Ted Egan may have been inspired by this circa l930s snap when he penned the popular song about them being bloody good drinkers in the Northern Territory. In the extraordinary collection of photographs, books and ephemera of the late surveyor Vern O'Brien, in Darwin's Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory archives , it shows a better class of gentlemen imbibers at a railway picnic .
They are posing in a cattle truck bearing the bold sign reserved for RESPECTABLE SPECIAL DRUNKS. Bank clerks and others. Admission one bottle .
There is another hard to read sign on a piece of cardboard: French style Australian lager beer .The thirsty group , which includes a man in a pith helmet , hold bottles .
It is possible that this was a railway picnic at Adelaide River and that the man standing at the front of the carriage is none other than ganger Tom Flynn , a teetotaller, who inspired a character in Xavier Herbert's 1938 award winning novel, Capricornia , as did his Aboriginal wife , Nellie .
Flynn, of Irish parents, was born at Cooktown , Queensland .
A pharmacist and writer , Herbert , had gone to Adelaide River to work as a fettler under Tom Flynn. Herbert arrived carrying a typewriter and wearing a pith helmet - could that possibly be the pith- helmeted man in the photograph? Wearers of pith helmets were regarded as bosses , hated , making them suspicious of Herbert .
While at Adelaide River, Flynn ordered Xavier to prepare the place for the annual picnic , which involved setting up a large number of bough shelters for the many people who came from Darwin and the surrounding district .
UPCOMING : More Vern O'Brien specials plus other great items and stories from the Genealogical Society's extensive collection
