SOCIAL COMMENTARY THE PENSIONERS - WHO SEES THE TRUTH?

This post originally appeared in 2012.

BILLIONS FOR WASTE,AND FOR PARLIAMENTARIANS
NOTHING FOR THE AGED

We see them in most normal situations,in the shops, on the trains and buses, in our churches. They are usually neatly dressed.They do not stand out. They are, simply put, part of the scene.They are Age Pensioners.

But do we see the truth behind their normality? Lord Tweedsmuir who, under the nom de plume John Buchan , wrote The Thirty Nine Steps, wrote before the Second World War that he foresaw man in modern societies living a life of "quiet desperation". He had in mind the multiplication of material goods and the inability of the average person to afford them. His prediction has NOT generally come true, and there is a much better distribution of material goods in modern Western societies than anyone could have predicted. But there are those who have been left behind, or passed by, as the gravy train accelerated.The young unemployed and Age Pensioners are the largest groups.

But the Age Pensioners tend to be invisible. I have always loved the English institutions advertising themselves as Homes "for Distressed Gentle Folk".So many of our Age Pensioners fall into that category. But they are "invisible" because they still appear neat and tidy in the respectable clothes they had at the end of their employed lives - maybe even to excess at that time.And they still get around normally, but notice - more of them use cheap concessional public transport - even when they have a car which has itself grown old, they cannot afford much fuel at to-day's prices, and certainly not repairs . New tyres or Registration Fees and Insurance are causes of crisis for them. 

Take note of their habits in the Supermarket - prices are always carefully checked and the cheapest option taken. Items in the basket are few and basic. The truth is, that the Pensioner has virtually lost the ability to survive financially after rent is paid , it is a fortnight of struggle until the next payment gives a brief gasp of financial "air ".

And yet our Federal Government wastes TENS OF BILLIONS of Dollars on Pink Batts, unnecessary and unwanted  extra School buildings and an unwanted and ill-judged National Broadband Network and, to rub salt into the aged wounds, gives Parliamentarians Salary rises which themselves represent between 10 and 20 Pensioners annual pension income. That was the size of their Salary rise - imagine how many pensioners could be paid from the Parliamentarian's total salary. 

About 10% of Australia's population receives the Age Pension, or roughly 2,000,000 people. Surely in a country which can squander tens of Billions of Dollars on mis-begotten policy disasters and pile cash up around its Parliamentarians, it is not too much to ask that Age Pensioners be given a more reasonable income. They deserve an income which will enable them to live reasonably and be able to plan occasional outings, rather than hanging on like grim death until at the end of their misery, death becomes a reality. Reduction in income to a stage where one cannot plan something positive creates a destructive state of hopelessness, a detachment from life and a subversion of any creative spark.

Who will relieve their plight? Certainly not people whose pre-occupations are homosexual matters, facilitating abortion and imagined Climate Change ( as if it had not always been changing , as the geophysical record shows).

These victims of the trendy and the greedy will finally get their say at the Ballot Box!

2012 SOCIAL COMMENTARY NANNY STATE ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

MORE DEATHS THAN ILLEGAL DRUGS OR ALCOHOL

Asleep at the wheel?

 Governments have tremendous responsibilities. But we need to judge them with particular care in those areas in which they are intensely and pervasively active in regulation.One of the areas of the most intrusive regulation by the Australian Federal Government is the area of Health , and within that area the matter of Prescription Drugs is regulated very 

heavily and aggressively.So we would expect to see gleaming efficiency and progressive outcomes from this vast bureaucratic apparatus.

But reports on radio to-day relate to a study by the Victorian Coroner,

show that in 2010 there were 338 Victorian deaths from drug toxicity. 261 of these deaths involved the use of Prescription drugs, and of these 165 were principally those used as tranquilizers to suppress anxiety and insomnia. Only 151 of the deaths involved illegal drugs.

The problem with the Prescription drugs resulted primarily from Prescription Shopping, where multiple filling of the same prescription is obtained by visiting a number of Pharmacists to obtain quickly, more than has been prescribed.

In fact we understand from a Pharmacist, that the Federal Drugs authorities do not consider a person to be Prescription Shopping until he/she has visited 8 Pharmacists!!!!

