• General Notes

  Some of the memories by his son Ern.
  Bob was born in Melbourne but was very young when the family moved to a property they had bought at Mannerim.
  Bob enlisted in January 1942. He started his career in the RAAF at Somers where he earned his wings. In June he was transferred to Tasmania and in March 43 off to Mildura.
  Whilst at Mildura Bob met a shy young lady. Despite her promise to her sisters that she would never go near anyone with a service uniform they were engaged 3 weeks later. He married Esme Hillier on 29 Dec 1943 In May 1943 Bob was posted to Woolamanata a bit nearer to home to learn to fly spitfires as part of the origin of 79 Squadron.
  Mannerim residents must have thought the enemy had chosen their small hamlet to invade, as low flying beat ups became the norm with Bob showing off his new toy.
  While at Woolamanata that Bob ran the Spitfires wheels along a very long shed and dairy. An empty bucket, a madly kicking cow and an enraged, milk spattered farmer emerged, in that order, from the far end of the shed. Bob landed back at base and jumped onto his bike to go to the same farm for milk. The farmer took him up to show him the wheel marks on the roof of the shed. He said that there was no milk as Bessie had kicked it over. Bob left saying he would try to ferret the scoundrel out.
  Two passes in the same direction was the signal and in June he was off to Goodenough Island. He had been at Woolamanata for 3 weeks and that was his Spitfire training. From Goodenough there came a posting to Trobian.
  It was decided he would be a good instructor so he was posted to Tasmania. He was horrified to find the plane he was to leave on was full of top brass (officers) so he wangled a change by feigning illness. The plane he was to be on crashed killing all on board. In Tasmania the Camp was surrounded by trees that "will force mischievous pilots up to a safe height" A plane made it between the trees and beat the place up scattering trainees and brass alike. A book was opened on who had managed to get through the gap. Trainee pilot Cameron won with a bet naming Bolton "The only pilot good enough." Bob was awarded the "Gong" This brightly coloured medal was 150 mm across and was inscribed THE GONG FOR STUPIDITY in large letters. He had to wear it on and off duty for two weeks. Bob contracted Polio...the dreaded disease of the time and was then posted to Warburton Repatriation Hospital to convalesce.
  The war ended and Bob settled in to a house he bought in Catherine Street West Geelong. His love for flying was kept honed with the purchase of a Tiger Moth. Christmas Eve 1947 Bob's father died and Bob moved to Mannerim to help run the farm. The Tiger was killed when a friend missed an approach into Belmont Common and many years later it was replaced by a Cessna 180. Bob flew many trips in this plane. He used to take parachuters up in it at Meredith and was famous for his "aerobatics" (lazy eights) on the way down.
  One of Bobs flying friends was Conrad Cancy. Everyone considered Conrad a very good pilot but alas one stormy night the news arrived on the bush telegraph that Conrad was missing. Bob immediately joined the official search. As no flight plan had been submitted (OK in those days) detective work was as salient as searching. He had disappeared in the mountains while heading to New South Wales. The search was eventually called off. After the snow had melted Bob went up and found him... exactly where he always said he would be.
  Bobs aerial antics continued with many farmers jumping off their tractors to see what had made such a roar. He always approached from behind as taught in the air force. Was this to avoid the twin brownings at the front of the tractors? Or to increase the surprise element - The latter I think. Farmers used to pride themselves on the straightness of the furrow but many a kink and in one case a full loop was blamed on Bob. He used to get a lot of fan mail from someone called the Department of Civil aviation.
  Bob and Esme and John went on a flight around Australia's coast necessitating a lot of planning and preparation. When he reached W.A.'s North East he was on about the quietest bit of road in Australia. From the air one could see the dust from a car about 20 minutes before the car itself was visible. For a real adventure pilot with little regard for silly regulations the temptation was simply enormous. They took a movie of the trip and there was the scene of a car in the distance with a rising plume of dust behind it. Gradually the car grows larger and the nose of the plane sinks lower and lower. Soon the car is practically filling the screen and the plane roars past and then up into a stall turn. There is the car lying on its side in a dusty ditch on the side of the road, surrounded by a cloud of debris and the front wheel still spinning. An angry head and a clenched fist emerge from the front window. Some time later Bob is telling one of his customers about his trip around Australia. The guy is very interested, as he has done some time up there too. Bob invites him to view his home movies and of course, guess what? The same guy! It was him who had got run off the road by this maniacal fiend and now he gets to see the movie!
