My Long Winding Road has been a wonderful journey, born way back on July 7 1943, & grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney Australia. One of the great benefits to me with this photo blog, is I get to re-live all the fabulous experiences in my life, I’m certain that without photos as a reminder, I probably would forget 80% of what I have done in life.
I was the eldest of 5 boys with the most wonderful parents any child could wish for.
Rather than focus on the early years just follow THIS LINK for lots of old photos of all the family.
This post covers memories from the 60s & 70s, part 2 will be the 80s & 9os.
Please note this is not part of my travel blog, it is my online photo album.
My 21st birthday in 1964
We celebrated a couple of months early as I was about to leave for England on the cruise ship Fairsea with my best friend Glen Beasley. Here is the story of THE CRUISE.
May 1964
After 18 months of working 2 jobs, I just qualified as a toolmaker, plus I worked weekends for Don Talbert the Australian swimming coach, my friend Glenn Beasley and I prepared to leave on May 7th to sail to England on the Fairsea.Just before I left I took my young brothers the the barber and had them shorn. They loved the new haircuts but poor Mum almost fainted. 🙂
A girlfriend from the 60s.
Veronica Crocker lived at south Granville, such a sweet beautiful lady, in fact breaking up with her really motivated me to head overseas. I have been so lucky to have know so many GORGEOUS GIRLS.
My Long Winding Road
Halfway to England we took in some very famous sights.
The White Lion Hotel in Cobham
Glen & I worked as barmen for a few months, I think we drank as much as we served. 🙂
7th Engineer on the La Marea
After 12 months away I needed to earn some money to pay for my trip home. Spent a few months working on the ship, we took Volkswagens to America & bought back grain to Europe.
My first job in Sales
I joined Macdougals LTD in Clarence St Sydney in 1966 selling Victor calculators, this was the year of decimal changeover. Then in 1969 I became Victorian state sales manager for Victor calculators, Smith Corona typewrites, Elliot addressing machines & SCM copiers. I had a staff of 30 salesmen, & what a shit fight that was.
Living in Alma Rd St Kilda & working in Swanston St in the city. From the left we have David Adams, aka the Animal, Adrian Yates, Mike Wright, DH, Graham Edwards & ???.
Sydney 1971
Moved back to Sydney after 2 years in Melbourne, here I am with good friend Peter Lewis & one of his many girlfriends Marilyn.
Living in Adelaide 1973.
This shot was taken at a party I organised on the beach at Semaphore in 1973, at the home of Maria Martin. Lots of photos HERE.
The music in the 70s produced many of my all time favourite songs, here are 3 of those.
Piano man 1973
Hotel California 1977
Suttans of Swing 1978
Darwin airport 1972
Ansett hosties & Arch Wilke (RIP) an ex north Adelaide Aussie rules player.
The following day
Manton dam south of Darwin.
Anzac Highway Plymton in Adelaide.
The cool dude on the right is Grahame Farquhar who was one of my regular drinking partners. I last saw him in 2014.
Melbourne Cup 1975
Di Lett & the man in the black hat. 🙂
Wood St North Melbourne
I transferred from Adelaide to Melbourne with Sanyo, in 1973, lived there 2 years & met many new & interesting people, got engaged to a beautiful lady and narrowly escaped an attempt on my life. 🙂 I was 1 year at Lexton Grove Windsor & 1 at North Melbourne.
I love this photo
It was 1975, I’m with Di Parkinson, her brother Phil, Wolf Wottke & Angie.
A little bit of erotica. 🙂
As they say in the classics, two ladies called Dianne are better than one. 🙂
The Herd family in 1979
A rare photo of the five brothers together with our beautiful Mother.
Adelaide in 1975
Sadly as time goes by we lose some friends, that’s Hank Wottke between Angie & Parko, he passed away while living in Western Australia, RIP. Kneeling at the front is Trevor Beach, worked for City Ford in Sydney for a number of years, RIP old buddy.