There are now calls by the Victorian Coroner and others for the institution of a National Prescription Database operating on a real-time basis linking Doctors and Pharmacists so that offenders can be instantly protected from themselves. Too late....but better late than never!

It is incredible that in this modern Nanny State society, Nanny  - who sticks her bib in all over the place, and watches us everywhere, has not got her priorities right in such a fundamental area. Asleep at the wheel Nanny! Or too busy fighting factional foes! 

"EX LIBRIS" 1951 THE CRUISE OF THE VENGEFUL

Clear in my memory , the dust jacket I was amazed to find via Google!

Truth to tell, the first book I ever read was Robert  Louis Stevenson's "TREASURE ISLAND" which I received as a Christmas gift around age 7 yrs or maybe 8yrs. I found it difficult to concentrate on initially but came back to it successfully some time later. My appetite for seafaring adventure had been whetted.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was not balloted for National Service in the birth date lottery, and that, whilst standing on Berala Railway Station one morning , waiting for my train to the City, I decided that I should so some form of volunteer service instead. For me, that would have to be the Royal Australian Naval Reserve.

Other than my elder Brother's desire to join the Navy during the War( which as I have already recorded he was not allowed to do) the family had no record of Naval Service. But I had a fascination with the Navy and Naval History from a very early age. I can recall reading in 6th Class (Age 11 yrs) at Marist Brothers Lidcombe a book from the School Library called 

"The Cruise of the Vengeful"and being enthralled.( In an effort to find out more about it I have found that it is on Google Books, was written by Gordon Stables and is set in 1908 when the Royal Navy's latest warship is instrumental in frustrating a French and Russian plan to conquer England!! Classification - "Juvenile Fiction" well, I was 11 ! The Internet never ceases to amaze me. I remember the Dust jacket well!)

So, I enlisted in the R.A.N.R. which involved spending 2 weeks each year on a training cruise as well as attending weekly training parades at H.M.A.S. RUSHCUTTER ,a shore establishment on Rushcutter's Bay on Sydney's Southern Harbour shore in the Eastern Suburbs.

2011 SOCIAL COMMENTARY "WE VALUE YOUR CALL " - FORM DISPLACES SUBSTANCE

"WE VALUE YOUR CALL "  - FORM DISPLACES SUBSTANCE

HTC WILDFIRE S

Who would have thought it? The acquisition of a new mobile (cell phone for our American readers) and a move interstate have prompted a useful insight into our society!

 Before our removal from Queensland("Beautiful one day - perfect the next") to Sydney ( Sin City , New South Wales  , I decided to quit my prepaid mobile phone arrangement - which had been meant to save money but ended up costing an arm and a leg - due to exorbitant call charges. The intention was to get a low rate contract  for a good Android Smartphone , and I chose the HTC Wildfire S pictured above. The Phone has been everything I could hope for - a poor man's iPhone in fact.

However,  dealing with our monumental TELSTRA was a nightmare. And this was the beginning of my insight forming. TELSTRA is a thoroughly "now" creation, featuring every fashionable corporate pattern of activity imaginable. If the New Business Management Gospel is true, it should be a wonder to behold. NOT! 

Firstly it was a privatised Government operation. Freed of its "shackles"it proceeded to adopt every smart modern concept. To maximise efficiency (read "increase profits") it moved heavily into out-sourcing -forming a moat about itself, separating itself from its clients - a moat which is the Pacific Ocean - and placed all its call centres in the Phillipines. Having ensured that clients would , over time, be deterred from endeavouring to contact TELSTRA by phone due to the language difficulties and the confusion  created by TELSTRA systems. Next, they proceeded to Franchise many of their TELSTRA SHOPS in shopping centres ( Malls to our American readers). This duplicated the language difficulties and confusion, because many of the Franchisees are themselves recently arrived from South East Asia and employ mostly young people of similar experience.In the process we spent two periods of one and a half hours on the phone to TELSTRA Philippine call centres with no result, followed by one and a half hours at a franchised TELSTRA SHOP speaking with a charming young Japanese lady still without result. 

But TELSTRA was not finished with its battered clients yet. In a triumph of Western management excellence , it divisionalised its business and re- organised its accounts! Marvellous!? Each client has a Phone Number of course and then a Bill number and then an Account Number. He/she may or may not be aware that the account is a Personal account in any one of several categories - all meaningless to the client, or even a Business account within another range of several categories!

