I was motivated to write this article after starting the job of cleaning out my mother’s house and preparing my 1949 AJS for the Tiddler’s Run. The house had been occupied by my grandparents and parents since the 1930’s when my grandfather made the concrete bricks on site to have it built.
Naturally there’s a lot of history including a ledger book with my grandfather’s income and expenditure from 1902 to 1919. For those music buffs I can tell you an (E) violin string in 1914 cost 11p.
I thought riding an old bike on bitumen roads with a mobile phone is an achievement but it’s nothing compared to what used to happen.
My grandfather lived in the Barossa Valley and worked on a fruit property but also would go shearing. In the early 1900’s he rode his bike along the Eastern side of the Flinders Ranges to Parachilna to go shearing. I can remember going up that same route with him on a holiday and him telling the stories of camping under a piece of tarpaulin hung over a fence and him sitting around a camp fire with what he termed the “natives”.
Another trip he went to Wilcannia for shearing where the pushbike and trains were used for transport.
Later, around 1912/13, his brother and him heard that there was work in Berri constructing the irrigation channels. With a mixture of train, boat, and bikes they came to Berri with my grandfather working in the limestone quarry crushing and I think burning limestone and his brother digging and building the channels.
His expenditure in 1913 shows, what I assume to be for the trip to Berri, the purchase of 2 continental tyres £1/4/6, 2 tubes 10s/6d, Brooke’s bike saddle 6s, 1 doz spokes 8d, 500 rifle cartridges £2/16/3, pair of pruning snip blades 6s/6d etc plus 1 box digestive tablets 2/6? He once told me he used to shoot possums on the Berri Riverfront. I don’t know if he ate them but don’t think digestive tablets would help.
In 1914 things must have looked up and as can be seen from the entry my grandfather’s brother bought a motorbike for £37, motor coat plus numerous other items to live and clear their blocks of land they had purchased.
The story my grandfather told was his brother would ride the motorbike towing him on his pushbike between the Barossa and Berri. The roads were tracks, rough and up and down sand hills. On one trip his brother fell off the motorbike and the heel of his boot became stuck in the back wheel and tore most the spokes out. From then on, they couldn’t ride it so they ran alongside or pushed it the rest of the way. In 5/11/1915 there’s an entry, “bike repairs”.
Soon after that, I think the motorbike got sold, as in 1916 a saddle and bridle were purchased. My grandfather’s brother by then had gone to Egypt to fight. Interestingly he was paid £2/2 a fortnight as military pay and a wise decision paid £4/5/9 for life insurance. My Grandfather was left looking after their two fruit properties they had bought in 1914.
I’ve probably bored everyone by now if you’ve read this far but will add a couple of photos taken by Max Delaine 12/1947 of my father’s 1942 WLA Harley Davidson on a trip to Leeton. It’s taken in Mildura where the sidecar wheel fell off and the bike went across the road straight up the cow’s backside. The only injury was a scratch to the side of the cow with the handle bars.
Guess we don’t have the same sense of adventure on our rides today!!
Trevor