Mary kept a diary for as long as I knew her but I have not been able to find any of the early books and can only presume that they were lost in cyclone Tracey. I will endeavour to describe our early courtship, marriage and the first twenty years of our married life together . 

When I first met Mary she was living in Marrinah House (The present site of the Travelodge Hotel) and I was in the Mitchell Street hostel (now The Darwin bus terminal Mitchell Street), I had returned to Darwin on 6th January 1953 and Mary arrived in Darwin for her first term of service with the P.M.G on 13th January. We were both attracted to each other and thus commenced a whirlwind six month courtship. We both had a love for sport and all outdoor activities and set about seeing as much of the Darwin area as possible. 

I found that Mary had had a wide and varied life prior to meeting me. She lived with her mother at 166 Queensville St West Footscray and attended St.Augustines school Yarraville. She was the tom-boy of the family who had very little opportunity to play sport but could beat her brothers at everything. She took every chance to play organised sport, playing women's football for Footscray and even made the Victorian Women's Cricket team. She played Net-Ball, Hockey, Tennis and swimming. Mary did not aspire to great heights as a scholar but I always thought that she was held back by her large family in the depression days combined with the large number of students that were crammed into each class at the school. She certainly had the ability, brains, and determination to go much further with her schooling which alas came to end at the minimum permissible leaving age of 13. The family dwindled down with the death of father (Don) and marriages of Pat, Evie, Jack, Margie, Petty, Ginger, and Brian until with only Nana and Noreen left Mary decided to go out and work and travel as much as possible. She had worked at nearly everything since leaving school including Drafting, various shop assistant jobs and was employed in munitions and finally Nobles explosive factory when she had a serious accident to her hand losing two joints from her right index finger and one from the right middle finger. She left the explosives factory and when her hand had improved sufficiently headed west. She became a waitress in a gentile guest house in Mount Street Perth, a lovely old mansion overlooking Kings Park where she spent some time in an atmosphere she enjoyed among people she liked. Mary retuned to Adelaide where she commenced her association with P M G as a telephonist. She travelled to Sydney on "exchange" with a Sydney girl and worked in the G P O telephone exchange. She returned to Adelaide at the end of the "exchange" and resumed duty as a telephonist at the Adelaide telephone exchange in Duncan Building in Flinders St. It was from here that she departed for Darwin on a temporary/permanent basis on 13th January 1953. Mary particularly liked Adelaide and returned there whenever possible, but she very soon "fell for" Darwin and these two became her favourite places. While in Adelaide she stayed at St Mary's, a girls hostel on East Tce overlooking the Victoria Park racecourse making many firm friendships. Her main friend was Nan Sanderson who later became Nan Kuerschnir and we enjoyed many stopover days on their farm at Black Rock while going through Orroroo on the way back to Darwin. 

Meanwhile Mary had met me. I was also employed by the P M G Department in the role of Telegraphist in the Darwin G P O telegraph office that adjoined the Exchange so Mary and I had plenty of contact. We were both on shift work and spent many peaceful hours on Lameroo beach which was a lovely spot before its fall from grace. Everybody at the Mitchell Street hostel owned a motorcycle except me but I had no trouble borrowing a bike and heading off with Mary to such outlandish places as Howard Springs and Adelaide River to fill the mornings before afternoon shifts. I was a careful rider and had no trouble on the roads and had Mary's full confidence with only one near miss. We were crossing the railway line on the dirt road to Howard Springs with eight feet high grass all around us when I was suddenly confronted by a gangers trolley sailing merrily across our path. It was a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing as I knew there was no train around but only the ganger knew where he would be at anytime. Any way with a lot of skidding and braking we missed the trolley and headed off to Howard Springs leaving a somewhat shaken railway ganger. We spent most of our weekends, working, playing sport or joining the parties on the Engineer's truck to Berri Springs. I played cricket and tennis in the dry and football in the wet and Mary either came to watch us play or stayed at Marrenah to do her washing, housework etc. We had swimming carnivals at the Qantas hostel which were most enjoyable, particularly the suppers which Qantas put on with  food brought in on the Hythe flying boats and which was not available anywhere else in Darwin. We also played mixed tennis on the Qantas courts between swims. Mary and I used to go dancing as often as possible which usually meant the Friday night dance at the Catholic Palais. This meant dancing on polished concrete in an open hall and wringing with perspiration but loving every minute of it. Of course the fact that nearly all of the girls were telephonists and all outnumbered about five men to one added to the fun so I did not stray far from Mary's side. We also attended the occasional ball such as the Golf Club ball at Camp 88 , The Waratah ball at Winellie, the Chung Wah ball at the Palais and several at the Green Room of the Darwin Hotel. I was carrying an eight inch skin graft on my right arm which was quite a fresh reminder of just how dangerous motorbikes can be so I did not take much part in the football playing just sufficient games to qualify for the finals. These were played on the gravel oval opposite the Darwin Hotel so I was quite happy to sit in the grand stand with Mary and enjoy the celebrations at the finish. Of course there were the "pictures at Tom Harris's Star theatre" This was an open air theatre and an experience in themselves. It took some getting used to watching Beau Guest staggering around the desert with teeming rain between you and the screen and aboriginals getting drenched to the skin on Wednesday nights which were known as cowboy night. I took Mary out to stretch our legs one night and obviously we couldn't eat chocolates or lollies so I bought her a packet of PKs. The smartie next to me said "boy, the last of the big spenders " Most embarrassing . And Mary remembered it all of her life. We had an exciting outing over the Easter weekend. A large group from the Post Office went "outback" in a 4X4 truck driven by a buffalo hunter who knew the place like the palm of his hand. We left the main road at Adelaide River and travelled through the Brocks Creek, Grove Hill, Mt Weils, Pine Creek areas all on unmade roads or tracks we could hardly see. We returned to the bitumen at Hayes Creek on Easter Saturday where we took up residence in the Peanut drying shed at the back of the store and settled down for the night. We had shot a couple of wallabies during the day which we turned into a beautiful stew on a huge log fire. Sleep was not easy to come by with millions of mosquitoes, lizards, the occasional snake and herds of feral pigs grunting and squealing in the vegetable patch. On easter sunday we went for a hike through Butterfly Gorge country surrounded by eight feet high grass using tracks left by the pigs. Our driver started to worry about the weather so we returned early to the store where we packed up and prepared to return to Darwin. The knock-em-down rains started during mid afternoon and teemed without easing up from then on . During tea time Les (our driver\guide) decided it was time to move or we wouldn't get through so we headed back up the track. About ten miles on we came across a bus load of people in a bus that was hanging precariously by two wheels over a culvert where it had been washed by a flash flood that was roaring across the road. We helped secure the bus and its passengers and decided it was better at Hayes Creek so headed back there only to be confronted by another creek flooding over the road. This effectively marooned us between the two floods and we spent a rather uncomfortable night until about mid night when the two creeks were considered safe to cross. A bleary eyed crew turned up to man the Post Office on the Tuesday but I guess the postmaster Tom Cook was lucky to have any staff at all. As I said a most exciting and interesting weekend and my first contact with Knock-em-downs. 

