Once Upon a Time on the Ghan

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

'It's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way!' That's the opinion Billy has of himself as he pursues the delectable Zoe on their trans-continental rail journey across the vast Australian Outback on the Indian Pacific and The Ghan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Boyd Dunn
• Release date: Nov 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466106536

Raymond Boyd Dunn

Raymond Boyd Dunn is a "born and bred" third generation Australian. After his retirement Raymond Boyd became a grey nomad, and, with his wife, spent some time touring this vast country of Australia. He was born in the small Burnett Valley town of Monto, Queensland, and for his entire life has answered to the name of 'Boyd'. Apart from his travels he has lived all of his life in Queensland, and after satisfying his thirst for seeing first hand this wonderful country we live in, settled on the Sunshine Coast to spend his remaining years in the sunshine near the beach.He commenced his working life as a Bank Officer and resigned after thirteen years to become self-employed. At various stages he has owned a Corner Store, a small Supermarket Chain, a Butchery, a Milk Run, a Printery and a Cattle and Grain Farm. He has been involved, in various capacities, in Cricket and Tennis Clubs; Jaycees, Lions and Rotary Clubs and Aero Clubs. He was a Cricketer, played tennis, tried to play golf, and was a keen long distance runner.Upon taking a well-earned retirement he wrote his unpublished autobiography, which was for distribution among his family of six children and numerous grand-children. A visit to Cooktown, where he learnt of the Palmer River Gold Rush, was the incentive to keep writing and produce his first novel 'Palmer Gold' He then settled down to write novels, producing two more books to complete a Trilogy...'An Australian Ranch' and "Carly and Sam...Will and Effie'. There followed numerous short stories, and other novels: 'Lord of the Manor in Australia', and 'The Vintage Years'. He continues to write whilst enjoying life in the sunshine on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Book preview

Once Upon a Time on the Ghan

By Raymond Boyd Dunn

Copyright 2011 Raymond Dunn

Smashwords Edition

Chapter 1

As I, William Rickards, known to my mates as Billy, stretched out in my Gold Kangaroo Class berth, and listened to the low rumble of the iron wheels only a few feet away from me on the iron railway track, I was only vaguely aware of the swaying and the occasional lurching of the carriage, while the Ghan hurtled through the darkness towards Alice Springs, still over twelve hours away. The ride was not as smooth as it had been the previous night on the Indian Pacific, but I didn’t mind. I thought of the people I had met so far on this holiday treat of travelling from Toowoomba to Darwin the long way; by coach to Brisbane, by Virgin to Sydney, then on the Indian Pacific and the Ghan.

I love train travel, and the motion of the train is an important part of the experience as far as I am concerned. This was not an opinion shared by all of my fellow travellers, some of whom complained about not being able to sleep on the first night out of Sydney, even though I thought it was a fairly smooth ride, and I slept like a baby.

But Humphrey and Agnes were natural whingers. The Hillthorpes were retired storekeepers from my base city of Toowoomba in Queensland, and Humphrey in particular was a person who, to put it bluntly, loved the sound of his own voice. I first encountered the couple in the Lounge Car when the Bar opened at 3.30 pm, shortly after leaving Sydney on the Indian Pacific. By the time the Train Manager and the Hospitality Attendant arrived for the Reception for the guests booked in for the Sunset Dinner, of which I was one, those in the lounge, who had not made their excuses and left, knew just about everything there was to know about the Hillthorpes.

To listen to Humphrey you would think his was the biggest and best little corner store in Toowoomba. But I knew better. I have spent several years working in that beautiful city boarding with my older married sister, who by a strange coincidence lives only a couple of blocks from the store in Herries Street. On rare occasions I would go to their store as a matter of convenience, to pick up something my sister forgot on her weekly shopping outing to Woolworths. Though I am all for supporting the small private trader, I always went to their store reluctantly, because they charged like the proverbial scrub bull! I suppose it is the price we pay for the convenience.

Neither of them recognized me, and I didn’t make them any the wiser when I had the chance to say something. For one thing I didn’t really like the man. I thought he was very abrupt with his customers, and listening to him brag didn’t encourage me to change my mind. Agnes wasn’t so bad, except that she didn’t miss an opportunity to complain about something.

I, myself, am not a very talkative man, but I’ll take a few moments to tell you about the person relating this tale.

As you would already know, my name is Billy Rickards. William Samuel Rickards – a sixth generation of the Rickards of Bethrick, a property near Jimbour on the Darling Downs in Queensland. Although I am a partner of an Accountancy firm in Toowoomba, I still regard Bethrick as ‘home’. My parents, George and Bertha, and a younger brother and sister, both still single, live there and run a very successful grain and cattle business. In the early days when great-great-great grandfather, also Billy Rickards, first acquired the property, it was totally for wool-growing.

Triple-G grandfather, Billy, has been spoken of by our family as something of a legend. He made a fortune on the goldfields of the Palmer River in North Queensland, where he first met my triple-G grandmother, who was a very beautiful woman as illustrated by an old faded black and white photograph in the family photo album. The adventures they both experienced up there, when the natives were still wild and reputed to be cannibals, have become folk-lore for our family. Whether the tales have been embellished through the re-telling over the years, I do not know. But I believe they were both very brave, tough people.

Getting back to me – I am twenty-nine years old and un-married. This is a bit of a worry for my mother! I am five foot ten on the old scale, olive complexion, light brown hair, athletic build and not bad looking, even if I do say so myself, and very keen on long distance running which, apart from regular visits to the Gym, helps to keep me in shape.

One of the other travellers, or guests as they are called in the Gold Kangaroo section of the two trains, whom I met in the lounge on the first afternoon, was Zoe Baxter. As soon as I saw Zoe I decided here was a good-looking young lady whom I would like to meet. She wasn’t very tall, coming just up to my shoulders. Her figure left nothing to be desired, and her dark wavy hair fell gently to shoulder length.

Humphrey was holding forth to a group of half a dozen of us when Zoe first walked down the narrow passageway into the Lounge. She paused near the Bar, which was on the way in, as she looked around.

I need a drink badly, I interrupted Humphrey, using it as an excuse to break away from the group, and make a bee-line to the Bar.

I’ll have a beer, please, I told the young lady bar attendant. Then, turning to Zoe, I said, Would you like a drink, Miss?

At first, I thought she was going to take offence at my clumsy attempt to make her acquaintance. But then she smiled and replied, That would be nice. Thank you. I’ll have a Lemon, Lime and Bitters, please.

I nodded her order to the bar attendant who heard her request, and she acknowledged it to me with a sly wink, which fortunately Zoe didn’t see.

As we moved away from the small bar counter with our drinks to make room for others wanting to order, she said, My name is Zoe. Zoe Baxter. Then she cocked an eyebrow, waiting for me to respond.

Arh, William - er - Bill, ah Billy Rickards, I stammered in reply, wondering why just looking at this young lady threw me off balance. I’m not usually that way. I’ve heard myself described as cool, a man about town and one of Toowoomba’s eligible young bachelors. (I know! I know!