My life story, Henry J Macey [books for 20 year olds .TXT] 📗

a covering of very hard varnish that was hard to scratch. I was extremely pleased with the end result and would show it proudly to my friends. One day I returned from a long trip to find, much to my dismay, that Jane had covered it, wall to wall, with a carpet.

 

We cleared the garden and were ready to sow grass seed for a lawn. One Sunday morning we were all in the car, off on a day out. At the bottom of the estate, they had dug a trench for what I thought was a new sewer pipe. It was a large excavation six feet wide and fifteen feet deep. They had been digging it for weeks across what would be the playing field.

 

It was hard ground they had been digging, but as we passed the excavation I noticed they had found an area of white sand. I turned to Jane and casually said we could do with some of that. We drove on and I thought no more about it.  Don and I left as usual on Monday morning. Jane and Isabel went to Perth to do some shopping before picking up the children from school.

 

As they passed the excavation, Jane had a word with one of the truck drivers. She asked how far he had to take the sand. He told her they were dumping it quite some distance away. Jane said my husband could do with some sand, she told him our address and where to dump it. He said he was more than glad to help as the short distance would mean he could do more loads as he was paid by the ton

 

When Don and I returned from our trip, I found eight truckloads of sand in my back garden. There must have been eighty tons for me to spread around. Luckily I had enough sand to cover the leach drain and soak away pit top that was above ground by about two feet.

As I had said the house was built on the side of a hill. The base of the house at the front was five feet lower than the road with a 25-foot strip of land from the front of the house to the road, so the drive of two strips of concrete was quite steep. If you stood at the back of the house your head would be below the floorboards.

 

The boys and I went into the hills and filled the boot of the car with rocks. I stepped the rear garden into three layers by building walls with these rocks. A concrete patio behind the carport gave us somewhere to have parties. As the back of the house had no windows, the boys painted a goal post on the white bricks and used the flat centre-terrace to play football.

 

Buffalo grass was taken from the riverbanks. It grows like strawberry plants sending out runners that sprout roots. In no time at all, we had a lawn all around the house. Later when the film Jaws was released a twenty-four by eight-foot swimming pool was placed on the bottom terrace.

 

I bought a movie camera and projector, and on hot summer nights would show movies for our children. We bought some Disney animated films and hired others, using the back wall of the house as a screen. It became a regular occurrence, and the boys would have their friends over. Jane would make sandwiches and serve drinks.

 

Then the neighbour’s children would appear and before long we had children from all over the estate in our garden. Some Saturdays, our friends would arrive with their children. After the film shows we would put the children to bed and carry on with a party for the grownups, but no skinny-dipping was allowed in the pool – Jane’s rules. It was nice having all the kids over, but we spent most of Sunday morning cleaning up the mess they had left behind.

 

Dampier

 

Dampier was to be the outlet port for Tom Price and Paraburdoo. A string of small coral Islands formed an ark out into the bay. They built a road over the Islands to make the deep water harbour. Once again Bell’s supplied the camp manpower and equipment to do the job. Where the rail track ended there would be a marshalling yard and a large area to store the ore awaiting the ships to carry it away. Along conveyer belt from this yard would run alongside the road, to where the ships would be berthed for loading.

 

Our job along, with the rest of Bell’s drives was to deliver the material to build it. We were in and out of Dampier often in those first months carrying all manner of goods. Most of the time we returned to Perth empty, but on the odd trip, we loaded back with broken machinery or unwanted packing boxes.

 

On one trip we were told there was a water tanker to be returned to Perth as it was not repairable which was an understatement. The cab looked as if it had been driven into a wall. We loaded it by backing onto the ramp and pushing it on with a bulldozer. We did not like the way it was riding the moment we pulled away. When we got onto the uneven surface of the dirt highway it was considerably worse. It swayed and bucked so badly we had to stop to see what could be done about it.

 

It was then we found it was almost full of water, so I opened the valve to let the water run out. You could see the springs on the tanker and our truck rise as the water ran out. She rode much better after that, and we had no more trouble with it until we reached Moora. As we approached Moora, Don said he fancied a pie so we pulled off the highway and into the town. It was around ten at night as we drove to the fish and chip shop with hardly anybody about.

 

Driving down the main street as we left the town we saw little flashes of light. We looked at each other and asked “wonder what that was?” and thought nothing more of it. Some miles down the road a police car overtook us and pulled us in. I got out and asked him what was the matter, the police officer said do you know you have lights on the back of your trailer. I replied, “I hope so if I haven’t, I am breaking the law!”

 

He replied, “not trailer lights, those lights,” and pointed his flashlight at the strings of coloured fairy lights draped over the tanker. The ladder that gave access to the filling hole had pulled down every string of lights that was hung up across the street for their carnival. After we had removed the lights, placing them in his car boot, he got out his tape and checked the height of our load. He found it to be legal and sent us on our way. We heard nothing more of it.

 

 

Axles

Having delivered a load to Port Headland we picked up a return load of railway wagon axles. They had been delivered to Port Headland for the stores as spare parts. When inspected they were found to be faulty and had to be re-machined. When we left Headland we had a nicely stacked load, but some of the crates had been broken and were nailed back together.

 

One must have come apart as we travelled over the rough dirt road. We were fifty miles south of Dampier when Don thought he saw something at the back of the trailer moving. As he looked again an axle fell from the rear of the trailer and bounced into the centre of the road. Don pulled over and we walked back to the axle and rolled it to the side of the road.

 

Don reversed the truck back and I stopped him just short of it. We tried to lift one end onto the tale of the trailer where there was a three-foot gap, but we only managed to lift it about two feet off the ground. I suggested we try to roll it on with some ropes, we passed two ropes under the axle then tied them to the ends of the carats.

 

Unhooking the truck from the trailer we ran the ropes over the carats, tying them to the back of the truck. I drove forward as don watched the axle rise, but the weight was too much for the flimsy carat. It gave way trapping the ropes. After several more ideas failed, Don drove to Dampier in the tractor unit for help leaving me all the rope we had. While Don was gone I roped all the ends of the axles, to make sure they would not move and give us any more trouble.

 

It took Don almost three hours to return with another trailer. On it was a tractor crane. By driving the crane along to the end of the trailer we picked up the axle then backed the trailer onto our trailer to put it back into its crate. All we had to do now was return the trailer and crane to Dampier. That was my job as Don had fetched it. I did it as quickly as possible. Knowing it would be dark by the time I returned I made sure don had his bag of warm clothing.

 

It was indeed dark as I neared Don and the trailer. I could see where it was some distance away because Don had lit a fire; its glow could be seen for miles. As I pulled around the trailer there was no sign of Don. Stepping down from the unit, I called his name. His reply took me by surprise. He was sitting on top of the crates, shivering with the cold.

 

“Why are you up there shivering when there’s a warm fire down here?” I asked.

 

“Have you seen what's around that fire,” he called down to me. I had a closer look, the fire was ringed by all manner of insects and lizards, centipedes, scorpions, snakes, you name it if it lives in Australia it was there.

 

Driving is a dangerous job in any country, but in the days of which this book relates, the dirt roads of the outback of Australia were doubly so. With so much country one could drive for hours before meeting anyone. With the finding of iron the traffic increased to supply the mines, and their