It was about now or March to be exact that Mary and I decided that two could live cheaper than one and decided to get married at an early date. We passed the good news down south. It was greeted thus: 

Mary's mother--"Good god Mary whats the hurry? 

My mother--"Thank goodness someone is going to settle him down" 

Mine -- "Now how am I going to find enough money for a ring." 

My bank book was left in Adelaide out of my reach so Mary had to pay for her own ring until my book arrived from home. The shame of it. Generally it seemed to be well accepted so we nominated 20th August 1953 as the big day. Mary offered the job of bridesmaid to my sister Win who jumped at the chance and flew to Darwin for the big occasion. Ted Wohling a football and cricket mate who stayed with me at the Mitchell Street hostel was pleased to accept the task of getting me to the alter and became best man. In the absence of any parents Dennis Ganley another football mate and Postmaster at the Military post office Larrakeyah obliged by giving the bride away. Father Flinn officiated. I think Father Flinn could also go down as a football mate as he was a Waratah barracker and I am afraid that my catechism lessons usually degenerated into discussions with Fathers Flinn and Henschke and the Bishop all playing last weeks match over again. Unfortunately I won a large tropical ulcer at this time which had to be lanced and bandaged but which really caused me little inconvenience but which slowed me down a little during the weeks to come. Clive Keetley provided the car and did us proud. Beautifully polished and almost full of frangipani caused me to be envious of Dennis Ganley as I had to walk to the Cathedral with my best man holding me firmly in an arm lock. The ceremony was I thought very nice as weddings go. Win caused the only faux pas that I can remember. After the service the wedding party retired to 7th Vestry to finalise signatures, witnesses etc. Win asked Mary for a look at the ring. I don't know which one was shaking the most but they dropped the bleeding ring on the floor behind the organ into about two inches of dust. Now Ted and I were dressed in white from head to toe and had to wrestle the organ out of the way, retrieve the ring, and then restore the room as was. On emerging from the vestry we were confronted by curious people wondering at the noises from the vestry and the look of the bride groom and best man looking like wharfie's emerging from a hold. We had the reception at the "Ludmilla" hotel which was built on the cliff edge at Nightcliff overlooking the sea. After a delightful repast Mary and I retired to the Darwin for our wedding night . The reception was only small (19 in all) and featured a huge Barramundi set in banana leaves. Father Flinn was the only one who could open champagne bottles and became master of ceremonies. We changed our clothes in a sydney-william hut in Nightcliff owned by a Post Office mate named Ian Wedd. Nightcliff at this time consisted of all huts and the journey back to Darwin was down a dirt road in our beautiful black limousine which was slightly dusty when we finally got back to the Darwin Hotel. 

We had selected the Mataranka Homestead for our honeymoon and se toff to Katherine on the early flight of Guinea Airways. And I mean early -- some where about 5 am I think dropping us in Katherine at about 7.30 with a wait until our vehicle to Mataranka was due to depart about mid afternoon. The idea of filling in about 10 hours in Katherine was a daunting one but turned out to be most enjoyable. I had arranged for breakfast with the post office staff but Postmaster Reg Johncock insisted that we go down to his residence for the day. I knew Reg and Mrs Johncock from working with Reg at Pt. Augusta and Mary clicked with Mrs Johncock straight off. They had a ball which even included tennis with the girls of Katherine, a lovely lunch and rest in the cool house. Any way we were invited back and spent a couple of days at Katherine as their guests on the way home to Darwin. 

Mataranka was a small siding on the railway line about 7 miles from the Homestead. It had been a long exciting day by the time we reached the Homestead. This was indeed a lovely spot with a hot water thermal swimming pool and a lovely old couple as our hosts.  We arrived at the same time as the cast and associated hurly-burly for the movie picture called "Jedda". The male star "Marbuck" was quite well known to me as a Wanderers Footballer of some note so we were mates. Jedda was a girl named Gnaria Kunoth, the director was Charles Chauvel and his wife, and the other guests at the homestead were Doug Lockwood a News correspondent of note and his wife. Marbuck spent his leisure hours at the blacks camp set upon the banks of the Waterhouse River, the Chauvel's and Lockwood spent theirs socialising, and Jedda who didn't fit with either quickly attached herself to Mary. This arrangement proved to be just right and everybody had an enjoyable time. We befriended the homestead dog and had many nice walks along the Waterhouse and Roper Rivers with Jedda and the dog in close attendance. Possibly not the sort of close attention you need on your honeymoon but I guess you can't win them all. The aboriginals from the camp gave us a loan of a paper bark canoe so out we went a-rowing. We were not far from the bank when we found that we were sharing the canoe with a centipede about a foot long. The dark waters of the river were not very appealing so I promptly dispatched the centipede, losing the oar in the process and drifted ashore quite unharmed but sworn off aboriginal  canoes for life. Mary and I were taken over to the Mataranka Station homestead for a day watching stockmen branding cattle. While there Mary decided to take some photos so she and I sat on the top rail of the branding yards. Unfortunately a large range bull wanted to get up there with us and took a running jump. We evacuated smartly but not before Mary took a colour slide of the bull in action.That colour slide was to win the first prize for slides at the royal Darwin show in 1955 or 56. The station manager and his wife then took us to the Mataranka pub to settle the dust and we all lined up at the bar for some coldies. Mary was fascinated that here was a local Footscray girl breasting the bar with all the sweating, dusty jackaroos either side of her but I know she enjoyed  every minute of it . We were sorry to leave the homestead as we had made quite a few friends but the time came when we had to return to Darwin. After a couple of enjoyable days in Katherine with the Johncock's we arrived in Darwin to take over our first "care-taker-tenancy".  

Most people in Darwin took their leave during the wet season and most had up to three months leave at a time.It was not advisable to leave a house empty for that length of time so they let it out, hence the name care-taker-tenancy. Mary and I lived in this fashion for roughly three years in about ten houses all up. Our first was in Margaret Street Stuart Park where we were quite happy and still have a soft spot for. We arranged similar shifts and were able to walk to and from work together. My only complaint was the flaming fury. To me fell the job of burning the fury. This consisted of pouring gallons of sump oil down this evil looking and smelling hole, setting fire to it and then standing back wishing you had "gone" before you started. You can imagine Sunday morning with everybody's fury flaming and smoking like mad. We usually arranged day shifts for Sundays. Our street was joined to the Parap camp by an area known as rusty valley where all of the Perez,  Ah Matt, Coopers, Abalas lived and as they were all football mates of mine we had some good nights sing-songs as most of the locals played an instrument of some sort. Our next house was Searcy St which is in town opposite the new post office. It was very convenient but filthy dirty. Mary and I cleaned it up even to cutting the tall grass in the yard with a scythe and it became quite liveable. Next was a house in Temira square owned by a telegraphist who was a local from way back who owned a couple of fish traps down in Francis Bay which went with the house. Now fish traps are alright in their way but need to be cleared once every twelve hours. At least one clearance a day was in the night or early morning so it all became quite a chore. When the bream were running it was common to clear up to five or six mail bags of fish while standing waist deep in water in pitch black night and hoping there were no nasties in the trap. Then we had to go home and clean them all and deliver them to Colemans shop for sale. I have vivid memories of Mary standing at the wash troughs cleaning fish after helping me get them home --  and while about two or three months pregnant. 

