| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Doc
Keeper of the Scrolls
2010 Posts
|
|
 Posted -
17/05/2004
:
16:29
|
VERBATIM TRANSCRIPTION OF LESLIE GRAHAM MACDONALD TAPES
Recorded and transcribed by Stanley Graham. Strictly copyright. No part of this manuscript may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language without the written permission of Stanley Graham.
Tape identification File Number
Tape 1. End of track 4 red leader 162\lgstory.010
beginning of tape two green leader.
He said to me “Have you ever driven a reaper and binder?” I said “Yes.” He said “Do you know anything about them?” I said “I can drive one and operate one but I dunno whether I know any more than that about it.” So He said “Well, I want you to go in the morning and see whether the machine’s in good order and try it out and get ready. Then when you’re ready we’ll get some men in for stooking.”
I went and looked this machine over and as far as I could see everything was alright about it and I was talking to a chap and he said it had never been touched since the expert was out here from Warren and put it in good order about six months ago. So I went out to this wheat field and there was about fifty acres. I thought before anybody gets about I’ll have a bit of a go and see how I get on with it. So I hitched six horses into it and run ‘em round a bit for a start on a bit of open land just outside the field and it seemed to me to be alright so I went in and tried meself out. I did one round of the field and everything was going alright. The machine was cutting alright and the knotter was working, that’s the main thing on a reaper and binder so it seemed to me I was all set. I reported to him that I was ready when they were.
This was about mid-day so he said “Alright, you get on with the cutting and we’ll get over as soon as we can for the stooking.” I went over, made a start, and I think I was about two and a half days on the job. Got it cut out and incidentally got a bit of shooting as we were cutting out because there was rabbits and hares and kangaroo rats in this field, I borrowed a shotgun and had quite a bit of fun shooting as we were cutting out. I used to carry the gun on the machine with me and as soon as I saw anything I used to stop the horses and have a go at it.
Anyhow we finished up and it was stooked and it had to be left for about a week then for the hay to make. He told me he said “In the meantime I’ll give you a bit of riding to do.” I said “Righto, I’m game for anything.” He said “tomorrow morning report with the rest of the boys and I’ll give you a job.” At the stations in Australia in those days and I suppose it’s the same now, every morning after breakfast all the station hands congregate at the stockyard and the owner or the overseer or the foreman will come out and he’ll give the men their jobs for the day. Some had to go here and some had to go there, whatever the duties were this man in charge lined them up for the job. So when he come to me he said “You can go into the saddle room there and pick yourself a saddle and pick yourself a horse.” That again was a standing practice. They never told you that this was your horse and you must ride it, you picked your own.
I went into the saddle room and there was a few saddles hanging on the wall and they were a decrepit bloody gathering if ever there was one. There were saddles with pommels broken and some with broken stirrup leathers and they were a sad lot. I thought this is going to take a while sorting one out from here. I glanced across to the wall on the other side and I saw a saddle and bridle hanging on the wall and it looked to be pretty well new. I went over and had a look at it, and I had it in the back of me mind that I wasn’t supposed to touch this saddle because it wasn’t hanging with the general saddles on the other side. Anyhow I took it. I went out to the yard and I caught meself a horse and saddled up and just as I was saddling up the boss came along. He took a look at the saddle and he never said anything, he just said as he walked past me “Well, you’ve picked yourself a saddle.” and left it at that. Well, a bloke come up to me and he said “Are you Dubbo?” I said yes. He said “Well, you’ve got to come with me.” We went off to such and such a paddock and bring the sheep in for lime-marking. I said “Right.”
We went off and we were riding along and he said to me “How did you come to get that saddle?” I said “I went in the saddle room and took it.” He said “Did the boss tell you to take it?” I said “Nobody told me to take it.” He said “Has the boss seen it?” I said “Yes.” He said “Well, that’s bloody funny, that he’s let you ride in that saddle.” I said “Why? What is this about this saddle?” He said “Well, that’s his brother’s saddle and his brother was killed out of that saddle and it’s been hanging there now for nearly two years and nobody’s ever touched it. It’s been cleaned periodically and put back there but nobody’s been allowed to use it.” I said “Well, nobody said anything to me about it and as far as I’m concerned I’m going to keep it.” So he said “Well, if he hasn’t said anything about it that’s OK.” He said “Of course, I have me own saddle. I never bother about station saddles, I wouldn’t ride in the bloody things.”
