Comment: Earliest Memories of Outback Travel and the vehicles used.

Thanks D & M. The ute served us for another couple of years after we left Mt. Doreen. I believe somewhere on here I saw a photo of what's left of the old blitz truck that my dad drove around the property to the outlying bores to service the diesel pumps used to fill tanks for the cattle troughs. Maybe someone who is going that way, or has recently been can see if the wreck is still there. It may be that your daughter is at the wheel of the very truck my dad drove out there all those ago.

The old blitz was very basic, and had to be started via a crank handle, and I believe that took some doing. On one of his bore trips, the crank handle broke his left arm with a back lash. He got the blitz going and made his way back to the homestead, and then waited a couple of days for the supply truck going into into Alice to take him into the hospital, and that was a 2 day trip. He spent two weeks in A.S. hospital while they repaired his shattered forearm, then came back out with the next supply truck. He's a tough old bushie, now living in Mildura.

I have some great memories from out there, which I'll have to create a seperate blog for.

BTW Mt Doreen homestead was abandoned a couple of years after we left and relocated west toward Lake Mackay, at Vaughan Springs, where it still is today. It was for sale recently so it may have sadly left the Braitling family.

Fred.