hi everyone today we have a very special
guest my mum has very kindly agreed to
do a little interview with me and this
way you can practice your listening
skills maybe learn some new vocabulary
and also perhaps learn a bit more about
Australia because mum has travelled a
lot more around Australia than I have
and a long time ago
I guess when things were quite different
you
okay so you grew up in Sydney were born
and one brendensen i was and then when
you were in your 20s you decided to go
on a little trip
yes little trip that turned into a very
long trip mm-hmm yes and I think it was
before I got back to Sydney it was 1012
years
oh is that why was that long okay yeah I
knew it was in the 60s right it was in
the 60s yeah you can do the math for she
looks very good hopefully you'd like
it's in the genes but back then it was
quite a big deal as well all right oh
yes it was you know actually I think
when you're young you don't think it's a
big deal you just think oh well you know
booked a train bus whatever pick out
stuff and we'll go mm-hmm but it was a
bit of a big deal
and we had to you didn't say to yourself
okay when I get there when I get to
Perth we'll just go out and buy all new
stuff like new saucepans at you towels
and sheets no you didn't do that
you took it all with you and fortunately
my girlfriend I had two trunks and we
packed all that sort of thing and into
the trunks and we had a couple of
suitcases
you had suitcases I was joking with mum
before
I said oh yeah trunks so you didn't have
suitcases yet we had suitcases they just
weren't on wheels I didn't have wheels
and to carry them those sort of
suitcases yeah some people still have
them but that's it's hard going when you
have to carry your suitcases mm-hmm
yes so we left Sydney our bus I think we
left on my bus you went on bus I you I
thought you did the whole thing by train
no no we we went bye-bye oh yeah it was
from Sydney to Perth is it's a long way
and we had to go via Melbourne and then
we intended to say
in Adelaide for a while so we we got
that farm and that was that was all by
bus and then from
after we'd stayed in Adelaide for a
while we went on to Perth by train
mm-hmm
so that was yeah that was easier because
we were on the train for I think three
nights mm-hmm that's quite a quite a
distance across the nullable mm-hmm and
what did you do it out of it in Adelaide
we well the first thing I don't remember
how he got the hotel but we ended up
staying in a cheap hotel and to save on
money we opened the trunk and got a
little heated out we had a little tube
our heat huh we stood it on its back so
that the bars were facing up and we
cooked our toast on there hoping that no
one could smell it because we weren't
supposed to cook in the room and that
was we had meat we have things to put on
there for breakfast and that way you
didn't have to pay for it that way we
didn't have to pay and those days I
didn't actually I think I gave you
breakfast free and I hotel I don't think
they did
so that was yeah so we could save a bit
of money type of thing I would have done
in my 20s - yeah we have it but the main
reason we left Adelaide this room it
wasn't easy to get jobs but we managed
to get jobs waitressing you know in a in
a restaurant it was a newly opened
Italian restaurant the trouble was it
was so far away we and we didn't have a
car we have to get a taxi there and a
taxi back again and by the end of the
week we had hardly any money left hmm so
that didn't last very long we didn't
stay in those jobs very long and then we
took the train we booked the Indian
Pacific which now goes you could get it
all the way across in those days I think
we could only pick it up in Adelaide and
we went from Adelaide to Perth and what
was the story with the puppy oh we were
so young and stupid we are we fell in
love with his lovely little puppy oh we
can't leave it he won't have to tell you
I don't know Howie I don't even know how
he got up in the first place but we took
them not be on the train with us so he
had to keep it hidden in our compartment
and we had to put newspaper all over the
floor so you know if it did something we
could get rid of that and put some more
newspaper down you aren't way hoping
that it would hold on there we weren't
happy they can hold on for three days
yeah so that was that was that yeah one
of the silliest nice sillier things that
we did and then crossing the nullabor
it's basically desert for about what I
say about four baths renée's three days
and it's about five within it was about
500 miles so that moving but we're say
800 kilometers something like that
you
and so you at night when you went to bed
you'd close your curtain but when you
looked out the window it's basically the
same it was the same as when you got up
in the morning it was so different he's
travelling long distances in Australia
it just was it was and they call it
desert but it wasn't sand dunes like
you'd imagine the Sahara
it was just like rock and few bushes and