Anyhow, we went out and did our mustering. We brought a mob of sheep in, about two or three thousand and penned them up for the night and we did the same next day and went out to another paddock, brought sheep in from there and took other sheep out. We were doing this for a few days and the boss noticed that I was a bit stiff and sore. He said “Is the riding job a bit hard on you?” I said “Well, it always is until you get used to it and I haven’t done a lot of riding for while. I never really got settled down to it. He said “Well, We’ll see if we can find you a job round about the yards. Take a turn at catching the lambs.” So anyhow, I went in catching these lambs and by midday me arms were raw. He came round to see how we were going on in the afternoon and he said to me “How are you going on?” I said “You can put me back in the bloody saddle tomorrow, I’m fed up with this job. Look at me bloody arms they’re as raw as a boil.” He said “Aye, they don’t look too good do they. You should work with your sleeves down.” I said “I’ve not got any sleeves, they’re cut out at the elbows.” So he said “Oh, we’ll see what we can do about it.”
So the next morning we lined up for our jobs and he says to me “Well I don’t know what to do with you today. Do you know anything at all about windmills?” I said “Yes, I know something about them, not a lot but I know a bit.” He said “Well, we’re just installing windmills all over the station for the water supply. They’re all out on the sites, all that’s wanted is someone to erect them.” So I said “Is the foundations in for them?” He said “Yes, all the foundations are in. We had a firm from Warren come and put the foundations in.” The foundation that a windmill is built on is only four concrete pads that the four feet stand on. I said “Well, there’s nothing to stop us having a go at it.” He said “Right, I’ll give you two mates and you can go and erect this windmill.” This was only about five or six miles from the main station. We went out and erected it, it took us about a week to get it up but by that time me arms were getting better. I kept going to have a look at the hay. So one night I said to him “I reckon that hay is about ready now. Will you go and have a look at it?” He said “It’s no good me going to have a look at it. If you say it’s ready, it’s ready as far as I know because I don’t know anything about it.” So I said “well, in my opinion it is ready for cutting.”
Now the way hay is made in Australia, of course we do make grass hay too at times but that is always wild grass. It’s generally made for rough feeding for stock in them winter time. It’s not taken into the home barns or anything, it’s generally stacked up in the field and a fence put round it and when winter time comes they take the fence away and let the sheep eat into the stacks. But, hay that’s used for the feeding of farm and station horses is invariably made from wheat. The wheat is allowed to grow until the ears have formed but while it’s still green it’s cut with a reaper and binder and then stooked up to make in the same way that hay is made when grass is used. We reckoned that this was ready and I said to the boss that it was time for us to start cutting. He said “We can’t start cutting yet because we’re waiting for a feller to come out to repair the engine. The engine’s broke down. I thought blimey, another engine broke down. I said “What’s the matter with it?” He said “It won’t go.” I said “Have you had steam up in it?” He said “Yes, we’ve had steam up in it but the flywheel keeps going backwards and forwards. But it won’t go round.” I said “Has anybody been tinkering with it?” He said “No, not as far as I know. The last time we used it was for shearing and it was alright then. But it won’t go now.” Well, I thought I knew what was wrong with it and I said “Do you mind if I go and have a look at it and see if I know how to put it right?” He said “You can go and have a look at it if you want to but I don’t think you’ll be able to put it right.” I said “I’ll have to get steam up in it to find out anyhow won’t I?” He said “Yes.”
So I went and had a look at this engine and I could see straight away what was the matter with it. On a portable engine, there’s a cam that operates the valves and if you turn this cam backwards towards the back of the engine the engine will run towards the back, that’s the flywheel running over towards the back of the engine. If you turn the cam towards the front of the engine as far as you can on the shaft, and lock it up there, the engine’ll run forward. I noticed that the bolt was loose and it was about central. That’s why when they tried to start it up it just went backwards and forwards because it was almost on dead centre and the valves couldn’t open to push the pistons any distance in any direction. So I set it right back in the back position and started it and the engine ran alright backwards. I went back to the station and told him everything was alright and we could get cracking as soon as we liked.
We had the chaff-cutter already set up and it was just a matter of getting men set on to cart the hay in and in this case we had no steamer, it was fed direct into the machine. We started cutting, well, we averaged about five or six tons a day. We didn’t do well at all as the machine was in bad order and kept breaking down. Anyhow it took us about a fortnight to finish the job off. I expected when it was finished that I’d be on the road again. But anyhow, I wasn’t. When the job finished he said he could find me some more work about the place. He said there were some cyclone gates wanted hanging, could I hang some of them? Well, of course I could. That was one of the jobs we used to do when we were fencing. We used to hang cyclone gates, and they had to be hung, and a cill-plate put in at the bottom, close up to the gate so that a rabbit couldn’t get through to make it a rabbit-proof fence. He said “How long will it take you to hang the gate?” I said “Well, if I’ve got the tackle and the gateposts are in position and there’s a cill-plate there me and a mate’ll do one a day if it’s not too far away from the homestead.” He said “Alright, you can get on with that job.” He gave us a list of three or four gates to hang and we went out and did them. He came out to have a look at them and was quite satisfied with them. Then he started finding me all sorts of odd jobs about the place.