The Accounts when ( and if) received are a marvel of confusion. And, in the last week I have been advised by letter to be prepared for their new style accounts with new account numbers featuring three more digits!! i can't describe my enthusiasm in greeting the news! My first account at the new address did not arrive. But follow-up letters did. When I telephoned to ask for a copy of the missing account on two occasions , the good folk in the Phillipines were very understanding and the result is that I received 4 copies of that account by mail to my OLD address as well as one to my Email.

Now, as you would expect, TELSTRA is very big on QA (Quality Assurance) . This is one of the engines driving Australia's plunge into the embrace of the triumph of FORM over SUBSTANCE, along with Workplace Health and Safety and the manifold examples of legislated civil "morality" such as Racial Vilification Acts and Equal Rights Acts and Privacy Acts and any other reflection of a society that is trying to legislate its substitute for Christian Morality.

The latter, of course had to be abandoned because it is based on objective Truth and personal responsibility whereas in the New Order "everyone knows"that "everything is relative"and there is always "someone else" to blame when our actions are questioned or things go wrong.

  Finally we went to another TELSTRA SHOP in a very large Shopping Centre in Hornsby. There  our luck changed,  and Roger, a young Peruvian born fellow, solved our problems in 15 minutes.

 Sadly for TELSTRA and its clients there are not enough Peruvian born employees in the company.

  But , in essence, it seems to me that :

  when a company adopts quality assurance,

  embraces Workplace Health and Safety,

  embraces concern for all sorts of equality,

  renounces any type of profiling,

  adopts out-sourcing and, or,

  adopts franchising of its contact points,

  You can be sure the client is the loser - in a big way.  Everything they say means exactly the 

  the opposite : "We really value your call" Sure!

  

  The earliest exemplars of this phenomenon were the Communist countries : who can forget "The Democratic Republic of ......"or the dreaded "People's Republic of China" they were not remotely Democratic and it is certainly NOT the people's! Everything they say means the opposite.

FORM has become everything and SUBSTANCE is completely emptied from our social and civil structures. Yet people seem surprised when Government bodies lose Billions of dollars and announce plans to spend tens of billions on a program with no proper business plan, or young electricians are killed and homes burnt out due to ill-conceived schemes, or international banking structures collapse with inconceivable debts. Everyone has been satisfied with form and ignored substance.

Pope Benedict has warned the Church repeatedly that programmes are not the answer, but personal holiness and personal morality and personal action and union with Christ are the answer. In other words SUBSTANCE and NOT FORM.

  WE NEED A REVOLUTION IN THINKING, NOT GLIB SPIN DOCTORED SCHEMES, BUT THE REALITIES TOO OFTEN PROMISED BUT TOO RARELY DELIVERED - WHETHER IN COMMERCE, CIVIL SOCIETY, GOVERNMENT OR RELIGION

Here endeth my rant - normal, more relaxed posting will quickly resume after I have slain a Dragon next Tuesday.

2011 SOCIAL COMMENTARY WHY WAS IT KEPT "SECRET"?

 WHY WAS IT KEPT "SECRET"?

SYDNEY'S GARDEN PALACE EXHIBITION BUILDING  1879

In 71 years of keenly interested living in Australia, most of the first 42 years living in Sydney, I knew nothing of the Garden Palace Exhibition Building which housed the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879.

But in the course of research for my Blog "EDWARD BECKMANN"http://edwardbeckmann.blogspot.com/

I stumbled upon the picture above and I learned that this huge building had been situated on what is now the South West corner of the Botanical Gardens , opposite the State Library. All that remains of it are the Stone gate posts and wrought iron gates that now give entry to the Gardens. I have walked through and past those gates many times - how did I not know?

The great building was crowned by a massive Dome at the intersection of its three turreted wings. The Dome was 100 feet in diameter and 210 feet high.To speed construction, which was completed in only eight months, the building was largely constructed of timber. This was its undoing, for early in the morning of 22nd September, 1882 a fire broke out and steadily engulfed the entire building. So intense was the fire that flames were reported to reach 100 feet into the air. The destruction of the building was total. The site was cleared and incorporated into the Royal Botanical Gardens,of which it had not originally been part .