you know I saw an animal except for one
morning when we got up raise the blind
getting dressed there's no reason not to
raise the blind there's no one out there
so we thought and in the middle of
getting dressed we had our underwear on
the train slowed down and there was some
workmen standing out there and we said
no close the blinds very quickly I'm
sure you made their day all we did I
wonder how many other people had their
blinds open yeah so eager we eventually
got to purse and I found a job you know
in a bar that was easy for me because my
work you can pick up and drop in and my
friend found a secretarial job after
about a week and we stayed there for I
was there off and on for three years
mm-hmm off and on because he went
because I went off I went up to Derby
and work there which was there's there's
a very good expression a one-horse town
this was a two pub town oh it's even
bigger than a one-horse town Wow we
worked in one I was with another friend
at that stage we worked in one pub and
the only place to go when you had time
off was to the other pub there was
nothing else but if there was a party
somebody I remember somebody who worked
at the bank Heather had the 21st
birthday party so they just simply made
an announcement hey we're having a party
come on about it everybody wanted to go
win it was good I said you got paid well
it's okay got paid well and yeah there's
nothing to do no you got well yet they
had to give you accommodation in places
like that and I have to feed you and we
had we had a cook that Chum well she had
a bit of a temper and sometimes people
in the dining room would say oh could I
have him could you ask the cook to make
me a medium-rare steak and the cook in a
very loud voice a the state will come
anywhere khakha
you said there were quite a few
interesting characters there were in a
small town are there were there was and
I was there in October they say
September October November mm-hmm and
you know November was what they called
suicide month Oh
of course of any conditions there the
weather conditions and though you find a
lot of men go there to work do mind work
and work on oil rigs and things like
that and it could be very lonely at
times but for people like that
and sometimes they just his expression
goes go bush they just wander off into
the into the into the bush and people
had this someone had to go look for them
mm-hmm and they did for I can remember
one one fellow that wanted off into the
bush and I think they found him about
three days later and he was still alive
still alive they point back to town he
said the police found me after one day
and had me tied to a tree I knew the
plan I don't think they do things like
that
Oh with the weather conditions is it
because it was the rainy season it was
hot
well it was what what that time of the
eve is what they call it the build-up to
the rainy season so almost every day oh
it was very humid very hot and humid
then every afternoon you get gray clouds
black and then they beat turn to black
and you get thunder and lightning and
you wouldn't get any rain
you just get thunder lightning it was it
was really oppressive and that would
happen day after day after
until eventually it rained okay hmm and
then you said you went to the Northern
Territory then we went to the Northern
Territory and gaming there was a car
tricky I was actually working with
another friend another girlfriend and
she had a boyfriend that worked on an
oil rig and she had moved to Derby
because he was on an oil rig that was
just outside Derby mm-hmm by the time
she got there they moved him on to
another oil rig so she stayed there for
you know six months and then she moved
followed him to another place by the
time she got there he then moved into
another oil rig eventually she caught up
with him in Darwin and it was it just
happens in places like that you don't
have much control over it mm-hmm and you
have to drive to Darwin I mean yes on
territory there Antony buses or train
now by the time I had gone back to
actually going back to Perth and then
from Perth we drove and that was yeah
it's and know places where once again
there's no secret roads you know for me
hundreds of kilometres is no sealed
roads and places where there were just
what what they call they call it
bulldust it looks like saying but it's
reddish colour and it's actually dust
and there was one patch where it's um
it's not compacted no it's not and they
say it was about I think there was about
80 kilometres of it they said whenever
you do when you're driving across it
don't stop but see if you stop you might
not get going again you might end up
buried in the sand so we you know there
were times when it was difficult there
was oh yes and then you know it's a lot
of feral camels out in the West yeah you
have a lot of camels in Australia
oh they do not more than a million feral
camels yep so what wild camels yeah na
purring are sometimes you know they
could be a little bit frightening you
