Orientaciones didácticas
Experimento 3. Poner agua en un vaso de vidrio y verter dos gotas de tinta Pedir a los alumnos que expliquen el fenómeno que observan.
The gambling went on more intensely than ever. There were several
Aboriginal stockmen employed on the station, and all of them were fond
of two-up. One particularly big fellow called Combo (there was always a
Combo amongst any group of Aborigines in those parts, it seemed a popular nickname amongst them) was very good at pitching the pennies
high into the air off the "bat” . In fact they pretty well seemed to go
out of sight sometimes. The boys (blacks) hadn’t much to gamble with,
and anyhow they di d n ’t know how to gamble, but they loved to have a
"fly" whilst the silver lasted. Some of the whites would get the
willing Combo to spin the pennies for them. (Those days two pennies
only were used, the quicker timesaving method with three pennies was not
then thought necessary.) When Quombo fsic] would be balancing the
pennies on the bat getting set to spin, there would be many cries of "Send ’em up to heaven Quombo," or "Knock a star off Quombo," and so on. And Quombo would bend his knees and almost touch the ground with the bat, then straightening up suddenly and putting every ounce of his great strength into the effort, the pennies would fly upwards spinning and at
Curr e n t maps have the station as "Gundabloui", and station records of
1912 call it "Goondoobluie". At that time it consisted of 826 acres
freehold and 184,652 acres leasehold, and ran 91,000 sheep and 1,200
cattle. A.N.U. Archives of Business and Labour, 146/329: The New
Zealand and Australian Land Company, Annual Returns from Stations and Sydney Office - Goondoobluie, 1912.
a tremendous speed. As they descended there were cries of "Look out, here they come," or "Stand back, d o n ’t let ’em hit yer." If the pennies touched anyone they were automatically barred and had to be spun again, and anybody they did touch was roared at (if a mild weakling) for holding up the game, or jokingly admonished if a big tough fellow, for in this environment the law of the jungle reigned supreme and the lion
was boss. When the pennies hit the ground they bounced many feet high
two or three times before settling down. Then the cry would be "two
bastards on bikes" (the popular phrase) if tails showed up. Young Bill
never ascertained why and how this phrase originated, and incidentally
it was never used later in the A.I.F. (the First A.I.F. anyhow); it
seemed to be a saying peculiar to shed followers. When heads showed up,
fresh bets were laid and up went the pennies again. The bat changed
hands every time tails showed up, and it was surprising how many times
running heads or tails, or "two ones" (one head and one tail) could
persistently turn up. And of course when two ones turned up, it meant a
respin. It was very amusing to stand off and watch a game; every
player's head would be bent back in unison as their eyes followed the pennies up and then down again, all together, following the spinning coins to the ground, even up and down when they bounced, especially when Quombo had the b a t .
As the shearing stretched into weeks the "mob" became more or less
bored with the constant routine, and both shearers and rouseys welcomed
any excuse to break the monotony. The shearers struck for more pay for
alleged sheep too "wrinkly" etc. to make decent wages (the award was 30/- per hundred find your own tucker, and rouseys 30/- per week and
2
k e e p ) . I t was a l s o c l a i m e d f a i r lumps o f l ambs ( w h i c h t h e award s p e c i f i e d must be s h o r n a t a much c h e a p e r r a t e t h a n f u l l gr own s h e e p ) we r e n o t l ambs a t a l l , and wer e s u f f i c i e n t l y a d v a n c e d t o demand t h e f u l l r a t e , and so o n .
