Old Bike Australasia – July 21, 2019

86 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA

Lyndhurst, so left that section out this time).

However, the decision to follow the Tibooburra and

Milparinka section was twofold: 1,neither of us had

been there before, and 2, we wanted to see the

tracks Bankin used and gain some idea of just how

he navigated seldom-used mail tracks.

But to focus on Curtin Springs. We departed Alice

Springs on 21st August 2018, and headed for

Kulgera where we would turn off to Curtin Springs

and then to Uluru. We always try to do some

“exploring” on our travels and followed numerous

tracks just to see if there was anything out of the

ordinary. We saw a few Dingo’s that stood watching

us for a few minutes before casually walking off,

and two Wedge Tailed Eagles flying lazily in thermal

air currents for what seemed like hours, without

moving their wings much at all. Absolutely

wonderful; it amazes us that our sister and her

husband have been to Bali forty times because

“there’s nothing to see in Australia”. People need to

wake up, spend money in Australia and keep it

here! Anyway, we found a nice camp spot for the

Followingthis wonderful article I was able to
locate Mr Duckworth’s daughter Carmel, who still has
some copies of her dad’s book: ([email protected]),
and gain through her and her brother extra
information. This was to assist a recent trip by my
brother Jon and I to Curtin Springs Roadhouse, the
home of Peter Severin who owns the Mount Conner
area where Bankin’s grave is. In essence, our visit was
an integral part of a six week 8,500km sojourn in my
restored original 1963 Land Rover through SA, Vic,
NSW, Qld, and NT.
Rather than go into too much detail of our trip,
it was important to us to at least follow some of
Bankins route including Tibooburra and Milparinka,
(we’ve been to Innamincka numerous times and
followed Bankin on the Strzelecki track from

night and in the morning headed to Curtin Springs,

arriving mid morning, unfortunately at the same

time as a bus load of tourists, so we found some

shade and waited until the bus departed, then

made our way into the store to ask about visiting

Bankin’s grave at Mount Conner. Blank looks, so I

explained who Bankin was and how the Severin

family were custodians of the grave, it being on

their land. The girl in attendance had no idea so

went and asked someone else, however neither

were any help. I then asked if Peter Severin or

someone in authority was around but was told no,

they’re all away. Reluctantly, we decided to head to

Uluru and try our luck on the return journey. 

After two days of visiting Yulara, Uluru and Kata

Tjuta (the Olgas), we journeyed back to Curtin

Springs, unfortunately arriving as a bus pulled up!

After the bus departed we ventured into the store

and, unfortunately, struck the same girl as our first

visit. As luck would have it, a young fellow entered

from the store room and asked what we wanted,

and although he had no knowledge of Bankin or

I thought you might be interested

in this follow up to an article you

ran in OBA49, written by regular

contributor Peter Whitaker, and

covering the exploits of one of our

earliest motorcycling pioneers, Ellis

Matthewman Bankin.StoryPaul Wells

Bankin’s

bike

Ellis Bankin’s Triumph. Does anyone

have a spare gear lever knob?