BRUMMY”

Southland Times, Issue 19540, 2 May 1925, Page 23

BRUMMY”

AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST DRIVER. A LINK WITH THE PAST. In the romantie early days of New South Wales, when the coaches of Cobb and Co. thundered along the rough bush roads outback, there was no more picturesque figure than driver “Brummy” (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph). There were great drivers in those hectic times, brave and daring men, who took more risks in one day than the average man takes in his whole life. But “Brummy,” the old stagers will tell you. was the master. Now, in an unpretentious little home ai Crow’s Nest sits Mr James Richards—the “Brummy” of old, one of the last of his tribe, dreaming of the days that are gone. He teßs graphic stories of the many occasions when bushrangers, reckless men, who laughed*at death, stuck him up; of the mad rushes to the goldfields, when law and order were almost unknown; of the great drivers of Cobb and Company; and the grim struggles of the pioneers. A love of horses was born in “Brummy,” and when he became a coach driver, he was only following in his father’s footsteps. “Old Brummy”—that was his father’s sobriquet—came to Australia from Birmingham—and he brought the nick-name of ‘‘Brummy” with him—where he was a wellknown stage coach driver. He drove in the southern district for many years. “Young Brummy” was born at Goul-, burn in 1841, in an environment of coaches and horses. As a child he was never happier than when helping his father, harnessing the horses and riding on the boot of the coaches. There was never any doubt about what his career would be. He dreamt of the day when he would be pfoudly seated on the coach, reins in hand, the envy of all. Came the momentous day which saw him a real coach driver, travelling on the Goulburn to Braidwood road for old James Malone. He stayed with Malone until Cobb and Company came into being in 1860. On the Goulburn road “Brummy’s” life (he was 23) was one round of adventure. It was no uncommon thing for him to find himself with arms raised above his head gazing into the orifice at the end of a bushranger’s rifle, while the frightened passengers huddled together for protection in the couch.

“NOT BAD AT HEART.” ! “They were not bad fellows at heart, most of the bushrangers,” in his opinion, “but the drivers could not afford to take i risks. Police were scarce, and could do little. Drivers had to be careful in their dealing with the outlaws. If they were asked where the police were we had to tell . them. They had friends everywhere, and j they would quickly find out if lies were told. Often bushrangers, to try us, would : ask us if there were any police at such-and-such a place, knowing full well that there were. You had to be straight with them.” “Brummy” tells how the Clarkes, when they bailed him up on the Goulburn road, lost a good haul through a mob cf horses. They pulled “Brummy’s” coach up at the bottom of a hill on a lonely part of the road. Asked if there were any troopers about, “Brummy” truthfully told the gang he had seen 15 police horses tied up outside on hotel not far away. The gang were going through the mails when the I sound of galloping hoofs was heard on the other side of the hill. Casting their haul aside, the bushrangers tore way at top speed, warning “Brummy” to say he had not seen them. No sooner had they disappeared when, instead of the troopers, came a mob of about 20 wild “brumbies,” frightened at something over the hill. A woman in the coach on that occasion had £7OO in her possession. WHEN THE DROUGHT BROKE. “Brummy” laughingly tells of the time he capsized a coachload of Chinese into a small river between Braidwood and | Goulburn. The Chinese were bound for the I Aralen diggings, and not one of them could • speak a word of English. It was a time of i great drought, the country was parched, ■ there was no grass, and stock was dying i everywhere. . The stream was about the only one that had not dried up for miles round. “Brummy” by some means or other, missed the causeway, and the coach, Celestials and driver, were treated to a sudden bath. The Chinese, jabbering excitedly, managed to pull the coach out of the stream, and the outfit, none the worse for the experience, resumed its journey. “Brummy” was met at his destination by James Malone, who at that time was a manager for Cobb and Co., and wanted to know why coach, horses and Chinese were so wet. Without a blush, “Brummy” told him that the drought had broken. He had run into a thunderstorm about ten miles cut of the township. “It was the real i thing,” said “Brummy.” Immediately the j word went round that the rain was com- I ing, the town celebrated in the true spirit. • It was a wonderful day for the hotel- i kepers. There was no rain for months ' afterwards, however, and it was not until a year later that Malone learned the truth i about the affair. BEFRIENDED ■■MOONLIGHT.” I While on the Gundagai-Cootamundra run, ' “Brummy” breught Moonlight, the bush- 1 ranger, after he had been captured. Moon- ■ light was very sick on the trip, and when i the coach pulled up at a wayside hotel, i “Brummy” sympathetically asked Sergeant ! Carrol, who was in charge of the prisoner, • if he could give Moonlight a drink. Car- , roll forbade it, but when “Brummy” sug- ' gested a cordial he raised no objection. The ] driver went into the hotel and came out : with a ginger ale bottle, and Moonlight, who neded a lot of persuasion to drink the “soft stuff,” raised it to his lips. He drained the bottle at one gulp. A mile or so further on Moonlight caused Carroll no little worry by singing and cheering at the top cf his voice. The sergeant thought he had suddenly gone mad. But “Brummy” knew otherwise. . He had filled the bottle with brandy ! BIGGEST COACH IN AUSTRALIA. It was about this time that the Temora diggings “broke out.” That was the heyday of the coach. He handled the biggest coach ever built in Australia—a huge vehicle that carried no fewer than 60 passengers. Imagine it ! Sixty people packed like sardines into a coach that rocked and i swayed as ten powerful horses, the whip cracking above their heads, dashed along : the roads. Was it any wonder that whole : townships would turn out to see this great ' outfit thundering through the main street. ' Old timers say that there was no other ' driver that could have done what he did for six years. And that was in the days ' when some of the best men who ever ■ cracked whips over horses were at their ' prime, when the Morans (“Jimmy” and ; “Batty”), the four Pocleys (Arthur, Fred., ■ “Tot” and John), and Owen and John Malone, all famous men, were handling the | reins. The great driver eventually came to j Sydney and drove for the Sydney ’Bus 1 Company. But the humdrum life of the city did not appeal to the man from the bush, and ever a roamer, he went on to Woollongong. Later he was driving between Shoalhaven and Kiama, and then to the Yalwell goldfields, outside the Nowra. I It was dangerous driving in the south, | over rough and mountainous country. j “Brummy” finished his coach-driving! days between Nowra and Milton, and gave up the strenuous task to live in Sydney. He was sixty years on the box seat. Truly a wonderful record.