Time is the Enemy.
Chapter 3
Robert had a restless night, his mind was in a whirl, the idea of doing a bucket list had excited him, he had found that thing to do in retirement, that thing to give him purpose. But what sort of bucket list should it be? After eating his breakfast he made himself a cup of tea, got a pad and pen and then went out and sat on his veranda.
Looking out over his garden, he sat there thinking, it was a nice spring morning, the sun had some warmth to it, the garden was looking good after all the work that had been done, the bird life were making noises, pleasant noises, there was a crow somewhere nearby, calling. A wily wage tail was flying in an erratic manner, trying to catch an insect, a bush turkey was scratching his new mulch all over the place and someone was mowing their lawn, it was a very nice day.
Robert took a sip from his tea and then picked up the pad and wrote the words, ‘bucket list.’ He then just stared at the pad for a while, trying to think of a list of thinks, he had nothing. Then from nowhere, he wrote, ‘sporting venues,’ he sat back in his chair and just looked out over the garden.
Sporting venues might work, he thought to himself, he could visit all the places where great sporting moments took place, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Kooyong Tennis Centre, Bathurst Motor Racing Circuit. But Robert was not much of a sports person, sport was only a passing interest and most of these venues were in capital cities, so he crossed sporting venue of.
“What about things to do,” he said out loud to himself, he then continued, “I could jump out of a plane, go to the Opera, climb Mt Kosciuszko, do the Harbour Bridge climb.” The Willy Wage Tail landed on the veranda railing and wiggled its tail, Robert looked at it and said, “what am I thinking, I couldn’t climb the Harbour Bridge or Mt Kosciuszko.” He crossed, ‘doing things of his list.
The Willy Wage Tail took off and flow out of view for a short moment before returning and landing on the railing again, it had a small spider in its beak. Robert looked at it and said, “how about a road trip visiting historic places? I don’t know, like Vinegar Hill or that place in Victoria where the miners revolted.” The Willy Wage Tail flow off in the direction of a large Jacaranda tree, “it’s not that bad an idea,” Robert call out to it as it flow away.
“OK, maybe not historic places, may be,” said Robert to himself, he then continued, “may be, filming location of Australian Movies, oh yer, I like that.”
Robert got up, went inside and returned with his lap top computer, he turned it on and waited while it went through its start up process which took a few moments and when it had finished, he opened up the internet. He searched for filming locations of well known Australian films and started making a list, the bucket list.
He searched the internet for the rest of the day and then after dinner, well into the night, looking for filming locations of Australian films and eventually he came up with a list of locations all over Australia.
A plan was starting to jell in Robert’s head, this is it, something to do in retirement, a road trip visiting filming locations of Australian films, a real, full on, bucket list.
Eventually after cutting a few of his list, he settled on the filming locations he wanted to visit,
He would need a car, a totally unsuitable car, something outrages, something impractical, something uneconomical, something from the seventies. He went onto face book market place and started searching, face book market place did not have a category for outrages car, so he had to use his imagination.
Robert’s first thought was a WRX Subaru but after looking at them on the internet, he decided that they were too modern. He next thought was a Holden Commodore, but they lacked that certain something so he then turned his attention to a Leyland P76. After searching around the internet for a while, he was undecided, the Leyland P76 were different but they were just not quite right. Next car he looked into was the Holden Monaro, that’s the old Holden Monaro from the late sixties, but they seemed a bit thin on the ground. While looking for a Holden Monaro, Ford Falcon two door coupes popped up, so he checked them out as well.
The Ford Falcon two door did have that certain something Robert was looking for, it had presents, it just felt right, finding one would be a different story. There were quite a few, For Sale, on face book market place but they were mostly fully restored and that was not what Robert wanted. He wanted a good every day driver, a car that had been maintained but not restored, it needed to feel lived in, not pampered.
Lady luck was smiling on Robert as he found a two door Falcon For Sale, and it was not that far from his home, it was a deceased estate and what they call these day, a barn find. It had been sitting in a garage for over six months and before that it was a daily driver, in the pictures it looked a bit, ‘un-kept’ but it had a full service history and it wasn’t all that pricey. So Robert arranged a time to inspect it, he also spoke to his mechanic, just in case he bought, as it would need a full inspection and no doubt repairs.
The next morning, Robert drove the short distance to inspect the two door Falcon, it did not take long to get there. The car belonged to an older women, it had been her husband’s car but he had passed away leaving it to her. It was parked in an old garage in the back yard of her house, may be built in the sixties, the garage was water tight but it looked like it would fall down at any point. The car had been part of the owner’s life for a very long time, she showed Robert a picture of the car with her and her husband on their wedding day.
“I’m surprised you are selling it, it must have a lot of sentimental value,” said Robert.
“It does, but it makes me feel sad every time I see it, I want it gone,” replied the woman.
