West Coast Tasmania 1950s-1960s-1970s. 2020. And my friend AssAbout...

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What is found herein are true events as I personally experienced them, and that have ventured into the realms of folk-lore and stories... although, I do declare that I have 9,000 or so books and amongst them is a book (1960s I do not have the book to hand right now) written in Kalgoorlie in the old heyday when the Boulder Mine (Kalgoorlie) was operating... and someone did write a book of the old stories and this story of AssAbout is in that book...
...
HE was a funny little man... AssAbout... an Englishman, slight of body, kind of face, not ha ha funny but funny like an elf or a creature that sortof ....is here, yet, hardly noticed, and then is gone... without a trace... and yet he left a trace that is in Legend in Australian Mining history... and we shared 'crib-times' together quite a few times in Roseberry Mines. {Crib was generically known as Lunch-time...}
...
At the time written about {how AssAbout was honoured with his nick-name} we are pre-1960s between the town of Roseberry and Tullah, on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
A delightful quiet backwater paradise that only had a rail line that Wee Georgie Wood used to travel the 8 miles from Roseberry to Tullah over Mt Black.
Mt Black was where the train used to cross that separated the two towns ...
Tullah was a tiny isolated mine (that had pit-ponies) and workshops for Wee Georgie Wood and other small trams.
Hardly a village, but with pub that rarely closed at all, a store, a dozen or so houses, and a ramshackle cinema the locals had to take an umbrella for when it rained as the roof leaked... and the other town of Roseberry with a relatively stable population of a few thousand miners and families etc... a few pubs, a club or two, and a dude in the 1970s who won the lottery who then bought himself a new red Mustang he only drove on sundays...
His mates bet that he would not go rob the local bank where he kept all of his winnings (quite a sum at the time) and he did rob the bank.. with his nephews' toy gun...
And, THE WHOLE TOWN CAME TO WATCH...
The 2 local cops came careering around the corner with siren wailing ....tyres screeching, like it was the Wild West and they were "on to the scene of the crime like nobodies business but theirs" {while the whole town kacked themselves watching from across the road from the bank, and kacked themselves some more like it was the best tv show in town, and it was.... AS it WAS the best show in town, who needs TV... ... as the Dude Robber was sittin on the bench seat outside the bank countin "the loot"... when he was arrested by the 2 cops who did not know him... {the cops were blowins} and the Robber was subsequently handcuffed, arrested and put in gaol like a two bit criminal . . . . .and the whole town laughted some more, {you would have thought the cops would have twigged to something goin on when he saw the whole town on the other side of the street… but no, he did not till later… the joke was on the cops.. sort a running town joke really.....lol...} …
So the town went back to the pub and clubs and got more drunk on the story.. and laughted some more in the next years to come ... {ö and in court the next week, the Dude Robber was told not to make any more 'Illegal Withdrawals' without filling in a withdrawal slip, and to leave his nephews toys at home and fined $80, with a 'Good behaviour Bond' for a year... so the Bank was safe, and the newbie cop would not get egg on his face by arresting a local whi could have bought the entire town... lol...
...
The Robber naturally won the bet which paid the fine, and they all got drunk again...
But the Dude Bank Robber of Rosebery is not what this writing is about ..-although many a story can be had from Rosebery . . .
...
This is the story of how AssAbout got his name...
Ya see, Wee Georgie Wood (a real small gauge tram/ train) huffed n puffed over the mountain daily and when you were too drunk and missed the train due to illegally drinkin at the Tullah Pub on the weekend {read ALL WEEKEND as the pub did not ever shut}, well, one had to walk over Mt Black to Rosebery (8 miles over the mountain), and missing the train was not uncommon...
AssAbout did this... got drunk. . . Missed the train ...and started walking over Mt Black...
...
In those days the miners wore Blueys with long collars that were like the size of a sailors flap to shield from the wind when up and facing away from the wind... {I owned and wore one daily when I worked underground as a hard rock miner in the 1970s when AssAbout was an old wisened somewhat shrunken stooped over little man who shared a joke or two with us at Crib-time...} and the origin of his name was found out to be that (when he was drunk as a miner can be on a Sunday in Tullah... well...) he was a smoker you see,... and he rolled a smoke sittin on a log by the rail line on the way from Tullah to Rosebery, and to light his smoke he put his back to the wind and then started walkin...
Being drunk n all, he did not notice too much what was happening until he arrived back in Tullah, as he had done a u-turn when he lit his smoke and went AssAbout-face and walked in the opposite direction from whence he wished to go... So he slept at Tullah and missed a shift at work on the Monday . . .and when he spoke of what happened he inherited the name AssAbout for the rest of his days on Earth...
...
So like the very practical joke of the Robber who robbed his own bank, the story of AssAbout was soo funny that it arrived in the book published in the 1960s from the Boulder Mine...
So, even though AssAbout never did find out he was written into history... he was... and I can say that AssAbout was a fine fellow, a man who would help you in any way he could... a 'salt of Earth' kind of guy,... so he did not mind so much he was called AssAbout everyday by all who knew him that I heard about... {I never found out his real name... I am sure it could be done though}…
...
PART TWO IS BELOW as the post was more than 10,000 characters...
 

