When Co-ord was king - Blazeaid donation.

[homeless]

Not sure if this is allowed so please delete if it is not appropriate.

One of our Blazeaid volunteers is offering copies of his ebook "When Co-Ord was King" for a $10 donation to Blazeaid http://blazeaid.com/donations/

The book is about his life as a trucky up north mainly between Alice and Darwin and mining camps from 1960's on.

It is a very funny read of 90+ pages of little senerios. plus lots of stories of the different rigs he drove, the mishaps and the goings on that they got up to.

He has a special email address to receive requests but it may take a week or two for his response as he is working on properties in the north of Queensland doing Blazeaid work.

Grahams Pyper's email address is wencoordwasking@gmail.com

This is just one but believe me there are many laughs throughout so if you buy the book and read it drink your coffee before or after not during (just a word of warning)

Another Legend
Naturally enough, as a "young bloke", I was just learning about the transport business, so apart from doing the odd "copper run" to Tennant Creek, a lot of the time was spent in the loading yard, or the work shop. Some of the stories that the "old blokes" told at smoko were classic. (Some of them bloke were, 25 years old!!??)
The drivers then were, Don Tuck, Brian Korner, Big Reg Smith, "Doc" Jones, Johnny Neighbour, "Barra" Mundy, Dave Kuus, "Sparra" Hodsdon, Ron Goodwin, Peter Richie, plus a few more I can't think of.
Seems that Don, Peter and Reg were trackin' south from Tennant Creek. Reg was in No 11 Foden, named "Thor", and the other two were in Foden No 8 named "The Wheel of Fortune".
The story went that Reg had, among other items of back loading, a barber chair for Freddy, the new town barber.
The chair had been tied inside the empty car trailer. The twenty eight mile straight, was/is between the Taylor Creek and Wycliffe Well. Travellin' south, it takes a turn to the right just before the Taylor Creek.
Anyway, these three mad bastards decide to break the monotony of the trip home and knowing that the odd tourist bus would be comin' south soon, decided on "a bit of fun" About half a mile from the south end of the straight, they stopped both trains. Then Don drove No 8 right up to touch the rear of Reg's last trailer. Then they chained the truck to the trailer together. Next, the barber chair was lifted off the car trailer and placed in the middle of the highway. Then an old hubcap,from an FX Holden was produced and filled with water.
All was ready. Reg fired up his truck and slowly drove both trucks half a mile south, and stopped just around the corner, out of sight of any south bound traffic.
Sure enough, within half an hour, along came a "Redline" tourist bus. It's a bit hard to imagine what the driver must have thought as he stared down the road, only to see a barber chair, complete with a customer sittin' in it. I reckon 'e musta thought 'e was in the horrors at such a sight. They reckon 'e hit the skids, stopped, and just stared.
Here's Pete sittin' there while Don, happily lathers up 'is face. They reckon that the passengers almost fell over each other to get out of the bus to take photos and ask the obvious questions.
"Is this really a barber shop!"?
"Why do you have a business right out here!?"
"I really don't believe what I am seeing!"
"Wait 'til I tell the folks back home!"
Don played 'is part well. "Hey, driver. Will ya get ya bus outa me bloody shop. And if any o' your mob want a haircut, they'll have to wait their turn; coz things are pretty busy right now!"
Legends.

Regards
Brian

[Kelvin12]

There has been and still is some characters amongst the driver who drive the north of this country. Long live the drivers and their stories, great characters.

Dirk

[homeless]

Bit surprised some have not posted and indicated they have purchased but then on another forum I was the only one who purchased.
This was stated by the author when ha contacted me many weeks after the thread was posted on that forum.
Regards
Brian

[generdawg]

Bit surprised some have not posted and indicated they have purchased ...

Well Brian, some of us are actually travelling and may not be in reception.

But I have emailed him and asked for details and a copy - thank you very much.

dawg in A'van near Derby WA