One day I was shoeing a couple of horses and a feller came in on a winded horse and he said that he’d come from one of the outstations. There was a madman on his way to the station who said he was going to kill everybody there and he had an axe with him. I said “Well, I’m the only one here and a woman. There’s that dago cook but he’s no bloody good because he’d run a mile if he saw anyone showing any signs of aggression.” He said “Well I can’t stop, I’m off to Warren to get the police. I’m going to get a fresh horse and then I’m off.” So he got a fresh horse and he buggered off. I went over to the house and saw the woman and I told her about this feller coming but I said there’s no need for you to get excited, if Mrs Wingate’ll get the children inside and lock the doors and leave the rest to me, I’ll do the best I can with him. So this dago bloke, he was dashing around wondering what they could do. He wasn’t going to be murdered and that sort of thing and his wife said “I’ll give you a hand with him if I can.” I said to him “If you’re frightened the best thing you can do is to get up into the loft. He won’t look for you up there.” So anyhow he disappeared, I don’t know where he went to. So we waited, well, we had to wait quite a long time. It come dinnertime and we had to get a meal so I arranged with this girl that I’d keep a lookout while she had something to eat and she’d do the same while I had a meal. Eventually she come dashing in and she said “He’s here!” So this feller come along and his eyes were staring. I could see that he wasn’t a madman. At least, I didn’t think he was a madman, he had the DT’s. He was flashing this axe about and said he was going to murder Mr Wingate. I said “Well, he’s not here, so you won’t be able to murder him. His wife and children are away too, there’s only me here”. I asked him if he would like a drink. He said he would, yes he would. So I went inside and he stood on the veranda. I asked her to give me some tea, so she got me a mug of hot tea and he downed it in one gulp, he must have been absolutely famished. Then he started dashing about and he ran through the kitchen and down the veranda towards the room that I slept in. On the way down he had to pass the butcher’s shop. He saw all these knives in the butcher’s shop and he dashed inside. I was right behind him and I slammed the bloody door to. So there he was in the butcher’s shop and he was poking knives through the cracks of the door. I stood guard, I thought yes you bugger, you can cut your throat but I’m not letting you out of there.
So, the afternoon wore on and it got towards sundown and the bloke that went for the police turned up and he’d met a trooper on the way to Warren and brought him back with him. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been back until the middle of the night. The trooper said to me “Where is he?” I said “He’s in the butcher’s shop.” He said “He’s where?” I said “In the butcher’s shop.” He said “Well, that’s a bonny bloody place to put him!” I said “I didn’t put him there, he went there, I just shut the door on him.” Anyhow we went round and he tried to talk to this feller but he couldn’t get any sense out of him. The bloke wanted to get out, he wanted to kill Wingate and he’d done him some injury or he imagined he had. So the trooper said to him, “How would you like a drop of whisky?” “Oh aye.” he’d like a drop of whisky. So they opened the door and let him out and he says you can’t have any whisky as long as you’ve got that knife in your hand you’d better put it down and he gave him this flask of whisky. Whilst the bloke was drinking it we got hold of him and we bottled him into a room and he said well he can stay there for the night. They’d put him some grub in during the night, the trooper looked after him.
Next morning the trooper said “We’ll have to get him into Warren.” I said “I can’t go with him unless Mr Wingate comes back and tells me to go.” He Said “Well, somebody’s got to take him.” This other feller, who had been for the police didn’t want to have anything to do with him either. Anyway, the argument went on until nearly dinnertime when Wingate come back. The trooper told him he wanted somebody to take this chap into Warren and Wingate said “Well, it’s alright. Dubs can take him in. You can ride behind and keep an eye on him.” So we harnessed a horse up into the sulky and got this bloke up alongside of me and I thought Well, this is a bonny trip. Every now and again he tried to snatch the reins from me and getting hold of me and I kept belting him with the buggy whip, the boss end of the buggy whip and this trooper was riding behind with his hand on his revolver. I don’t know whether he would have shot him or not if he’d have got rough but eventually we got into Warren.
