EPIC TAXI TRIP RESUMES , PICKING UP A DYNAMIC AUSTRALIAN PASSENGER

Fascinating additional  information has  surfaced   about  the  Scottish  mining engineer , writer, eugenicist  and  stamp collector, John Herbert  Curle ,  who  in  l939 hired  a  White's taxi to drive him  1200 miles from  Darwin to Mount Isa, Queensland , for  two  shillings  a mile . 

A newspaper account of the  Australian record making journey  made the suspect  claim  that   Curle  had  travelled   2,000,000 miles  in  40 years.

However , this blog  discovered   that   when  Curle  wrote an  unusual   book  -  Eskimo Pie- published by Methuen, London, in l942,  a  reviewer described  him  as  a  modern  Marco Polo, one  of  the  most  travelled  authors  of  the  day .

He had much to say about humankind all over the globe  and the direction in which it  seemed to  be  heading , 

The book presented  "arresting pitures" of people and places in many lands , including   Britain, Germany,  America  , the Far East  and   Australia .

In respect of Australia,  the reviewer  said  Curle admired the  country  and new it  intimately .

Curle's  wide ranging   observations  about  America included  the  fact that it had become the manufacturing  hub of the world  , was hooked on  oil, and  was reaping the benefit of being a melting pot of peoples , against the  beliefs  of  eugenicists   

It  was a  surprise  to  read  that   Esko Pie  had been  dedicated  to  G. A. Richard,  of  Brisbane.

Online research  revealed  this was  George Alfred Richard, an Australian metallurgist, 1861-l943, who studied assaying, chemistry and metallurgy  at the  Ballarat School of Mines . He went on to become  a  major influence  in  large  scale mining  operations in  Australia.

He worked on  Victorian  goldfields  and then joined the large  Mount Morgan  Gold Mining  Company in  Queensland, becoming its  general manager  . 

In 1901 Richard  toured Australian, North American, European and South African plants, examining copper-smelting  and iron and  steel processes.

Money  from Mount Morgan  helped set  up the  Anglo- Persian   Oil Company  which  became  British  Petroleum  in  l954.

According to  the  Australian  Dictionary of   Biography , Richard was interested in the Queensland militia, technical reading , education and billiards. 

He had joined the volunteer militia in late 1887 as provisional captain and was widely known as Captain Richard, especially after he led volunteer troops during  the shearers' strike of 1891.

Richard presided over the 1899 and 1910 meetings of the Australasian Institute of Mining Engineers at Rockhampton and Mount Morgan; in 1910 he gave an erudite presidential address, 'Statistics and economics'. He was a strong and active supporter of the Mount Morgan Technical College and advocated  a  centralized  Queensland School  of  Mines. 

(Taxi. Mining. Curle.)

PARADISE PORTRAIT

Spectacular   early  morning  view  of Townsville waterfront, a thrownetter in the shallows, with Magnetic Island in background. Photo by Aeronautical Correspondent  Abra. 

 

( Waterfront. Special . Abra.)

MARATHON TAXI TRIP

The  files   of  Darwin resident   Bob White , who has a close and colourful association  with  Townsville,  cover  a  wide range  of interesting   subjects  in   Western   Australian  , the  Northern  Territory  ,  Queensland .  Needless to  say,  he   has  been  urged  on several  occasions to  write  his  memoirs . 

One  file  is about  an   uncle, Jack White,  a  buffalo shooter and  croc  hunter, who  discovered  the Rum  Jungle uranium deposit  in  1949  which  became Australia's largest uranium mine  , opened  in l954  and  supplied  Britain and America  with uranium to make   atomic weapons  during the  Cold  War .

(Little  Darwin ran details  of  New Zealand journalist Ross Annabell's time in the Territory and Mount Isa  that  included  being   caught   up  in  the  Northern Territory  uranium  boom , about  which   he   wrote  a  book, The Uranium Hunters .) 

Another of Bob's  files covers  the  early taxi service  run by  the  White   family in Darwin . It  includes the following  photograph  which shows , from the left, Vince White,  Alan  White , Bob's  father,  and   Dulcie, Vince's wife, with  three  of  the  taxis  near  the  Victoria  Hotel  cottage  .   

A Taxi Trip of 1200 Miles 

There   are  newspaper cuttings  and  at  least one  photograph related to  what  was reported to be  Australia's record  taxi   trip  - from Darwin to the  Mount  Isa mining centre ,Queensland , at  a  charge of  two shillings  a  mile.  

 A  1939 newspaper  account of the trip was thus : J.H. CURLE, the author of many entertaining and useful books, one of which warns the white man’s world of the looming danger of the coloured races attaining the ascendancy, has already in his 40 years of travel covered 2,000,000 miles of the earth’s surface. 

At present engaged in again seeing Australia, Mr. Curle last week completed what is probably an Australian record taxi-cab journey. He travelled the 1200 miles from Darwin to Mount Isa in a taxi at 2s. a mile. Being a mining engineer, the  Mt. Isa mine was, of course, the special attraction for him. 

During this journey he received news that the trustees of a wealthy estate, in Perth ,have been trying to reach him to pay him money for mining stock in a South American mine. 