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PART 2 The Origin of the Name of AssAbout,... ex Rosebery, Tasmania.
As the above was more than 10,000 charcters..

There are quite a few funny stories of the West Coast Tasmania (before the road was put thru in the 1960s so that Wee Georgie Wood did not choof over the mountain any longer...) as I first rode my bicycle around Tasmania in 1964 into Tullah and found that (unbeknown to me) my brother-in-laws' sister and mining engineer husband, owned the local Tullah Store... so I stayed for two weeks, and went trout tickling/fishin n fossicking (as one does) and luckily did not go into the old asbestos mine that was open on the hill just out of town... (asbestosis was not generally known about in the 1964 by the general population),...and decades later the locals threatened to blow Wee Georgie Wood to smitherines IF the Authorities of Burnie tried to take Wee Georgie away from Tullah (it now has its own museum in Tullah) …https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wee_Georgie_Wood_Railway ...
...
One funny story included Wee Georgie Wood when the cops from Roseberry tried unsuccessfully (on numerous occasions it seems, from all the stories I heard from the old timers..) to catch the Tullah Pub for being open on Sunday with no Lic for that... {well, as said, it never used to close it seems as one could get a drink 24/7}…and everytime the cops took the train from Roseberry to Tullah, the train driver would signal with a special signal that the cops were on board... ha!
So, (obviously)…
The cops always found the pub was shut when they arrived.... ha ha ha ... {and at the time, it was one of the most well know jokes of the district, which embarrassed the cops immensely... }...
So imagine that the cops arrive to bust the pub, and just find a lot of folks in Tullah, on a Sunday, ....loitering, .....for no-apparent-reason, and after a lot of cop frustration, the cops leave ... lol.... and this happened NUMEROUS TIMES...
...
Fast forward a few weeks or months... I have no idea how long.....
One Sunday afternoon after everyone had had a skin full.... the cops walked the 8 miles over the mountain and quietly walked in the front door, and silently stood still... and blocked the door...
Slowly it dawned the pub had company...
THEN, very suddenly, EVERYONE AT THE SAME INSTANT sprang for the only exit,... the back door... and for the very few windows that were open...
The back door was closest to two very LARGE and very drunk MINERS . . . who BOTH found the door at the very same instant, and between them plugged the doorway shut with their large bodies...
AssAbout related the story in fine form one 'Crib-time', as he was amongst them ... and AssAbout and the whole crew were fined for that day... but no one really gave a toss... as it was something to laugh about in the pub hey!
...
But, in the whole scheme of things not much changed at all...
Cops were happy they had done their job... as they had proved their point and regained the Honour of their role on the social structure of the place. . .and subsequently, ignored the same Sunday opening from then on... happy to have made their point...
...
Tullah is still Tullah...
Roseberry is still Roseberry.
I was there in 2020...
Almost the same shop in Rosebery I bought the BBKing LP from, in 1972... has changed little... a fresh lick of paint, new posters...
Tullah, Rosebery... well...
More roads, different cars... a few more advertising signs, the TV aerials are different, a few modern houses, and a lot of old ones...
Yet both towns have not substantially changed much since the 1960s when I rode into town on my bicycle...
And my Dads' three brothers all worked in the mines there at some time...
And I was born in Hobart in the same hospital as Errol Flynn, now gone... {Errol and the hospital.. now swanky appartments in Battery Point}…
...
Why tell you this... Ha! … …
Well, life does not change much really... yet appears to change on the outer... hey?!
Gold is still gold... and what we find has been in the ground for eons...
What changes.. I mean really changes... humans do what human do... do be do be do . . .
As Frank Sinatra sang "I did it my way" …and we all do that...
And, I need 10 posts it seems so that I can do something or other on this forum... like buy a rig like the M4500 n coils n stuff...
...
Anyhow... onward and upwards...
Cheers all...
Ps
Good stories are the gold nuggets of human life experience... and true ones even more... and the above is as related and as I found The West Coast of Tasmania in the 1960s.1970s.and in 2020... I found the place to be fun then, and still do... so much fun chortling over what to leave out of the above otherwise this writing could end up being 50,000 words.. Good prospecting to you all... ✔️✔️✔️
 
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Thanx for sharing the past with us sam-u-al. I was relieving in my HEC job in the mid 80's and spent some time at Tullah, that pub sure was a gold mine. I guess that there's no places like that left nowadays with focus on OH&S, etc.
 