Thanks for visiting my My Long Winding Road photo blog, PART TWO is coming soon
Melbourne danger drama romance in the mid 70s, it turned out to be a period of change & exceptional drama. I transferred from Adelaide to Melbourne with Sanyo, in 1973, lived there 2 years & met many new & interesting people, got engaged to a beautiful lady and narrowly escaped an attempt on my life.
Please note this is not part of my travel blog, it is my online photo album.
When an underworld gangster threatens your life it certainly gets your attention, but it couldn’t have been further from my mind as I turned my red E-type Jaguar into my street at 11pm on Saturday September 27 1975. My best friend Wolf Wottke and I had been at the piano bar at the Old Melbourne Hotel since 2pm discussing my predicament and trying to work out if the threat was real or imagined. That nine hour drinking session included my other best friend “Jim Beam” who in later years was replaced by “Jack Daniels”.
Not much gets past me, so the question was answered fairly quickly when I saw the three fire engines and two police cars parked outside of my smoldering home at 10 Wood St North Melbourne.
My first thought was “the house next door has had a fire”, my second thought was “Houston, we have a problem.”
My worst fears were confirmed when a detective opened the door of the Jag and I fell out onto the road, he looked down at me and asked “are you Mr Herd”?
“I certainly am” I slurred, and he said “well I have some bad news for you; there has been a fire in your home”.
So how did it get to this? Well it all started three years ago when I met a beautiful dizzy blonde at a party in Avalon in Sydney, my story about this meeting was told in another post, more details about how and why my house was firebombed can be found here.
Looking back all those years ago I could have lived without the Melbourne drama & focused more on the romance. 🙂
I had only lived in my lovely sandstone home at Lochwinoch Ave Torrens Park in Adelaide for seven months in 1973 when Ross Radford my boss at Sanyo Office Machines decided to transfer me to Melbourne as his State Manager. In many ways I was sad to leave Adelaide and all the friends I had made but it was a promotion with more money and prestige so how could I refuse?
You will laugh at the prices in those days, I paid $24,000 and sold it 7 months for $31,000. I also remember buying new cars for my sales reps, Holdens were $3,200 and my salary was $6,000 per year.
I still consider the two years I spent in Adelaide from 1972 were perhaps the most fun I have ever had in my entire life. 🙂 Arriving in Melbourne drama & romance were the last thing I expected, then again I guess the romance was not a surprise but the drama was.
Same house 40 years later in 2014
The house had not changed in all those years, seeing it certainly brought back some wonderful memories.
Lexton Grove Windsor
One of my lovely Adelaide girlfriends Jan Seegars came to visit me in Melbourne. I was renting a house in 15 Lexton Grove Windsor, just off Dandenong road & two blocks from Orrong Rd.
Here is Jan 50 years later in 2014.
Still looking very good. 🙂
Here we both are October 2014
We crossed paths again in Dromana in Victoria in October 2014 & shared lots of laughs about the great times we had in the 70s.
Lovely Lee Gregory.
I mentioned romance in my opening paragraph, and here is my most serious attempt at it. I met Lee in Adelaide and was thrilled to find she had moved to Melbourne. After a very short period when became engaged, after what seemed an even shorter period it came to an abrupt end. Her ex boyfriend from Adelaide was always lurking in the background and his influence won the prize, c’est la vie. 🙂
Lee & Baxter
Fiancée number 2, it would take 10 years before fiancée number 3 would appear.
Lee & I in Singapore in 1974
We went out for 2 months before being engaged for 3 months, in that time we had a terrific holiday in Singapore & Bali.
Melbourne Cup 1975
John Lawless & Ray Dodd at the Melbourne cup in 1975. Ray has owned the Keilor Hotelsince he acquired it from his father in 1974.
