If you read Buried Words and Bushwa regularly you might remember Tom Cole. I have done a few posts before about this Northern Territory bushman and his unquestionable blokey-ness.
We first met Tom in 1937 when he was surrounded by 50 miles of floodwaters, 4 ft deep. It was Easter, and instead of coming back later Tom had a boat drop him, his supplies, saddles, tobacco, whiskey, and portable gramophone off on a small platform to wait it out. He was also surrounded by my imaginary crocodiles waiting for him to roll off the platform in his sleep….
Later we caught up with him in 1938 when he wandered into town a little the worse for wear, but not complaining. He had survived three accidents in three days and might have had a bit of a whinge when nobody was around of course, but as any self-respecting bloke would say, “I’m fine, nothing to see here”.
Then we travelled back to 1937 and discovered that Tom had managed to find an unusual offsider. He and a barber named Samuel Delaney were going on a trip into the wilds.
We weren’t sure how this little trip would go though. We weren’t worried about Tom, clearly he could handle himself, but to travel in the Australian outback with a person whose only noticeable skills are cutting hair and ballroom dancing might have made things interesting….
Lastly we heard about Tom’s plans in 1937 to build a Dude Ranch where budding hunters and sportsmen could stay and kill with all the comforts of home.
Tom Cole arrived in the Territory with nothing and made his fortune on cattle stations. He certainly worked hard for that fortune though!
The reason I was inspired to do another Tom Cole post today was that one of those posts received an interesting comment yesterday from of Tom Cole’s Great Grandson asking if I had any more information about him. Yippee! I love it when that happens! I didn’t have any more information other that what I had shared in my posts but I thought I might go and have a look to see if there were any newly digitized articles about him.*
I found a small article from the Australian Women’s Weekly in September 1950 that mentions Tom Cole and states the he now lived in Sydney and had recently returned from a crocodile hunting trip up north. His interests were listed as “shooting duck and quail for fun, a quiet game of golf and a bit of gardening”. And, I think, woe betide any critters who start munching on his roses 😉
skinny. eh?
I looked for a new article to share with you but was unable to find any new adventures. For you Tom Cole fans though, I did find this tale on the right of crocodile hunting done the hard way, written by a certain T. Cole in 1949 and published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Ridiculously skinny isn’t it? Never fear, click on it and it will lead you straight to a much larger version. This resolution was the only way I could get it to fit on a page without being in 3 disconnected parts…. grrrrr. (One of the reasons I alway use small articles in my blog posts!)
It is an interesting story of crocodile hunting with an aboriginal man, Bamboo Charlie, who paddles out on a paperbark raft made by aboriginal women, lubras, and harpoons a croc after tracking it by the bubbles it leaves as it is watching him…. eeek!
The rest of the hunting party haul the croc in, job done. I think it was pretty lucky Tom lived long enough to make his fortune, I’m sure many others in the same line of work didn’t.
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*In my searches I found that Tom (1906-1995) had been interviewed in July 1993, two years before his death, and that the recordings are available for purchase.
Wow! He sure crammed a lot of “adventure” into his life. Having never heard of him, I kept expecting him to wind up dead somewhere towards the end of the post (due to some unfortunate accident). Which he did die, but in 1995! Much, much later than I had expected.
I kept expecting him to have died earlier too. Good to hear he lasted so long.
There was another Tom Cole in the outback in the early 1900’s, so when I first found the name and started looking for articles it seemed as though he was performing the manly acts for nearly half a century, I was quite impressed until I realized it was two seperate people.
The world is short of Tom Coles now. Maybe as the article said things changed with the advent of new things like nightlights or maybe there just aren’t the same frontiers need conquering these days. It’s a shame, I think we’ve lost something.
I think it is a case of there are not those same frontiers. These days people get to drive their airconditioned luxury four-wheel-drives on nice tracks to places that were only accessible after days or weeks of hard slog on horseback in the past. There are still adventures to be had but I guess the hard edges have been taken off most things like that now.
Wow… our Tom was kind of famous! As I was reading that article I started to wonder whether Crocodile Dundee was as imaginary as we thought.
There are probably some blokes just like that still living on outback stations even now. 🙂
Yeah but they ride bikes instead of horses. 🙂 I love bikes but they just don’t quite have the same charisma as a stock horse.
Hopefully some still use horses too. Maybe the bushman is still alive and well, he just keeps quiet about it 🙂
I’m sure there are some, but most of the country stories I see on the ABC seem to feature people mustering on dirt bikes. The march of technology..
Bikes are cheaper to maintain I guess.
Did you know that Bourke Street in the city (west of the PO) used to be called the Wild West because of all the horsey establishments there? They used to muster cattle and break horses in the street. Hard to imagine today isn’t it!
Seriously? It’s hard to believe staid old Melbourne could ever be that interesting. Although I suppose back then, horses would not have been the novelty they are now.
That end of town was a wild place for a while! I might have to do a post……..
http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00219b.htm
My GGG Grandfather (convict) was a blacksmith in Bourke St in the mid 1800’s. I would love to know where he worked and lived then, maybe Kirks, maybe Bears….. I can hope!
What a great article Metan. I’ve lived in Melbourne mos of my life and I had no idea what it was like back then. It all seems so staid and business-like now and yet, if I think about it, those old time shops etc /would/ have been the epitome of ‘business’ back then. Plus a bit of fun. 😉
I’m glad you had a look at it, it is amazing to think of Bouke Street as an outer suburb isn’t it.
When we walk through the city we always look above the ground level frontages, the city above the hoardings is a very different place. Imagine a horse bazaar there now!
-grin- Birds of a feather. It’s the older parts of the city I’ve always loved, and I discovered the other day that I’m not the only one.
I haven’t been in the CBD for years but I was in there recently, with time to wonder around, and I was amazed by the small lanes between Flinders and Bourke, and Swanston and Elizabeth. So many tiny cafes in old buildings, and ALL of them filled to the rafters with the lunchtime crowd. The ambience was amazing. The food was pretty good too. None of this sterile food court stuff. Reminded my why I’ve always loved Melbourne. 🙂
We hardly eve go to the city too, a pity, because when we do I come back with my head filled with the old buildings and what went on in them. I wish we looked after those buildings better, to see them being neglected or demolished is just such a loss 😦
I agree. I’m not a big fan of glass and concrete. 😦
We were just half an hour ago discussing Tom Cole’s novel http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1295497.Hell_West_and_Crooked, and I presume this is the same person. The G.O. loves book, so when we resume normal internet connectivity in the city in a few days I will show him your posts and links – he’ll love them 🙂
I am really pleased to hear that someone has read it!
I would love to know more about what the G.O. thought of the book. I haven’t seen it myself but am keeping an eye out for it. I can only imagine what tales Tom Cole might have had that didn’t make it into the book!
Too bad that your holiday is drawing to a close 🙂 Hope the time away was a success and that you are dangerously relaxed!
I’ll ask him for a book review… I’ve yet to read it. I was dangerously relaxed but now I’m back and cannot come to grips with the ‘real’ world…
Real life is so unfair 😦 If only we could stay on holidays forever…
The only review I got was “it’s my favourite book”… with a look that said don’t even think about lending it… which I was 😉
I’m glad to hear he didn’t just hand it over as if he was glad to be rid of it. Now you just have to return it without him noticing it was ever gone….. 😉