I have been riding bicycles or tricycles since the day I could stand up. They are a cheap form of transport, reasonably fast and easy to store when not in use. In fact, I presently have two road bikes I now ride simply for exercise. Bikes were, and are still, a great form of transport.
As a young teenager my father would not assist me in the purchase of a bike for what seemed at the time some obscure reason. My mother had recently died and I was just 13 at the time, so perhaps the old chap did not wish for his wife and son to die in one year.
By saving my pocket money, however, I purchased a ‘Glenroy’ cycle from a bike shop in Glenferrie Road, Malvern. I had just started Year 10 and all my ‘mates’ had bikes of some description. Even the girls at school had bikes. The girl I had a crush on, Carole, had a red bike which she painted every school holidays.
My high school mates were innovative with their bikes. A group of us struck up a friendship with a blacksmith and with two bike frames and many spare parts made a tandem bike. 1956 was the year of the tandem. A chap called Brown and his Australian mate won the gold medal for the Tandem event at the Olympic games in Melbourne, so we were right in vogue. One school holidays my friend Jeff Sutton and I rode the tandem bike from Brighton Cemetery to Queenscliff. Pedalling 50 to 180 kilometres was no barrier in those days for us young fellows! Later in my life I bought a Tandem bike which our son Luke and I used to ride. Our biggest trip was to circumnavigate Lake Eildon – some 200 kilometres – under the stewardship of Bicycle Vicoria.
At eighteen I took up a position as Station Hand in Culcairn, New South Wales. I found I needed a bike to get from one spot to another, especially when I enrolled in the Sheep Husbandry and Wool Classing Course at St Paul’s School, Walla Walla. The Sheep and Wool Course, as it was known, started at 10 am and concluded at 3 pm – the late morning start and early finish designed to accommodate those of us who milked cows.
St Paul’s College at Walla Walla is located 18 miles west of Culcairn, and my employers’ farm 5 miles east of Culcairn, a total round trip of 46 miles. I needed to contact my father who lived in Melbourne to ask if he would send up my ‘Glenroy’ bike. He did as I wished and the Glenroy arrived the following week. Some days a friendly farmer would pick me up, but mostly I had to ride the 46 miles.
Over time I saved up and bought a Peugeot motor scooter. They were hard to get parts for, so it spent most of the time in a disused hay shed.
There came a time when my employer informed me that he would have to terminate my employment due to the return of his son, who had been working on the King Ranch property in Central Queensland. So work on the property was ending for me. I needed to pack up my belongings and get them forwarded to a boarding house in Albury.
My employer offered to drive these chattels to Albury, including my Glenroy bike, on the understanding that he would sell the bike and deliver the Peugeot motor scooter to the motor bike mechanic on Laverton Road.
On the property was an old shed which was used for storage of furniture, old beds, etc. For some unexplained reason I looked in this shed after my employer returned from Albury a day or two later, only to find the Glenroy bike. He informed me that he could not sell the bike as it was in bad condition. To my knowledge the bike was in good condition, however I thought it was not worth an argument over an old bike.
So, as far as I know, my old ‘Glenroy’ bike could still be there.
Godfrey Marple,
August/September 2016
As a young teenager my father would not assist me in the purchase of a bike for what seemed at the time some obscure reason. My mother had recently died and I was just 13 at the time, so perhaps the old chap did not wish for his wife and son to die in one year.
By saving my pocket money, however, I purchased a ‘Glenroy’ cycle from a bike shop in Glenferrie Road, Malvern. I had just started Year 10 and all my ‘mates’ had bikes of some description. Even the girls at school had bikes. The girl I had a crush on, Carole, had a red bike which she painted every school holidays.
My high school mates were innovative with their bikes. A group of us struck up a friendship with a blacksmith and with two bike frames and many spare parts made a tandem bike. 1956 was the year of the tandem. A chap called Brown and his Australian mate won the gold medal for the Tandem event at the Olympic games in Melbourne, so we were right in vogue. One school holidays my friend Jeff Sutton and I rode the tandem bike from Brighton Cemetery to Queenscliff. Pedalling 50 to 180 kilometres was no barrier in those days for us young fellows! Later in my life I bought a Tandem bike which our son Luke and I used to ride. Our biggest trip was to circumnavigate Lake Eildon – some 200 kilometres – under the stewardship of Bicycle Vicoria.
At eighteen I took up a position as Station Hand in Culcairn, New South Wales. I found I needed a bike to get from one spot to another, especially when I enrolled in the Sheep Husbandry and Wool Classing Course at St Paul’s School, Walla Walla. The Sheep and Wool Course, as it was known, started at 10 am and concluded at 3 pm – the late morning start and early finish designed to accommodate those of us who milked cows.
St Paul’s College at Walla Walla is located 18 miles west of Culcairn, and my employers’ farm 5 miles east of Culcairn, a total round trip of 46 miles. I needed to contact my father who lived in Melbourne to ask if he would send up my ‘Glenroy’ bike. He did as I wished and the Glenroy arrived the following week. Some days a friendly farmer would pick me up, but mostly I had to ride the 46 miles.
Over time I saved up and bought a Peugeot motor scooter. They were hard to get parts for, so it spent most of the time in a disused hay shed.
There came a time when my employer informed me that he would have to terminate my employment due to the return of his son, who had been working on the King Ranch property in Central Queensland. So work on the property was ending for me. I needed to pack up my belongings and get them forwarded to a boarding house in Albury.
My employer offered to drive these chattels to Albury, including my Glenroy bike, on the understanding that he would sell the bike and deliver the Peugeot motor scooter to the motor bike mechanic on Laverton Road.
On the property was an old shed which was used for storage of furniture, old beds, etc. For some unexplained reason I looked in this shed after my employer returned from Albury a day or two later, only to find the Glenroy bike. He informed me that he could not sell the bike as it was in bad condition. To my knowledge the bike was in good condition, however I thought it was not worth an argument over an old bike.
So, as far as I know, my old ‘Glenroy’ bike could still be there.
Godfrey Marple,
August/September 2016
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