Chris had decided that it was about time for his little feet to patter or at least make his presence felt. Temira square was opposite the old hospital which was very convenient. Any way we still had a few months to go so I continued looking for houses. Jack wouldn't hear of us moving out when he came back from leave and he heard of Mary's condition, so he moved into the spare room and helped me with the fishing with Mary taking a well earned rest. At about six o'clock on a day in July 1954 Mary and I walked over to the hospital much to the surprise of the sister who was not used to seeing her patients arrive by foot. Of course I carried the case--what do you think I am? Junior arrived in due course and proved to be a bonny bouncing boy who we later named Christopher Brian which turned out to be an advantage as all we had been making had the name of Chris on it come what may. When the dust had settled we were on our way to another house in Beetson St (now Smith Street West) This was a new house and lovely and clean. I made a fly wire cot for Chris and a high chair both of which were surprisingly good so life was idyllic for the next couple of months. Mary gave up work at about six months and except for few days here and there helping out at my various post offices did not return. 

Our next house was the Postmaster's residence for an indefinite period. This was a huge pre-war house on stilts with four bedrooms,  a huge kitchen, walk in pantry and a lounge that measured sixty feet by forty feet. In that lounge we put our two cane chairs and a small table so if you had any cats to swing there was plenty of room. I understand that immediately prior to the cyclone they operated the whole dept of social securities in this house. It was located on the Daly Street side of the cathedral on Smith Street and we really enjoyed it. It was surrounded by tall trees so we had wild life aplenty. We had an outside toot but with plumbing. One day Mary dived into the toilet and sat down real quick. Now that outsize goanna laying along the door rail was what I referred to as wild life and was certainly not pleased to have company burst in on him at such a time. One other day I saw Stick beetle about a foot long waddling across the front garden. I called Mary and by the time she had come from the kitchen, a frill neck lizard had joined the stick beetle in mortal combat. The lizard won and was carrying off the spoils when a colony of green ants joined in and made short work of the stick beetle. We enjoyed our time in the big house which was handy to town and right next door to the Cathedral. Further more it was in a well settled part of town so we knew a lot of people around about. We flew down to Adelaide and Melbourne for our holidays and bought ourselves a Ford Consul. That was Chris's first plane trip and he and Mary saw their in- laws for the first time. Grandpa was very much the proud grandfather and I don't know what he had been saying but we were greeted by Uncle Pat saying "Aw he's only an ordinary little baby". Mary got on very well with both grandparents, with particular Grandfather who still saw her as my saviour having pulled me out from under a motorbike a couple of years before. We had a good time in Adelaide, even had grandfather pedalling the kids around Torrens lake. He thoroughly enjoyed himself but I know he suffered for it next day.  We then bought a car. We tried a few second hand ones but with grandfathers wisdom he said don't buy someone else's troubles, get a new one and you won't have to spend any money on it four or five years. The next problem was to get it home cos believe it or not neither of us had a licence. The nice lady in motor registration gave me a renewal of my motorcycle licence not-with-standing that it had expired some 3 years before so I was allowed to drive but couldn't drive.  Alan Marks a telegraph mate drove me from Dalgetys to a nice quiet street near home, gave me a crash lesson in driving then jumped out to catch a bus home. With much trepidation and a whole lot of swearing I finally drove in the drive and we had a car. Me teaching Mary to drive was even more alarming and culminated in Mary getting out and walking home before the situation reached the divorce stage. She was eventually successful in getting her licence. She turned out to be a very good driver in the long run and we had many happy hours in the Consul-Falcon-Datsun and finally the Honda many years later.  We drove over to Melbourne and that was a different kettle of fish. First you had to turn into Nana's garage from a narrow service lane and back out again. Then the traffic had to be seen to be believed. My S A plates got me out of a lot of bad spots cos everyone could see I was a beginner. I could never see what Mary found so funny like the day I got tangled up on the wrong side of the traffic in the St Kilda Junction. Now the junction joined up five main roads and a couple of minor ones and was universally hated by all interstate drivers. There were 5 policemen on point duty at all times. Anyway I got myself on to the outside of the Punt Rd traffic and needed to cut across two main roads into the Princess Highway. A policeman on duty noticed my predicament, probably cos I was sitting there with my hands on my head calling for assistance from Allah, and promptly held all of the traffic and let me go round on my own. Then Norm, Margie and Nana decided it was time to try me out at night. We'll go to the Burwood drive-in they said, Oooh I said, let me say here that I had never driven in heavy traffic at night, did not know the roads or where we were going and had never been to a drive-in before. We got there during the first show and queued at the entrance feeling very proud of myself. I nonchalantly declared that I was going to the toilet while we were waiting. Nobody told me that there was a wire between each car and its "post" so I tripped over the first one and finished on the ground on hands and knees with Coke and chips cascading all over me. There were lights coming on everywhere and people yelling for me to "shut up the noise" or "whats going on" so I raced back to the car forgetting the reason for my problems and hid behind the steering wheel for the rest of the night. It was even more embarrassing than the traffic jam I caused on the way out. One night Norm needed the garage so I left the Consul out in Queensville St with the parking lights on of course. Next morning my battery was as flat as a pancake, so I hung hurricane lamps on it from then on. Looked undignified but did the trick. We had a good time in Melbourne. Nana still lived in Queensville St West Footscray and all of the family were close around. A standard saying developed as every time Gerald and I were late for a meal, Mary would tell her that we had gone down to Yarraville for a haircut. I don't think she believed it as it always seemed to work although I do think Gerald and I were her favourite son-in-laws with Norm a close third. Our favourite hair dressers were the Railway at Yarraville, Harts at Middle Footscray and the Rising Sun on Geelong Road. We went up to Pat and Geralds place at Coldstream a few times and always enjoyed ourselves. Gerald was manager of a Hereford stud farm and had lots of animals for the kids to play with. Gerald's son Donald was somewhat spoilt but grew up a very nice lad. Daughter Maureen was a lovely kid. Unfortunately they were involved in a road accident from which Maureen's injuries turned into cancer and she died some ten years later. Norm was a first rate mechanic employed with Tutt Bryant as a diesel mechanic. You can imagine my horror when he suggested that we pull my car to pieces, clean it up thoroughly and put it back together again. We finished up with my car in pieces in a couple of kerosene drums full of kero. Norm (with a lot of advice from Gerald and I) put it all back together again with not one piece left over. It ran beautifully and Norm was satisfied that I had a very nice little car, even if it was a Ford. Graham put a scare amongst us one day as he had to go to the toilet badly. Nana pulled his pants half down for him and off he dashed - tripped over his trouser and hit the door of the kitchen right between the eyes. I have never seen a better pair of shiners and frankly I thought he had cracked his skull. He put the wind up us but got over it in due course. 

