the black sheep: the autobiography of the paraplegic

Introduction

My name is immaterial but, I spent most of my years growing up in a place called Briar Hill on the outskirts of Melbourne; near Greensborough. I went to Port Arlington in the school holidays and frequented an old hut we built in a caravan park. We used old caravans to build huts around them and to this day the hut is still there.

We went out on boats, usually 19 foot cabin cruisers like our Miss-87, it was called; that used to go to the heads fishing off the old St Georges cabin marker off the channel; off the heads near the Rip and the headland of the Port Phillip Bay.

We built it off the keel from an old St Georges marker and from the steam shipping manifesto. We used the volunteer coast guard plans.

We went out on the boat 7am every morning and came back at 2am the next morning after a big fish of snapper.

We often were disappointed with the occasional banjo shark and flathead though we never starved and when the boat came home with no catch we often shared with the rest of the caravan park; they were mates; the buddies or the tribe so to speak.

We went to church and to the Salvation Army. I thought of dad as a hero and often saw the Lord in the days of old. He was there with me as a small child; since the day I went to kindergarten, indoctrination day, near Montmorency in the St. Faiths Chapel.

Indoctrination day I was dragged into the chapel and often went there to worship the cross. I saw a man in raiment; a gossamer robe with a bracelet and the long flowing bronze hair.

I was to see the reflection of myself and hear the Lord say to me “come small child.” I was to see the Lord asking me; if I was ready for him. I cried and ran back to mum and she said, it was alright as she saw him too.

When I went to the church the following day and asked to be baptized. The minister said I was too young but not; too young to be in Sunday School. I was only 6 years old, and was there with mum and dad and they said to me the day is young and you will be a Christian one day, sport.

We went to Port Arlington after that and we went out on the boats and smiled at everyone there in the Dylene caravan park near indented head. We met the others, the boat commanders, and the little troop of boats went out to St Georges Light; the channel marker. We found the whole place, a close knit fishing village and they all looked after me.

People were weeping over the soldiers that went to the Vietnam conflict and they were all scared over what would happen to their sons and their other kin, it was noticeable, I could feel the toughness in them ; which prepared me for later life.

One day a fellow in the black attire, looked at me; like he was a minister he had a big influence upon me. I wanted to be like him.

I said to dad “let’s take the boat out dad, the white horses peaks are there and we can sail out. I will ride the keel. I will we go out for a run on the boat and keel the waves like you always do. We will steer the boat down the waves.”

The old man used to be a volunteer coast guard and he knew port and starboard and the clinker hull was to be there.

We used to run the boat out over the dunes; the seas were likened to the softly dunes; like ice. I bragged to the others that I went out on the boat often and went snorkeling on the ocean.

I went to the pier once where there was a diver and he used to dive to the depths. He was down for a long time and then came up for a breath. I was scared for the fellow and he let me hold the diving gear. He laughed at the kid and fell over laughing at the concerned looks I gave; on my dial’.

We made our living building wheelchairs and artificial legs in Chapel Street in Melbourne where we did tenders for the Red Cross. We knew that if it ever went up in flames; the whole lot would rest on dad's inventions. We had wacky wheels for the Surfers Paradise tenders and dad rested on a gentleman's agreement with the fate of the whole family resting on honour. We knew that it would be a precarious agreement and if it paid off we would earn millions.

We went on to build the wacky wheels for interested corporates and lost out on the bargain. As such we were left with nothing, a bankroll that didn't exist and a whole troop of wacky wheels that we had to leave to rot and a bankruptcy that existed for us to clean out our belongings out of the shop.

We lost nearly everything, we knew we had to go to Court but couldn't pay for our meals let alone the money to take on the corporation.

We relied on our elderly grandmother who paid off the shop for us, and went back to work on the tenders. We missed out on Christmas dinner as well as the goodies but, we held together as a family with the old combustion stove and the porridge in the mornings, broke but surviving.

We made meagre earnings to pay back the bank but, dad quickly found a million dollar dream, for speculating on property deals that the family clearly didn't have in their pockets though, with the help of the other family members, namely the uncles and aunts and anyone that was brave enough to put in the kitty for the million dollar enterprise that dad thought up to buy up land deals and put flats or units on, he looked at AW Jeepers & Co and laughed that we would be bigger than them.

We are the Burt family and the manufacturing ideal of centuries of great leaders of enterprising business people.

That was his dream, mum was always with dad and she often said “flam-dingo, I want to see dad and the rest of the family happy Harold and I don't often see it as the family in charge of the business, we are Burt manufacturing and we know the shop is a waste of time but we know the Father, Harold is determined.”

“We are with Harold all the way and we know the shop is the one thing you care about but, we have to join forces with the family and Georgina, and the rest of them.”

And so it went on, Georgina was adopted; like us kids despite what we said, and we never saw much in the pride of the family but, we knew that the shop had to be built, we knew Father, Harold had to be in charge, we knew that Port Arlington was his dream, we also knew dad wanted to buy up land and spread the word that we are the Burt family and we have to be there for him.

Father said “we know the family isn’t at all in it but, Ian is the brother and the builder of the large manufacturing empire and concern and we have to build on this, and we have to be in on it. We have to be enterprising, we must have the scope for the business, we must hold on to the meaning of the family and we must go ahead with the whole family in charge of the business, we are the Burt family trust.”

“One of these days”, he told Ian and I, “we are going to leave the family business in your names, we will succeed as other people have failed.”