Perhaps the blow to the City's collective psychology had been so severe that it was wiped from memories - too painful to talk about. How wonderful it would have looked to-day, soaring above the top of that hill in all its Victorian era exuberance and self-confidence with an extravagance that was very Sydney !

Let's just hope to re-kindle (bad choice of words!) , no to resurrect the memory and dream about "what might have been! "

2011 SOCIAL COMMENTARY HIT WITH THE SILLY STICK

Vive La France !

Soaring to new heights of Politically Correct idiocy, the governing body of International Rugby Union has fined the French Team $ 15,000 for walking toward the HAKA hysterics of the All Blacks.

How precious these little PC Fascists are! Those naughty Frenchmen walking toward the heroic HAKA makers! Get a life Rugby administrators ( how many are NZers one wonders?).

2011 SOCIAL COMMENTARY HAKAS, ALLSTARS AND THE IDEA OF SPORT

Maori performing HAKA

Recent events on the end of season football calendar in the South-West Pacific, have inflicted on us a heap of Hakas. The Western world's American caught PC infection has led to everyone accepting the endurance of this bit of effrontery from New Zealand. We couldn't be seen not to accept something done by native people could we? It doesn't matter that no one else could get away with any other time consuming activity. Or is it tolerated because the "powers that be " in TV's wonderland think it is a colourful image? "Good vision"? 

Some of the bros. lookin' mighty pale 

Whatever New Zealanders do amongst themselves is their business - accepting Maori cloaks and rubbing noses etc. - good luck to them. But I don't reckon they have the right to seek to inflict it on others. Especially when the Haka is so compromised by the inclusion of non-Maori players , whose culture it is totally alien to, joining in the primitive ritual. And it is further compromised by the inclusion of modern vulgar gestures that belong in dirty back alleys rather than in front of crowds including many children.

Of course things are more proper here on the world's biggest island, Australia. But wait....The "Indigenous Allstars"  are to play in Rugby League their Annual Game. An all indigenous team  ...but is this not RACISM? 

Oh! What is that the PC Lords rule... its not racism if black people do it!! So.... if I'm BLACK I can form a team EXCLUDING non- blacks by definition. BUT if I am White I MAY NOT form a team excluding non-white people. THAT IS HOW IT SHOULD BE ...FOR EVERY AUSTRALIAN.

INDIGENOUS ALLSTARS

How patronising it is to make an exception for indigenous people! And what a classic bit of hypocrisy produced by our unprincipled Aussie pragmatism. And it makes good TV vision of course,
for these guys are some of our very best Rugby League players, and we all love to watch their talent on display in ordinary team games.

The idea of SPORT seems to be under increasing threat from onfield violence - the shoulder charge, the stiff elbow , the knee to the head etc, or in cricket to cheating by ball tampering etc. In almost every case money and or drugs lie behind the problems I'm sure.And that is compounded by some of the team psyching that goes on in a moronically "professional"way. Scenes from Dressing Rooms give evidence of this idiocy and hype all too often.

Australian Captain and NRL Legend Darren Lockyer
attacked with an elbow to the jaw by a cowardly Kiwi "cousin".

Congratulations to our Kiwi cousins across the "dutch"for their victory against the French - a thrilling game thanks to the French attacking with such style and vigour. 24 Years is a long time between World Cup drinks! Well done!

I suppose all these problems have gone too far, and there are too many vested interests, for things to change, but Oh  children, things have been better.. "Shut up Dad!""  Hmmm better indeed!

2011 SOCIAL COMMENTARY SOCIAL DECLINE IN EVIDENCE

PRISONS ARE FILLING, PUBS AND BARS OVERFLOWING, MEDIA 

CONCENTRATES ON THE PAST  WHILE THE PRESENT GOES TO POT.

Cardinal George Pell when Archbishop of SYDNEY

All Australians should be grateful to Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, for highlighting in his column in Sydney's Daily Telegraph yesterday the following figures:



"In Australia imprisonment rates increased from 88 per 100,000 adults in 1984, to 168 per 100,000 in 2008.  Crimes rates, which have pointed in different directions in different areas over this period, do not explain this alone.

Mandatory non-parole periods, tougher bail conditions, and a slow criminal justice system have also contributed. 10 per 100,000 were on remand awaiting trial in 1984, but 39 per 100,000 in 2008.