W e had a good trip back to Adelaide, me a vastly improved driver and relished the comparatively quiet traffic. Win and Pat were married and our shiny black car came into use. The reception was at our place at Dulwich after the wedding at Hindmarsh and the car picked a time like that to break down. The shame of it. The problem was that Dad was driving and he couldn't hear the engine or feel the rattles of Bonnie Liz so he sat there with his foot on the accelerator. Anyway the reception did not start without us (mainly cos I was Master of Ceremonies) and all came out well. 

Coming back home to Darwin was a holiday in itself. I drove the car to Quorn where it was loaded onto the Ghan. Mary and Chris arrived at Quorn on the passenger part of the train during mid afternoon and we departed for Alice Springs on the narrow gauge. Luckily I had known most of the train crew from my Port Augusta days and they really looked after us. Nothing was too hard for them and they made our trip one to remember. We arrived at Telfer (Leigh Creek) around midnight and I decided to have a beer in the pub that was just outside the station yards. I fixed Mary and Chris into our sleeper on the train that was waiting for us and headed off.  At the pub we were confronted by the owner and an overzealous policeman who made every passenger fill in our details and sign the visitors book. The queue was a mile long so I gave up all thoughts of a beer and returned to the train where I was once again looked after very well by the crew. Mary and Chris were soon sound asleep and very comfortable in our new quarters. We travelled from Tuesday to Thursday on the Ghan and loved every bit of it (especially the meals and personalised attention) but all good things must come to an end and we took off for Darwin as soon as our car came off the train. We travelled from Alice to Darwin in the wet season and had a trip full of fun and excitement. The excitement part came at most creek crossings and culminated in my first confrontation with Newcastle Waters causeway in full flow. I was the first car nearest the waters edge so everyone decided to stay til morning and spent the night having a quiet ale or two and a terrific bar-b-q.. Next morning when we woke the causeway was a sheet of water about a mile long flowing from right to left in depths that vary from one foot where the side drops away to about four feet on the other side. When we had decided that the water had gone down sufficiently it was a matter of  "see ya later Ted" "hope ya make it" "lets know how deep it is in the middle", etc. I was so scared that I went across it like a hydroplane, lost my brakes and promptly forgot that all of the others would be in the same predicament. There were cars coming out of the water all with no brakes for some time and I decided to get to hell out of there and head off to Darwin. I filled my boot up with water at the Warloch Ponds which didn't do all of the books much good, then had to do a detour around a semi-trailer that had sunk right through the bitumen. Good trip all round and probably the start of my love affair with the Stuart Highway. 

We arrived at the Bougainvillea guest house at Parap and then on into OUR FIRST HOME, at No 6 McDonald St, Parap. We were the first house occupied in the whole area and had some wonderful times there. The house was brand new and yard covered by six to eight foot Cunai grass with patches of bitumen left over from the old Ross Smith landing strip. There was a hell of a lot of work to do but were both fairly young and extremely enthusiastic so in we went. The roads were just being built and there were bush tracks every where one of which went in a B line from the Parap Hotel to Fannie Bay and directly under our main bedroom on the way. I got sick of the language and wee'ing at closing time when the derelicts were traveling home to Fannie Bay, usually on push bikes so I built a mountain of paint drums right in the middle of the track. The language was pretty impressive when drunk after drunk hit the mountain but eventually they got the message. Mary loved that first house. We had terrific neighbours in Mr and Mrs Sack and their son Charlie. We had Chris and Graham to soon make an appearance and even Karen coming along later. We furnished the place very nicely and put in a garden consisting of numerous plants and shrubs, 50 paw-paws, 50 pineapples, and roughly 50 bananas. We were only two streets from the Parap shopping centre. We had many good times with the Sacks. Mrs Sack had a delightful sense of humour. Charlie was a quiet even taciturn character who loved nothing better than working in his garden, and young Charlie who was a real roughie and who used to love to go bush and live off the land. Mrs Sack (Sackie) spoilt Chris and Graham rotten and they loved it. Several times a day we would see them wandering back from Sackie's, both eating condensed milk sandwiches. We used to worry about the effect on their health but to see them now we were fools to worry. Charlie worked on the wharf and had some wonderful stories to tell of happenings down there. He passed away with cancer leaving young Charlie to look after Mum. Mrs Sack was stationmaster and publican at the Adelaide River Hotel who retired to Darwin to work in the mens Mitchell street Hostel. She looked after us Post Office boys to the extent of spoiling us and soon became one of our favourites. We made the house quite nice and Mary soon got stuck into the garden. You could write what I know about gardens and what goes into them on the back of a postage stamp but with Mum's knowledge and boundless energy and with me as a labourer we got on well. We had 50 paw-paws, 50 pineapples and 50 bananas, stacks of coloured crotons, coleus's, bougainvilleas etc and put the whole block under paspalum lawn. This was all done in record time, even considering that about 1/3 of the block was bitumen and nuts and bolts all over, a legacy from the war. We even had bitumen paths around our garden plots - hows that. Pineapples are brutes to grow as they had spikes on each frond (leaves) so I had to put on old football togs and wriggle down each aisle under the prickles. We had many catastrophes like when Chris blundered into a hornets hive in the bananas and when a huge green frog landed legs out on Chris's chest. Chris preferred the hornets but eventually overcame his fright and lived to quite like the frogs as all Territorians do. Our lawn was quite attractive to the large goannas that lived in the tall grass that grew all round us. They would come out and sleep on the nice green grass and disappear again at night. One day young Charlie decided to catch a big one. He grabbed a spanner and I picked up a baseball bat and both took off after him. The goanna took off through Sack's front door (their house was built on the ground) When we got to the door, poor Mrs Sack was kneeling next to her bucket gasping for air and no sign of the goanna that had performed a circuit of the lounge and shot through the kitchen and out the back door. What Mrs Sack called us and what she thought of our antecedents could not be repeated in the presence of royalty and certainly should not be repeated here. Mr Sack got into the act later that day when he set a "fishing" line made of piano wire with a chicken on a hook. The rogue goanna dutifully arrived, took the bait and headed for the long grass to eat the chicken. He hit the end of the piano wire with a loud twang and was promptly despatched to goanna heaven. It sounds like we were a bit rough on the local goanna population but they were pests as the small ones took eggs and large ones taking chickens. Mr Sack lost his driving licence as he had developed long distance sight only. He could read the scores on the footie score board better than I could but could hardly see the car much less where to put the key. That meant he had to rely on Mrs Sack driving him every where much to his disgust. Mary played tennis with the local girls from the surrounding houses on a D.C.A tennis court next to Sacks and had a good time with morning teas etc. It was about then that Harry Chan found Chris heading into town to find me, recognised him immediately and promptly retuned him to Mary. You can imagine Mary's surprise at this turn of events and shows why old time Darwinites liked Darwin so much.