know surrounded by feral camels they
were brought to Australia and then in
the nineteen
that's a 19th century 19th century yeah
19th century the a lot of Afghanistan to
Australia they bought camels with them
and they worked as they were traders and
they did a lot of work in an outback
Australia that there were no roads it
was no railway and goods need to be
taken for one place to another mail had
to be delivered they did all those sort
of things and put the camels from time
to time you know that was a camel here
and there they'd be a camel gone yeah
and that eventually built up and built
up until we had now have over a million
camels in Australia and they and they
actually now get exported to Saudi yeah
that's for breeding stock and for me
camel me knows but it's interesting that
there's so many of them out there well
I'll tell you the one place I made a
friendly so-called friendly camel mm-hmm
was a small place you know you other
said you had to wait you do very careful
with your petrol mm-hmm you feel like a
car with petrol and then you'd have to
know how far away was the next place you
could fill up the petrol of course if
anything went wrong you could be stuck
outside without cities well I'm not
usually somebody came by but you know
you hope that they had extra petrol and
if you didn't have it and and one thing
in those days if you did stop on the
side of the road for any reason yeah
somebody coming by would stop to see if
you were okay yeah you know do you have
a problem if you're out of water
I've you've got flat tire at one point
we had a flat tire and we had to sit
with the car look actually the flat tire
was on the caravan and we didn't have
for some unknown reason we didn't have a
spare for the caravan a spare tire and
so somebody had to take our tire into
the next town get it fixed and bring it
back to us and we sat there for half a
day and half a night two very nice
people came back with the tire you have
to make sure you have enough water when
you travel oh you need any car
we need to even you have to make sure
you have plenty of water yeah but I was
going to tell you about the place that
had the camel it was one of these petrol
stops you know that people would have to
stop and feel like petrol there and
there was just a pup you know so place
where you could go and drink and eat and
outside they had a petrol bouncer one
pump one of them but then they also had
a camel was it tied up um I don't know
no sneakers no no I just think it just
hung around I think that's it got fit
there and and also it's like beer and
people would just come out leave a can
of beers on the side and he'd pick it up
in his mouth he'd rip out the pull top
of the beer drink the beer and spit the
cat out become very Australian yes he
was very Australian very Australian
Cattle yes so from that that was
traveling up the coast and then into
Northern Territory mm-hmm and to the
Auden Weaver which was wonderful the Ord
River is in cut a place called Cana Nara
and there's a lever dam there and it's
it's I've been in some hot places but
this is one of the hottest places I've
ever been
there was a very humorous man and there
was no air-conditioning anyway I keep
going you went into the pub say no
air-conditioning it might be fans but
you know it was just hot I was a humidor
wasn't a dry heat I think was both
depend on it was just a thought yes so
that was kind of our own then on up to
Darwin and and that's it's interesting
in Darwin too because so they they're
more like they very it's very tropical
Darwin so they have they basically only
had two seasons the with the wet season
and the dry season then it's basically
what they have mm-hmm dry and whoa what
was Darwin like back in the six it was
like the Wild West right and they said
and they said it had to one of the
largest floating populations of anywhere
in Australia
floating
people move transient people that people
just came in and out you know and so the
post office post office was very busy
because a lot of people's address was
the post offices and so you know people
just was then they had all these boxes
where people's mail was kept then you
just go in and collect your mail from
there mm-hmm
you weren't there during the cycle so
I'm Tracy
no I've left about I think six months
before oh I see here was Christmas Eve
yeah I don't remember the year that day
it was Christmas Eve and it really hit
was a direct hit I'm really bad cyclone
yeah really bad one yeah it's actually
what we call a cyclones what the call
hairy cancer in the u.s. yeah but it
really destroyed that destroyed the
place mm-hmm yeah and then you
eventually went back to Sydney and
eventually got back to Sydney yes so it
was quite it wasn't a little trip after
all
okay well thank you very much for
joining me in this video thanks very
much for watching guys if you have any
questions just put them in the comments
and I'll see you soon bye okay yeah and
just be careful you don't kick that big
time otherwise it much
you