18 amcn.com.au
He did what?the
WORDS PETER WHITAKERSerendipity in the
Never Never
At the aptly named Bloods Creek they encountered a
miner who had just blown his hand off with dynamite
A surreal encounter on the track between Spencer Gulf and Beagle Gulf
IT WAS NOTHING more than
a hankering for adventure that
took a couple of young bloods
from the Melbourne suburb
of Hawthorn on a coast-to-
coast journey from Adelaide to
Darwin. By all accounts no one
had attempted a motorised
crossing since Harry Dutton
and Murray Aunger’s 25hp
Talbot had succeeded in 1908.
Since then, The Ghan rail
line had pushed north to
Oodnadatta, from where Alice
Springs was a four-day camel
trek further north; after that
only the Overland Telegraph
provided any indication
of civilisation on the long
trackless journey to Darwin.
Stewart Gordon and
Russell McLellan had
initially intended to travel by
automobile but, with a little
prompting from the Indian
Motor Cycle distributors,
Ferguson and Murphy Ltd,
they decided the recently
released 1200cc V-Twin
Indian Super Chief with
Goulding ‘Cumfit’ sidecar was
better suited to their plight.
Especially when offered a
plentiful supply of Goodyear
Balloon tyres.
By 1926 the road between
Melbourne and Adelaide had
been ridden in less than a
single day, though it appears
Gordon and McLellan took a
more leisurely ride, followed
by an even more leisurely
tour of the City of Churches
while stocking up w ith tinned
provisions and a two-gallon
petrol can.
North of Port Augusta veryfew people travelled other
than by rail, though The Ghan
itself was seldom booked
out. The rail line was also a
potential lifeline for Gordon
and McLellan, but once past
Oodnadatta they would be on
their own.
As it eventuated, it wasn’t the
city slickers who required help;
on reaching Bloods Creek theyencountered a miner who had
just blown his hand off with
dynamite. McLellan provided
the necessary first aid and
relayed the patient south, back
to Oodnadatta.
The boys eventually arrived
in Alice Springs and relaxed
in preparation for what wouldundoubtedly be the most
arduous leg of their journey,
which they commenced on
18 September 1926.
You can imagine their
surprise encountering rain for
the first time on their odyssey;
instead of sand, the track
turned to stick y black soil on
the western edges of the vast
Barkly Tableland.Their surprise turned to
astonishment when, on one
of the innumerable occasions
they had to extricate the outfit
from the gluelike morass, a
couple of motorcyclists slid
to a stop beside them. In an
uncanny coincidence, two
British-Australian TelegraphCompany employees based in
Darwin – Bruce Sullivan and
Eddie Jacobs – had decided on
a holiday in Melbourne. Their
choice of transport? A pair of
Indian Scouts.
Sullivan and Jacobs
may have been equally
gobsmacked, though it’s likely
they knew the outfit was
headed their way.
Although the exact date the
boys reached their destination
varies according to which
newspaper you read, it was
w idely acknowledged this was
“the first occasion on which a
motorbicycle with side car has
reached Darwin”.
The Melbourne newspapers
stated that Gordon and
McLellan were “the first to
ride from Adelaide to Darwin
by motorcycle”, though the
lads themselves made no such
claim. Nor did they claim to
attempt a record on the return
journey, because next we learn
of their arrival in Sydney in
mid-November – more than six
weeks later – having covered a
total of 9173km.
This was, of course, a severe
test for the tyres. However, the
Goodyears came through with
f lying colours. In fact both the
machine and the tyres were
reported to be in “a condition
of which the men are proud”.
And, as far as the press
was concerned, that’s the
last we hear of two blokes
who survived what was
undoubtedly an epic outback
adventure.
It seems their return home
passed unheralded.Gordon, McLellan and
the hapless miner on
the Barkly TablelandThe NT Picture Library