Skatey...The life of Les Skate
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Skatey...The life of Les Skate

Biography of Les Skate edited and prepared for publication by volunteer biographer Lorraine Blythe on behalf of Eastern Palliative Care October 2019 Biography of Les Skate edited and prepared for publication by volunteer biographer
Lorraine Blythe on behalf of Eastern Palliative Care October 2019

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Skatey The Life of Les Skate So, I had good reason to go and have a look to at what was there and how it had developed. It was fascinating for me. In the early stages, as soon as the water was used for irrigation, everything grew quickly. It was all fresh land of course. Then came all the wild geese and the ducks and all the insects, and those first farmers simply couldn’t stay on top of it. They eventually went broke trying to grow and harvest the crops, vegetables and such. Apart from the destruction of a lot of the crop by the pests, to market the produce, it all had to be carted down to Perth, and of course in those days they didn’t have adequate transport facilities. But in time all of that was overcome and everything started to fire up. Yes, I loved seeing the Kimberley. We ended up heading down the west coast. It was a good coach tour, and we enjoyed it with Pat and Ted again. The second time we went to that area, we came out from Broome. We went with The Outback Spirit company. We went to The Bungle Bungles, where the camps were all selfcontained. The tents were very comfortable and really, you wouldn’t have known you were in the outback. We took a helicopter trip over the Bungle Bungles and a walking trip through them. I remember when we were walking back through the big gorge all the tracks started looked the same. Instead of turning right I kept walking. The guide had to yell at me, ‘Where are you going mate?’ We’d been to Broome twice, but we still wanted to do the Gibb River Road. The company Outback Spirit were kicking off at that stage and they had good equipment, so we went with them. We travelled along the Gibb River Road and at one point we went out to a station and stayed there and got the dope on how they ran it and all that sort of thing. To go and buy a loaf of bread was 200 kms down the road. But the people who lived there seemed quite happy with it. They’d turned their properties into tourism places. They had satellites and such and were pretty well self-sufficient. It was all very interesting. We went to El Questro. Not the real up-market one, the low-key one. It was still good. You could walk around there and have a good look. Yes our trips to the Kimberley were my favourites. What other bus tours did we do? We did some inland trips. We went to Lightning Ridge. We went to Ayers Rock, Alice Springs and the Flinders Ranges. We went to Kakadu and Litchfield National Park. We saw a lot of the interior of the country. We also went up the east coast, across the top and down the west coast. But we haven’t really done the desert places. I never really had a feeling for those areas. When we did the west coast, we went right down to the very bottom, and then headed east. We went across the Nullarbor Plain. So we have really circumnavigated Australia, and seen plenty of the inland too. 60

Skatey The Life of Les Skate There were other good things that came about as a result of our travels. To go back to my very early days … some friends from those years up on The Murray, were the Millers. Butch Miller was my mate. They lived just over the channel, just across the bridge. Charlie Miller and Pop were shearing contractors: ‘Miller and Skate.’ So that family and our family were close. Yeah Butch was a good friend at school. But as time passed, they moved away and then we moved away. I did go back and shear with them sometimes. But I always felt that I would have liked to stay close to them, and eventually I did. After a while they bought their properties down Hamilton way. We heard about Butch’s seventieth birthday through a friend and that’s how we met up again. Then he came up for my seventieth. I knew Butch was one for not going anywhere. But they’d started to get on top of everything; they were doing quite well. We were about to go on a trip on the Ghan. I said to him, ‘What about going on a trip on the Ghan?’ They did, and from then on, we’ve kept in touch. 61

<strong><strong>Skate</strong>y</strong><br />

<strong>The</strong> Life <strong>of</strong> <strong>Les</strong> <strong>Skate</strong><br />

<strong>The</strong>re were other good things that came about as a result <strong>of</strong> our travels. To go back to my<br />

very early days … some friends from those years up on <strong>The</strong> Murray, were the Millers. Butch<br />

Miller was my mate. <strong>The</strong>y lived just over the channel, just across the bridge. Charlie Miller<br />

and Pop were shearing contractors: ‘Miller and <strong>Skate</strong>.’ So that family and our family were<br />

close. Yeah Butch was a good friend at school. But as time passed, they moved away and<br />

then we moved away. I did go back and shear with them sometimes.<br />

But I always felt that I would have liked to<br />

stay close to them, and eventually I did.<br />

After a while they bought their properties down Hamilton way. We heard about Butch’s<br />

seventieth birthday through a friend and that’s how we met up again. <strong>The</strong>n he came up for<br />

my seventieth. I knew Butch was one for not going anywhere. But they’d started to get on<br />

top <strong>of</strong> everything; they were doing quite well. We were about to go on a trip on the Ghan. I<br />

said to him, ‘What about going on a trip on the Ghan?’ <strong>The</strong>y did, and from then on, we’ve<br />

kept in touch.<br />

61

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