George Dodd established the first school in Keilor, several years later Mathew Goudie opened a school in the Keilor Hotel. Mathew was a Scottish baker fro Ayr who had previously run a bakers shop in Bourke St. Mathew purchased the Keilor Hotel in 1862 for the sum of 1000 pounds, it had been built in 1849, succeeding a timber building erected in 1842 by the Hunter brothers. Georges son, John, married Mathews daughter, Mary, they had five children and established a farm called Brimbank (because the house was on the brim of the river bank). Today the areas of Keilor and Sunshire are the City of Brimbank.
After Mathew passed away another of his daughters, Jane, ran the Hotel to 1907 when the family decided to lease the Hotel out. Tough times followed with World war 1 and the Great Depression, John & Mary’s son Harry could remember collecting the money from the leasee and picking up 1 keg of beer from Bouverie St in his fathers horse drawn wagon, the keg could last 2 weeks before they had to make another delivery.
Post World War 2 prosperity returned to Keilor and to the only surviving hotel in the area (there were a dozen during the Gold Rush). Now the older generations of the Dodd and Goudie families had passed away, Harry preferred to remain a market gardener and it wasn’t until 1974 that Harry’s son Ray leased the Hotel from the family.
Melbourne Cup 1975, check the haircut. 🙂
After all it is nearly 40 years ago.
Think Big won the cup that year for the 2nd time in a row, think big was obviously also what the guy above was thinking when he combed his hair.
Melbourne Danger Drama Romance Xmas 1975
Angella Savic, Hank Wottke (RIP), Di Parkinson & Trevor Beach (RIP) in Adelaide.
Parko looking fabulous
What a knockout. 🙂
Beechworth Victoria 1975
An absolute classic photo, check out the bell bottom jeans and my beautiful E-Type Jaguar. Di Parkinson, Phil Parkinson, Paula, Wolf Wottke & Angella Savic.
Beechworth Victoria 1975
A red E-Type & a great looking chick, what more could a fellow want? A haircut maybe. 🙂
Dianne Parkinson, great lady but a little bit crazy.
She was a terrific looking girl, totally crazy and a lot of fun. There is no doubt that no other woman in my life caused me more drama than Di. From the moment we met in 1971 and for the next 5 or 6 years she at times turned my world upside down. 🙂
Max was my service manager at Sanyo
Max also worked for MacDougalls LTD when I was transferred to Melbourne from Sydney in 1969, he worked for me when I returned to Melbourne with Sanyo in 1974. Looking back my Melbourne drama was one of the most dangerous events in my life, however apart than that, life in Melbourne was very good to me. I had a great job earning good money, a nice car and some interesting friends.
Melbourne Danger Drama Romance
Not quite Melbourne, in fact it happened in Adelaide. The Photo below was taken in Melbourne, now 40 years later in October 2014 I paid a visit to John in an Adelaide jail where he has spent the last 24 years.
John, Rosalyn & I
Taken at my home at 15 Lexton Grove Armidale, what do you think about my classy shirt? This photo was taken 40 years ago in Melbourne in 1974. John Farquhar & Roslyn were friends of mine, John received the 2nd longest sentence in South Australia’s history, 3 weeks ago I paid him a visit in the Adelaide prison where he has resided for the last 24 years. Believe me when I say he looks nothing like he does in this photo, I guess I don’t either. I have no idea what happened to Roslyn. John was very good company, polite and interesting. However he had a wild streak and a total disregard for the law. He was also clever enough to have a solicitor for a girlfriend, her name is Natalie Dunford. She bought my E-Type Jag in 1979 & still owns it today.This may sound strange but in the 70s he was a very nice guy, but sadly an habitual criminal. Here is one very funny story I recall, he used his own white E-Type Jag as a getaway car after pulling a robbery. With the cops in pursuit he is firing bullets at them from the car. Now in Adelaide in 1974 there were only about 6 E-Type Jaguars in the city, John’s, my red one, my best friend’s green one an 3 others. Naturally the police tracked him down in no time at all.
I have just found out an old friend passed away in August 2016, one of Melbourne’s great characters, on many occasions I did enjoy “an ale with the Whale”.