It was getting late in the afternoon. We took him to the police station and they put him in a cell there. The sergeant said to me “The best thing you can do is to get off back to Warraby.” I said “I’ll be travelling all night.” Anyhow I set off for Warraby and I hadn’t got more than a mile away from the police station and I met another trooper coming in. He stopped me and said “Where are your lights?” I said “I haven’t got any.” He said “Don’t you know that within a five mile radius of the town you’re supposed to have lights on after dark?” I said “No, I didn’t know.” He said “Well, you are. I’ll have to take your name and address and report you.” I said “That’s a bit of a bugger, I’ve just been working for the police.” and I told him about this chap that had been brought in. He said “That’s got nothing to do with me. All I can do is take your name and address and report you and then they can decide what they’re going to do about it.” Anyhow, I gave him me name and address and a week or two afterwards we got a summons, I showed it to the boss and he said “Oh, you can leave that to me. I’ll deal with it.” Anyhow I think I got fined five bob but he paid it and attended with a solicitor to plead the case for me so I didn’t have to bother any more about it.
Shortly after this, he sent for me one day and said “I want you to go into town and meet the train. I’ve got a cousin coming up from Sidney, Mr Len Wingate. He’s coming up here for a holiday. Whilst he’s here it’ll be your job to look after him so don’t get on the wrong side of him when you first meet him. And by the way, take those two last colts in the buggy, they’re good quality and a sixty mile run won’t do them any harm.” So I said “Righto, I’ll set off first thing in the morning.” I did, I got up about half past three, got ‘em hitched up and set off for Warren.
I got into Warren about half an hour before the train was due. The railway station stood away from the town and at the back of the station there was a big open field. It was a good job for me there was. Instead of waiting until the train got in and going round to pick this chap up, I went round before the train got in. Where I stopped was just where the engine stopped. The engine pulled in and the horses were a bit frisky. Then the fireman started worrying about making noises with his shovel and steam blowing off and one thing and another. Then he sounded his whistle. I don’t know whether he did it to frighten the horses or not, I think he did, but they set off and I couldn’t hold them. They went round this field and I took ‘em round about twice before I could pull ‘em up. Anyhow, I finally got them pulled up and got back to the station. This chap and his wife were waiting for me. I got them aboard and I said to him “Do you want to go into the town for anything?” She said “Yes. I want to go to a store.” I said “Do you need to have a meal?” They said that they had had a hamper meal on the train. So I took ‘em round to this store and fortunately for me the horses kept fairly still while they got out and went in. Anyhow, they came out and got aboard again and we set off. Well, half way down the street we met a traction engine and this feller was pipping his bloody hooter and they set off again. This chap said to me “What’s the matter with them? You’re driving them too fast aren’t you?” I said “I’m not driving them, they’re taking me, they’ve got the bit between their teeth.” So he said “What are you going to do about it?” I said “I’m not going to do anything at all. I’m just going to let ‘em run.” Anyhow, I let ‘em run and after about three or four mile they got winded and they steadied up. So we went along without any incident after that.
We pulled up somewhere about half way there at a waterhole they had a meal by the wayside, had some sandwiches that I’d taken with me from the station and we boiled a billy. They really enjoyed it. Anyhow, we got out to the station without any further trouble and they got settled in for the night.
Next day, they were going to start lamb marking and I was picked to go with Len and do a bit of mustering. We got on really well together, he was a decent sort of a bloke. He was the head of a labour agency in Sydney. These labour agents found work for people who were out of work. They found men for employers who wanted people. They worked on a commission basis.
For the next two or there weeks we rode together and hunted together and did a bit of fishing and really got pally. I’d been telling him that I wanted to get out of the country for a while. He said “Where do you want to go?” I said “I don’t care where I go as long as I get away from here for a bit. See somewhere fresh.” He said “Well, when I go back I’ll see if I can fix you up with a job. We do a lot with the contractors who are going to places like New Zealand and Tasmania and the islands round about and it’s quite possible I could fix you up with a job with one of those people.” So I said “Alright, if you can fix me up I’ll only be too grateful.” Anyhow, he went back to Sydney and we parted on that understanding that if he could, he’d fix me up with a job.
It wasn’t long after he had gone away when there was more trouble. There was a married couple worked on the station. He was a dago bloke and his wife was a Sydney girl. I don’t know whether he knew or not but she was a bit of a fly-by-night and of course I started messing about with her. I don’t know why, I suppose it was just that young fellers do that sort of thing. This feller found out. He made a complaint to Mr Wingate and he said that if they didn’t get rid of me, they’d go. Now married couples on these stations were like gold. They had a hell of a job to get them and they had a bigger job to keep them once they had them. Wingate sent for me and he told me about this complaint and asked if it was true. I said “I don’t know, there might be some truth in it but there was never anything wrong happened.” He told me that he thought the best thing I could do was to part company because if he lost these people God knows where he could get some more. They’d written to Cato’s, that was the station next door asking for a job there. Of course Cato’s wouldn’t give them a job unless Wingate agreed to it. He said “I’ve got nothing against you but the best thing you can do is go.” So I said “Alright, I’ll go when the next chap’s going into town. I don’t want to walk from here to Warren.” He said, “That’s alright, I’ll let you know when there’s somebody going.” Well anyhow, he did and he paid me up and I shook the dust of Warraby off me heels and ended up back in Warren.