Graham made his appearance when he was good and ready in December 1955. I had a huge leg of ham for Xmas which Eddie Quong cooked in his bakers oven and turned out to be a great success. I often feel a bit sorry for Chris. I only know  of about six ways to eat ham and Chris and I went through my repertoire many times before Mary came home. Hooray for condensed milk  sandwiches. Sackie is funny to talk to about Chris and Graham as they used to put one over on her left, right, and centre. Chris was the smoothie and Graham let him do the dirty work then ate his share when Sack obliged. Then of course neither of them would eat their meals when they got home. The only time I can remember Chris loose his cool was at tennis one day when a bully of a kid from the next street started to pick on Graham. Chris thumbed him in no uncertain manner. We concreted our drive way and half of the under house area. I was a telegraphist right through this period and found shift work just fine. In fact I had two jobs (1) the P.M.G. Dept and (2) driving a truck of whole sale goods around town. They sure kept me busy but the extra money coming in was quite a help. I knew most of my customers including the C.M.S and Catholic missions and enjoyed my involvement with crocodile and buffalo hides, pearl shell etc. In fact the biggest crocodile skin I handled measured 51 inches belly hide. We estimated the croc to be at least 20 footer and was as heavy as hell. 

I qualified as a Postmaster at the end of 1957 and was promoted to the position of Assistant Postmaster Kapunda S.A at the end of 1958. (farewell party No 1) Karen arrived on May 1958 and was immediately the apple of her brother's eyes. She had a mop of red hair from the day she was born which I suppose had to happen as there are red heads in both sides of the family.

We moved to Kapunda and after usual hassle looking for houses found a really old pioneer ranch type place on the Tarlee Road on the outskirts of town. We inherited 22 cats a dog and a lamb, numerous fruit trees and a full olive tree wind break right across the back. Incidentally I sold the olives to a shop in town and did very well out of it. My neighbour and I wiped out the cat population (leaving 2) using his 22 rifle and I threatened to do the same to the dog if he didn't stop chasing the lamb round the block and eventually over a barbwire fence, which didn't do the lamb much lasting good.  While waiting for our house I stayed with a dear old soul in town who owned a cow and a prime block of land attached to her house. I volunteered to milk the cow if she went away for any reason (unheard of now days) and even suggested she could go up to Adelaide to see her daughter more often which was well received and resulted in us getting a hell of a lot free milk and eggs. To digress the very first day I stayed at the house Mrs Maynard came to me most apologetic and told me that they had a death in the family and would be coming back to the house for a cup of after the funeral and would I mind getting my tea out that night. I found out later that the death was that of a 100 year old spinster whose death released all of the property for miles around and worth a mint so by the time I ventured home I walked into a "wake" that I could only describe as a drunken orgy into which I was invited and partook there-of. The dog really blotted his copy-book when it started swinging on the washing of the dear old soul who lived next door. That was inexcusable but I soon got sick of doing a "paper run" before work each day delivering papers retrieved by the dog and placed on our front verandah. Apparently he had developed a habit of following the news agent in his van which my dog thought was great fun, fetched the paper and brought it home. I was lucky to find a farmer among my football mates who accepted him back on the farm and I understand he turned out to be a first class working sheep dog. I don't know what eventually happened to the lamb. My first milking was an education. The damn cow turned out to be something out of the box and gave me roughly three gallons of milk each morning and about 10 to 12 pints each night. I often think how funny we must have looked with Mary running for more containers as I filled each one up. We had every bowl, saucepan, jug, kettle, cup etc that we could muster all full of milk. Anyway we liked our little semi farm house and were sorry to leave when we were eventually allocated a housing commission house right in town. I must admit that I felt a little cramped after our ranch. 

I spent a lot of time relieving Postmasters in the mid north such as Owen, Saddleworth, Riverton, Spalding, Berri, Hamley Bridge etc and of course Kapunda. When I considered I had enough experience I applied for and was promoted to Assistant Postmaster at Armidale in N.S.W.  Armidale is a lovely spot if the town wasn't there. There are 21 private schools in Armidale including a university, Methodist Ladies, Church of England girls school , Scotch boys, de la Salle boys college and stacks of others making it a very class conscious town to live in if you were just workers like us.  Also it made housing extremely rare. We were helped out by the staff of the postoffice. We accepted a flat that would "be ready for us on arrival"  We went over to Melbourne for a couple of days and then headed north in our trusty Ford Consul. We travelled through a record heat wave with temperatures over 100 all the way until we reached Tamworth. With two adults and three children in the car we did it hard. We travelled up into the Moonbi ranges where the temperature dropped markedly and found a little pub at Bendemeer. We spent some time cooling off, sipping several beers with the kids running wild on the lawns that sloped down to a creek and started to enjoy ourselves again. We arrived in Armidale about 6.30 pm and had a look at the flat we had accepted. It was half a house separated from the other half by a passage that was used by both families. It was absolutely filthy and the kids beds were crawling with maggots so we spent the first night all together in a double bed that was comparatively clean. After much abusing and some cajoling the land lady replaced the rotten mattresses with second hand mattresses which were at least clean, bought a scrubbing board for the laundry and when our furniture turned up I mowed the grass off the block. All of this made the place liveable, and, as the "other" family turned out to be a very nice couple with no kids and we settled down to make the best of things. Gawd Armidale is cold. Mary's clothes line was a wire across the block and it was quite common place for her washing to be as hard as a board, frozen stiff. We had to wear gloves to ward off frost bite while working round the block. Then we had a stroke of luck. I had made friends with the chief postal inspector who had authority to sign that we were living in sub-standard accommodation which put the onus on the Department to subsidise any rent paid until at least standard accommodation was found for us. We finished up in a beautiful two story house with a couple of spare blocks to the rear and side attached to it. It was the house of the lodge keeper who worked to a real old New England mansion which had been converted to a retreat for an order of Catholic sisters. We had a lovely time living there. The view was superb and Mary was only about half a mile from the shops. We had a very steep hill to go down then across a bridge over a creek then we were in the main shopping centre. Chris' preschool one street further on. The post office was actually in our street on the corner of the main street in the shopping centre. We bored into the garden and I cleaned up all of the grass areas and the place really looked nice. Apparently the old lady neighbours thought so too because they took Mary and the kids to heart and frequently invited her over to tea and cakes and a chat. We made trips to Glen Innes, Inverell, Kempsey, Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, Grafton etc and all of the small towns in between. I started work in Armidale a day early as my due date happened to be the day a little boy got lost in the snake infested bush and spent the night out in the cold. I suggested to the postmaster that I was quite willing to join the search but with my complete lack of knowledge and conditions I would probably be a liability and suggested that he release any one who was prepared to go and I would replace them at work. For that I got a mention in the paper and the little boy lost became famous with a hit song written about him. Chris started preschool in Armidale and loved it. Mary was revelling in the shopping, her beautiful house and neighbours and her three lovely kids so all was well. I had made a lot of friends at work including the new postmaster, a nice old fellow with an equally nice old wife who hit off very well with Mary and the kids. 

