Tim Bristow Iron-Bar Freddy Tropical Joe
August 12, 2021 by David Herd
Tim Bristow Iron-Bar Freddy Tropical Joe
Tim Bristow Iron-Bar Freddy Tropical Joe may seem like an unusual name for a photo blog. I’ll reveal the origon in the next few paragraphs. The shot above was taken at my home in Newport around 1986, Tim of course also lived in Newport.
I first met Tim in 1971 after I had a run in with one of his friends. I was invited to a party in Avalon by my good friend Peter Lewis, the lady throwing the party had a rather unusual name, Hope Fairweather. 🙂 I had never seen so many glamorous women in one room in my whole life. One in Particular caught my eye & naturally I made a move on her. After chatting to her for a while Peter whispered in my ear that I was attracting attention from Dick Plumber who was her current boyfriend.
Dianne Parkinson
As you can clearly see Di was a knockout. That’s probably a poor choice of words because that’s what nearly happened to me.
I arranged a date with Di for the following week in the city & I headed out the door, I was halfway across the lawn when Di caught up with me & gave me a kiss goodnight. Suddenly there was a mighty roar & Dick was charging across the lawn & screaming something that sounded like “I’m going to kill you”!
Just as I pushed Di out of the way Dick threw a vicious roundhouse punch which put me on the ground ,then jumped on top of me & then we were madly wrestling around. Now the front lawn was terraced & I managed to push him down to the next level. He got back to his feet & started up the stairs to finish the job. When he got within reach I hit him with the best right cross I had ever thrown which put his teeth through his lip & caused blood to squirt all over the front of his shirt.
Well that finished the ruckus & I thought I would get “out of Dodge” in a hurry.
However my concience was bothering me so I helped him to his feet & dragged him inside to the kitchen. The crowd that was still there were all his friends, mine had long departed. They angrilly started to ask questions about what had happened. Before I could say anything Dick spoke up & told them he had stumbled down the stairs & I had helped him inside. What a relief it was & I headed for the door, but as I got there who should appear but Di Parkingson. I then decided that I won the fight & deserved the prize. I bundled her into my MGB & headed for Bilgola Beach where we bonked on the front seat of the car.
All’s well that ends well until I found out the next morning from Peter lewis that Tim Bristow was looking for me because I had flattened his best mate.
A week passed & I was tired of looking over my shoulder so I contacted Tim & arranged to meet. It was a harrowing experience sitting across the table from him when telling my side of the story. He stared at me for a minute or two before saying he believed my side of the story, however he said I should be careful because he will be keeping tabs on me. 🙂
Strangely enough in the following few years we became quite friendly. I would regularly visit his home & play tennis with Sue Ellis his partner.
A terrific court
Sue is still playing competative tennis & coaching at the age of 60+. For more info abut Sue just follow THIS LINK.
Sue & I in 2014
This was New Years Day 2014.
Sue manages to keep the house, find the details on THIS LINK.
Sue Ellis & Diane Parkinson
Both these lovely ladies were very close to Tim.
I introduced him to the wall
Tim loved relating stories about himself especially when he played the part of the hero which was the case in most of his tales. My favourite one of all time revolves around the time the underworld bosses put a contract on his head for some reason or other which I can’t recall.
We were sitting in his kitchen and as usual Tim had a cleaning cloth close by in case I (or anybody) happened to accidentally leave a smudge or mark on any visible surface, he was paranoid about cleanliness, as well as many other things.
Tim recalled how he tried many times to have the contract lifted but each time his request was refused. He then said “it was a Friday night and I knew they were waiting for me here in this very room”. He paused for effect and continued, “I crashed through the kitchen door and the first slug caught me here”. He shoved his very large head close to mine and pointed to a scar on his forehead, and then said “so I grabbed the guy with the gun and introduced him to the wall”.
He continued on with the story, “I grabbed the second guy and held his head on the kitchen bench and cracked it like a nut”. Now Tim had one of those hinged flaps in the kitchen which you lifted to walk behind the counter, this is what he used to immobilise the second guy.
Finally he said, “I turned around to grab the third guy but he had bolted”.
The upshot of this resulted in the gangsters lifting the contract, it seems they figured if three guys could not take out the “Big Fellow” he deserved another chance.
Visited in Berima jail
I visited Tim on several occasions when he was doing time in Berrima Jail, the one time that really sticks in my mind was Boxing Day 1986 or 1987, I’m not sure which.
I signed into the jail as a visitor and Tim asked in his deep gravelly booming voice “listen Dave I have a friend who does not get any visitors would you mind signing him out of his cell?” Obviously I was not going to refuse this simple request so I did. I have forgotten the guy’s name so let’s just call him John.
So the three of us were sitting on one side of a table with his friend between us enjoying our BBQ lunch. Tim leaned his huge head forward and asked “do you know what John is “in for?”
Three things to note here are, 1. Years ago Tim suffered a minor stroke and one side of his face had fallen slightly and had no feeling, (more about that later) 2. He didn’t just speak, “he roared.” 3. He had quite a warped sense of humor.
So repeating his question “do you know what John is “in for?” I answered “no Tim, I don’t have any idea.” So in his best booming voice he said “AXE MURDERER, HE KILLED TWO PEOPLE WITH AN AXE”, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !
So picture this, here I’m sitting next to a guy with a steak knife in his hand after being informed he was a double axe murderer. I sort of lost my appetite for the rest of my lunch. I kept thinking on my drive home from Berrima how the authorities probably now had my name associated, not only with the notorious Tim Bristow but a double axe murderer as well.
