Welcome to Our Website

This is an autobiographical account of my life from (1943 onwards) and 4×4 travel experiences around Australia (1968 to the present).

With encouragement from my friends and travelling companions over the years, I have put together this e-book titled “Restless”. Restless incorporates many of the travel stories, anecdotes, photographs and personal stories that we’ve accumulated over the past three quarters of a century.

I hope you enjoy, what is, a snapshot of an Australia, which is fast disappearing.

RESTLESS by Chapter

RESTLESS/Chapter 1

Childhood 1940’s ..Victoria West ..The Town below the written mountain..Rocks and tyres don’t mix ..42 bottles ..A fruit grower’s revenge ..Guy Fawkes night ..The child hunter ..My first drive ..Boarding School ..Rugby ..Guns are not dangerous ..Julian ..My Uncle Lex and Aunt Vera ..Work ..South West Africa ..Army days ..City Slicker ..Go West young man ..German […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 2

Return to Darwin ..Heading South ..Off we go again ..Surfers Paradise and Daydream Island ..Sydney ..MV Marconi ..Richard Return to Darwin There are so many aspects to our lives, and the things we did or attempted to do, that I am only going to recall some of the high lights. In the new year of 1970 […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 3

South Africa ..Our own home ..Learning Afrikaans ..Father dies ..Hobby Farm ..Movies ..Boyz night out ..Aunt Vera ..Montana ..Strand ..Mauritius ..Melbourne ..Surfers Paradise ..Back to Darwin     South Africa The majestic Table Mountain and those iconic places of habitat along the coast came into view I was forced to reconcile myself with the fact that […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 4

Melbourne ..Surfers Paradise ..Darwin ..Vehicle Launches gone wrong 1980 ..Hi Jinks on the Marrakai Plains ..One day in the Wet ..Hunting Magpie Geese ..Wet Season antics ..Bees Creek House and Bush block ..The Scar ..On the move again ..Adcock Falls ..Broome ..No sleep and too much whiskey Melbourne The next two days we looked for cars […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 5

Victoria West..Videos ..Kalahari National Park ..Kruger National Park ..Namibia ..Back to Australia   South Africa September 82-Oct 84   I caught up with Judith at Jan Smuts (now Oliver Tambo) Airport where she was worried sick about me. I was sort of sober when I arrived. Judith had made some friends on the journey to South […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 6

Perth ..Broome ..Darwin ..Cairns ..Burketown ..Cloncurry ..Darwin ..The Kimberley ..The Bungle Bungles ..The Secret Cave ..The Spinifex Trail Back to Australia Perth Whilst we were away from Australia the dollar had been floated on to the international market which made it much stronger against the South African Rand. Our other money was still in transit and […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 7

Kakadu ..Self ..4×4 Training ..A flying Bow Shackle ..Down along the Douglas ..Cobourg Peninsula ..Litchfield .. Remote Fitzmaurice ..Self ..Adelaide River ..Dreamtime and Diggers ..Self ..Back-up! on Palm Creek .. Kakadu 1987 Published in 4×4 Australia Magazine 1987     The Gagudju clan of Aboriginal people has lived in this land for eons. Some would say […]

Rainbow Valley Bluff

RESTLESS/Chapter 8

  Alice Springs: May  1992 to July 1995 Self ..Alice Springs ..Fern Falls ..East Macdonnell Ranges ..Rainbow Valley ..Canning Stock Route ..Desert Apparitions ..Davenport Ranges National Park ..Ruby Gap and Glen Annie Gorge    ..Gregory National Park 1995 .. On the Wallaby 1995 to 1999 .. Our house.   Self We set our caravan up in […]

Crossing the Humbert River

RESTLESS/Chapter 9

Peterborough ..Gawler and Googs ..SA/Vic Border Track ..Dust Devils and a crook filter ..Birdsville and Corner Country ..A desert Adventure ..Western Australia Wandering 2005 .. Peterborough 2000 to 2005 On our return to Australia, it snowed in Peterborough for the first time in many years. When we bought the house, the weather was nice. Warm days […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 10

In Search of Antiquity 2006 ..A Hard Trek into the Desert ..Anne Beadell Highway .. Art of the Calvert Ranges ..The Kidson Track ..A Midsummer Bog ..Desert Apparitions ..Outback Tracks ..Labbi Labbi ..WA Deserts and beyond ..Beachcombing the Yorke  ..Coopers Creek Ferry ..Flinders Ranges wandering  ..The Oodnadatta Track  ..A Binns Track Encounter ..The Diamantina River Run  […]