The r o u s e y s f o r t h e i r p a r t would f i n d ( e s p e c i a l l y when a c o u p l e o f t r a v e l l e r s d r o p p e d I n t o t h e h u t s l o o k i n g f o r work and t o be e n t e r t a i n e d f o r a day o r two b e f o r e moving o n) t h a t t h e y wer e g r i e v o u s l y s h o r t h a n d e d and would "go s l o w " u n t i l t h e wool l a y a l l o v e r t h e p l a c e , and t h e w h i s t l e would go and s h e a r i n g be h e l d up u n t i l t h e wool was c l e a r e d away: f o l l o w e d w i t h much t o n g u e - i n - c h e e k p a r l e y i n g b e t w e e n t h e b o s s e s and " r e p s " and c o m mi tt ee m en o f t h e e m p l o y e e s . The l a t t e r g e n e r a l l y won, and t h e s t r a n g e r s would be " p u t o n " . A l t h o u g h by t h e r u l i n g o f t h e A r b i t r a t i o n C o u r t t h e r e were h e a v y f i n e s e t c . a g a i n s t s t r i k e s i n t h e s h e a r i n g i n d u s t r y , i t was t o o much l o s s o f t i m e and t r o u b l e f o r t h e p a s t o r a l i s t s and s h e a r i n g c o n t r a c t o r s t o b r i n g t h e i r c a s e t o l a w . I t was much more e c o n o m i c a l i n t h e l o n g r u n t o pay s a y f i f t y o r a h u n d r e d p o u nd s o u t , and g e t a l o n g w i t h t h e s h e a r i n g . The s he d e m p l o y e e s knew j u s t how f a r t o go i n t h e s e b l u f f s , and r a r e l y we nt t o o f a r . The se o c c u r r e n c e s g e n e r a l l y h a p p e n e d when t h e t i m e o f f f o r r a i n y we t b r e a k s ( o n f u l l pay f o r t h e r o u s e y s ) were t o o f a r a p a r t . A b r e a k i n t h e monotony w i t h wet w e a t h e r n u l l i f i e d t h e c h a n c e s o f t h i s s o r t o f n o n s e n s e . On t h e whol e t h e y were a w i l d l o t o f f e l l o w s , b u t g e n e r a l l y e a s y 2 The award g r a n t e d s h e a r e r s 2 4 / - p e r h u n d r e d , b u t t h e e x i s t i n g r a t e o v e r much o f Q u e e n s l a n d was 3 0 / - . I n O c t o b e r 1911 t h e awar d r a t e f o r s he d h a n d s b e t w e e n t h e a g e s o f e i g h t e e n and t w e n t y - o n e was r a i s e d t o 3 0 / - and k e e p . A u s t r a l i a , Commonwealth A r b i t r a t i o n R e p o r t s , 1911, p . 1 0 7 .
enough to get on with providing they were away from the drink. When it
got into the huts anything could happen. There was a bad instance of
r>
this at Gundabluey.
A
runaway German sailor hadn't been home since hewas a lad (and was at this time approaching middle age), and d i d n ’t intend to return home either, as he would immediately be arrested and
punished for avoiding his compulsory three years’ permanent military
training in the German army. He was a decently pleasant fellow
generally, with lots of stories of voyages in foreign parts, and h e ’d
been in all the hellholes and otherwise of the seven seas. When German
Charlie was sober, Young Bill and his mates were always ragging him about the coming war with Germany and England (it was then three or four years off), and of course they reckoned England would win, but Charlie always maintained (in his peculiar English speech) that if it (the war) was on the sea, England would win, but if on the land, then Germany must win. When in his cups, "German Charlie" was a holy terror. He looked for fight everywhere, and his best mates became his worst enemies.
However, one Sunday evening Charlie came home to the huts from some
bush pub (probably Moongulla) blind drunk on strong spirits. He
accosted a big game of cards going on at one of the rouseys ’ long mess tables, wanting to have a "go" (fight) at one particular player, a big tough young chap nicknamed "Bing Eye" from a rough part of Sydney, and with his one eye (no glass eye worn) and savage scowl, he looked like an old-time pirate, tough enough for any dirty fighting. He "hoed" into Charlie like a hurricane and beat the tough sailorman down (though remember the latter was drunk) .
Then happened something that opened Young Bill's eyes, something
reminiscent of what he had heard and read of the dirty fighting of the
Sydney "push” larrikin gangs some two or three decades earlier.