All good things come to an end however and in November 1960 I was promoted to Postmaster Oatlands Tasmania. We stayed the last night with the postmaster and his wife and next day headed South. We had a better trip South and the weather was much kinder to us. We stayed overnight at motels at Tamworth, Homsby, Wodonga and then into Melbourne for a short stay with Nana.

I was really looking forward to Tassie as Oatlands was my first appointment as postmaster, with residence provided. We put the Consul on the Princess of Tasmania to Devonport and Mary and I and the three kids went across by air. Our car travelled overnight and was waiting for us on our arrival at Devonport so we just jumped in and took off for Oatlands some  150 miles away. Oatlands is the biggest town in the midlands in the very centre of the island. We were pleasantly surprised with the town and headed for the post office only to be told that our furniture was still on its way from both Adelaide and Armidale. This fact had occurred to the local line Forman who just happened to be the president of the local choral society who followed us into the residence yard with a load of props which met most of our needs. It also gave me a nice feeling of being home with friends and spoke volumes for the relationship between the various sections of the P.M.G. We stayed overnight at one of the three local pubs for the hand over of the office and by then all of our own furniture had arrived. The hotel was on the corner of our Street diagonally opposite the post office and were joined by an old Adelaide telegraphist mate called Clem Daw who was presumably there to oversight the hand over but really to welcome us to Tassie. We developed a friendship with Clem and his wife Else which is still strong even today. Clem often speaks of the little red head who he first saw sitting with her feet on the breakfast table in a most unladylike fashion.The residence was almost brand new and was spotless throughout. One disadvantage was the lack of a garage for the car which is quite serious in the winter months when I had to drain the water out of the radiator and fill it with luke warm water before we started it each day. How a garage with a blue metal driveway appeared is another story and goes in the "not what you know but who you know" file. I built a fowl house with a run that extended right across the block, and quickly built up my flock to 26 chooks, all donated by locals and kept ourselves in eggs and the occasional roast chicken. Mary was happy that she had a house to set up and a garden to develop from scratch. She was very handy for me too as she was more than qualified to take over as telephonist when one of the girls dropped out sick or even for their holiday relief. She even covered absences on the counter if I was in a hole. She fitted in very well with staff and didn't interfere unless I asked her to. Mind you I had nothing to do with the large bottle of rum that turned up at Xmas time and found out later that Mary had been consulted about what was my favourite drink. I was also president of the postal institute for the midlands and had some very enjoyable functions and outings. The post office actually dated back to 1813 when it was a pay station on the Hobart/Launceston "road" It had only just been reconditioned and modernised when I took over which meant that the ceiling of the office was the original ceiling of the first floor of the old residence with a vast space up there full of very very cold air. I was knocked back for air conditioning so had spot heaters installed which of course this meant that we did not need a wood shed and I found that the reconditioned woodshed was exactly the size I wanted for a garage. The arrival from who knows where of the heavy blue metal for the drive was spread by the line party and made Mum and the Consul happy at the cost of copious cups of tea and sandwiches for the linies and perhaps a beer or two from me for volunteers from the pub. We ran into one hiccough with schooling. Graham was ready for school and Chris ready for grade 2. I think we may have been victims of interstate rivalry as Tassie did not recognise Chris's year in the Armidale preschool and insisted that both boys start off in grade 1. The teacher was the wife of my assistant and did not seem to want to help so we finished up with two boys in the same grade. This situation continued until we enrolled them at St John's college in 1965 when Fr Burford with no inference from us separated them which was a good thing as we could definitely see Graham going back into his shell in Chris's shadow. Mary loved Oatlands and made a lot of friends. She was great mates with a neighbour's wife, the family opposite and the two bush nursing sisters from the hospital two doors away. I was playing cricket for the town team and had a real compliment paid to me when I was asked to play football for the Oatlands at the ripe old age of 35. It appears that the committee were watching me having a few kicks with office staff and were suitably impressed. Mary's attitude to this request made by the committee in our kitchen varied from mirth bordering on hysteria to incredulity but said she had no worries "cos even I'm not that stupid" Oatlands being the centre of Tassie meant that we were less than 100 miles from the coast in any direction. We had some terrific sight-seeing trips and our weekly shopping took us to Hobart Friday nights or Launceston Saturday morning with no more than an hours drive to either one. Of course the trip to Hobart meant a stop at Daws who lived at Moonah and usually finished up a late nights drive over the hills in very ordinary weather as Oatlands is 1850 feet above sea level and subject to snow fairly often. I did the bookwork for one of the local storekeepers for which I would not take any money so he would not take any money for our local purchases. We also received many gifts of produce from appreciative farmer customers such as sides of lamb, bowls of strawberries, jars of cream, "pats of butter", all of which augmented our staple diet of chooks from the backyard. I think the chooks liked to see the kids or Mum coming down the yard as that meant only egg gathering while my appearance usually meant another roast meal. Karen started preschool in Oatlands and got on very well. She seemed to like being there and made good friends with the teachers who no doubt thought they might as well take her cos she'll be here any way. Besides I think the red hair intrigued them a little.

