The Story Of The Great Steam Calliope

By Lindsay Johannsen

An inverse correlation seems to exist between an invention's size and its numerical success. Small inventions can infest the world (mobile phones, Velcro, spray cans); larger ones may seem to (shopping trolleys, cars, shipping containers), but really huge ones (suspension bridges, radio telescopes, tunnel boring machines etc) do not. Norman Watt's invention was at the latter category's extreme end

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lindsay Johannsen
• Release date: Jun 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311481825

Lindsay Johannsen

There's not a lot to tell really, though on reflection, looking back on it through the lens of one’s recollections and memories, the whole business seems more akin to an extended Huckleberry Finn adventure, but set in the vastness of Central Australia. Born, raised and schooled in Alice Springs; taken from the leafy glades of learning mid-way through Year-eight to work at my father's remote little copper mine; later employed for some years driving his cattle-hauling road trains – him having pioneered road trains and the cattle hauling business (see "Kurt Johannsen: A Son of the Red Centre"). Married in the fullness of time; built a bush homestead on the northern edge of the Simpson Desert and raised a family there, all while running a small tungsten mining business and provisioning the hundred or so Aboriginal people local to the area who adopted us. Sold our mine and homestead a few years after the kids had flown the coop, acquired a forty foot (12m) touring coach, converted it into a big steel-wheel mobeel Palaise-de-passion motor home and took to the roads of this great land of Oz - in the main visiting our offspring (most of whom had moved to coastal regions), our grandchildren generally and a couple of great grandies, plus various friends and associates from years gone by. So these days all I have to do is keep the missus happy – my Bride my Precious Lamb and Flower of the Early Mid Morning. 'Anywhere you wish, my darling,' I tell her. 'You just say the word and we'll be on our way.' So it's free as the breeze, we are now, out and about having wild and exciting adventures and being amazingly cool generally. Best job I ever had.

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THE STORY OF THE GREAT STEAM CALLIOPE

Published by Lindsay Johannsen at Smashwords

Copyright Lindsay Johannsen 2015

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes.

The Story Of The Great Steam Calliope is presented here free of cost. I insist on maintaining my copyright, however, though until such time as I amend this notice please feel free to disseminate, reproduce, copy or distribute it to your heart’s content, provided you do this for non-commercial purposes only and the story remains complete and in its original form. My preference, however, is for you to recommend to others that they download The Story Of The Great Steam Calliope from Smashwords themselves, so enriching my life with a warm glow of satisfaction in lieu of any monetary reward.

Thank you.

National Library Of Australia Cataloguing-in-publication data:

Author: Johannsen, Lindsay Andrew

Title: The Story Of The Great Steam Calliope

Cover art by the author.

Also published at Smashwords by one’s sylph: the novels McCullock’s Gold and The Cassidy Chronicles, plus a poem and some other short story rubbish, a couple of children’s stories and a couple of Christmas yarns – among other things.

To order the