Apparently it hadn't altogether died out, and there were several
larrikins in this group from the big smoke. When Charlie found himself
being forced back and down by Bing Eye's whirlwind attack, he made the fatal mistake of turning dirty (a habit acquired no doubt in many a low down encounter in the aforesaid "hellholes"), and grasping a sauce or
vinegar bottle (there were several lots grouped along the table),
attempted to use it on his adversary. Bing Eye immediately retaliated
in kind, joined by several of his city mates, as mentioned, and for a
minute perhaps twenty bottles of ingredients were thrown and smashed.
Charlie quick and lively took cover under the table and the barrage
missed him. Next thing the "mob" had him clear of the tables and forms
and with Charlie on the floor, they put the boot in good and proper.
The kicks could be heard on flesh and ribs to no end. Then they (the
mob) quickiy made themselves scarce, just as the Boss of the Board and
some of his staff came on the scene and enquired as to all the
hullabaloo. On being informed of same, the boss remarked, "Leave him
aione, and if he shows any more fight we'll lock him in the woolshed press for the night." But there was no further trouble, Charlie had had enough.
Young Bili spoke to Chariie the following morning. He looked sick,
sore and sorry, his face all swollen and bruised, and his ribs and body
must have felt terrible. He declared he didn't remember anything of
what happened the previous night. Of course he couldn't go to work, and
got the sack. Young Bill and a mate were entertained one night by
Chariie some weeks later at a smallish shed in the New England, where the tough sailorman was sober and his old decent self again.
much excitement as the last sheep were shorn, culminating in rousing
cheering when the very iast wooley was put down the chute. Then within
a few hours the “mob" began scattering to the four corners of
south-eastern Australia. It was now getting somewhat late in the
"general" shearing season, and most of the men were off to their homes
and other occupations until next shearing. Some alas, would make for
the nearest bush pub, and then no further until they had "knocked down" their earnings in a spree lasting from a couple of days to a couple of
weeks. Then sick and shaken, their credit cut out with the publican and
not being able to sponge any further from people around the township, they would roll their swags and start off on the bush roads and station
tracks looking for another job. Young Bill used to feel sorry for these
helpless drunks (and well they knew it). Many a few bob was handed to a
sick man in this way (that is a fellow really suffering for the want of a couple of drinks) and the majority of "travellers" - bushmen - out that way had the same habit as Young Bill. In fact it was the custom to give a "down and out" (provided one thought he was worth it) anything
Chapter 8
TRAVELLING BY BIKE THROUGH THE NEW ENGLAND
Young Bill was again somewhat in a quandry as to what h£ should do now. He felt he would like to go "further out" for outback adventure, but none of his particular mates were going West, they were off to their
homes in Sydney and other places. Splinter was returning to his own
people for a while down Come-by-Chance way. But one big young "learner
shearer" who Young Bill had picked up with had a shed to go to down near Inverell in the north-west New England; as a matter of fact Inverell station, a few miles from the town of that name. "Big Jim" was the c h a p ’s name (or nickname) and when he learned Bill was undecided where to make for, he said he thought he could get him on at Inverell," or a
good chance anyway. Young Bill would have liked to have gone west, but
after the lively company he had been experiencing, the thought of going "further out" on his own made him feel lonely. He'd miss the company he had now become used to, and so he couldn't resist the temptation to go "further in" with Big Jim and three or four others that were going down that way.
The party were ali on bikes this time (Bill had recently won a decent old wooden rimmed machine in a raffle) and struck out east through "back" station tracks, crossing the Barwon (upper Darling River) at Caidmurra station, thence to the railhead at Moree, roughly some hundred
m i l e s o r so o f f . *
These were c a r e f r e e happy d a y s , e v e r y b o d y j o k i n g and c h i a c k i n g and good f e l l o w s h i p and m a t e s h i p was t h e o r d e r o f t h e d a y . ( T h i s was t h e s p i r i t t h a t h e l p e d t o i n s p i r e t h e two A . I . F . s i n l a t e r y e a r s , h an d ed down from t h e P i o n e e r s o f t h i s c o u n t r y . ) Midday b i l l y and q u a r t p o t