A pre- war view of  Mount Isa  from the town side, across the Leichhardt River , taken  from  Boyd's  Hotel, which  had a notorious lounge bar  at  the  back  known  as  the Snakepit .

Another  Northern Territory  newspaper  report , following ,  refers to  the  rough taxi  trip.  

Mr Vin White, of White’s Taxi Service, who recently undertook a taxi trip to  Mt. Isa, returned ( to Darwin )  by Guinea Airways plane on Wednesday. Owing to the bad state of road between Katherine and Adelaide River, on the Stuart Highway , he arranged to have the car sent back by train. In the meantime, the service is being carried out with his other taxi unit

The above  photograph  was taken during the epic  trip  . It shows the taxi, minus the boot lid, with a shed in the bakckground   displaying    AVON  in  large letters   on   the  roof  to  help  pilots  know  where  they  were .

It is on the  Avon  Downs  pastoral property , situated on the Barkly Highway,  260kms  norhwest  of  Mount  Isa. The so-called highway  was  just a  rough  bush track  in  those  day.  

The globe trotting  man who  hired the  taxi for the long  run ,  a  6 ft.  3 inch  Scot , John Herbert  Curle  (1870-1942), was described as  a  slightly stammering mining engineer, traveller , writer , eugenicist and  keen philatelist . He  wrote  the above  book, reprinted  several times .  At one stage in  his travels in South Africa he  was  the mining  editor of  the Johannesburg Star .

Wikipedia  contains   fascinating   details   about  how  Curle  first came to Australia.

In 1885 he travelled to Australia in the care of a physician whose passage had been paid by Curle's father. The physician drank the brandy from Curle's flask, attributing  its disappearance to "evaporation" and, according to Curle, much of the rest of the alcohol on the ship. Curle arrived in Australian at the age of 14 and after visiting relatives and staying in "the bush", visited his first gold mine at Ballarat. He went  to Tasmania before returning to Scotland in 1886. 

When Curle , unmarried, died from cancer  in British Columbia , Canada, in December  l942, about  three years after  his  taxi trip from Darwin to Mount Isa, an obituary in The London Philatelist said his  valuable stamp collection  had been his  "wife and children", there being no distance he would  not  travel to add  to his collection.

 He left his stamps  to  the Africana Museum, Johannesburg, and  donated  2000 pound to the Eugenics Society. 

(Taxi . Outback. Author.)

IN THE PINK

Magnetic Island  from Castle Hill,  Abra photo.

 (Island. Sky. Abra.)

CHILLY TROPICAL MORNING

 

Townsville. Photos by Aeronautical Correspondent Abra. 

(Weather . Waterfront. Abra.)

UNFORGETTABLE TERRITORY SAFARI #2

 Continuing  the  racy  account of  journalist Peter  Blake's safari at  Nourlangie, run by the  Great White Hunter , Allan Stewart . 

Peter Blake big game fishing somewhere in the Americas  .

Buffalo hunting apart, the enchantment of Nourlangie has stayed with me for life -- a serene and beautiful place of  birds descending like great white flowers to decorate the flooded forest, lagoons strewn with giant lily pads, and harbouring deep dark, pools where the barramundi waited and at the camp itself, a shy invasion of wild life, wallabies, dingoes, and even buffalo drifting in from the bush at dusk, padding around the huts  where, lying on your bunk you are enfolded in the vast silence of the outback night barely broken by the squeak, and rustle of tiny animals hunting and being hunted, and the soft padding of something bigger.

I must say it was a magical experience, up there with cracking a Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double for serious cash, which I do a few years later when Tobin Bronze and  Red Handed salute.

Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was charged with  poaching in l978  after  a  well covered  fishing  safari  to  the  Dreaming  Lagoon , then  part of  the Woolwonga Wildlife Sanctuary.

Yunupingu , safari suited PM.

The odd  charge was brought against him by Roy James Wright, of Darwin , who was serving  nine months in Fannie Bay Gaol  for taking fish with a gill net.  Wright , described as  one  of   the  Northern  Territory's  most  colourful fishermen, was convicted  in 1974 for fishing  in the same area  as  the  PM had  thrown  a  line.

Wright claimed he had  been invited to fish by an Aboriginal  born  in  the  sanctuary. Fraser had fished the lagoon at the invitation of the Northern  Land Council chairman, Galarrwuy Yunupingu.

Darwin magistrate, Tom Pauling , later the Administrator  of  the Northern Territory,  dismissed  the  poaching  charge.

FISHING SNAP : Fraser with camera , next to him Press Secretary, David Barnett , and another staff member , journalist  Brian Johns , formerly of  the Sydney Morning  Herald , later the  ABC head honcho . Man with cigarette is  a  southern journalist and the other person  a  ranger . The  superb ABC  TV Country Road series about  the National  Party,  by Heather Ewart , showed  that  Fraser  still  enjoyed  fishing.

(Safari.  Nourlangie. Blake.)

ON OUR SELECTION

Butterfly  in  cycad  .Vallis photo.

 (Butterfly. Cycad. Vallis.)