Need a few good yarns

Few more events on the horse job.

Return trip from Sydney with one of the newer drivers, detour onto the Upper Murray near Jingellic
to pick up 3 welsh mountain ponies. Nobody there, 3 young steeds in a rough set of yards. Pulled in
beside the gate and dropped the ramp down into the yard. Managed to get halters on them and got
2 up into the truck. Third one not having any, took off with mate hanging onto the lead. Dragged
him through the dirt and half way through the fence before he let it go. Headed for the hills.
Had to leave it there, and continued the rest of the trip. Mate not injured but knocked him about.

With the same bloke, return trip to the Upper hunter with brood mares both ways, and a stallion to
come back to Romsey. One of the other drivers must have got into his ear about not putting colts
and stallions in with fillies and mares. Best to put them next to a quiet gelding, but none on this load.
He worried about it all the way up. Just told him we'd work something out when we picked it up.
He wanted to ring the load arranger in the office, just kept telling him not to worry. Delivered the up
load and picked up the return load mares and foals first. One mare without a foal, so put her in the
inside bay with a half space vacant beside her. That left a space and half for the stallion next to the ramp.
Mate still reckoned we'd have problems, again, don't worry! Up to Blandford to pick up the big boy.
Had a quiet word to the stud manager, he said he'd take care of the problem. Leads the big grey horse
up with rearing bit and big leather lead. Swings him up into his spot and as he turns kicks out at mate
standing behind the ply batwing door. Hole through it and off its hinges. Quick patch up job, this horse
roaring but the manager has it under control. Pulls a big jar of Vicks Vaporub out of the coat pocket and
shoves a good handful up the stallion's nostrils in one smooth action. Ramp up and all the fuss over.
Away we go on the trip home, took mate hours to calm down. Stallion walked off the truck like a lamb
when unloaded at Romsey the next day. Had his say when back at the depot!

With another new driver, Upper Hunter trip again. Often went into the Widden Valley, to studs there.
Road to the east off the Bylong Valley Road. This road ran beside the Goulburn River ( NSW ) for a way.
Co Pilot looks confused, and after a while asks if this is the same Goulburn River we have in Victoria.
Assured him it was, flowed out of the mountains, through Lake Eildon, across the Murray River then all
the way up here. Thought about that for some time before the penny dropped. Then, YOU B.........D!

One of the other drivers was based at Euroa so didn't get away on interstate trips. He kept asking, so they
sent him along with me on a bit of a milk run through Southern NSW then the Upper Hunter. Good driver
and very experienced horseman so learnt a lot from him. Finished the drops and pick ups then out to
Forbes about lunch time. Asked if we could get a feed at the RSL, so fed the neddies on the truck, parked
in the shade. About 1980, old RSL then, bigger place now. Ordered meals and put $10 each in to play a
machine. Well, we couldn't go wrong, no jackpots but quite a few good payouts. Ended up with $30 plus
each, then on the road home. He talked about the trip for months, we both enjoyed the extra pay.

Lot of fun memories, fortunately no injuries.

Good stuff Paul..
Hey dumb question maybe, what does the Vicks Vaporub do to horses? Quieten them down or something?

A lot of old racing men will tell you that a gob of Vicks up the nostril will make a horse breathe extremely deeply, expanding the lungs to full capacity and as everone knows, deep breathing also has a very calming effect.

No worries Richard, just stops them smelling the mares and trying to get to them.
Big strong boys, destroy the partitions by rearing up, kicking and so on.
This bloke hadn't been on a truck for 8 years so pretty spirited.
Also the motion of the truck takes their mind off other things.

Detours.

Trips to the race meetings were made on established routes. Flemington or Moonie Valley from Mordialloc and
Caulfield, used Nepean Hwy, Princes Hwy, Queens Rd, Kingsway, King St, North Melbourne etc. That way also for
country meetings in Western and Northern Victoria. The idea was that if a truck broke down the load could be
taken by a later truck, or easily found by a replacement one. Also, the attendants and trainers were more at ease
going by the usual routes.

New in the job, off to Geelong races on a summer Saturday, third truck to leave. Pick up the horses and crews and
out by Laverton when hear on the radio a crash so Geelong Rd at a standstill down near Little River exit. Pull up
in the old Leyland Comet and go back to tell the crew, and suggest going bush. Yeah mate, better than being late.
Slip through Werribee, out past the Racecourse and zig zag through Little River and back on the Highway at Corio.
Load limits on some of those roads, but only a small truck and Saturday so little risk. First truck at the meeting so
the crew had a good day out.