Greetings from Thailand
It’s 2023 and I have been living in Thailand for 12 years. I was planning to return to Oz in 2024 & find a little bolthole somewhere on the NSW coast close to the beach or Chevron Island on the Gold Coast. However recent trips to Australia have changed my opinion, I think I’m in Thailand for the long haul. Thanks for visiting my Melbourne Danger Drama Romance photo blog.
Please note, this is not part of my Travel Blog. It’s part of my personal history.
Adelaide 1972 exciting life for me, it seemed all the planets were perfectly in line to produce perhaps two of the best years of my life.
Planet one, I was 29 years old and in my prime.
Planet two, I was sent there by Sanyo Office Equipment to be State manager on a Sydney wage package, which was around 50% better than an equivalent Adelaide salary.
Planet three, there was an excess number of gorgeous single women waiting to be swept off their feet, and most motivated talented young Adelaide businessmen had headed to the Eastern capital cities to work, because that’s where all the head offices were with most of the top work opportunities.
Mid 70s in Adelaide
All my planets were aligned in Adelaide 1972
So here I was, the new boy in town with loads of money, motivation and truck loads of confidence. It was a similar situation to my arrival in Melbourne four years earlier except I felt decades wiser and totally bulletproof.
I remember the drive from Sydney in my blue MGB, flashing along the highway with the number one tune at the time playing over and over, American Pie by Don McLean. In some way the lyrics seemed to me to symbolize a new beginning, I was excited by the thought of new horizons to conquer, new people to meet and of course new ladies to pursue.
A long, long time ago… I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people dance And maybe, they’d be happy for a while.
Anzac Highway Plympton
The first thing I did was rent a luxury Penthouse on Anzac Highway Plymton in the most prestigious residential building in Adelaide, it was known as “the Spanish Flats” and before too long I turned my apartment into “Party Central”.
The only Adelaide people I knew were Joyce Weir and Vera Lukic, two fun girls I had met a couple of months before while they were holidaying in Sydney. They were both very social out and about types who happily introduced me to many of “the right’ people, party animals like myself.
Another early contact was Charlie Bradley, and neighbour on the ground floor, a good style of a guy who like myself dedicated most of his spare time pursuing the fairer sex. The following year Charlie banned everyone from using that name and insisted on being referred to as Charles, obviously much more refined.
Vera Lukic & Joyce Weir
Two great ladies, sadly Vera passed away around 2012, Joyce lives in Sydney and I still often see on Facebook.
Drinks with friends at Plympton
My circle of friends started to swell exponentially due to these early contacts, and soon ten minutes on the phone was all it took to arrange the next party at my Penthouse. Along came a host of new friends, Wolf Wottke, Graham & John Farquhar, Mike Poulter, Dave Brooker, Dick Wilkins, Ronny Walsh from Broken Hill, Steve Rado, Jan Seagars, Dianne Butson and many others, but more about them later.
Steve was my flatmate in the Penthouse and was I think often quite shocked by the constant shenanigans. A great guy who now in 2015 lives on the Sunshine coast I think. We stay in touch on Facebook, this photo was from 1979 in Sydney.
How time flies when you are having fun, 41 years have past between the previous 2 photos.
This shot was actually in 1975
Taken at Dick Wilkins home in 1975, I thought it was worth including as all the people were close friends when I lived in Adelaide. Angella Savic, Hank Wottke, Di Parkinson & Trevor Beech.
Richard (Dick) Wilkins Adelaide 1972 life
Dick Wilkins was a terrific guy who lived one kilometre away on Cross road Edwardstown, probably the only guy I knew who threw more parties than I, (a lot more) so between the two of us it was nonstop hedonistic heaven.
Angella Savic & Wolf Wottke
Wolf became my best friend while I was living in Adelaide 1972, he eventually left Adelaide and moved into my apartment in Sydney around 1983. Angella also moved to Sydney and became a Qantas hostess, a job I believe she still does to this day. Wolf & Angie were an item for a few years then he hooked up with Jenny, another Greek girl in Sydney. They are still together today.
