Salvaged from a wrecked old adventure book for children by our waterfront roundsman are these nautical plates .
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Captain's cannon coming aboard .
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Furling the lower topsail.
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Monday, January 6, 2020
LIVE WIRE COLONIAL INVENTORS
The l886 Australian Builders' Price Book, the revised, enlarged, fifth edition , included this wormed advertisement . Published by George Robertson , with branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide . It is intended to run interesting display advertisements and illustrations from this and other publications during the year.
Saturday, January 4, 2020
DOWN JOURNALISM'S MEMORY LANE ; THE KIWI INFLUENCE
Adventurous topless Kiwi reporters Ross Annabell (left) and Hugh Mabbett , snapped at Fannie Bay beach , Darwin , in l954. Ross, who not only kicked off the Mount Isa Mail, Queensland , was editor of the Northern Territory News in Darwin until the difficult owners of the paper in Sydney, political operatives Eric White and Don Whitington, gave him the chop .
Mabbett was made the replacement editor . However , some time later, a letter from Sydney , " accidently steamed open", revealed he was going to be sacked and Annabell was to be asked to come back .
Mabbett conveyed this " secret information " , to Ross , who was freelancing and also doing work for the ABC. Asked to do a Nellie Melba, Ross declined and took up running the union operated Northern Standard newspaper.
In the above photo Ross appears to have a camera slung over his shoulder as he was also a keen photo-journalist who wrote feature articles for newspapers and magazines . This blog reported that Ross had covered the dramatic arrival at the Darwin airport from Sydney of Mrs Petrov , accompanied by Russian guards , who was given political asylum and whisked away from the Russian heavies, one of whom was put in a choke hold by a police officer when he appeared to go for a gun .
In the case of Hugh Mabbett , after leaving Darwin , he went to the Singapore Straits Times and also wrote books about the Balinese , Kuta and the Taj Mahal .
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It is doubtful if many modern day journalists could recognise this jovial personality , another Kiwi , who not only built up the Ampol Oil Company into a major business but continues to influence reporting in Australia . He was W.G. Walkley , later knighted, after whom the Walkley Awards for Journalism are named .The drawing of him appeared in a now unfortunately non- existent magazine , The Bulletin , in the l960s.
Walkley not only took on major international oil companies who tried to crush him , but he also backed his belief that there was oil in Australia . When oil was first struck in Western Australia , later more oil and gas , he wore a red sombrero down Pitt Street , Sydney , for the Press. He got on so well with reporters that several of them joined his company in key positions .
Friday, January 3, 2020
THE PIEMAN AND THE TRAGIC CONVICT GIRL IN THE BOX
Bushranger researcher Gary Hunn has been presented with a pressed metal Ned Kelly nameplate by Little Darwin as a fitting reward for alerting us to the following ripping yarn . Gary happened to mention the strange "sporting events " performed in colonial days and in doing so raised the performance of a person known as The Flying Pieman . Dazzlingly attired , he walked great distances, raced coaches between towns , even carried a goat , other weighty and cumbersome objects that made the task more difficult.
Gary came across the amazing character during his extensive research into bushrangers when following up work on the subject by an equally interesting person , Stephan Williams , a public servant who once resided in Canberra and also lived like a hermit in a Sydney cave .
Gary came across the amazing character during his extensive research into bushrangers when following up work on the subject by an equally interesting person , Stephan Williams , a public servant who once resided in Canberra and also lived like a hermit in a Sydney cave .
Williams jotted down every mention of a bushranger he could find in newspapers and archives and produced a number of books on the subject, including The Dictionary of Australian Bushrangers. In chasing up these publications, Gary Hunn , who led a film crew into bushranger country in three states and recently collaborated in a proposed musical on Captain Moonlight, snapped up a rare limited edition , 34pp , illustrated monograph by Williams about The Flying Pieman , the cover design below.