Indigenous Australians are still jailed at higher rates than others, comprising 14 per cent of prisoners in 1991, but 25 per cent in 2008.  The Aboriginal imprisonment rate is 17 times higher (2195 per 100,000) than the rate for other Australians.

The situation is even worse for young offenders.  Juvenile detention rates fell for the non-Indigenous population between 1994 and 2008, but rose to 420 per 100,000 for Indigenous youth."

Despite the mitigating factors His Eminence mentions, the enormous increases in so many areas give cause for grave concern and cry out for remedial action. Hopefully this action will be positive in nature -  addressing causes and not negative - increasing penalties, creating new offences and exaggerating law enforcement efforts. Already, our society is burdened down with more and more police , carrying (and using) more and more weapons, driving more and more loudly painted cars, whilst signs warning of larger and larger penalties abound and more and more invasions of citizens' privacy and rights are countenanced as the use of oppression to address the problems grows.

But, in the meantime Governments license extended hours for drinking in many clubs, bars and pubs - in some places not closing until 5.00 am resulting in a mushrooming of alcohol related crimes and violence. 


Advertising and "entertainment"and the media become more and more provocative and accustom people to ideas of violent activity as normal and sexual misconduct as acceptable if one can get away with it.


We need a new paradigm operating in Governments to build a responsible self-respecting society.


And we need a more ethical and responsible media which will seriously address these present day "signs of the times"with the same gusto it brings to selectively regurgitating  some Catholic clerical abuse from 50 to 60 years ago.

1941 SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR MY FIRST BIRTHDAY

9th April, 1941  Happy Birthday Anthony John Dixon!
QUEEN MARY DEPARTS SYDNEY HEADS AS QUEEN ELIZABETH ARRIVES
TAKING OUR MEN TO WAR BY THE THOUSANDS

My Mum and Dad had always spoken in awe of the day on which Sydney Harbour hosted all but one of the world's largest Liners QUEEN MARY, QUEEN ELIZABETH, AQUITANIA and ILE DE FRANCE , the French NORMANDIE was still in New York City. It was just as well, because she was so beautiful a sight she would have destroyed the Australian fascination with the grandeur of the British Queens.

The visit of the great liners was "TOP SECRET" but blind Freddy could have told what was a foot when tens of thousands of our troops were massed in readiness fo embarkation. Result? More than 100,000 people lined the Sydney Heads to witness the grand spectacle. So much for secrecy.

But only yesterday, I discovered that the great event took place on my First Birthday - well done military authorities of the time!

NORMANDIE,QUEEN MARY AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
IN NEW YORK HARBOUR

The great Liners could never have justified a trip to Australia before the War - there were insufficient passengers who could afford the lengthy trip in such luxury. But with the commencement of the War, there were ample young ,healthy Australian men who must be shipped off to the far distant War at any expense . The speed of the Liners would not only hasten their arrival, but it would also guarantee safety from all but the luckiest U Boat torpedo shots.The Liners travelled at around 29 Knots and were excused from zig-zagging to avoid torpedoes by virtue of that speed, which was far in excess of anything a U-Boat could muster even on the surface.

The once luxurious fittings of the great Liners were stripped and their proud liveries removed for drab grey and they were crammed with soldiers by the thousands.Extraordinary risks were being taken - on one Atlantic crossing QUEEN MARY carried approx. 18,000 men, she had only 8,000 lifeboat places and rafts etc. and this in the face of the huge U-Boat menace.

What I had not known before yesterday, was that QUEEN MARY had been a regular visitor to Sydney collecting troops. But the special convoy on my birthday was the biggest effort.

Queen Elizabeth had been rushed from her Builder's Yard across the Atlantic to New York City for fitting out lest she should be attacked in the yard whilst being completed. Queen Mary had been repainted and readied for troops in New York and sailed from there to Sydney for the first time on 21st March, 1940 followed a couple of weeks later by Queen Elizabeth.

Sadly, the very beautiful fast and glamorous NORMANDIE caught fire at its berth in New York City in 1942 and a ham-fisted effort at putting out the fire caused her to capsize at the wharf.She was sold as scrap in 1946.

Queen Mary in Sydney Harbour 1941

Anyway, that's the story of my First Birthday - if there was a Cake - I don't know. With War time rationing and my infant ignorance of what was or was not happening, I doubt it!! Do you know what happened on your first birthday? 

