Mates out bush

[Terry]

Quite a few years ago now I took an old mate up to the goldfields for a prospecting holiday (he being a city lad)
We’d just returned from a fly fishing trip up in the Tassie highlands where it was a heck of a lot cooler than the 40 deg temps we encountered on this trip.
Well my old mate almost melted, the only saving grace was a couple of ice cold beers at the end of each day.
I normally never take booze up bush but as this was a holiday we took a long a good supply of ‘Light Ice’. which was a very low alcohol beer at that time and was quite a nice drink as long as it was real cold. We’d put a few in the fridge each night then 4 into the freezer at lunch time and they’d be perfect by the time we’d knocked of detecting. The poor fridge/freezer was battling to combat the heat.
It became a daily ritual to hear John counting down, first the hours and then the minutes before ‘Light Ice’ - Terry


MATES OUT BUSH

That summer was the hottest that I’d seen for many years.
and flies were at their thickest; but we did have ice cold beers.
Two cans per day per man perhaps; that was our daily treat,
the freezer wouldn’t hold much more because it’s full of meat.

We camped amidst a gimlet grove out Eucalyptus way,
and we were really spitting chips before the end of day.
It was around about mid March, and John had felt the heat,
and by the time the sun had set he really did look beat.

He counted down the minutes as the mercury would soar,
while praying for the moment when we’d sip a beer once more.
And being city bred, (poor chap), he really paid a price,
and longed then for that moment when we’d sink our first Light Ice.

And through three weeks of searing heat I’d hear his plaintive cries,
about the heat and country, then he’d curse the flam’en flies.
And on the hour every hour - he’d always be precise,
the countdown would continue, on how long before light ice.

*****

[Neville Briggs]

And through three weeks of searing heat I’d hear his plaintive cries

On the hour every hour..
It's a wonder you weren't tempted to dong him on the head with a shovel.

[Dave Smith]

Good'n Terry, yeah been there first one don't even touch the sides.

Desert Dave.

[Terry]

Neville,
It was all in good fun mate, and quite funny really, I can still hear him now "Only 3 hours to light ice". Believe me it was hot.

Dave,
Your right about the first one, we ended up fudging and having semi cold one out of the main part of the fridge first to try and douse the fires, and then taking our time on the real cold ones.
It was my birthday while we were up there (Mar 31) and we had met a couple of shearers who were doing a bit of detecting as well. so we invited them over to our camp for a bit of a birthday bash, it turned out they both belonged too A&A but fortunately we had Some luke warm coke, got to look after your guest.

G/day Marty,
Haven't had the pleasure of testing out your canoe theory, but will keep it in mind.
It was so hot that trip that anything cold tasted great, and cold Light Ice was something to look forward to mate.

Terry

[Bob Pacey]

Still remember the first time I went out Longreach Terry. One of the locals from the Welcome Home hotel said he would take us out to fish the Thomson for Yellowbelly. Got all the gear together. Butchers twine and floats made from old pieces of rubber thongs stuck inside two beer bungs with a popper straw stuck through the middle. The only brought gear was the hooks.


After fishing and catching a few fish with poles made from limbs off a scrub we retired to the shade to have a beer. Now I've drunk luke warm beer but not tallies which have been sitting in the back of his ute for four hours and he wondered why we bucked.

Made sure the next time we arranged our own beer.

Bob

[Terry]

G/day Bob,
Reminds me of the old chap I wrote about recently who went back out bush to die.

I caught up with him just off a track late one afternoon, and he insisted I share a beer with him, "I've got a couple cooling down" He reckoned, and dragged two king browns out of an esky that had a little water in it but no ice. anyway he held one to his cheek and reckoned, "it's not too bad bad mate" and ripped the tops off and handed one to me. It was frothing allover the place so I had to have a few mouthfuls before it all ended up on the ground. You could have just about made a cup of tea with it.

cheers Terry

[Bob Pacey]

That's spot on Terry. I found out later that the fella in question used to keep his beer under his bed at the hotel so that he could just reach under and pull out a hair of the dog in the morning.

I posted a poem a while ago called Old Blue, he was the one that told me the yarn.

My guts churns over just thinking about it. Ya know that was about 16 years ago and I've still got the beer barrel bungs and bits of thongs in my tackle box. The idea with the popper straw was so if you threaded the line through it you could adjust the depth of your line by sticking a match stick into the top.

I'm heading out to Moura for the Coal Festival in a couple of wqeeks so just might take the rig and try it out again in the Dawson. Just one of many fond memories of Longreach.

Bob

[Maureen K Clifford]

Australians are the master of invention Bob and I bet that float works a treat.

Great poem Terry and all the more so because it is a true story - shame about the beer, but I suppose the Poms have been drinking warm beer for centuries and they survive

Cheers

Maureen

[noelcauser]

Its called Liquid Gold.No need to dig just open up the eszy.

[Terry]

Hi and thanks Maureen,
I've just come back from seeing my old mate, he's doing it pretty tough at the moment after several months of chemo and radio therapy.
He's looking forward to the opening of the trout season on Sept 1,

Hi Noel,
Good stuff on a hot day after tramping around for hours mate.

Regards

Terry