Bristow on 60 minutes
In the early 1990s, Tim Bristow was named as a central figure in the Royal Commission into the building industry run by Roger Gyles QC.
Allegations were made that Bristow had been retained to deal with troublesome union members, and had gone on to various city building sites to explain in no uncertain terms that those who failed to toe the line could find themselves suffering unfortunate workplace mishaps.
It was a national scandal, but when a 60 Minutes television crew confronted him about the allegations, Tim Bristow looked disconcertingly unabashed. When questioned about incidents of workers falling from high-rise building sites, he just stared steely-eyed into the camera lens and growled menacingly, “You can’t help bad luck.”
Tim & my friend Ross Kennedy
In 1996 my good mate Ross Kennedy and I took a road trip in my Porsche to Falls Creek for some skiing, stopping on the way at the Hunter Valley & Sydney. I knew about Rossco’s fascination with gangsters and the underworld so naturally I took him to meet Big Tim Bristow at his home in Newport.
We were there an hour or two listening to some of Tim’s stories most of which I had heard before many times. As usual Tim’s phone never stopped ringing, and there was one call Ross & I will never forget. Roger Rogerson was in many ways more notorious than Tim, he was known for being a ruthless crooked cop who shot first and asked questions later, the most famous case being where he shot and killed Warren Lanfranchi in a back alley in Chippendale.
From Wikipedia;
In 1981, Sally-Anne Huckstepp met and began a relationship with Warren Lanfranchi who was a heroin dealer and standover man who worked with Neddy Smith. In June 1981, Lanfranchi allegedly robbed a Sydney heroin dealer and later fired shots at a young policeman. In Neddy: the Life and Crimes of Arthur Stanley Smith, Smith claims that Lanfranchi asked him to negotiate a payment with then-Detective-Sergeant Roger Rogerson in order to escape being charged with the shooting. Smith claims that Rogerson had instructed him to drive Lanfranchi to a meeting with him and to disarm him in the car. Rogerson took eighteen police officers with him to the meeting. He claims that he was attempting to arrest Lanfranchi on suspicion of five bank robberies. At the meeting in Dangar Place, Chippendale, Rogerson shot and killed Lanfranchi. During the inquest into Lanfranchi’s death, Rogerson claimed self-defence. He was supported at the inquest by Smith and other police officers who were called as witnesses. The inquest found that on the balance of probabilities, Rogerson had been trying to arrest Lanfranchi, but refused to find he had acted in self-defence. The matter went to the Supreme Court and was the subject of investigations by the New South Wales Ombudsman and Internal Affairs. No action was brought against Rogerson and he was exonerated and commended for bravery.
Back to Tim’s phone call, as it turned out he was speaking to Roger Rogerson about a union problem at a work site in Parramatta, naturally we could only hear Tim’s side of the conversation. After much discussion Tim finally said “don’t worry Roger everything has been fixed, I sent around Iron Bar Freddy and Tropical Joe to do the job.”
Now Rossco and I are pretty quick on the uptake, we knew exactly what Iron Bar Freddy was good at, but to this day we are still intrigued about Tropical Joes speciality, we had a lot of fun the rest of the trip speculating on what it could be. We thought it was one of the funniest things we had ever heard, we even changed the display on our mobile phones, if Ross rang me his name would show Iron Bar Freddy and mine of course would show Tropical Joe.
Roger Rogerson
Rogerson is a former detective sergeant of the New South Wales Police Force, and a convicted murderer. During Rogerson’s career, he was one of the most decorated officers in the police force, having received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty including the Peter Mitchell Trophy, the highest annual police award. During his time in office he was implicated in—but never convicted of—two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing.
Convicted murderers Roger Rogerson (left), and Glen McNamara (right),
One of two detectives behind the cold-blooded execution of Sydney drug dealer Jamie Gao helped dispose of the body because he feared for his own life, a court has heard. Details on THIS LINK.
Rogerson passed away in hospital on January 19 2024. Follow this link.
Here is one of my favourite stories
Over vigarous play seems like an understatement. 🙂
Life & times of Tim Bristow
A very good read.
A fabulous portrait of “The Big Fellow”.
When I visited it was propped against the wall, not to sure if Susie ever hung it or not. 🙂
A comment from an Australian Rugby international.
Michael Patrick Thomas Lynagh, AM is an Australian former rugby union footballer who played mainly as a fly-half. Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped 72 times for Australia, and was captain from 1993 to 1995.
He commented that the Highlanders were a pretty filthy team at one stage, Tim Bristow and Ken Yanz were two of the most violent players I have ever seen. And of course in those days, they touch judges had no power (other than to adjudicate the touchline and goal attempts), so it was open slather.
Tim in action
Clever cartoon describing the big fellow on the field.
Tim saves two lives
Big Tim was a man of many talents, Surfer, gangster, fighter & hero. 🙂
Greg Tingle is the founder and director of Media Man
For an excellent article on the Big Fellow please follow THIS LINK.
Tim’s son Stephen
This was taken at my home in 1992. Stephen is on the right & Greg Johson in the middle.
Here is a more recent shot of Stephen
Following in his father’s footsteps, for many years Steve was one of the best known bouncers in Surfers Paradise.
February 13 2003, Big Tim Bristow passes away.
The end of an era, the Big Fellow was one of a kind.
Thanks for visiting my Tim Bristow photo blog, I’m very happy to have known this legend.
Australian adventures
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