Archer Point

RESTLESS/Chapter 11

Northern Exposure ..Fossils and Fords ..Maytown ..Cape York ..Elim Beach ..Beachcombing the Eyre     Northern Exposure 2011 The cold set in around the beginning of May this year and so we brought our travel plans forward by a week and set off heading north east. Our leisurely pace took us to Broken Hill where we […]

Alalya Rockhole

RESTLESS/Chapter 12

Gone Walkabout..Alalya Dreaming ..The Princess Parrot ..Up the Tanami Road  ..The East Kimberley ..Arnhem Land ..Hells Gate Pass  2012 Christmas and New Year is normally spent at home. Some-times we have guests but most times it is just the two of us, and Jeddah  the Always Hungry Dog.   Gone Walkabout 2012 Just getting away from […]

Driving blind

RESTLESS/Chapter 13

  Self ..The Tarn of Auber ..Dingoes of Alalya ..Cleland Hills ..A Remote Track ..Sandy Blight Junction Road ..An Unmarked Track ..Prehistoric sites  ..The Vale of Tempe ..Finke River Gorge ..Panaramitee Petroglyphs ..Sturts Meadows Petroglyphs Self 2013 was the year that my life would change forever. My alarm bells rang when my weight gain reached 121.5kgs […]

Stuart Memorial

RESTLESS/Chapter 14

Self ..Great Dividing Range ..Dirt Tracks North  ..Centre Bush Tracks ..Farina to Hawker Gate ..Ylalya / O’Grady’s Well ..The Datto’s Last Ride Self My condition for my back and neck deteriorated and I went to see a local GP in January of 2014. What followed was a 7 month saga of seeing a different Locum every […]

Last camp fire

RESTLESS/Chapter 15

Self ..Desert Rescue ..Going Walkabout .. Carson River Track – Kimberley ..Stock Routes, Strip Roads and Tracks ..Wandering the Eyre Self By January 2015 I had had enough and checked in at the Outpatients Unit and our local Hospital as I couldn’t trust going to the clinic only to wait for a month or so. A […]

Spirit

RESTLESS/Chapter 16

Tasmania 2016 Eastern Half ..Tasmania 2016 Western Half ..Jacobs Ladder ..Escaping the cold ..Destination Weipa ..Cobbold Gorge Tasmania 2016 Eastern Half We left home mid January to visit friends along the way and in preparation for our three months visit to Tasmania. The Isuzu MUX 4×4 and and Crusader caravan plus two kennels and Health Certificates […]

Two Rivers

RESTLESS/Chapter 17

Self ..New Year’s Seclusion ..February Heat ..Beanie Festival ..Feet up at Innamincka ..Silo Art Trail Self   New Year’s Seclusion 2017 (click on Thumbnail photos to enlarge them) The older you get the more peace you want in your life and noisy parties and drunken behaviour are things to be avoided. And so we always aim […]

Burnt Trees

RESTLESS/Chapter 18

Self .. Don’t Look Down ! Self 9th January 2018 I have been given the ALL CLEAR for cancer by specialists. Next check-up is in September 2018. The trouble is that the scans cannot see inside the bladder. So a Cystoscopy will come along sometime.   Don’t Look Down! 2018  In the Victoria High Country with […]

The Boyz and Bluff Hut

RESTLESS/Chapter 19

Self ..The End of an Era ..Whale watching ..Self ..Married 50 years! Self At the end of February we drove to Adelaide for a CT scan and Blood test. Result will be consulted in Adelaide on 14th March. I have been taken off the Bladder Scrape list at the Lyell McEwin Hospital. I just don’t trust […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 20

January and a visitor arrived from the USA for an 8-day visit. We rolled out the red carpet and showed off the essence of rural South Australia and some outback. Took this person to places where a Cell phone does not work. February and we toured the Fleurieu Peninsula with our van in tow Then the […]

RESTLESS/Chapter 21

Come on 2021…hope that better outcomes are there for the whole of mankind HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!! Realisation and Recognition Realisation has happened already but I need to reiterate it. I realised back in 2017 that my mobility issue was shifting. Maybe it was caused by endless and relentless bouncing whilst driving over spinifex clumps! In […]