Robert walked around the car, he started it up, the big V8 started first go and then idled away like a car in daily use, it was unregistered, so he could not drive it, but he could drive it about ten meters along the driveway. The clutch and gears seemed to work but Robert could not really tell from just driving up and down the drive way.
It was blue, a sort of sky blue, with a white strip down the side, the strip got larger the further down the side of the car, till it got to the ‘B’ pillar, where it turned, a sweeping turn, up the ‘B’ pillar and across the roof. The car was an XB model, which Robert thought was the better looking of the three models of two door Falcons. It had a wing on the boot lid, much the same as the wings on the XY Falcons or the ‘HO’ Falcons and the mag wheels were of the period, they were dirty but would clean up. There was an exhaust leak, which was to be expected from a car that had been sitting for a while.
As Robert sat in the car, he felt at home, like putting on an old pair of boots, the car just suited him, not so much the muscle car image, that was not really him but he felt safe, like everything was fine.
It seemed alright mechanically but it did not matter much as Robert planed to have it fully checked out and repaired as required. The asking price was fair so he done the deal and payed a deposit.
The Owner and Robert then travelled to a nearby shopping centre so they could do a bank transfer. Robert rang a tow truck before leaving the shopping centre to organize them to pick the car up as soon as they could, as it turned out it would take them just under an hour before they showed up. Robert had the car taken straight to his mechanic’s so it could be inspected and repaired.
Robert thanked the woman and promised to send her a photo of the car once it was back on the road, he then headed home, satisfied with his purchase.
Once at home Robert started working on his bucket list, he read through his list of Australian movies Filming locations, he had chosen eleven. They were all over the country so he searched around the house to find a map of Australia and he then spread it out over the dining room table. He marked each filming location on the map, by doing this he could see at a glance the order and route to take to visit all the filming locations.
He would start by heading south to Bonnie Doon in Victoria, the filming location for ‘The Castle’, then he would travel to Silverton, near Broken Hill in NSW, where Mad Max was filmed. From there he would cross the border into South Australia, to Barra, where Breaker Morant was filmed. Staying in South Australia he would then go to Carriewerloo near Port Augusta for the filming location of the Jack Thompson film, Sunday to far Away.
South Australia was a popular place to make movie as the next location Robert would travel to was, Coober Pedy, this was where the second Mad Max movie, Beyond Thunderdome, was filmed. This would be followed by a long drive to Dampier in Western Australia to where the movie Red Dogs was filmed.
The next filming location would have Robert driving all the way across the country to Port Douglas in Queensland for the filming location of the film, Travelling North which started Leo McKeon. Staying in Queensland Robert would then head to McKenley, a small town were Crocodile Dundee was filmed. After that he would travel to Dunk Island of the coast of Queensland were, The Age of Consent, with Helen Mirren was filmed.
Ulmarra near Grafton in NSW would be Roberts next destination, the TV miniseries, Field of Fire were filmed in Ulmarra and then from there he would drive to Parks for the filming location of the movie, The Dish.
Eleven filming locations in all, made up Roberts bucket list, located all over the country, the list would take some time to work through, but after all that was the point of it all, it was not the film locations, it was travelling that was important.
A lot of the films were not really to Roberts taste, Age of Consent, Travelling North, well most of the movies were not to Roberts taste, but it would be interesting to travel to all the location and see just how much had changed since the movie were made.
With the bucket list and the route now sorted out, Robert turned his attention to the practicalities of life. He was not going to book Motels in advance, he wanted to just, take each day as it came, he would organize Motels on each day. But there were things he needed to take care of, like spare parts and tools, so he purchased a tool box, just in case of break downs, as well as a hydraulic jack as the jacks that come with most cars are not very good. He also purchased a number of spare parts, those things that might fail, electrical components, radiator hoses and the like. With break downs in mind he also purchased things like hand cleaner, coolant, oil and a blanket to lay on.
The mechanic had the car for just over a week when Robert received a phone call from him, he gave Robert a comprehensive quote covering all repairs. The quote was broken up into repairs needed and repair desirable, the repairs needed were things like exhaust, tyres, shock absorbers, and brakes. While repairs desirable were things that are fine at the moment but will need replacing in the note to distant future, like the radiator, battery, and ball joints.
Robert authorised both needed and desirable repairs to be completed, plus a few other things that he thought should be done, just to be on the safe side, like replacing the clutch. Robert also asked the mechanic to fit a sound system, as he would be spending many hours in the car and some music would help make the hours and kilometres pass a little bit quicker. One thing that the mechanic told Robert that was good news, was that the car had been fitted with a five speed gearbox from a later model Ford Falcon. This would make the car better on fuel as well as making it a nicer car to drive.
All this work would take a few weeks to complete which would give Robert time to get his life in order before embarking on this epic road trip, come bucket list adventure.
Copy Right Jim Pope 2025
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