Mary had a still born child which was a bit shattering but which no one could ever explain satisfactorily. The baby just ceased to develop past about the sixth month. The delivery was made in Hobart and as the Sisters whisked the body we never did find out whether we had lost a boy or a girl. John turned up in June 1961 and satisfactorily filled the void. John was born in the Hobart hospital which in itself was unusual as the bush nursing centre two doors away was equipped and capable of delivering at anything other than possible problem births. It appears that there was a query on Mary's blood reading after Karen's birth that caused sufficient doubts to warrant delivery at a fully equipped hospital only. Any way John was perfect and alls well that ends well and we had our own little Tasmanian devil.  Mary was admitted to the Hobart hospital a day or so early which pleased me cos I was not relishing a mad midnight dash over snow and icy roads in the middle of June. I setup a play pen for the kids at the back of the post office and with help from telephonists, Mary's friends and several of the customers we managed quite well. My storekeeper mate sold me a TV set for a song and this came in handy at meal times. I used to set up the ironing board in front of the TV with a chair for each one. This meant that they didn't know what they were eating and didn't care so I got away with my cooking.  Preparing three kids for school and me for work in the mornings was bedlam but they were well behaved really and we got on famously. The trip to Hobart to pick up our new baby was probably our best trip with three very excited kids in the back seat. Things soon got back to normal and we continued to enjoy our stay in Tassie . We planted a tree of Cygnet and I understand that it is now huge and loaded with apples. We were above the Hobart snow line and encountered many snow falls. We learned that snow is very pretty but tends to lose its beauty when churned up by cars etc and turned into mud. Oatlands had its own Lake Dulverton but our favourite was Interlaken which as the name implies was two large lakes with about 100 yards separating them on which was built one of the prettiest boarding house/fishing lodge/motel/hotel I have seen. The owner also ran the local post office and I was able to give them a lot of help. We were always welcome to stay at the lodge and old Mrs Lewis seldom came to Oatlands without a bowl of strawberries and a large jar of cream for Mary. While in Oatlands the town celebrated its 150 year anniversary of proclamation as a town and celebrated accordingly. It was an army barracks before it became a town back in 1811 and was the pay-station, half -way house and general refuge for dispatch riders on their journey from Hobart to Launceston and back. They had plenty to worry about from bush rangers, blacks etc apart from getting lost in the bush en route. I got together all of the old official records from the P M G archives in Hobart and set up a display that created immense interest among the local and surrounding public and eventually with the press in Hobart. To put icing on the cake I asked if the P M G had any floats suitable for pageant that the locals were setting up. Lo and behold the official P M G float from the Moomba pageant arrived. It was a magnificent thing but unfortunately made the local floats look very amateurish so they wouldn't give me the prize but kept it for the best local float. That did not worry me at all as I was rather embarrassed at the grandeur of the float joining in a small town pageant. 

We had a lot of visitors from the mainland. Grandma and grandfather came over on the Princess with the cast of Snow White and the seven dwarfs for co-passengers. Others included Nana, Elsie and Peter, the Bagshaws from Darwin and of course Clem and Else and their kids quite often so we always had plenty to do. On one of Nana's visits we went on a tour of the West and North West coasts staying overnight at Roseberry, then putting the car on the train like the Ghan and overnight at Burnie. I had met most of the postmasters at various conferences and finished up having a few days at Ulverstone and Campbelltown on the way back to Oatlands. All round we had a beaut trip which all enjoyed even the battle axe. 

I would like to have stayed in Oatlands longer but the position of Assistant Postmaster at Mt Gambier became available and I was invited to apply. We left a lot of good friends at Oatlands and Mary was thrilled to receive a lovely letter from my replacement's wife thanking her for the condition of the residence and all of the work we had done around the place. We put the car on the boat again and flew to Melbourne where Norm was waiting to take us to Nana's place. 

I started work at Mt Gambier as a telegram boy back in 1941 and knew the place like the back of my hand. We were lucky to find a house normally occupied by the local manager of RAA located on the side of the mount near the cemetery and grabbed it real quick. The house was only available until the RAA could fill their position so our tenure was indefinite. We accepted that arrangement and had about six months in the house. I have always had a soft spot for Mt Gambier and Mary loved it. We benefitted from the competition for trade between Victoria and South Australia so Mary really enjoyed her shopping. Every pay day she bought the kids to town and we would have lunch at our favourite cake/pie shop. Then I would go back to work and Mary would spend a few hours shopping with three kids in tow and another one in a pusher. We loved to go driving at weekends to Casterton, Portland, Nelson, Naracoorte etc which were all full day trips and most enjoyable. Time came to move out of our house and were lucky enough to be allocated a housing commission semi-detached house just in time. The house was brand new in a new estate which had been a market garden on straight volcano lava and which would grow anything. We promptly put in Potatoes, Lawn and all other vegetables and Mary planted a lovely flower garden. I have been back since then and find that the estate is practically a slum with most of our gardening efforts gone. Chris and Graham started school at the Gambier East catholic school and settled in quite well. We lived about 100 yards from a small shopping centre with the school about a half of a mile further on. I bought a second hand push bike and rode to work on fine days. Mary had the car and did the honours on wet days which was most of them. I developed a dislike for cars as I was run off the road on many occasions. The boys did their first communion in the big old church that overlooks the town. Chris covered himself with glory in one inter school football match when he kicked five of  the six goals scored by the team . The sisters were beside themselves with excitement as wins didn't come that often. We had our usual visits from the families, such as Nana, Noreen, Mum and Dad,  Auntie May and even Charlie and Rene. Charlie was off the grog of course having survived a bust ulcer leaving him lucky to be alive. He used to meet me after work and joined us at the daily at Mac's hotel where he would pay for rounds and then drink milk all night. We enjoyed having visitors as we had been so long away from "family" and Mary enjoyed showing them around the town and its surrounds. Mary had a spell in hospital while in the mount where she was treated for a twisted bowel condition. She did enjoy her stay in hospital for a rest. So did I. I only had four kids and auntie May to look after. One day while we were all out visiting Mum,  Auntie May decided to do the washing in a twin tub washing machine which was somewhat foreign to her as she had never used a machine before. When we got home we found a laundry full of soap suds and Auntie sitting on a stool in the middle, very near to tears and utterly frustrated. Another day while Noreen took the kids to church I thought I would give them a surprise and have a batch of scones ready when they got home. Now these scones rose to somewhere between 3 and 4 inches high and looked so good I took a photo of them. I don't know to this day what I did wrong but suffice to say the scones deflated when a knife was stuck into them, deflated being the operative word cos I sure was. The outsides were perfect but the centres were a gluggy uncooked mess. Of course everybody thought it was a great joke and as such ended my foray into the mysteries of cooking. The boys were by now students at the Marist Brothers college and unfortunately still in the same grade. The college was in a beautiful setting tucked away in a fold of the side of the mountain about four miles from home so Mary took them each day in the trusty Consul. Chris lost a half of one of his front teeth when a senior who should have known better thumped him on the back of his head when he was drinking at a fountain. I was less than happy but no one owned up to it so he still wears a false tooth to this day. It seems funny to think of all four kids rugged up against the wind and drizzle but they did not seem to mind. We had some lovely walks around the mount and the lakes. The boys even learned the rudiments of swimming (Yuuuk) at the pool near the old Showgrounds. Our trusty Consul came in handy collecting wood for fires. We took the back seats out and filled the car with pine logs from a friend’s forest. We used to use unlimited amounts of these logs for the fire and the bark for building such things as garage, shed etc. 

