There is a certain sniffing of nostrils , a n outbreak of the vapours whenever the Shipping Reporter comes aboard the Little Darwin mother ship , lurching like a drunken sailor or a three-legged contestant in a sea shanty dancing competition .Phew!!!
Of late he has been ransacking dump shops, op shops and ratting through garage sales for nautical oddities, books , objet d'art , ephemera . As a result , he is starting to look and smell like B.O. Plenty from the Dick Tracy comic strip .
His finds are jammed into his smelly kitbag , often forgotten . At this blog's urging , he reluctantly held a Spring clean on the premises, which caused real estate values on the island to plummet .
Out tumbled a scrunched up pile of paper which , when examined, with gloved hands , while also wearing a face mask , included a Gaston Renard Fine and Rare Books list,containing the desirable following 1928 volume, Australian Steamships ,by Dickson Gregory , with a foreword by Brigadier-General Sir Granville Ryrie,K.C.M.G., Australian High Commissioner , with hundreds of photographs, $350.
Our waterfront roundsman , the only north of Phillip Island , explained that the book list had actually been sent to him by a friend , veteran journalist and author , Kim Lockwood , now of Melbourne , a survivor of a Darwin Beercan Regatta , the Darwin Rocksitters' Club and Cyclone Tracy ,
Then, would you believe ?, out of the kitbag rolled a record , 30 years old , bearing the title Waterfront ,sung by The Black Eyed Susans , from Townsville's own public radio station ,4TTT-FM , found in a Townsville church op shop .