My favourite Adelaide girl Adelaide 1972 amazing life
Di Butson was a beautiful girl with a lovely nature, if I ever should have married a lady it would have been Di. However at that time of my life in Adelaide 1972 I was just too wild & committed to being single to change my status. Over the years however I sometimes think of Di & how different my life could have been.
Perhaps Glenn Frey can help me here
Dianne’s 21st birthday
Di was one of the nicest ladies I ever knew, I often wonder how life turned out for her.
Did I mention Di was a dancer?
Di was also a teacher with Arthur Murray dance studio in Adelaide.
Jan Seagars & Baxter
Here are three of my favourite memories from when I lived in Adelaide 1972, Jan Seagars, Baxter my red Doberman & my wonderful E-Type Jaguar. Baxter & the Jag came with me to Melbourne in 1974 then on to Sydney in 1976, sadly Jan did not. 🙂
My apartment block and the ones on either side became our own self contained fun park; I could write a book just based on the events that took place there. Six or seven of my friends all ended up living in the complex. One great looking 18 year old was living in the block next door, her name was Jan Seagars and her boyfriend was a well known Norwood football player named Des Flavel.
Jan & I had a nice arrangement going, Des would leave for work at 8 am, and if my bedroom blind was open 50%, it would mean I was alone and she was welcome to visit. Which she did on many occasions, this gave me just enough time for a “quickie” before opening the Sanyo office in Grote St at 9am. Jan had recently won the title of Miss South Australian Beach Girl and at 18 years of age was as close to perfect as a girl could get.
Here is Jan 40 years later in October 2014
Here we are at my friends Droama vineyard 40 years later. Now known as Jan Klain she is still the life of the party.
Check out the red outfit, what was I thinking?
Here I am at Darwin airport with Arch Wilkey & the Ansett hosties from my flight. On the right is Sue, Leah is in the middle & I forget the name of the blonde on the left. Arch was a well know footballer with North Adelaide. Now you can laugh all you want at my crazy red outfit, but I soon got rid of it as you will see in the next photo taken a couple of hours later. 🙂
R.I.P Arch
North Adelaide premiership player Arch Wilkey died on the 29 th September 2007 at the age of 61 after a long battle with an inoperable brain tumour. Arch played 73 games for North Adelaide between 1966 and 1974 and was a member of the 1971 premiership side. He was a mercurial footballer who epitomised the North Adelaide style of the late 1960s.
North were renowned as a high marking, long kicking side full of brilliant players and Arch fitted the mould perfectly. It is contended that Arch was the first player to make the number 23 as famous as it is today – being followed by the likes of Michael Jordan, Dermott Brereton, Shane Warne, David Wildy and Andrew McLeod. No doubt each was inspired by Arch’s brilliance as an athlete and chose to wear “his” number.
In his early career he played mainly at half forward but when Mike Patterson came to the club Arch played more as a defender. Injury curtailed his career. He missed the complete 1972 season with a knee injury, and after playing in the 1973 preliminary final missed the Grand Final with injury.
He retired in 1974 and moved to Darwin to live. As much as Arch was remembered as a brilliant player, he was also known as a wonderful and happy character. Soon after he moved to Darwin, Cyclone Tracey hit. When asked what it was like, Arch replied that it was almost as scary as playing Port at Alberton.
On the way to Manton Dam
Adelaide 1972 exciting life with Leah & Sue
Manton Dam 70 Kms south of Darwin
Leah & Sue at Manton dam
Lets see more of Leah 🙂
Those were the days my friend we thought they would never end.
Bob (Fatty) Francis
Another old friend of mine was well know DJ Bob Francis, he retired in 2013 after 57 years in Radio. This photo was from 1997, sadly I just received the news in November 2016 that Bob has passed away peacefully in his sleep, RIP old mate.
Thanks for visiting my Adelaide 1972 exciting life photo blog.
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Ansett hosties & Arch Wilke (RIP) an ex north Adelaide Aussie rules player.