1945 THE END OF THE WAR "I KNOW THAT!"

2nd September,1945 - Japanese Surrender
 aboard U.S.S. MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay.

H.M.A.S. Warramunga( I )

On Wednesday, 15th August, 1945 the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, I can recall being roused from bed by the sound of the elder daughter of our friends across the street calling out at the back flyscreen door. I got to the door at the same time as my Mum who had been busy elsewhere in the house. The young Judith Dryden called out joyfully "The War is Over!" - I was not impressed. "I know that", I said, "It happened a long time ago ""  - "No! That was the Germans! Now the Japanese have surrendered and it is all over!"

The interesting thing about this very clear memory, to me at any rate, is that I knew enough about what was going on at age 5 for the German surrender to register, but not enough to know that the Japanese were yet to be brought to heel.

The actual formal surrender of the Japanese took place on 2nd September,1945 in Tokyo Bay aboard the mighty battleship U.S.S. MISSOURI which enjoyed the nickname "Big Mo", also present was H.M.A.S. WARRAMUNGA which had been part of MISSOURI's destroyer screen. She was irreverently dubbed "Little Mo"by the Aussies.

The imposing figure of General Douglas Mac Arthur - not a perfect man - but one of my heroes nonetheless, accepted the Japanese surrender. He later ruled Japan absolutely under an Allied mandate, and did so with noble distinction, concluding with the transfer to democracy he had engineered.

1989 ANOTHER BOYHOOD DREAM FULFILLED CLIENTS IN HIGH PLACES

ANOTHER BOYHOOD DREAM FULFILLED- CLIENTS IN HIGH PLACES 

H.M.A.S. MELBOURNE (III) READY FOR LAUNCHING
AT WILLIAMSTOWN VIC

IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE GO!


Ever since I was a little boy in World War II, I always thrilled to the sight - usually on Newsreel film ( ask your Grandparents!) - of ships being launched. And I hoped to see one launched one day!

We approach the stocks upon which she stood in waiting.

 I was invited as the representative of Banque Nationale de Paris , together with my Wife Robyn, to attend the launching of H.M.A.S.MELBOURNE on 5th May, 1989 at Williamstown Vic. So we planned a flying day trip from Sydney for the occasion.


All went well, and we hired a car to ensure the minimum delay from and back to the Airport. The day was overcast and as we looked across the Bay to the City it loomed grey-blue. The Dockyard was abuzz with excitement and the various groups of dignitaries, the Naval Officers, Politicians, Representatives of the Dockyard Company and the Dockyard workers themselves were all equally keyed up.

Seeming aloof from the nervous excitement about her,
she waits with austere dignity.

There was much milling around as friends greeted one another and it was noticeable that there was a particular anxiety evident among the Dockyard workers - totally absorbed in their concern that nothing should go wrong.

Close up of the cradle holding the bow section .
In preparation for the great day most of the heavier supports had been removed, the slipways heavily greased and the great check - chains laid out and attached to the hull to ensure that when launched she did not keep on going across the Bay. Finally there remained the trigger mechanism keeping all in place until THE MOMENT.

The Champagne Bottle is swung by Mrs.Hazel Hawke and the ship is named "MELBOURNE "

The trigger is released, and, imperceptibly at first she moves with garhering speed

down the slipway until the weight of the check chains leaves her gently rocking afloat

and waiting for tugs to move her to the fitting-out wharf.

Then there is a quickly-dawning realisation that it is all over, we have witnessed one of the grandest things that man can do - the launching of a ship, but it is like an epitome of all human experience - greatly and rightly anticipated, brilliant in its happening, but followed by a sense of disappointment that it cannot be continued. We were born for greater things and our hearts will not rest, until they rest in Thee. ( Thanks to St.Aloysius and St.Augustine)


N.B.There are two footnotes to this story :

Firstly, some Liberal Party fellow mistook me for the West Australian former Senator and former Minister for the Navy Fred Chaney - he must have been keenly celebrating because he took quite a bit of convincing that it was just me!

