I'd never been in a Land Rover until I met Garry. Garry's dad had bought one for his hobby farm at Bridgetown which is located 258 kms south of Perth in the Blackwood Valley district of Western Australia. Beautiful country with cold winters, rolling hills and tall trees. Not long after I met Garry and under instructions from my future father-in-law, we took a drive with his brother in the Land Rover to pilfer old railway sleepers.
Things were going well until a hail storm suddenly hit. It was such a heavy shower that were forced to pull over and wait on the side of the track till visibility improved. I don't need to tell you how noisy it was with all that hail pelting down on the cab roof! We are obviously easily amused as we had great fun playing with the hail once we had delivered the sleepers and in fact there was still enough laying around the next morning to have a snow fight. (We don't generally have snow in Western Australia except on the rare occasion at Bluff Knoll and that's about 430 kms from Perth. Even at that distance people still travel there to take a look). You can see dad's old Series 2 Land Rover in the background of the photos below.
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| Richard in the puppy compound |
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Dad's Land Rover and our 1982 Commodore (circa 1985)
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Not long after the farm was purchased at Bridgetown, a Land Rover was sourced which gave dad some good years of service. Because of the Holden motor conversion, which may or may not have been done correctly, you couldn't drive it in high gear with out looping a bit of jelly rubber over the gear stick to lock it in place. It didn't get up to high gear much on the farm anyway, so after the initial drive down from Perth it wasn't really a problem.
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| Land Rover towing State Energy Commission vehicle who got bogged when working on power supply to the property |
Unfortunately, dad became a little bit too relaxed about the dodgy
brakes and despite being warned he failed to take any action. Anyone who
visits Bridgetown will know how steep some of the properties can be and Treenvale farm is pretty steep. Let me tell you, it's hard work walking from the dam to house along the driveways let alone from the dam to the house on the direct line up the hill.
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| Treenvale circa 1985/6 |
Dad, with mum along for the ride, had taken the Land Rover out onto the hill, just below where the house sits, to check for bracken fern, blackberry and thistle growth all considered noxious weeds here in WA and it's every farmer's responsibility to keep their weeds under control. This property had been covered in the stuff when purchased a few years earlier and had been quite a job to clear (with the aid of a flame thrower of course) and so dad was very keen to keep on top of any new pop ups. The next job on the list was to check out the dam
"Come on hop in, we're going down to the dam." said dad. "Nope" said mum "I'm not getting in that thing anymore, I'm walking." And so she proceeded to walk down the hill. Not long after she hears almighty banging and clanging and turns to see the Land Rover rolling over sideways and coming down the hill.
From dad's account of the story, "The breaks failed.", and in order stop he had turned into the side of the hill which then gave enough momentum for the Land Rover to start rolling over side ways. In all it rolled about 8 or 9 times with dad holding tightly onto the steering wheel while all the objects inside the cab, including the other seats, catapulted around and bashed into him as the Land Rover rolled over and over. It was only one of the doors flying open that eventually stopped the Land Rover which came to rest on it's side. Mum being too afraid initially to approach the wreck and quickly working out her options of getting help suddenly heard dad cry out so knew he was at least still alive but pinned under the Land Rover. After checking on him, she went down and around the hill to the neighbouring property situated in the valley behind. The better and faster option that trying to get back to their house on top of the hill.
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| Final resting place |
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| Vera and Dad who looks like Wal from Footrot Flats |
Dad in recovery mode, photo above, suffered with burns to his leg from battery acid that was dripping on him as he waited for the ambulance and fire brigade to arrive and free him from the wreck. As to be expected, he was very bruised and battered but managed to find humour in the fact he had a bruise on his chest which was the exact imprint of a pocket knife which he had placed in his shirt pocket that morning.
I can't remember how long the Land Rover sat out in the paddock but it was eventually spotted by some eagle eyed Land Rover enthusiast driving past the property who decided to knock on the door and ask if he could buy it. Dad replied he could just take it as he would be happy to see it gone.
The story dad tells is that "The guy came back and flipped it the right way up, installed a battery and drove it right out of there!"
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