[AusRace] Lost momentarily - there is some horse racing in this, also geography and geology

Thu Apr 29 20:25:39 AEST 2021

Hi Tony,
Your post reminded me of my near death experience when in high school.
We had all just done sport and were getting showered and changed into our uniforms next to the oval in the sporting pavilion.
I was the last one to finish, as  usual.
There was a thunderstorm, it was raining heavily with rain and thunder and lightning!

I was about to run for the bus, but for some reason paused for a moment….and then flash BANG!
Lightning struck the ground with a powerful force, exactly where I would have been, obviously I was in shock but unhurt, The place where the lightning struck was burnt and smoking.

I eventually made a run for it, thinking about the old saying 😊
But had I not paused that split second, I most certainly would have been killed.
Lindsay

From: Racing <racing-bounces at ausrace.com> On Behalf Of Tony Moffat
Sent: Wednesday, 28 April 2021 2:11 PM
To: 'AusRace Racing Discussion List' <racing at ausrace.com>
Subject: Re: [AusRace] Lost momentarily - there is some horse racing in this, also geography and geology

Saintly, Sandtrack? Road.

I was part of three in a team, a geologist, palaeontologist, and Mumbles (de muscle)

There was great interest in marble – limestone when subjected to heat and pressure, as in deep underground, turns to marble, maybe. That marble is the most profitable rock there is, ok, apart from diamonds, it is valued at 5000 times greater than coal. Even I thought that was a strange analogy but the person who said it was in charge of the shares and maybe he was talking it up a tad.

Mount Clay nearby was a volcano that had lifted, domed, the underlying limestone. Stratigraphic work had shown limestone (marble?) at depth in the area and the hope was that the process had proceeded upwards to within quarry depth. I left before completion of our fieldwork so cannot say what they found, or didn’t. Since no marble extraction appears to have taken place I reckon the question has been answered. The LLC company was for sale for a long while and is no more, they held a lot of leases especially in NSW but none others for marble.

Mount Eccles (Eeles) was the bigger volcano a few miles north and visible. The flood basalt from that came south into the Fitzroy River and then followed that course to the sea, it is a wide puddle of hellish ground, locally known as “The Stones” and most of it absorbed, utilised and offered in Aboriginal myths. That flood came across the present day Princes Highway where it narrowed for once then widened again when it went south. The river was displaced and now runs on the western boundary of the lava field.  Darlots Creek was similarly put out and it too runs on the boundary on the eastern side. Out on the field there are pressure ridges, lava bubbles, tunnels and caves where the tunnels collapsed. It is grassed in a thin layer of red soil and is good sheep ground. I imagine those sheep have healthy hooves with no need of a podiatrist, the rocks see to that.

I met the geologist a year or so later. He told me he was out around the back of Mount Clay, near the golf course (Heywood) when a Tiger Moth took off from one of the fairways there (as you do) and then he saw a person walking up the fairway in the opposite direction, carrying a port (suitcase to non Queenslanders). It was a bi-plane anyway, which is what a Tiger Moth is. But did it land and drop its  passenger then take off again? ‘mazing. The same geologist was doing staff work (it’s a stick with graduations on it and used in levelling survey work) when lightning struck the fence behind him, and knocked him out. He wasn’t electrocuted, or burnt, just the enormous noise and pressure wave caused him to pass out and he got injured through that. (Un)lucky for some, because I would ordinarily have been doing the staff work on that job.

Cannot give a single sentence answer these days, eh?

Off the scene for a while again.

Cheers

Tony

From: Racing [mailto:racing-bounces at ausrace.com] On Behalf Of norsaintpublishing at gmail.com<mailto:norsaintpublishing at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 27 April 2021 8:01 PM
To: AusRace Racing Discussion List <racing at ausrace.com<mailto:racing at ausrace.com>>
Subject: Re: [AusRace] Lost momentarily - there is some horse racing in this, also geography and geology

Where exactly was  Tyrendarra 15, Tony?

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 17:55, Tony Moffat <tonymoffat at bigpond.com<mailto:tonymoffat at bigpond.com>> wrote:
50 years ago today I was lost, somewhat, although I knew where I was I
couldn't find what I was looking for, Tyrendarra 15, a well site in western
Victoria. It had been completed some years previously and I was looking for
some evidence of its presence, often  some sumps where the shale shakers had
removed the cuttings, a well head is always a good indicator you'd think, a
limestone pad is another, and always the crap and rubbish those drillers
leave behind, drums of this and that, cables, surplus cement. None of it was
seen amidst the swaying trees and lava stone walls of the district.

It's ok, I did find the well site, I was about 2 minutes out,
geographically, and whilst at the right latitude I was awry with the
longitude, a little.

Whilst lost and strolling around the perimeter of the prettiest paddock
anywhere I was approached by a duo of galloping horses, an older male and a
kid who rode past me, waved, and rode on, then reined back to ask if they
could help. They did, they at least knew where the well site was, a mile
towards Codrington and on the other side of the track. There it was, without
a well head, without a sump, without mess or anything of notoriety regarding
drillers and their habit of making a mess and moving on. Well done.

The older male returned on his horse a couple of days later, he was a
grandson of the earliest owners of these paddocks, although not the area
where the drilling had occurred, that was Victorian Government land. Horse
riding and horse ownership got us talking punting, as it does. This man's
father rode Massinissa into Portland to collect Revenue off the delivery
boat from Melbourne. So, you may well ask.

Massinissa ran second in a Caulfield Cup. Revenue won the Melbourne Cup of
1901 at a short price (7/4 or perhaps 2/1). Both of those horses were sent
to the owners property 'Ellangowan' to hack for a year as a holiday and
respite for injuries, to remove them from the eye of the racing public,
amateur and professional, and to see if either or both had another racing
season in them. It was not uncommon for stayers to stroll about doing not a
lot for extended periods of time, although this was then.

Neither raced again. Revenue became a ride for the Clerk of the Course at
Melbourne tracks. He achieved hero status again when taken to the First
World War and was killed in action there, in a cavalry charge in Romani
Egypt. See below

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Romani

The owner of these two was also the owner of Wakeful. Now there is
racehorse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakeful_(horse)

At her last run she ran second in The Cup, conceding the winner 22 kilograms
(or the imperial equivalent). In the book 'Melbourne Cup' under the year
1903 there is about 17 words dedicated to the winner, the rest of the page
is about Wakeful!! - she was bonny, whatever that is.

The elder male, and his daughter, (presumably 'the kid' mentioned) won
prizes for their cattle. He was a Learmonth, and several of those won medals
in battle. The airforce base in WA is named for them.

Windemere 2 a well nearby that went through the same strata, essentially,
produced oil, condensate and gas. It was sealed after completion. There is
gas, tight though, underneath most of that ground.

Cheers

Tony

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