Secondly. at the time I was doing a fair amount of interstate flying and had "Golden Wing"Life Membership with ANSETT ( Vanity of Vanities - soon to be swept away). When Robyn and I reached the Tullamarine Terminal we headed for the Golden Wing Lounge - normally a scene of  peace and calm  organisation - only to find that because of widespread industrial strife most flights were cancelled and the Lounge looked like Hanoi as the Americans departed!! We could not get a flight and so had to book in to a Hotel in Melbourne for the night - without baggage- and then get the earliest flight out next day to Sydney. Fortunately it left virtually as the Sun rose so our slightly crumpled "clothes from yesterday" were not as conspicuous as they might have been. It was also fortunate that our three children were old enough to look after themselves and our home in the overnight emergency!

BUT IT WAS WORTHWHILE -TO SEE A SHIP LAUNCHED!!!

1959 - BOYHOOD DREAM COMES TRUE

FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES

Mighty C 38 Class 4-6-2 backs down onto The Cessnock Flyer
 at Sydney's Central Station -1959?

Coupled and ready for the Main Northern  Line
 - A little rain is nothing.

Our steely lynx-eyed Driver.

The Inspector whose presence makes my presence possible
 - was his name Ray Burke ?A really nice bloke.

Our very hard-working Fireman.

I can't believe my luck!!

A full head of 245 lbs psi Steam 
and champing at the bit!

The kindly intervention of my boss in the Solicitor for Railways Office - the Chief Clerk  Mr Harry Bateman ( Staff Papers marked "LOYAL DURING 1917 STRIKE")who, on account of his long service knew many people all over the Administration of the New South Wales Government Railways, secured for me at age 18years, a ride on the footplate of a C 38 Class Pacific ( or 4-6-2 wheel arrangement) express steam locomotive - they didn't come any better. 

So it came to pass that on the appointed morning I turned up at Central Station - neatly dressed in clothes I could afford to get dirty.And there at Platform 4 at Central Station stood the consist of  7 or 8 steel carriages (non- air conditioned)  for the Cessnock Express all was still slightly wet from earlier rain.

But I was not so much interested in the carriages as the Locomotive ,whose train they would form. I headed up to the Southern end of the Platform , looking expectantly out onto the maze of tracks, sets of point and crossovers and signal gantries that made some 20 Country Train Platforms function properly. In due course, coming tender first of course, came into view, 3819 our designated locomotive, slowly, carefully drifting back through the maze of track toward us. Quietly she came on, passed me and  proceeded to gently couple to the train. Three men in the Cab - Driver, Fireman and the Inspector Mr. Ray Burke ( if my memory serves me properly). The Inspector, wearing overalls, swung down and introduced himself, told me what he expected from me, and what I MUST DO. He then asked me to sign the Indemnity Form, which I quickly did, and we were ready to go. In essence, he asked me to ensure that I stayed out of the Fireman's way and that AT ALL TIMES, I held onto a firm handhold.His manner was friendly but firm and he spoke with authority.

A final photo of the Locomotive showing every sign of her full head of 245 psi steam, back aboard. The driver, with the brakes full on , and the cylinder cocks open and valve gear centred, opened the Regulator ( throttle) for about 10 seconds  and  a huge rush of steam enshrouded the front of the locomotive - this is not theatre, but serves to blast any condensed steam out of the cylinders and superheater elements. Then two or three times he winds the reversing gear fully back , then fully forwards forcing any remaining water out of the valves and cylinders.Ensuring forward gear is set, the brakes are released and the driver awaits the Green Signal.He gets the Green Light, looks back down the Platform and sees the Conductor's Green Flag raised and right on time he blasts the manly triple chime steam whistle ( no maidenly English shrieks, or foggy American hoots - but a full-throated roar!).

He tugs on the long Regulator lever and with a deep blast from the exhaust through the chimney, the locomotive seems to lift slightly and commences to move forward dragging the 500 tons or so train behind it . In a short time the beat of the exhaust is beginning to pick up and , at a cautious 15 mph we are weaving our way through the Central Station Yard toward the mainline. The cylinder cocks are closed and the locomotive settles down to some serious work. The regulator is pulled wide open, but the valve gear is set to provide steam for only part of the pistons' travel in the cylinder. This is enough to get the locomotive up to 30 mph through Redfern Station. The exhaust is now a sharp powerful bark and the fire in front of us in the cab is responding fiercely to the draw of the exhaust -drawing heated air  through the boiler tubes..