Mid week trials at Flemington, due there at 9-30. Cow of a time to go through the city. Picked up at Caulfield, one
of the kids with the horses wanted to stop at a shop to get something to eat. Softie, so stopped on the proviso to go
straight in and out. Took 10 minutes, so running late by then. Decided to get off Kingsway and go out New Footscray
Rd, up the riverside onto Dynon Rd, through Kensington to the course. Few minutes late, trainer waiting gave me a
rev up. One of the other kids piped up and told him I went the wrong way. Kept quiet, but never stopped on the way
to a racetrack for any one again!

Ballarat was always short for time to get there with multiple pick ups. Each trainer was given a time but not all were
ready to go. Pick ups at Mordialloc, Caulfield and Flemington to go to Ballarat. Flemington stable held me up for 10
minutes or more. Got going but hard to make up time. Usual route was through Ballarat and out the Creswick Rd to
the track at Dowling Forest. Decided to turn off at Bungaree, up to Creswick and then to the track. Good run, had
used that road on Adelaide trips, so almost there on time. Trainer's wife there, angry about being late. Next day at the
depot, boss bombs me for going the wrong way. Again one of the kids told the trainer I had gone the wrong way.

Moonie Valley was a pain when the Show was on. Picked up at Mordialloc and Caulfield. decided to head up
Glenferrie Rd, through Kew and Brunswick to avoid the traffic. Had a trainer from Mordialloc up in the Cab.
He was astounded - people in Kew would have never seen a horse float go by! He was a good natured bloke,
kept checking his watch and as we came over the Tulla fwy and saw the track ahead declared we were early.

Interstate trips stuck to the main roads unless there was a reason to vary that. The leading driver had been in the job
for 20 years and knew travel times from place to place from experience. Melbourne to the Upper hunter was nearly
always up the Newel Hwy to Dubbo, out to Dunnedoo, down to Merriwa and in through Scone or Denman.
Headed off with him on one such trip, he drives the first leg and stops at Grong Grong. Hops in the bunk and away I
go. Through Wyalong and up near Forbes, he's sleeping soundly so decide to go across from Forbes, through Eugowra,
Cudal, Molong, Wellington and head for the first drop at Guntawang Stud just east of Gulgong. Had been this way on
other trips and the road not too bad ( 1980 ). Wellington - Gulging Rd had gullies with rough wooden deck bridges, so
took it easy over them. The last one he wakes up, about 4 am. Where are we? Nearly at Guntawang. Looks at the clock,
looks at me, you been speeding you b......d? No, don't speed. Which way did you go? Tells him. Can't go that way, s...t of
a road. Thinks for a while, then after unloading at the Stud he comes good. That's great, we'll be early. So through
Gulgong and Ulan to join the Golden Hwy and into Scone to unload the rest. Time to clean out the truck, shower and
good breakfast. Empty up to the Gold Coast for a horse sale, did it easy and some time off there before loading for home.
Worked out without me saying anything that roads are improved eventually, best to go have a look.

We're still good mates in retirement and enjoy a laugh about those days.

Another Story.
Vince and Dougie pulled into a depot one morning looking for loading back home, they were usually able to get a load from this depot albeit multi pick ups, they had had some issues with the dispatcher before because he could be a bit grumpy.
The dispatcher did not like Dougie very much, Dougie is a big shambling country boy and has a permanent wry grin on his face, the dispatcher (a townie) reckoned Dougie was always laughing at him.
The dispatcher used to ride a bike to work and would lean it up against a post facing toward the gate so that at knock off time he could come out of the office jump on the bike and away.
This day the boys were told there would be freight available but they would have to wait, afternoon came and still nothing then got told no freight today maybe tomorrow, that set Dougie off he found a length of Telecom rope in his box tied one end to the frame of the bike and the other end to the pipe and threw a bag over the rope, being a winters day in Melbourne it was almost dark when old mate jumped on the bike, you know what is coming.
Old Mate ended up on his bum on the road and just sat there for a while wondering what had happened, Vince, Dougie the boy and I am sure the dog were all laughing fit to split.
They climbed into there trucks and drove around to Mayne Nicks.

A very off topic but connected treasure story!