While not dealing with bushrangers , it is a fascinating glimpse into the zany and wild colonial days . The said Pieman was William Francis King , born London , March 1807, eldest son of Francis King , paymaster of Accounts in Treasury at Whitehall . It was intended that William would enter the Church of England , but his love of field sports and boisterous recreations was " not befitting the sacred office."
After a spell with a London stockbroker he became a clerk in the Treasury Office in the Tower of London . Restless, he headed for New South Wales in 1839, expecting to be given a choice government job because of his references .
This was not to be . Disappointed , an archbishop arranged for him to become a schoolmaster and clerk at Sutton Forest, near Bong Bong . After a spell as a tutor to a family , he got the urge to move on . What transpired next is truly sensational .
The l869 Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, containing the history of Australasia from 1542 to May 1879, compiled by J. Henniker Heaton, included The Flying Pieman and said that when King gave up tutoring he intended returning to England .... Many unforeseen difficulties, however presented themselves , and he was induced to hire as a barman in a Sydney pub called Hope and Anchor , afterwards the Rainbow Tavern .
The aforementioned unforeseen difficulties , Williams explained in his monograph , involved falling in love with a convict girl and arranging to take her back to England .
The story goes that because he was not a man of means and could not get government approval to take up with a convict , a desperate plan of elopement was drawn up in which the girl was placed in a wooden box and placed aboard ship .
Due to a tragic error , the ship in which the box was loaded left without King getting aboard . He supposedly arrived at Circular Quay to see it departing , seized a horse from a passer by and frantically rode along the harbour trying to attract the attention of the crew , without success .
There was speculation that the girl had probably died from starvation, thirst or asphyxiation. Whether the story was true or not, Williams said King soon became an eccentric figure who sold meat pies and rolls around the old cricket ground in Hyde Park and along Circular Quay .
The pies were carried in a two-lidded iron box atop a small charcoal stove , with a chimney, legs and a handle , so that it could be carried and also stood on the ground .
Then he commenced a series of " pedestrian feats ", such as : walking 1634 miles in five weeks and four days ; from the obelisk in Macquarie Place, Sydney , to the l6 mile stone at Parramatta and back again in six hours ; walking from Sydney to Parramatta and back twice a day for six consecutive days ; on one occasion he carried a dog weighing more than 70 pounds from Campbelltown to Sydney between the hours of half past 12 at night and 20 minutes to nine the next morning ; for a wager, a goat weighing 92lb with 12 pounds of extra deadweight was lumbered on a trek .
His " costume", made him stand out . It consisted of white stockings and stout shoes , surmounted by tight (usually red or crimson ) knee-breeches , open white shirt , blue jacket and a top hat from which multi-coloured streamers trailed . He also carried a staff from which more streamers were attached.
These and many other feats resulted in him earning the cognomen of "The Flying Pieman ." His marathons included Queensland where he referred to himself in the Courier as The Ladies' Walking, Flying Pieman . The frequent inclusion of "Ladies" in his formal title , Williams explained, betrayed a weakness on the Pieman's part for the beguiling breed , his behaviour to them always impeccable , if perhaps eccentric .
The Sydney Morning Herald coverage of his Brisbane performances , on October 17,l848 , in part , said ...He first intends to walk into the favour of the ladies at Kangaroo Point , then cross the river to South Brisbane , and there repeat his previous feats of walking, running, hopping, &c. In fact, if he is not the pride of the ladies , I am sure he is the wonderment of the juveniles , every one of whom fondly anticipates a holiday from school tomorrow to be a witness of this untiring activity ."
In Brisbane he planned to attack a major marathon record if the locals subscribed to a new pair of boots as his current ones were almost worn out .
With his "natural bent " to undertake all kinds of feats , upon which people often bet, it was said he was made the dupe of many . He died at the Liverpool Asylum in Sydney on August 12, 1874.
NOTE : This blog has run several stories about Gary Hunn , a Magnetic Island resident, in connection with his bushranger research , some of which took place between attending Melbourne exhibitions of Monet , Napoleon and La Perouse. A man of diverse interests, he is also into American history .
