LITMIR.BIZ

CONTENTS

       CONTENTS VI

       Waiting for Percy 15

       Black Dog Rider. David Peach 20

       Bush Balladeer. John Williamson 27

       Up the Coast 35

       Into the Outback 47

       Rural Trainer. John Arnold. 53

       Newspaper Editor. Colin Jackson 61

       Cattleman. Mick Seymour 69

       The Never Never 77

       Lady from the Bush. Joyce Scobie 82

       Bush Business Man. Tim Carter 94

       The North 101

       Opportunist. Robin “Crocko” Croxson 107

       Indigenous Writer. Marie Munkara 118

       White Ribbon Rider. Janette Mann 128

       Through the Kimberley 135

       Postie Bike Rider. Richard Wilkinson 147

       Heading South 155

       'The Sarge' 165

       Meticulous Restorer. Bruce Sharman 175

       The Nullarbor 193

       World Tandem Riders. Lloyd and Louis 201

       Tuna Baron. Hagen Stehr 209

       Motorcycle Journo. Hamish Cooper 220

       Into the Morning Sun 225

       The Director. Dr Brendan Nelson 239

       Iron Butt Rider. Martin Little 247

       Acknowledgements 254

      Introduction

      I don’t know the number but I’m sure that thousands of motorcyclists have probably circumnavigated this wide brown land since A. Grady set off from Perth in October 1924 and completed the journey in the Spring of 1925. Back then it would have, of course, been a huge adventure and achievement. I met a few travellers doing ‘the lap’ on my ride, some on motorcycles, many Grey Nomads in their $150,000 rigs and a couple of lunatics on push bikes. I even heard of, though unfortunately never met, a young guy pushing a hand-made cart.

      Circumnavigation becomes a personal Everest for travellers, and for some almost an obsession. I had nourished the desire to ride around Australia since 1981 when I’d travelled around the huge country as a young bloke on Greyhound buses and hitching. I recall myself often gazing longingly through the window of bus or car whenever I saw a motorcycle go by, face pressed against the glass, envying the feeling of freedom that travelling on two wheels brings.

      In this day and age there’s nothing particularly adventurous about it. Somebody has probably crawled around on their hands and knees, pushing a threepenny-bit along with their nose, while reciting some religious mantra! It’s just there and something I wanted to do. But adventure is relative – to a toddler, a walk around the park is an adventure.

      As I discovered in the writing of my last book, The Long and Winding Aotearoa, it’s really the people you meet along the way that make a road trip like this one so rewarding. Most of the interviews in this book were arranged many months in advance for obvious reasons

      but a few were well met and spontaneous and I’m very grateful for their participation.

      Mired as most of us seem to be in this complex, 21st century world we’ve created, in the gloopy, clinging mud of domesticity and responsibility, this journey, of course, offered another chance to escape into the Never Never. And what better way than in the saddle of a motorcycle? According to Jerome K. Jerome, author of Three Men in a Boat, “It was a mistake for a man to get into a groove, and that unbroken domesticity cloyed the brain,” and, “this aching monotony of life, these days of peaceful, uneventful felicity, they appall one!”

      The most precious thing available to us is, of course, time and I’d reached the age where there was far less of it ahead, than had gone before, and so to quote folk singer Tracey Chapman, “if not now,

      then when?”

      Chapter One.

      Waiting for Percy

      “Open wide, drive that mystery road”

      Midnight

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