Log Book

Nick Flittner

Log Entry 05/03/2009 - 13:40:08

Many years ago I went on a trip with Dave 'Dust Poet' Delaney from Townsville to Mt Isa. He was a removalist then, and he had come up from Brisbane and collected me on the way. It was a long hot dusty trip, straight as an arrow from the coast inland to the west. Every 100 ks we came across a town - Charters Towers, Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek, Cloncurry - such well-known names. Dave was in his element, he loved the open road and disappearing off chasing the horizon. He never caught it but had a lot of fun trying. He also loved John Williamson and the 12th Man cds, which we listened to all the way there and all the way back. I have to admit I nodded off at times, but fortunately Dave never did, just kept giggling away to the Tony Grieg/Bill Lawry impersonations or the names of the Pakistani cricket team. After the 12 hour journey we arrived at the destination, and Dave opened the back of the truck to reveal........ the fibreglass frame of a racing car. That was all. We'd come all this way to deliver a broken car frame. Turns out the owner was on a government transfer so all his removal expenses were paid for by his department, so he sent everything up. We picked up the frame, put it in the car port, climbed back in the cab, and headed off back to Townsville! Oh the trucking life.........


Nick Flittner (contributor to Log Book Anthology for "Dust Poems")