I went to stay in the Royal Hotel in Warren and I heard from the police that Mick’d got time for the job he’d done in Sydney and I was warned that I might be wanted as a witness. I told them I wasn’t going to hang about long and if they wanted me as a witness, the best thing they could do was to take a statement from me and then they’d have it if ever he came up for trial again. Anyhow they didn’t take a statement and I never heard any more about it.
I just landed in Warren at the right time. The local show was on and there was also a race meeting the same week. This race meeting was what they call a grass-fed meeting. That is that all the horses competing must have been on grass for at least three weeks before the race day. It was usual for the squatters and farmers and riders who had a good horse to enter their horses and the races were keenly contested. There was one chap there, a horse breaker with a horse, he had it in a small paddock about a mile out of Warren. He was staying at the Royal Hotel and told me that there was a lad coming up from Sydney to ride for him. He couldn’t ride it because he was about seventeen stone. Anyhow the day before the races he got word that this lad couldn’t come, so he said to me “Have you ever ridden in a race?” I said “I’ve never ridden in a recognised race. I’ve ridden in plenty of bridle races and all that sort of thing.” He said “Well you can be my jockey tomorrow.” So I was game, I thought it was a great thrill to be riding in a real race on a real race course.
Anyhow, the next morning we were up bright and early and saddled this horse up. I took it out to the race course which was about four mile away. There was no stables, you just tied them up anywhere you could. You were allowed to feed them corn that day, you’d give ‘em a nosebag. Anyhow, it came time to saddle up for the race, we saddled up and in the meantime we’d registered with the committee and I think I had to pay two bob as a registration as a rider I think that covered insurance in case you got hurt. This feller told me exactly what to do, he said “Never mind using your own judgement, I don’t want you to do anything at all about it. You just keep this horse where I tell you to keep it.” So he gave me me instructions and they were that I had to get into about fourth position and stay there until about three furlongs from home then let him have his head. I did this and he won by about ten lengths. I got me money for riding him and I got a bob or two that He’d put on and we went back home to the hotel very happy.
There was a sequel to that, about three or four days after the race meeting one of the committee came to me and asked me if I knew this feller that I’d ridden for. I said that I’d never met him until I’d seen him before the race. They said “Did he say where he was going from here?” I said he’d never said anything to me, he’d just left. I said “I know he went on the train. They might be able to tell you at the station where he went to but he didn’t tell me.” He said “Well, we’re looking for him because that horse that he won the race with wasn’t a grass fed horse at all. We’ve since learned that he had it in Narromine and he’s been training it there and it’s been corn fed all the time.” I said “I don’t know anything at all about that.” Anyhow, I don’t know whether they found him or not but if they did I never heard anything about it.
The night before the show opened I got talking to the bloke that run the boxing booth. I was interested in boxing and I went down to the place where they were camped. They weren’t staying at the hotel, they were camped in an old livery barn. They were boxing, or sparring, training and this feller said to me “Are you going to the show tomorrow?” I said “Yes.” He said Can you talk?” I said “Yes. I can talk a bit. What do you want?” He said “I want someone to do a bit of barking for me. Our bloke has left us and there’s nobody only meself and I’ve got too many other jobs to do looking after the cash desk and the boxers and that.” I said “Well, if you’ll give me some idea of what you want me to say I’ll have a go at it. If I’m no good you can tell me and that’s the end of it.” So he gave me the tale to spiel. We wrote it down and I learned it off by heart. I didn’t know anything else. It went something like this, I used to have to stand up and shout “Ladies and Gentlemen, If you will give me the space of a few moments, I will endeavour to inform you in the shortest manner possible who we are, what we are and what we are here for. We’re not here to mesmerise, brutalise or blackanise, we’re simply here to illustrate the battles that have been fought and won in our Australian colony.” Then I had to go on to introduce the boxers. The method of getting boxers in was to introduce a man, to say that this was “Joe Chinowski, the man who rode the black bullock through Drongaloo with blood and shit all over and fought eight rounds with a man armed with a back chain and come out without a scratch. Will anyone have a go with him?” Course some bloke would stick up his hand and you threw him a glove and he was matched with Joe Chinowski and it went on like that until you got all the boxers matched up. There was about five or six of them and then the crowd was invited in. Fights went on and as one feller finished a fight you were barking away trying to get another punter for the second house and so on. Well, it went on for two days and this feller said I did alright. At the end of the two days he gave me a five pound note. He bought me quite a bit of drink and that in the meantime and meals for me so I was quite satisfied and it was a bit of an experience for me.