Our stay in Mt Gambier was about to come to an end however. While attending a postmaster's conference at Penola I was approached by the state director and actually asked if I would go back to Darwin as assistant postmaster, I said would love to go but would give my answer the following day after I had had a chance to speak to Mary as she should have the final say. I had grave doubts about Mary leaving the Mount as we were settled and enjoying ourselves. Cunning devil that I am, I picked a time when there was freezing cold sleet a wind to match and drizzling rain belting against the house and her re-action was typically forth-right. All she said was "when can we leave". I took this to be a yes and reported back to the big boss to be informed that they wanted me to leave immediately like yesterday. Anyway the big move was on once again only we had a government house ready to move into this time. We gave our TV to Mum and Dad and he decided to drive down and pick it up in his car (also a Consul) He had a bad turn while in the Mount so I finished up driving them TV and all back to Adelaide. I drove up to Adelaide and returned by train and fitted it all in to 24 hours. We finished off our packing and the usual round of farewells and took off to Adelaide about midnight. About three or four a.m. we met a careful of young people returning to Karoonda from a night out in the city. Unfortunately they hung out wide on a sweeping bend near Bridgewater leaving me no place to go and I had to wear him right between the headlights. None of us were injured and a witness came out of no where so I headed off for Grandma's. The "other" driver came all the way from Karoonda to speak to his insurance on my behalf so they covered the cost of a new grill and left mudguard. With the other owners support, prompt attention from the insurance company and I suspect a little shove along by the P M G dept we were fixed up surprisingly quickly and on our way again. We put the car on the Ghan and enjoyed our restful trip to Alice where we stayed at the court house in the judge's flat per favour of Andy Hogg, a long time telegraphist mate of mine since transferred to the Dept of Health as clerk of courts Darwin. I was a bit sorry to see our car arrive as the flat was very comfortable but we soon got on our way to Darwin.

Our residence in Brogan Street was a boomerang shaped government house on stilts with a nice flat garden but alas about 1/4 to1/3 covered with bitumen as part of the Ross Smith airstrip on the opposite side of the strip to our house in Parap. Our address was Brogan Street Fannie Bay and proved to be one of the nicest houses we had had. We were directly opposite the Parap swimming pool,  John's pre-school and not far from the Parap shopping centre, the race course etc. One day Mary was doing something in the kitchen while Chris, Graham and Karen were over at the pool. Both boys were now pretty good swimmers and were instructed to watch Karen and see that she didn't stray down the deep end. I was disturbed by aloud "Dad look" from Mary who was quite concerned about the little girl with red hair who was jumping of the "High" diving board into the water at the deep end and repeating this over and over again. She was having such a good time that we did not interfere but spent some time wondering how and when she had learned to swim. We found that she and Graham had taught themselves with very little consideration for my nerves and Chris learned with his age group at the college. Later John and Jan were apparently learned on the peer system which was good as, although Mary and I were capable swimmers, we would not consider ourselves good coaches. Jan arrived while we lived in Brogan St and grandma was there for the birth. She said "of course we wont be able to see Mary or the baby for a few days at least". Apparently that was the situation in her day, so you can imagine her look when the first person we saw on entering the ward was Mary coming back from the shower.

We settled down for a quiet period in our life which I don't think eventuated. We had a new garden to set up and I was still heavily involved in the administration of football. Mary had a car at home which meant delivering me to work, then a school run delivering four kids to their various schools. She also had mundane jobs such as washing for us all, cooking meals, housework etc. and she managed all that and still found time to have the best garden in the street. Then came the decision time in a period that was to have a profound effect on our future. I found out that our house was a P M G allocation and as such it went to my successor and could not be bought by the term tenants. That all meant that I had to apply to buy a government house but I had to win the ballot of all applicants for the same house. I applied for a place in the Kahlin Oval housing development. I did not win it of course and the same for a house in Stuart Park. I then contested a ballot for a house in Nemarluk Drive behind Baggot and at last won one. It turned out to be the best of the lot and we spent many happy years in the first house we had owned. One of the advantages was the low rate of repayment set by the government but promptly settled on that and started to settle in. We planted lawn over the whole block, bananas and paw paws, plenty of crotons, colladeums and other flowering trees and shrubs and the place looked terrific - in fact Mary won  a bronze plaque for a new garden and another for best novice garden. We found out later that a group of our neighbours had entered our place in the competition and Mary actually scored more points than the winner of the open section. The house was on stilts with three bedrooms, a large lounge, dining alcove entering into the kitchen and a laundry down stairs. My first job was to cement the under house area which included a drive way and which looked terrific when finished. The amount of work that Mary contributed towards heavy concreting and cementing never ceased to amaze me and of course she had the patience to do the finicky little jobs that made the difference between a good job and a first class job. Anyway we enjoyed our work and finished well pleased with our efforts. We had a series of neighbours and got on well with them all. The two older boys set up "their" room downstairs on the concrete and they used to do their homework with mosquito net draped all around them table and all. I borrowed a mould from one of the fellows at work and proceeded to make our own besser blocks. That all came easier when I found out that to make a solid block for the base of the wall you merely left out the mould and filled the frame with cement mix with three stubbies per block used for ballast. This of course meant the difficulty of emptying the stubbies so I set about my job with a gusto.  There was a large mangrove swamp opposite and kids used to play in it. There is now a main arterial road called Dick Ward Drive running right through it so their activities would have been curtailed somewhat apart altogether from the crocs that now live in the swamp. One day a large bull buffalo found his way through the northern suburbs and got trapped on the wrong side of our creek. The police could not afford to get him excited so he was shot on the spot. Pity really but we could see the wisdom in the action. Another day a large Jabiru appeared on the footpath opposite our house and decided to investigate. I found that he had picked his way through a rubber stopper and couldn't shake it off. The more he tried to open his beak the further the stopper rolled up until it got to the stage that he would starve to death. We rang the wildlife people who caught him in a net, cleared the stopper and then let him go. One very relieved Jabiru flew away but it was amazing really. It was a lesson for the kids as he knew he was in trouble and needed help. Luckily he picked our block and received the help he was looking for. We also had numerous lizards and at least one large goanna wandering from the swamp.

Mary and I started to play bowls and Mum's sporting prowess soon came to light. She was runner up in the ladies singles championship on no less than three occasions and was in the four ladies that won the fours championship. I was not so spectacular but managed to win my share of trophies. In fact one night Mary was in one team and me in another that played off for a trophy that happened to be a beautiful coffee service for each member of the winning team. As it turned out one of the two of us had to win the trophy and on this occasion it was me. We started in the days of the "black green" which was a bitumen based cover that left everything filthy and various shades of black. It was not good to play on either as the bitumen used to buckle during the hot afternoons so we were pleased to hop into the working bee's and enjoyed the finished product which was a high standard lawn green, club house etc. The little "Consul" was getting on in age and miles covered and we started to look round for a replacement. Just then Andy Hogg upgraded his Falcon to a more recent model and did a swap. Unfortunately he wanted my  number "NT 1150" and it wasn't until he sold his Falcon many years later that I got it back. The car looked lovely under the house and seemed to be quite at home there.