As a special gift , he gave Little Darwin a piece of a broken bottle which could have come from the dump at the very wayside pub/store the notorious bushranger Frank Gardiner set up with his mistress, near Rockhampton, Queensland , under an alias . Gardiner had led a gang which in l862 staged Australia's largest gold robbery at Eugowra ,escaping with 14,000 pounds ($4million today ) . He was arrested in 1864 by NSW police who traced him to the Queensland shanty and illegally took him back to Sydney. Sentenced to 32 years hard labour, he was released after serving 10 and exiled from Australia.
Shipped out to Hong Kong, in 1875 he turned up in San Francisco running the Twilight Saloon and mixed with Wild West identity, lawman, professional gambler and journalist " Bat" Masterson . One aspect of the saga is the fascinating suggestion, closely investigated by Gary , that twin sons of a widow Gardiner married in America came to Australia and dug up his share of the gold robbery .
The aforementioned unforeseen difficulties , Williams explained in his monograph , involved falling in love with a convict girl and arranging to take her back to England .
The story goes that because he was not a man of means and could not get government approval to take up with a convict , a desperate plan of elopement was drawn up in which the girl was placed in a wooden box and placed aboard ship .
Due to a tragic error , the ship in which the box was loaded left without King getting aboard . He supposedly arrived at Circular Quay to see it departing , seized a horse from a passer by and frantically rode along the harbour trying to attract the attention of the crew , without success .
There was speculation that the girl had probably died from starvation, thirst or asphyxiation. Whether the story was true or not, Williams said King soon became an eccentric figure who sold meat pies and rolls around the old cricket ground in Hyde Park and along Circular Quay .
The pies were carried in a two-lidded iron box atop a small charcoal stove , with a chimney, legs and a handle , so that it could be carried and also stood on the ground .
Then he commenced a series of " pedestrian feats ", such as : walking 1634 miles in five weeks and four days ; from the obelisk in Macquarie Place, Sydney , to the l6 mile stone at Parramatta and back again in six hours ; walking from Sydney to Parramatta and back twice a day for six consecutive days ; on one occasion he carried a dog weighing more than 70 pounds from Campbelltown to Sydney between the hours of half past 12 at night and 20 minutes to nine the next morning ; for a wager, a goat weighing 92lb with 12 pounds of extra deadweight was lumbered on a trek .
His " costume", made him stand out . It consisted of white stockings and stout shoes , surmounted by tight (usually red or crimson ) knee-breeches , open white shirt , blue jacket and a top hat from which multi-coloured streamers trailed . He also carried a staff from which more streamers were attached.
These and many other feats resulted in him earning the cognomen of "The Flying Pieman ." His marathons included Queensland where he referred to himself in the Courier as The Ladies' Walking, Flying Pieman . The frequent inclusion of "Ladies" in his formal title , Williams explained, betrayed a weakness on the Pieman's part for the beguiling breed , his behaviour to them always impeccable , if perhaps eccentric .
The Sydney Morning Herald coverage of his Brisbane performances , on October 17,l848 , in part , said ...He first intends to walk into the favour of the ladies at Kangaroo Point , then cross the river to South Brisbane , and there repeat his previous feats of walking, running, hopping, &c. In fact, if he is not the pride of the ladies , I am sure he is the wonderment of the juveniles , every one of whom fondly anticipates a holiday from school tomorrow to be a witness of this untiring activity ."
In Brisbane he planned to attack a major marathon record if the locals subscribed to a new pair of boots as his current ones were almost worn out .
With his "natural bent " to undertake all kinds of feats , upon which people often bet, it was said he was made the dupe of many . He died at the Liverpool Asylum in Sydney on August 12, 1874.
NOTE : This blog has run several stories about Gary Hunn , a Magnetic Island resident, in connection with his bushranger research , some of which took place between attending Melbourne exhibitions of Monet , Napoleon and La Perouse. A man of diverse interests, he is also into American history .