Just after the show was over Mary Ganes, that’s George Ganes’ wife arrived in Warren to visit some friends at the Commercial Hotel. I was walking down the street one morning and I got the shock of me life, I run slap bang into her. We talked for a while and she invited me to come round to the hotel for tea. I said I would. I went round and we talked about home and one thing and another. Talking to her made me feel a bit homesick so I decided that when she went back, I’d go home with her. I told her this and she was very pleased. She said that the reason she’d come to Warren was not only to visit friends but to see if she could get in touch with me because Mother was very worried about me. She was more than pleased when I decided to go home with her.
Anyhow, I went home and I’d only been home a few days when I got discontented again. Mother was getting at me about staying away from home, my place was at home and all that sort of thing. So I got fed up and I told her that I couldn’t stay at home, that I had a job in Warren and that I was going with some surveyors and I’d be away for about five or six months. She wouldn’t hear from me at all, while I was away. Of course, that was all baloney. I only meant to create the belief that I was out in the bush somewhere so that if I got the chance to go abroad I needn’t tell them anything about it.
When I got back to Warren, I heard that Mrs Cook, at the Royal Hotel, had had some trouble with her groom. He was a feller named Billy Greenoway, a half caste lad. They’d had some trouble during the show week. It had built up and in the end Billy had packed his job in and she had been left without a groom. She asked me whether I’d take the job on. I said I didn’t want to do it permanently but I’d take it on for a while if she was stuck. She said “You do that. I’ll give you two pound a week and your keep and you have what you make in tips.” So I said “Right.”
Well I hadn’t been on this job very long when a big drag pulled into the yard one day with six horses and the feller driving it, he was a tough looking old customer, I didn’t know who he was, got out, chucked the reins to me and said “Take care these and see that they’re fed on corn.” So I said “Alright Sir.” I unharnessed them, put ‘em in the stalls and rubbed ‘em down and this feller Billy Greenoway came round. He said to me “”You know who that is?” I said “No, I don’t know who it is but he’s some big nob by the look of him.” He said “That’s old Bull McKenna. He comes from out on the Bogan and he’s one of the wealthiest squatters round here. He’s a real tough nut.” He told me a yarn about him to illustrate what sort of a bloke he was.
He said that one day old Bull was going along the road with two horses in a buckboard and he passed two tramps. So he stopped and asked them whether they wanted a job and they said yes. He said I need a couple of hands about the station to do a few odd jobs so you better throw your swags aboard and get up. So they did and he set off across country. They reckon he was running over logs and stumps and boulders and that and they hit a stump and one of these fellers fell out. The other feller was afraid to tell him and he kept pulling at his sleeve saying “Mr McKenna, Mr McKenna.” and in the end old Bull turned round and said “What the bloody hell do you want?” He said “Will you stop. Me mates fell out.” Bull said “Well throw his bloody swag out. He’s no use to me if he can’t ride on a buckboard!” The bloke had to throw his swag out and he didn’t stop for him. That’s the sort of feller Bull McKenna was.
Another tale that Billy told about him was that he had some visitors up from Sydney and amongst them was a young feller about 22 or 23. He was very lah-di-dah and he kept talking down to Bull and the old feller didn’t like this so he was wondering what he could do to take the wind out of this young feller’s sails. One day a party of them were coming into Warren and before they set off old Bull invited this young feller to have a drink with him. He put some jalap in his drink. When they got into the drag, he invited this young lad to sit alongside of him, up in the driver’s seat. Well, they hadn’t been going very long when this young feller wanted to go to the lavatory. He whispered to old Bull and Bull said “Well, you’ll just have to hang on for a bit. We come to a gate up here and when we come to the gate, you jump down to open it and when I drive through the gate, you shut the gate but before you get up into your seat again just say that there’s a bolt loose under the drag and you can get under there and relieve yourself”. So the young feller thought right, I’ll do that. Well, they come to this gate and the young feller jumped down and opened it. They drove through and he shouted out that there was a bolt loose under the drag and he’d get under and tighten it up. Old Bull waited while he had had time to get his trousers down and get cracking on the job and he drove on and left him there so that all the women in the drag could see him. Of course the feller was made to look small and old Bull got his own back on him.