PART 2 The Origin of the Name of AssAbout,... ex Rosebery, Tasmania.
As the above was more than 10,000 charcters..

There are quite a few funny stories of the West Coast Tasmania (before the road was put thru in the 1960s so that Wee Georgie Wood did not choof over the mountain any longer...) as I first rode my bicycle around Tasmania in 1964 into Tullah and found that (unbeknown to me) my brother-in-laws' sister and mining engineer husband, owned the local Tullah Store... so I stayed for two weeks, and went trout tickling/fishin n fossicking (as one does) and luckily did not go into the old asbestos mine that was open on the hill just out of town... (asbestosis was not generally known about in the 1964 by the general population),...and decades later the locals threatened to blow Wee Georgie Wood to smitherines IF the Authorities of Burnie tried to take Wee Georgie away from Tullah (it now has its own museum in Tullah) …https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wee_Georgie_Wood_Railway ...
...
One funny story included Wee Georgie Wood when the cops from Roseberry tried unsuccessfully (on numerous occasions it seems, from all the stories I heard from the old timers..) to catch the Tullah Pub for being open on Sunday with no Lic for that... {well, as said, it never used to close it seems as one could get a drink 24/7}…and everytime the cops took the train from Roseberry to Tullah, the train driver would signal with a special signal that the cops were on board... ha!
So, (obviously)…
The cops always found the pub was shut when they arrived.... ha ha ha ... {and at the time, it was one of the most well know jokes of the district, which embarrassed the cops immensely... }...
So imagine that the cops arrive to bust the pub, and just find a lot of folks in Tullah, on a Sunday, ....loitering, .....for no-apparent-reason, and after a lot of cop frustration, the cops leave ... lol.... and this happened NUMEROUS TIMES...
...
Fast forward a few weeks or months... I have no idea how long.....
One Sunday afternoon after everyone had had a skin full.... the cops walked the 8 miles over the mountain and quietly walked in the front door, and silently stood still... and blocked the door...
Slowly it dawned the pub had company...
THEN, very suddenly, EVERYONE AT THE SAME INSTANT sprang for the only exit,... the back door... and for the very few windows that were open...
The back door was closest to two very LARGE and very drunk MINERS . . . who BOTH found the door at the very same instant, and between them plugged the doorway shut with their large bodies...
AssAbout related the story in fine form one 'Crib-time', as he was amongst them ... and AssAbout and the whole crew were fined for that day... but no one really gave a toss... as it was something to laugh about in the pub hey!
...
But, in the whole scheme of things not much changed at all...
Cops were happy they had done their job... as they had proved their point and regained the Honour of their role on the social structure of the place. . .and subsequently, ignored the same Sunday opening from then on... happy to have made their point...
...
Tullah is still Tullah...
Roseberry is still Roseberry.
I was there in 2020...
Almost the same shop in Rosebery I bought the BBKing LP from, in 1972... has changed little... a fresh lick of paint, new posters...
Tullah, Rosebery... well...
More roads, different cars... a few more advertising signs, the TV aerials are different, a few modern houses, and a lot of old ones...
Yet both towns have not substantially changed much since the 1960s when I rode into town on my bicycle...
And my Dads' three brothers all worked in the mines there at some time...
And I was born in Hobart in the same hospital as Errol Flynn, now gone... {Errol and the hospital.. now swanky appartments in Battery Point}…
...
Why tell you this... Ha! … …
Well, life does not change much really... yet appears to change on the outer... hey?!
Gold is still gold... and what we find has been in the ground for eons...
What changes.. I mean really changes... humans do what human do... do be do be do . . .
As Frank Sinatra sang "I did it my way" …and we all do that...
And, I need 10 posts it seems so that I can do something or other on this forum... like buy a rig like the M4500 n coils n stuff...
...
Anyhow... onward and upwards...
Cheers all...
Ps
Good stories are the gold nuggets of human life experience... and true ones even more... and the above is as related and as I found The West Coast of Tasmania in the 1960s.1970s.and in 2020... I found the place to be fun then, and still do... so much fun chortling over what to leave out of the above otherwise this writing could end up being 50,000 words.. Good prospecting to you all... ✔️✔️✔️
We visited Roseberry in 1991 and found it a charming little town. We stayed overnight in our campervan at the caravan park but unfortunately didn't see too much of the place as we were running late for the ferry back to the Big Island. Two following trips to Tassie didn't make it to that part of the West Coast but then there is so much to see and do in that incredible part of Australia, even some prospecting.
 
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