As a special gift , he gave Little Darwin a piece of a broken bottle which could have come from the dump at the very wayside pub/store the notorious bushranger Frank Gardiner set up with his mistress, near Rockhampton, Queensland , under an alias . Gardiner had led a gang which in l862 staged Australia's largest gold robbery at Eugowra ,escaping with 14,000 pounds ($4million today ) . He was arrested in 1864 by NSW police who traced him to the Queensland shanty and illegally took him back to Sydney. Sentenced to 32 years hard labour, he was released after serving 10 and exiled from Australia.
Shipped out to Hong Kong, in 1875 he turned up in San Francisco running the Twilight Saloon and mixed with Wild West identity, lawman, professional gambler and journalist " Bat" Masterson . One aspect of the saga is the fascinating suggestion, closely investigated by Gary , that twin sons of a widow Gardiner married in America came to Australia and dug up his share of the gold robbery .
Thursday, January 2, 2020
GREAT MANGO MADNESS LITERARY MOMENTS AND ASSORTED FUNNIES
A rollicking reminisce about Troppo and the Fannie Bay Whisper with a belated tribute to Sydney's Kings Cross Whisper and its talented , trail blazing crew.
During the cull of the Little Darwin den several fat folders marked SPOOF and TROPPO were discovered in a filing cabinet . These covered the time , more than 40 years ago ! , in Darwin , when two humorous publications were launched on the unsuspecting Top End , using some of the saucy photographs from Sydney's fabulously successful King's Cross Whisper .
Journalist Peter Blake , one of the Blake brothers , with wide ranging newspaper skills and a great sense of humour,which made him a hit in New York , helped turn the Kings Cross Whisper into a resounding success . He was working in Darwin at the time , also swinging the bag as a bookie at the Fannie Bay Racecourse .
We kicked around the idea of launching a satirical Kings Cross Whisper like publication in steamy Darwin . Troppo and the Fannie Bay Whisper were born as one offs , the Whisper to coincide with the Fannie Bay Beercan Regatta . Of particular interest in the bundle of material in the filing cabinet were duplicates of stories run in the two papers .
The Kings Cross Whisper owed its existence to a bland Darwin footy club publication, the Waratah Whisper , taken over and kicked into life by an audacious scribe , Jim Ramsey, above , seen here hamming it up as the editor. A top sports writer, in Sydney he had been placed on a Murdoch" leper list" for something he supposedly wrote which had upset the ace Australian international golfing star Peter Thompson .
Despite his leprous state , the editor of the Murdoch owned Northern Territory News in far away Darwin , Jim Bowditch , at Peter Blake's urging , hired Ramsey . Bowditch just changed Ramsey's name to Ramsie in bylines in a vain bid to hide his true identity. On being sprung by a Murdoch executive over from Brisbane , Ramsey told him to stick the job up his black arse .
We kicked around the idea of launching a satirical Kings Cross Whisper like publication in steamy Darwin . Troppo and the Fannie Bay Whisper were born as one offs , the Whisper to coincide with the Fannie Bay Beercan Regatta . Of particular interest in the bundle of material in the filing cabinet were duplicates of stories run in the two papers .
The Kings Cross Whisper owed its existence to a bland Darwin footy club publication, the Waratah Whisper , taken over and kicked into life by an audacious scribe , Jim Ramsey, above , seen here hamming it up as the editor. A top sports writer, in Sydney he had been placed on a Murdoch" leper list" for something he supposedly wrote which had upset the ace Australian international golfing star Peter Thompson . Despite his leprous state , the editor of the Murdoch owned Northern Territory News in far away Darwin , Jim Bowditch , at Peter Blake's urging , hired Ramsey . Bowditch just changed Ramsey's name to Ramsie in bylines in a vain bid to hide his true identity. On being sprung by a Murdoch executive over from Brisbane , Ramsey told him to stick the job up his black arse .