  At about this time Bob and his father played a trick on Bobs neighbour by lacing a bottle of drink with cascara - a strong laxative.  Eric, a train driver grabbed his drink and headed off to work to drive the train to Ballarat. The trip was punctuated by numerous stops during which the driver could be seen running across to nearby bushes, clutching wads of newspaper. Bob worked at the shire as a civil engineer before taking various contracts removing trees and carting hay, grain and water. For this he bought a truck and inventively mounted a crane on the back. I think it was never registered. Bob would put the front wheels of this truck onto another truck and tie them together and the crane would be piggy backed to wherever.
  Once, while carting hay, he killed a snake with a pitchfork, stabbing it in the head. The next morning at about 5am the snake was unloaded in the centre of Geelong as the hay was carted to Lara. A chap had his photo in the paper holding it, hole in the head and all, claiming to have killed it when it had "nearly made it down a storm water drain" He didn't even guess what a fool he had made of himself.
  Tray trucks do not have a roof over the tray and the temptation was to go fairly high with the load - often well over the legal limit and a rope or two only if the load looked a bit pecarious. One truck, so loaded and roped, with Bob at the wheel hit a huge pot hole and the truck started to tip. It was past the point of no return when Bob calmly said, "Hang on" and reached out to fold his valuable mirror in to save breaking it. The wire tying the tray on to the truck came to the rescue by breaking and the tray parted company letting the truck fall back on its wheels. I am sure Bob's motto was "Why buy a new part if a bit of fencing wire could do the trick?"
  The Cessna got bent at one time and Bob took it to Orange in NSW on the back of the truck. He watched an RTA inspector come up behind and there he sat - so close that Bob could only see his shadow in the mirrors. Bob moved over to the gravel "To let him pass" and in so doing flicked a stone up, breaking the inspectors windscreen. The result was that he was booked for multiple offences including no log book, dangerous driving, etc. The Cessna was ready when the court case came up. He was found not guilty as log books are unnecessary when you are not contracting and it was good driving to let a car pass if it was following too close. Costs were awarded against the RTA. Bob got a free trip up to pick up his beloved Cessna Bob then started a business distributing petrol and this continued for many years. It was at this job that he grew famous for being able to load a 200 litre drum full of petrol onto a truck unaided.
  He enjoyed nurturing his image as a strong man and I remember him being challenged to break an egg in his hands by just pressure on the ends. After the first one the challenger called him a cheat and watched closer... then again. That challenger really ended up with egg on his face. Years later I read that this feat was impossible. I showed this to Bob and he said with a chuckle, "not if there is gravel stuck to your hands" He had cheated.
  In 1981 Bob had the first of several strokes, which were to cause his demise 20 years later. This was minor and his recovery was almost 100%. The stroke gave Bob Tunnel vision and robbed him of the ability to read although he could still write.  His therapy was to do the crosswords from the papers. He would write the clues as he saw them and know what he had written. He would then work out the answer and write it in.
  About 1983 they started filming "The light horsemen" We were invited to Hawker to the filming, and decided to fly.  Bob's Cessna had been destroyed in the inevitable crash so we hired a 172 and away we went.  Watching the making of the film was very impressive and we got on very well with John Blake who was playing the part of my grandfather. As we were leaving Bob asked him for an autograph for a girl he worked with. "What is her name?" asked John. Donna now has a treasured autograph "To Emma with lots of love, John Blake" On the way back the plane burnt a valve resulting in a precautionary landing due to low fuel. I should have known that with Bob on board the flight would not be mundane.
  Bob's next stroke was bigger; more devastating and started a long slow deterioration as more and more of his brain was affected. He was still driving but the family decided this had to stop. There were too many fools on the road that didn't have patience enough to accept a car sitting through a green light then heading off on the red. They could not even accept one travelling at ½ the speed limit in the wrong lane.... Or both lanes. His slow debilitation eventually led to his being placed under professional care in a nursing home ...first in Queenscliff then Western Beach at Mariesville where he finally died on 31st January. Bob had his sense of humour right to the end. He could be having a real bad day but a quick reminescence of the time...... would quickly have tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks.

Details of Robert's family with Esme  Agnes Hillier