mm transparency film and rolled thirty 36 exposure films into canisters, the films where developed by hand during the trip in a 2 man tent using the E6 processing chemicals it was extremely difficult to get the temperatures consistent using only the billy on a camp fire to obtain the correct temperature but some how I achieved a reasonable result. The transparency's have only been scanned and basic clean up and spotted due to mould from being stored in a box for 40 years, the text is from a small log I kept of the trip. 300 of the slides can be viewed in the Links box at the top of the page to the rihgt side under Around Australia 1971, it will take you to my Picassa Album

Saturday 10th July 1971

Started at 7.00 with a speedo reading of 4995 and met up with other Landrover traveling companions in Musselbrook at 10.00. I then put my first donation to the Kitty of $40,this was to cover fuel and food and spilt four ways myself ,reg,Errol,Gordon(bruiser). We continued over the Liverpool range to Tamworth and lunch at 1.00 then over the Moonbi range through Armadale to Glenn Innes where we made camp at about 5.00 approx 8 mile north of Glenn Inness.We are getting very little speed averaging about 45 miles per hour, the other Rover beats us up the hills due to its extra horse power it is a short wheel base landrover with a Holden motor ours is a long wheel base with the standard 4 cylinder motor. On the way we got a puncture in the trailer left hand side tyre at Scone so bought a new tube, after a steak for tea we retired at 9.30, with 348 miles for the day.

Sunday 11th July
Rose at 6.00 to find that there was ice everywhere even the condensation in my tent was frozen we took the temperature reading which was 22deg Fahrenheit on the ground. I took a shot of the moon through the trees and a shot of dew with sun on it. Packed up after breakfast of sausages and left at 8.00. About 30 miles had gone when the left hand wheel on the other Rovers trailer came off because the nuts had came loose. we continued on to Tentafield arriving at 10.05, we crossed the boarder into the sunshine sate and drove on till 5.30 and stopped 5 miles north of Miles. The ground was so hard we could not get the tent pegs in so we had to tie the ropes to rocks took half an hour to make camp. Bob from the other rover got sick and went to bed early. Did 322 miles

Monday 12th July1971
Woke to a cool morning had beacon & eggs and watched Rosella's & cockatoos fly past on the road at 7.45. Posted cheryl a letter at Taroom at 9.40 drove on & took a picture on 1000sec as the car was driving across the Dawson River Weir reel 1 no 17. we then drove on into a valley which looked all dead it was full of dead and dying trees about 4 mile across an 10 mile long, there were also a lot of bottle trees which suppose to be full of water(i think this area is between Theodore and Isla gorge). We proceeded to Rockhampton after going through the Mount Morgan gold mining town it is still working. At rocky we bought a new rim for the other rover & got some meat for tea. We decided to do another 100 mile & then make camp for the night. We drove on and then about 40 mile out of Rocky the other rover smashed a race in the transfer case so we made camp and had steak for tea covered 357 miles for the day.


Tuesday 13th July1971
Rose at 6.00 & had breakfast at 7.00 bruiser and Ridley went back to rocky to get new parts for the no2 Rover, meanwhile i went photographing Queensland Rosella's& bluies i walked for about a mile south and got about 15 shots while i was sitting in a gully. I had a bit of trouble focusing quick also the light level is ti low for 2xconverter you either have to use low speeds or low apertures,Magpie gully was the place we stopped at. Bruiser returned from town at about 11.00, while they put the new part in i went over to a gully & photo a red flower and finished the no1 roll. We then got rolling at 12.30 and continued on up to Mackay we then decided to go on to Shute Harbour so we drove on till about 9.00 and pulled into Island Traders park at Shute Harbour,so we went and had a chicken and a bear for tea got to bed 11.00 it was a very mild night cost us $5.00 for the unit