Thread: Simpson Desert in the mid sixties

When driving long distance I used to get a rough estimate of the time to the next stop by converting Km to miles. !00 Km/h is roughly 60 mph. 60 divides into our time format far more easily than 100 does. So 160 km becomes 100, so 100 minutes on the speed limit. Well, I did say Rough estimate, but it was close enough. I still prefer MPG to whatever format they're choosing to use today.
As for currency, I would hope that inflation would have done away with halfpennies and thre'penny bits.

John, pre speed limiter days, with a single trailer I could generally average 90~95 kph.. When limiters were introduced that plummeted to 75 kph., nowadays with improved roads and horsepower it's back to 90~95kph.

I'm with you on all other points, but don't forget farthings.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

John, pre speed limiter days, with a single trailer I could generally average 90~95 kph.. When limiters were introduced that plummeted to 75 kph., nowadays with improved roads and horsepower it's back to 90~95kph.

I'm with you on all other points, but don't forget farthings.

I didn’t forget farthings, but even as old as I am I don’t think I could have spent one.

My rough estimate is clearly that, rough. In a car it’s not too far off. Ditto in the R730 Scania with two trailers loaded with pillows…… except in the school holidays. Grr..

Originally Posted by Saitch

John, at the start, how did you go if reading, or hearing, a distance of say, 2,560 Links. I'm sure you would automatically envisage the distance, in your mind ?

Did it take some time to adjust to the Metric system, if you heard, say 3,275m, or did you do a subconscious conversion?

I think it was a boon that people the age of JT and myself, were mentally young enough to absorb both Imperial and Metric systems.

(Although, backing a boat, 'van etc, the distance, the term, "Two feet" is still more relative than " Sixty centimetres"!)

I have never used links, furlongs etc, all my (imperial) surveying has been in feet, although the basic unit we used was 110 feet. Why 110 feet? Because 12 of these is 1320 feet, which is a quarter of a mile. And the first company I worked for learned their trade in Oklahoma, where the state is largely divided into one mile square "sections", and survey lines tended to mostly be along boundaries, using recording equipment with 24 channels. I used to be able to eyeball a quarter mile pretty accurately! In recent years I have more commonly used intervals of 50 or 25metres.

But I have a lot of experience with fathoms when afloat, although I am equally at home with water depths and tidal calculations in metres or fathoms - depends how old the map I am using is! And my boat drew 1.5m or 5ft! Navigation, of course whether at sea or in the air, is in nautical miles.

Originally Posted by Killer

Saitch, in my trade we would call "sixty centimetres" a dressmakers measurement, we talk in mm. I think in both Metric and Imperial measurements, metric is much simpler for small measurements, (metric micrometer is easier to read than an imperial micrometer) longer distances I tend to think of in metres. I never did learn about rods and links, but had a good idea of what a chain was.

I'm well and truely a metric baby, but being in teaching manufacturing there are a lot of things which are actually imperial but have just been metric converted - both timber and metal, so likewise we have to think in both also. Sheet sizes are a great example, and they might be sold as 2400x1200, but they're actually still 8x4, so a 1200 wide sheet in reality is somewhere between 1210 and 1240 wide. A 3600 trailer (3 sheet floor) typically ends up at 3680 long! Trailer axle centering rules of thumb also - 1/2" rearward of C/L per foot of body..... out come the calculators to metric/imperial convert.

We had a census in 1966. And that included us, working in the middle of the Simpson Desert.

At the time, the other field crew was based at North Bore, and we were camped right over in the SE part of the exploration area. The bulldozing manager, Artie, with his aeroplane, was based there at the time. The Party Manager, Tom, had driven into Finke for something, and was much later than expected returning. As nigght began to approach, the Party Chief, Walter, asked Artie to fly out along the road and see if he had broken down. This would only take half an hour or so. So Artie took off and followed the road towards Finke. About twenty miles or so out he spotted two FJ45s heading towards camp. Circling above them, he came down over the top of the vehicles from behind, and gave the throttle a blip with the (unmuffled) exhaust stubs about 2m above the roof of the leading vehicle before landing on the track.

He was more than somewhat surprised as both vehicles came to a stop on each side. As expected, one had "Geo Prospectors" painted on the door. The other, that had been leading, had "Northern Territory Police". Oops!

They all returned to the camp, and Artie had to square his behavior with the policeman, who turned out to be the sergeant from Finke. This turned out to be fairly easy. The sergeant wasthere in his role as "Deputy Census Enumerator", and had been tasked by his boss in Alice Springs to get a form filled out by everyone on both crews. All it took was for Artie to point out how many sandhills there were on the track to the other crew, compared to less than an hour's flight each way, with no charge. And nothing would be said about his flying antics. (Although later he said he was puzzled about having to close the Finke airstrip whenever the usable width was under 150ft.)

So the policeman stayed at Walter's camp overnight, and next day Artie flew him to our camp. This resulted in some more drama in my camp. On his arrival in the camp, the policeman was taken into the kitchen for a tea or coffee. The (fairly recently hired) cooks helper was rather unsuccessfully trying to hide behind the freezer,

The policeman took one look at him, and exclaimed "What? You're here!" and after a moment of reflection then commented "Oh well! just as good here as in the lockup!"

Gradually, over lunch, the story came out. It seems that there was a railway maintenance camp about 30-40 miles south of Finke. One weekend, the boss of the camp took about half the crew (all that would fit on the motorised trolley) into Finke for Saturday night. The ones left behind apparently ran out of supplies about midnight, jemmied the door of the shed with the other trolley in it, set it on the tracks and headed for Finke. Now this line was single track, and neither trolley had any lighting. The inevitable happened about ten miles out of Finke. Nobody was killed, but a couple had to be taken to Alice Springs Hospital, and about four were tossed into the Finke lockup.

It seems that a couple of days later our hero (the cook's helper) was at the window on the back of the lockup, passing some stubbies to his mates inside when a gruff voice behind him said "I suppose you want to join them?". He bolted, and had been hiding ever since.

However, the policeman took no action.

Picture seems to be the only one I have of Artie's plane at one of his camps.1966-10-18 SD A Hearne Camp Austral 3.jpg

Good story. Thanks.
Is that a couple of Landies in that pic? I cant enlarge them but looks like a S11 and a S1 in the background.

Keith

Originally Posted by Tins

I didn’t forget farthings, but even as old as I am I don’t think I could have spent one.

My rough estimate is clearly that, rough. In a car it’s not too far off. Ditto in the R730 Scania with two trailers loaded with pillows…… except in the school holidays. Grr..

Don't forget about farthings, if it wasn't for two Scotsmen fighting over a farthing we wouldn't have copper wire