Death in the Outback and how things were

Max

I was up there a long time ago and searched out the burial site.

However, because I didn't ask the locals at the time, I believed their resting place was at Merty Merty on the Strzelecki.

More the dill me!

Regards

Kim

Thanks for that link Kim and John. There is a treasure trove of outback information hidden away there covering early oil company exploits. The author has gone to a great deal of effort to gather it all together. There is a lot to take in and it all seems to be very accurate.

With reference to the Page family story and the schoolboy in the pound I remember them well.

When travelling the Birdsville Track we noticed that the reference on the Hema map for the Page family memorial is off to the RHS of the road as you approach Birdsville from the south, but the old Customline (not the original one I think) is on the LHS.

Kingo

Kingo,

The Page Family grave is definitely on the right hand side of the track approaching Birdsville from the South.

We visited the site based on directions from member Ruth (Qld) who used to run the Birdsville Caravan Park.

I do have the coordinates somewhere, but from memory, there was a couple of tyres marking the turnoff on the left side heading down the track, about 20 klms out and before the turnoff to Innamincka along the Walkers Crossing Track.

Footy

You old softy you!

LOL

Regards

Kim

Kim, too bloody right! I need my late and afternoon tea ya know :)))))))

You started something Kim

I've never had so many single page hits in ten years on the Page family perish, such is the pulling power of the forum, no doubt. Thanks for the sentiments of the other posters, too on the site and contents.

Bob may be interested to know CGG used 25W Pye SSB which was coaxed into giving us life-saving comms at various points along the French Line, first to Ceduna, later Alice Springs and then finally to Charleville RFDS bases as we emerged from the Simpson months later. Here is a link showing my colleague Pip Dunkley with one of the two sets we used between the main camp and the fly camp, photo taken on a camp move.

The CGG SSB

To my mind the most informative part of the Page family story lies in the follow-up page. I notice from my stats a lot of hitters did not go on to the second page. I can recommend this for anyone who wants the complete story.

LineB

Thanks for the extra info, LineB.

I need to go back and have another read anyway.

There must have been a lot of different HF's produced in those pre-satellite days. When I worked in the Kimberley, in late '60's, we used an AWA Teleradio set for a time, once again only 25 watt.

Later years, with 100 watt Codans, and multi-whip aerials, one could drive around, mustering, or doing bore-runs, and listen to rad-phone, make calls to Brissy, local businesses, or whatever. Also had the ability to talk to "neighbours" hundreds of k's away, to inquire about river heights etc.

Feel many people on this forum, would empathise with the plight of the Pages, as portrayed in your story. They now travel the same route, in comfortable 4wds, with little(??) chance of the same thing happening again.

Hooroo,
Bob.

Hullo Bob and all

No way did I expect to be back at my lappie tonight answering posts. Qantas bumped us off a Norfolk flight this arvo due mech troubs with an old 737B still on the ground there, that was to be our chariot. They say it is weather that was the cause (fogs?) so the through travellers have to rely on insurance. All the same we do face four days of rain and 30kt winds if and when we make it.

The point of this reply is that Sand Man mentioned Ruth, late of the Birdsville Caravan Park, who first put me on to Noel Glass who was to fill in so many of the gaps eluding me about the tragic family demise. Ruth also provided me with the photo of the grave site. A nephew of Eric Sammon, who made use of the CGG vehicles and radios and equipment he thought useful to the search, also has been in some partial touch, as has a Page grandson and a Clanchy daughter, which is the way it often goes with websites on contentious subjects where you have to be careful about family sensitivities, even after as many years as 44.

This is the week it all came to its dreadful finale all those years ago and I was forced to follow it by much-delayed and scant newspaper reports in Sydney. The CGG pilot Kron Nicholas was in the air most daytimes in the search as well, while the CGG crew that built the French Line were relaxing in their mostly Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Gold Coast homes. I was the only one from Sydney.

Well, anyway, completely coincidentally, the same Ruth is holidaying on Norfolk at the moment and she figures I am due there about now as I write. Not to be. Perhaps we'll get there in the next day or two, no guarantees though, says Qantas.

Many folk say we followed the pegs of Reg Sprigg across the desert but that is not so. A quick check with Doug Sprigg at Arkaroola will confirm Reg and family went along the SA/NT border from Mt Daer, the NT Mt Daer that is, to Poeppels, and this is backed up with Reg's map in his tome "A Geologist Strikes Back". This is not the route of the French Line.

CGG RF comms were far from adequate within the party and perhaps dangerously inadequate. For a start, no ground-to-air at all, no truck to Lannie, but truck to truck and Lannie to Lannie except all were usually at opposite ends of the survey spectrum (surveyors and dozers in front 25km and juggies behind with supply vehicles (water, explosives, fuel, tucker) either hopelessly rearward or well in advance depending where our dumps were and if they had anything in them. But we got through without loss of life although I was the first aid and radio op in the hot seat. I was lucky.

I'll close by saying the CGG seismic explorers lived and worked in relative comfort across the Simpson even then, 1963, due the expertise and experience of the French in desert country and the ingenuity and perseverance of the Aussies in the party. 15 survivors of the original 45 men who thrashed the Simpson as it had never been thrashed, are still in contact with one another around the world, which is comforting for me.

LineB