On leaving Darwin , Ramsey/Ramsie returned to Sydney, teamed up with another Blake , Terry , both almost broke . They hocked Terry's wife's sewing machine and another Blake brother's scuba diving gear to pay for the printing of the zany first Kings Cross Whisper newspaper . It sold like hot cakes to New Year's Eve revellers at Kings Cross. Realising they were on a bonanza , regular editions were produced , the sales astronomical across the nation . After many parties , it was turned into a highly successful and hectic business that branched out , sold personal ads in its columns , went into bawdy records through a Queensland government scheme , started a chain of sex shops selling marital aids with an extensive mail order outlet , provided fishing news for Sydney anglers . It even extended operations to New Zealand with the short lived Kiwi Whisper for which I wrote some copy .
By Peter Simon
Instead of having to hock the family heirlooms to pay the printer in advance , so much money flooded in they soon had their own three storey building in Darlinghurst with an upstairs printery. A linotype operator there , from Darwin , told me he had been glad Cyclone Tracy had devastated the northern capital on Christmas Day l974 because a man had promised to come round and bash him with an iron bar that very day. On the morning of that fateful day, he had been sitting on the toilet , holding a tile over his head for protection , as the residence was torn apart ; he had willingly fled overland with others in a battered car .
Terry Blake wrote the fabulous account of the heady King Cross Whisper days , the cover montage including headings on several stories I had written . Payout from the Whisper before I went to Darwin to work for the government in the l970s enabled me to buy a secondhand Holden stationwagon.
During my time as a government press officer in Darwin I was once the official media liaison officer for a royal tour. Could I be locked up in the Tower of London by now revealing that an official photograph I had been given of Prince Charles found its way into a crazy Troppo story about the Alice Springs outbreak of diarrhoea that followed a banquet provided in the Residency during the royal visit ?
During a drinking session in a Sydney hotel , Terry Blake flatteringly told me that because of my distinctive writing style , the odd angles that I took , I could become more popular than the renowned Australian writer of poetry and prose, Henry Lawson . This was an incredible , unsolicited testimonial .
However, at the time, he had consumed a lot of John Barleycorn and, in between guffawing over crazy national and overseas events , especially American politics, where President LBJ had said Gerald Ford was so dumb he could not fart and chew gum at the same time, he appeared to be attempting to EAT a cigar , which crumbled , pieces falling into his whisky glass.
Years later, while attending a weekend market in Adelaide, looking for oddities in boxes and elsewhere , I was surprised to spot Terry Blake . Asked what he was doing in South Australia , he explained that he had come from Sydney to sell the last remaining sex shop in the chain . In these ventures, he said you arranged to meet the new owner in a public place , took the money in cash- and ran to a nearby bank , hoping not to be waylaid by somebody who jumped out of a dark alley along the way and stole the loot . He could have been joking , but who knows ?
Terry Blake died as the result of an incident outside a Kings Cross nightspot in which he supposedly fell on his head . So the place that played a large part in his life, which enabled him to buy a sports car ( which he crashed ) and original Australian art , also led to his tragic demise .
Peter Blake , involved in a failed planned sting of Darwin bookies ,had also hoped to break the bookies in Hong Kong and America with strategic plunges , but failed to do so . Nevertheless , a Damon Runyon type character , full of humour , great company , a keen fisherman , a talented all round newspaper man , was respected in New York , where he died .
Peter Blake , involved in a failed planned sting of Darwin bookies ,had also hoped to break the bookies in Hong Kong and America with strategic plunges , but failed to do so . Nevertheless , a Damon Runyon type character , full of humour , great company , a keen fisherman , a talented all round newspaper man , was respected in New York , where he died .
When Jim Ramsay died in 1997, aged 67, he was described as a top golf writer , one of the great larrikin journalists of modern Australia , his life an odyssey of irresponsibility leaving a train of defalcations, infidelities, moonlight flits and terrible memories . Seems he started work in Melbourne as a tram conductor .The write up went on to say there had been many women, aged from late teens to the 80s , whom he had loved and left . Along the way he also managed to reduce to charcoal the lounge in journalist Steve Dunleavy's New York apartment.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
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