STRANGE WAGERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23213, 6 December 1938, Page 9

STRANGE WAGERS

FEATS IN VICTORIA NOVEL CARAVAN TRIP WORK FOR "BILLY THE BULL" [from our own correspondent] MELBOURNE N6v. 23 * Victoria in recent years has established a reputation for freak wagers. Tho "epidemic" began with the celebrated wheelbarrow marathon three years ago, when one Beechworth resident pushed a fellow-villager up a mountain road. This gave rise to several other similar contests, which reached the limit when a member of the Brighton City Council, Melbourne, undertook and completed a barrow-pushing expedition from Melbourne to Sydney, a distance of over 600 miles, which made the Beechworth affair of about 50 miles pale into insignificance. But it was shown that originality was necessary to attract public attention. No other barrow-pushing marathon captured the public imagination like the first one. A popular variation was a tricycle variation. A man showed a wondering State that it was possible to ride a child's tricycle from Albury, just across the New South Wales border, to Melbourne, 192 miles away, ih a week. He went further. Ho later rode the toy from Melbourne to Sydney.

Racing on Scooters Then Geelong and Queenscliff entered into the spirit of these freakish contests by promoting a scooter race between those two centres. Many adults competed and for one afternoon the macadamised Geelong-Quecnscliff road wa3 positively unsafe for motorists. In recent months Victoria has lacked this type of diversion, but now Mr. John L. Talent, a farmer from Nowingi in tho Mallee, has decided to entertain the public. Ho has announced that for a bet of £SO he will try to drive from Mildura to Melbourne, a distance of 350 miles, with his wife and three children in a home-made caravan, drawn by a bull. Billy, the bull, is a Shorthorn, five years old, and ho is fattening up for tho trip on chaff. The journey is to begin this week and Mr. Talent expects to reach Melbourne 10 weeks later. Ever since he was, a boy Mr. Talent hus had a weakness for bulls. At the age of 12 he was driving a bullock team in the Mallee for 10s a week. After a dull mechanical interlude as a cabletram driver in Melbourne he went back to tho land. There ho acquired his first pet bull hy exchanging a cow for it when a neighbour was about to shoot tho other animal. Work In Harness "He was a Friesian," said Mr. Talent. "I broke him in and soon he could do everything a horse could do— 1 ploughing, carting and making himself generally useful round the farm. When lie died I got Billy and broke him into harness." An endless battlo against drought and bad seasons decided Mr. Talent to try his luck in Melbourne. Two Bed Cliffs butchers, Messrs. Pegler and Dempster, made the bet that Billy could not take the family to Melbourne in 12 weeks. The caravan, like a groat box, is mounted on motor springs and wheels, is. fitted with bunks and will carry a radio. Billy is to bo insured for £l5O and will have special shoes so that he will not become foot-sore.