In actual distance Mount Hope wasn't all that far from Port Lincoln and civilisation but the only place I've been to that seemed more remote was when travelling up the old Central Australian Railway on the Dirty Ghan, a very slow goods train with a couple of cars attached. More about that another time.
We arrived at Mount Hope very late arvo, maybe more like early evening and all that had to be done was for the open wagons to be set out and for the engine, the gin and the pig to reverse on the triangle and set back onto the van. As I remember the crew took their crib then and as dusk drew in we departed on a nonstop run to Yeelanna arriving about 10.00pm. According to my skimpy notes we did a fair bit of roadside work on the way back to Port Lincoln but I remember little, must have been asleep. Westy reckons that Pearlah Bank was a bit of a battle for 180. We eventually got into Port Lincoln about 6.00am, about eight hours late according to the Working Timetable issued on 9/1/61. That's 23 hours for the return trip of 147 1/2 miles.
Bob Murphy responded to my last post with two words....."another world", I couldn't think of a more apt comment.
There was never a silo here of course so maybe the local cockies brought their mechanisation with them but I reckon just as likely every bag of wheat had to be lumped from the farmer's truck and stacked in this rake of wagons, lucky they had a fortnight to do it in. Indeed another world.
Best regards to all, if you know of anyone who might like to join the list just send me their email address.
Peter Bruce.
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