But to get back to Bull and me, I had unharnessed his horses and hung the harness up and I happened to say to Billy Greenoway “By God, that’s a lovely set of harness.” He said “Aye, but the old man doesn’t like it. I’ll tell you what, if you were to get some stain and dye that harness black and get it nicely polished up by the time he goes back I’ll bet you’d get a couple of quid off him.” I said “Well, the stain and that is going to cost me quite a bit. I’ll ask him.” He said “Oh, I wouldn’t ask him if I was you. Just get it done and I’ll give you a hand with it.”
Anyhow, we got some stain and we washed the harness with soft soap first and let it dry. Then we stained it with this stain and put some black lacquer on and rubbed it in and then I polished it. When he was ready to go, it was about three days he stayed there, he sent word out that he wanted his team harnessing. So I got them all harnessed up and stood in the yard ready for him and he came out. Well, he stopped dead when he saw these horses and he said “Where’s me own harness?” I said, “This is it Sir.” “What have you done to it!” I said “You can see what I’ve done with it. I’ve done it black, I believe you didn’t like the other colour.”
Well, he was speechless, he just spluttered and splathered and then said “I’ll see you get the sack for this lot!” So he went off back into the hotel and he brought Mrs Cook out with him. She was apologising and he was going to sue me for damaging his harness and all that sort of thing. I said “Well, you can sue me if you want but I haven’t got any money to pay. I’ll have to work it out if it comes to a verdict against me.” I didn’t tell him that Billy Greenoway had told me about it. Anyhow he simmered down after a while. Mrs Cook had sacked me so I buggered off and got out of the road but as they were getting ready to drive away I went up and said “I’m awfully sorry Mr McKenna but I thought I was doing you a good turn. I thought I was doing something that you’d like to see. If I’d known it was going to upset you like this I wouldn’t have done anything like that with it.” He lowered his voice a bit and he said “As a matter of fact Sonny, you’ve just done what I would have liked you to have done but I’ve got to make a show because it’s the wife and the women that’s demanded this flashy harness. There’s no hard feelings as far as I’m concerned but I’m sorry you got the sack.” I said “Oh, I would have left in any case so it doesn’t make any difference. I’ve no hard feelings about that. Anyhow, Billy Greenoway got his job back and I went back to living in the hotel.
They were telling me there in the hotel that they had a chinese cook and he was the most marvellous pastry cook in the world. They never could get to know how he made his pastry and he always made it at night time. So one day, I said to the Boots that worked in the hotel “There’s a loft over the kitchen.” and he said “Aye.” “So what say we get up there and bore a couple of holes and watch old Johnny and see how he does make his pastry?” He said “Aye. Not a bad idea. Let’s do that.” So we went up and we got an auger and bored a couple of holes right over the table where we could watch him. We took a few bottles of beer and went up into this loft at about eight o’clock at night and eventually, old Johnny come in and started to get his pastry ready. When he got it made and started rolling it out he kept rolling it out and then he’d take a mouthful of water and blow it all over the pastry out of his mouth like out of a spray. Then he’d lap it over and roll it again. Well, next day we told everybody in the hotel how he made his pastry. That caused another bloody row. I fell out with Mrs Cook about that, she said that I’d no right to go up into this loft and all that sort of thing and so I packed me bags and went down to the Commercial Hotel to stay.
Whilst I was hanging about waiting for a letter from Len about this job abroad, I was in a bar one day when the sergeant of police came in. He asked me to have a drink and I bought him one and he got talking about Mick. I said to him “How did you get on to him as quick as you did?” He said “Hah, you’d like to know wouldn’t you?” I said “Aye.” He said “We were on to him, or as we thought, we were on to both of you, within a couple of days of you coming to Warren.” I said “Why was that?” He said “Well, we had this feller listed as a wanted man but the description wasn’t very good because Mick didn’t answer the description. But he’d been in gaol before and in this gaol that he was in, one of the things they taught them was the manipulation of paper, making paper screens and flowers and that sort of thing. As soon as you started selling flowers on the street, that was a lead to us that if he wasn’t the feller that we wanted, at least he was a feller that’d bear watching. So it was due really to the paper flower business that we first got on to him. We wouldn’t have got him nearly so quickly if he hadn’t started making flowers.”
At last I got a letter from Len Wingate telling me that he could offer me a job in Fiji, they were installing new rollers at the cane mills there and although the job would only last two or three months, it was well paid and I had me fare there and back home again. So if I just wanted a trip out, it should be right up my street. He mentioned that the wages was five pounds a week and all found living in a hotel. Well, that was pretty good for somebody my age so I wrote back to say I was on me way. Anyhow I called in, saw him at the office and he directed me where to go and who to report to and they’d fix me up with me passage.