Some of you may have heard of "Benito's treasure".
The story goes that Benito was a pirate, in about the 17th century I think. Apparantly he'd made a motza by doing what pirates do, and he wanted somewhere safe to bury his massive fortune. (as you do)
So he sailed way beyond where anyone had sailed before, found Port Phillip, sailed in there and dug a bloody great hole at the future site of Queenscliffe.
Over the years many people have come up with all sorts of theories as to whether it's a true story or not, and if so, its location.
If you look at the "Inter C1800 for sale" post, old Ray was involved in a pretty serious operation to find the treasure, i'm not sure when, but I'd guess in the 1970's?
He showed me a couple of pics- the pipe on the Inter was sunk into the ground and used to shore up the hole. He said that they had dug down a long way, and hit "shiny stuff"- then someone official came along and shut the whole operation down and kicked everyone off the site. The second pic was looking down the hole, at aforementioned "shiny stuff"...but that was where it stayed. They forgot the whole thing and moved on.
Apparantly the Queesncliff High school was later built on the site.
Sounds like a very long stretch to imagine the truth of it, but they must have been a bit serious as they had a fair crack at it. And just to add intrigue to the story, there is the possibly connected "Geelong Keys" that were found about fifteen foot underground, when they were digging back in the 1800's at Limeburners point. Not to mention the lost "Mahogany ship" that is buried in the dunes oon the beach at Warnambool, never been seen again either.
Who knows eh?

You disappoint me Prodrive. No photos of Benito or his vessel?

I hadn't heard that before about Queenscliffe
The Mahogony ship was spoken about quite a bit when I was a kid

It made think about Lasseter 's gold
I read Kurt Johansen's book when they had a crack at finding but the law cracked down on them and told them no more

Paul

Punting on the Neddies.

Some race meetings in between interstate trips with horses.
Might have 8 or 9 horses on for the first 2 races at Flemington and each kid tipped their nag to win.
Soon learnt to listen to those more in the know, like the trainer, stable foreman or track rider.
Occasionally would get a good tip and put a small bet on. Some of the drivers were keen punters, but
I had a young family so more cautious. My Dad liked a bet so passed on some tips for him.

Given instructions to take 3 horses from Caulfield to Mornington course for a secret gallop, to drop them
off and wait at the truck until finished. Never thought more about it until about 3 months later, told the
horse concerned was on my load to Geelong races and to put a bet on if interested. Most relaxed horse I'd
ever seen on the way to the track, almost went to sleep. Had a look in the betting ring, but a lot of people
had the info so the odds were wound back quickly. TAB paying over $10 so invested $5 there. Won easily,
dad had a good wager too so he was happy. Didn't run very often, but a good bet each time as folk forgot
about it between races.

Off to Werribee with a load for the races, lass who rode track work for a Mentone trainer gave me the nod
on her horse, won't win but get a place for sure. Betting ring had it at 100 to 1 odds, but the connections
hit each bookie with a fistful of dollars quick time. Backed it on the Tote to pay $5 for the place. Announcer
called it to run 4th, so heaps chucked their tickets on the deck. Photo confirmed 3rd place so many down in
the dust looking for their tickets. Happy to pick up the few dollars at the tote window.

On the road picking up horses for a Sydney trip, 2 up with one of the keen punters. Out Plenty Rd to a stud
north of Whittelsea, he asks to pull up at the old Mernda Market site on the way. We were paid the basic TWU
award with trip money extra. Also given expense cash for meals and incidentals which worked on an honesty
system where you gave back cash not used and receipts. So he grabs the expense envelope and scoots around
the corner from the pub there. Comes back and says, bet you don't know what's around the corner. Didn't, but
turns out to be a TAB and he's put on some bets, seemingly obscure doubles, trifectas and quinellas. Didn't
hold out much hope, but a bit left for a feed or two. Very lucky, one of the trifectas comes good so covered the
losses on the other wagers. Always pocketed the expense money after that!

One of the leading trainers at the time was worth watching when saddling a horse at the track. If he just put the
blanket and saddle on, did up the girth, got the kid to walk it around before re checking the girth, forget it.
If he took all the gear off again and paid a lot more attention to getting everything exactly right, worth placing
a bet.

Trip to Adelaide 1989, dropped off load over there and picked up a few for the home trip. Told to stable them,
shower, eat and have a sleep as to take a local trainer with 2 horses overnight to Flemington. Reloaded the
horses stabled then around to his stables to load feed, gear and the two horses. On the way across, he told me
he had an upcoming champion on his hands and the owners wanted him to establish his career in Melbourne.
Closed his Adelaide stable to make this possible. Stopped at Nhil to walk the horses with a break off the truck.
Got to Flemington in time for morning track work, so stabled the others there for later delivery and helped him
take his horses and gear down for their morning work. All done, he shouted me breakfast at the local pub.
Passed on the info to Dad, retired by then so had time to follow the horses career, he did all right too.

Only placed small bets and really enjoyed the odd win. There were losing wagers too, but don't remember them
as well as the winning ones. Nice to have inside info for a head start!