It is one of the beauties of steam locomotive design that the faster you go the stronger the exhaust, the fiercer the fire, the more steam you get, the faster you go and on and on - the beast has to be restrained and carefully so.

The Fireman is not idle, he checks the water level in the Boiler and starts the Injector to top it up. On this trip the Injector will be on most of the time and, when the locomotive is working at its hardest it will be pumping 55 gallons of water into the Boiler every minute!By Newtown the locomotive is doing 50 mph the maximum allowed over this section .This is maintained until we pass up the long hill to Ashfield where there is a complex set of points and crossovers . To reduce speed the Regulator is shut down a fair way and the valve gear is closed down a fair way so that live steam is only briefly entering the cylinder. If it had been cut off completely and the locomotive allowed to drift a vacuum could form causing damage to the locomotive especially in the coupling rods and the connecting rods. ( I have seen a photograph of an English built Victorian Railways locomotive where the connecting rod has completely buckled wrecking the valve gear!).

We are quickly back to speed and take Burwood Bank at 60mph, but then have to brake for Strathfield where we take on passengers and then set off cautiously around a relatively sharp curve which takes us onto the main Northern Line.

The Main Northern line to Hornsby, features very long stretches at 1 in 40 grades - heavy going.Speeds up to 65mph are briefly checked by slow spots on the track, but are quickly recovered until we hit the stiff grades. By Cheltenham the locomotive is working flat out and we thunder through the Platform crowded with school children, one little fellow I notice sitting on his Globite School Case ( No back packs then!) his straw boater crammed on his head and he is intently watching the Driving Wheels and flashing Connecting Rods and Valve gear as we roar past. I became aware of the slight working of the locomotive from left to right as the pistons in their cylinders deliver the alternate left and right thrust through the rods to the Driving Wheels .At this time they are producing well over 2,000 Horsepower in a mighty struggle against nature as they take locomotive and 500 tons plus train up the long climb.All of this Herculean effort is carried on based upon a great cast steel frame 43 feet long and imported from the United States.

Later on after Hornsby we travel through the long tunnels down to Hawkesbury . The driver has the steam blower hard on to ensure that entry into the tunnels does not induce a blow-back of smoke,steam and gas through the fire tubes into the firebox and cab which could cause serious burns to those in the cab.And so it continues a brilliant performance by Driver, Fireman, and Locomotive every grade up or down beautifully anticipated, with ample steam for any climb or any possible burst of speed. The constant vigilance for signals, special speed limitations,building the fire for what lies 15 minutes ahead, but not wasting coal, sensing how the great machine is responding, are all impressive. Yet for all that, it is in some way less like a machine and more like a noble steed, on the hills a charger,occasionally reduced to a draught horse, then on the downward slopes and flats a real sprinter, but somehow ALIVE, breathing, heavily when working hard, lightly and chattering to itself when at speed and panting steadily when at rest as the steam compressor keeps up the pressure on the brakes.

The C38 Class with their large Fireboxes and Boilers built to the limit of the loading gauge are right at the limit of what a Fireman can readily handle without mechanical assistance, and particularly when the locomotive is working hard for a long period as in this case.It is cruel work serving that great fire. It was particularly pleasing then to see the Inspector freely and generously offer to give the Fireman a break and shovelling the coal for him  on a couple of occasions - very much the sort of man his subordinates would admire. It confirmed my own impression of him 

Once again,the comedian Tommy Mack is proved right and" all good things must come to an end." As we approach Hamilton, where my Special Pass will get me to my booked seat on the air-conditioned Up Newcastle Flyer to Sydney hauled by another C 38 , I say "Goodbye and THANKS"to the Driver, Fireman and the Inspector - but they only have to look at my face to know that I have been transported in more ways than one - I am THRILLED and showing it with a smile from ear to ear!!!

One little detail - as I walk away , and try to get some directions, I realise I am deaf as a post! The condition slowly eases over the next 24 hours.

I SALUTE the Drivers and Firemen and the Locomotives of the DAYS OF STEAM. 

Double - headed C38s leaning into a hard uphill climb.
Photo Courtesy of our Son in Law  Paul Whiting .
This is a high quality image unlike my original 1959
images above, taken with a very inferior camera - 
as much as I could the afford, or was readily available.