So I went to the place, it was the Budenberg Sugar Company’s offices and the man in charge was a man named James. Well, Mr James gave me all the papers that I wanted. He gave me some money for expenses on the trip and a ticket on the boat. There were two other fellers going out with me and we had a very pleasant trip out.
When I got there, I was told that they didn’t want a fitter, they wanted someone in the blacksmith’s shop. I said I’d signed up as a fitter. He said “Well, there’s been a mistake there because we’re not behind in the fitting department, we’re behind in the smithing department.” So I said “Well, I’m not going to argue the point, what do you want me to do in the blacksmith’s shop?” He said “We want a striker.” I said “Right, I’ll take that on.” He said “Have you ever done any striking?” I said “Yes. I’ve done a bit, not much but I’ve done a bit.” So he said “I’ll take you down and introduce you to your mate.” So we went down into the smithy and he introduced me to a feller called Vic Hansen, a big fair-headed Dane about six foot six and I bet he’d be about sixteen or seventeen stone. He was about my age or probably a bit older. We had a talk and he said “Oh, we’ll get on alright together, we’ll manage.” Anyhow, we did, everything he asked me to do I was able to do it to his satisfaction. In fact he said I was one of the best strikers he’d ever had. We had a few natives working for us as well. Like you didn’t do any of the donkey work at all. They did all the carrying and the fetching. They used to get these blokes down every morning and they give them a ticket for the days work. If they took that ticket back at night initialled by the man that they had to work for, they got paid their wages, a shilling a day. They didn’t understand any English and we didn’t understand any Fijian language and it was a bit of a bloody picnic. The only thing I ever learned in their language was lackamay  which means come here and puckatoo which means pick it up. Those were the only two phrases I ever learned and Vic didn’t seem to know any more. Anyhow, we got on alright with them. They weren’t bad fellers, if they knew what you wanted them to do they’d do it happily enough
Anyhow, it wasn’t quite three months and the job finished. They’d got the new rollers in and we’d done all the fitting up of the guards and all that was necessary and the job was cutting out.
Whilst talking to Vic Hansen in the hotel about what was going to happen when the job finished, he said that he was going back to Australia. He’d only been there about six months when he got this job in Fiji. He didn’t know where he was going but he wanted to get out into the country so I gave him the name and address of a man called Jim Mullins in Narromine who ran a big general engineering place and who was nearly always short of blacksmiths particularly in the busy season. I told Vic if he wrote to Jimmy I thought it was pretty near sure he’d get a job. He could tell him that I’d given him his name. Anyhow, he did do this and he got a job with Mullins and I was to meet him again later on.
When we finished I wanted to get away as soon as I could. I’d had enough of Suva and there was nothing there but the sugar mills. There was one or two interesting facts about the place, one was that they had a gaol there and there was a wall built three parts of the way round this gaol about nine feet high. Whilst I was there there was town meeting to discuss the possibility of completing the wall because the prison authorities were having trouble. Not keeping people in the gaol, but keeping them out. They used to find out at meal times that they had twice as many people to feed as they were supposed to have prisoners.
Another point about the Fijians was that I think the coloured people there was the most moral people I ever come into contact with. Their women would have nothing at all to do with the whites. They lived on their own side of the town and you’d never see them in the white quarters. White men who went into the native quarters got very short shrift from the women, not the men, the women chased them out. They were very patriotic people. The King was a god to them and England was the only place in the world to them. They looked up to England as being one of the mightiest countries in the world. As a matter of fact, it was at that time.
Well anyhow, I was in, a hurry to get away and I heard that there was a firm called Smith and Timms who had been doing some contracting work on the jetty at Suva had a ship in loading at the dock I thought they’d be going back to Sydney so I went down and I met a feller named Willy Campbell who was the man in charge. He said “If we were going back to Sydney I’d take you back with the greatest of pleasure but we’re not going back to Sydney. We’re going to Jamaica from here, we’ve got a contract out there. If you want a job on that I can fix you up alright.” So I said “What are the terms and conditions?” He told me what the cost of living was there and what the wages were. I had to sign on for six months and if I stayed the six months I got a free passage home. If I left before six months I had to find me way home the best way I could. So I said “alright, I’ll take it on.” He said “Well, you’d better get your things on board because we’ll be sailing tomorrow or the next day. You can go aboard and live aboard ship whilst you’re waiting if you like..” So I said “Thanks.” I went and got me bag and went aboard and we eventually set out for Kingston. [Late 1910]
9,229 words.
|
|
|
|
LESLIE GRAHAM MACDONALD TAPE (10)
