FAMILY'S WALK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 3, 4 January 1934, Page 3

FAMILY'S WALK.

BRISBANE TO PERTH.

FATHER LOOKING FOR, WORK.

Having -walked practically all the way from Brisbane, a man and his wife, with their three young boys, arrived in Perth recently. Day after day they had tramped, the father in the shafts of a handcart, a couple of the boys with leading reins giving help up the steep inclines, and mother stepping out bravely, too, watching the youngest. Twelve months ago, Les. Blake, a ■wiry young Queenelander, set out with his wife, a neat little figure in her khaki shorts, and their three boys, now aged 11, 7, and 5, to walk from Brisbane to Perth in search of work. For eight months of the twelve they actually •walked, keeping up a steady average of 20 to 22 miles a day. From Wynbring, on the transcontinental railway line, to' Parkeston —728 miles—they travelled by train, the Commonwealth railways supplying transport in return for a period of work by Blake. For the rest of the long journey they just walked. All looked fit and well on arrival in Perth, although naturally they were not carrvin" any superfluous flesh. And both father and mother, disregarding themselves, spoke with enthusiasm of the pluck of the three boys in sticking out the Ion" tramp "like three little men. "That just shows what young Australians are made ,of," said the father, Pr The ly fattest of the party at the end of the long trek was Micky, a shaggy black dog, who put on weight fast on a diet of half a dozen rabbits a day. Mickey was picked up in Sydney, and as the trampers laughingly agreed, he Avould have got a shock had he knownwhat was ahead of him. A couple of caged parrots gazed quizzing at Mickey as he pranced round the handcart or barked at pacing motors They had the laugh on him, as they rode al, Every W the family slept out under the stars. They said that it was very healthy. The little entered Parth full of hope that at the end of their long trail a job would be found for dad that would repay them for everything.