Part of a handwritten account of extraordinary individuals in the l920s and l930s in Western Australia and elsewhere in the North-yet another fascinating document in the diverse collection amassed by the late Vern O'Brien , now lodged in the extensive library of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory , Darwin.
Not complete , edited in a rough fashion , possibly added to at times , it seems to have been compiled by a man who moved from Marble Bar to Halls Creek in 1922 and ran an outback mail truck run. While not certain , it could have been written by Reg Wilson who had the Halls Creek to Wyndham mail run .
In what looks like a chapter , headed Characters of the Kimberleys , there is mention of interesting cooks , station managers , drunks, camels, horse thieves ,a range war , Vesteys, the well- known Duracks , the Tennant Creek goldfield in the Northern Territory , the 1937 Darwin cyclone, a massive blacksoil bog .
On the subject of cooks, there is one known as " Short Stop Turner" who, if insulted, left without notice and his pay ; a mustering camp was left without breakfast . He came back later, and wanted his pay. Another cook had a very limited menu-hot or cold corned beef.
There was One Punch Tracey whose yarns were embellished to such a great degree that they "verged on fiction."
On a run with Norm Bridge, manager of Ivanhoe Station, started by the Durack brothers in 1893, the truck experienced several breakdowns , makeshift parts made along the way , and escaped flooding from heavy rain .
There is mention of travelling 160 miles in three days to deliver a strange looking letter or parcel addressed to the manager of a cattle station who could not read or write . Along the way, there had been temptation to steam it open and see what was inside. It was found to contain advertising material .
In 1937 , a group of drunken men was found stranded with a truck eight miles from Halls Creek , having run out of petrol. A man had been sent on foot to get petrol. On the back of the truck was a 44 gallon drum of petrol. The men were "too besotted " to take fuel from the drum , one of them, Paddy Ryan, said the contents would run out if they removed the bung.
Happy go lucky Barney O'Leary went to Adelaide and kicked up his heels . It was said that when Barney slept , Adelaide was able to sleep . The writer of this unusual document appears to have moved to Katherine in the Northern Territory and had lived there ever since .
