onetrack

The new BOM site wants to be part of social media, that seems to be the main problem. You can still access all of the old BOM site at - https://reg.bom.gov.au/

I just remembered that 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the year I started school - at Wanneroo Primary School. There was no kindy or preschool in those far-off days, and I can clearly remember bawling my eyes out all day, because it was the first time I'd ever spent a whole day away from my Mother. A major shock to my comfort system. I can recall she gave me a packet of Arnotts Arrowroot biscuits to snack on for the day. But I made a few friends that day, and in the following days, and by the end of the year I had plenty of girlfriends. That's more than I can say about the rest of my adult life, where girlfriends became very hard to find, in rural and remote and all-male environments.

Yes, the 22A prefix D8H's were built in the U.K., from 1959. They were the early "low HP" D8H's, rated at 235 engine HP, later on the mid-60's they were upgraded to 270 engine HP.

Incidentally, the brother has only recently found this D6C, the very first Cat, and the first new bulldozer we ever bought (out of about a dozen dozers in total), and it belongs to an old prospector in the W.A. Goldfields, and it's still fully operational! It's probably done around 50,000 or 60,000 hours by now. We bought this tractor new in November 1966, and sold it in 1972 (traded on a new D7F), and it had done over 13,000 hrs, back in 1972.

Oh, yes, salt lakes have claimed many a victim, I've seen a couple where the machine was never recovered. Here's a bogged episode from 1966. You can see my near-new EH Holden ute in the first of the photos. Location, Bulyee, W.A. The brother was driving the D6C, enlarging a "Table" dam. A Table dam is where the wall is positioned about 4-5 metres away from the excavation. This was a design used from the earliest days of "tank-sinking", when horses, camels, donkeys and even bullocks, were used to pull simple hand-operated scoops and road ploughs, to excavate dams. The "Table" was made to allow the animals to turn around with the towed equipment. In later years, when bulldozers appeared, it was a simple enough job to excavate the section where the Table was, to make a "straight-push" dam, and thus considerably enlarge the dam capacity. The brother got caught by a pile of accumulated sand in the front corner of the dam, washed in over many years of filling up. But the accumulated sand pile sat on a layer of greasy, muddy clay. So when he drove onto the sand pile, the entire pile "took off" down into the deep mud in the middle of the dam, sliding intact on the underlying greasy mud - so it carried the D6C out into the main mud-filled area, then broke up, and dropped the D6C "right into the sh**". He was on hard bottom, but couldn't climb out, so local farmers arrived with their "big tractors" of the day - little Massey Fergusons! We even had a little International BTD-6 dozer helping - but they couldn't even get the D6C even halfway up the dam bank! So then the Hills Bros rolled up with their "big hitter" tractor - a tandem International A-554! Two A-554's coupled together without front axles, and boasting a massive 110HP!! The tandem A-554's made short work of dragging the D6C out - just by itself! The other tractors were still hooked on at the same time, but got left behind! Unfortunately, the photos of the A-554's and BTD-6 in action were amongst those lost - but the BTD-6 can be seen at rear in the second photo. The last two photos are of another bogging event with the D6C, when extending another dam. A stunt we used to use regularly when deeply bogged, was cutting a decent-sized log from any nearby whitegum, generally about 250mm in diameter and about 3M long - then digging down at the rear of the tractor (easier access at the rear), then dropping the log into the dug-out area, then tying the log to the tracks using old 1/2" (12.7mm) steel wire rope. Once the log re-appeared at the front of the tractor, you'd cut the SWR with a few accurate blows with a sledgehammer, where it sat across a grouser (the rib on the track shoes), and the log would then fall away. We would keep short lengths of SWR on hand for de-bogging missions where a log tied on was needed. Usually, just one log was all that was required. Two logs required, was a REAL bog disaster!

Wow, that sure is, "make your own road country", Willie! Unfortunately, I have only a very small proportion of all the photos I ever took, I lost 98% of them in my house fire in 1982, which still grieves me greatly. Here's a few I managed to save or scrounge off relatives. They're mostly "bogged" photos. Getting bogged was always good reason to bring out the camera. This is one of my D7F tractors around 1974, bogged to the eyeballs, when doing clearing for road widening in the Wheatbelt, East of Kulin W.A., where I lived at the time. Another contractor I worked in conjunction with, when doing clearing via chaining, had an Allis-Chalmers HD16. Here's one of his bogged episodes. Mid-Winter in the wheatbelt of course. Having your 20 foot stick rake attached when you sank to the makers name, wasn't exactly much help, either.

Great to hear you're still alive and well, Octave, and Seasons Greetings to you and Mrs Octave. I trust you're having a great Seasonal break.

Spacey hasn't visited this site since Nov 13, and Octave last looked in on Dec 14. I trust Spacey is still alive and kicking - and I hope Octave isn't stuck somewhere remote in his EV, with a flat battery. 😄

It's not that bad. We survived. A bit of a sweaty, still night, last night, as the trough moved inland - this morning we have a balmy 21-22° and a lovely cool Sou-Westerly ahead of the tip of a cold front. It's when a trough hangs around the coast for days on end, and brings in the heat from the interior, coupled with the stillness of the centre of a low-pressure area, that it gets a bit tiring. The worst part is, despite the trough and associated thunderstormy skies, we got no rain in the City, and very few areas in W.A. got much out of it. My block in the wheatbelt got 3.4mm.

Former MP and Senator Nick Bolkus, a Greek Australian who was Minister for Consumer Affairs and Administrative Affairs in the Hawke Govt (1988-1990), and Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in the Keating Govt (1990-1993), has passed away peacefully, aged 75. He was an MP from 1980 to 2005. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-25/nick-bolkus-obituary/106178484

42° in Perth City, 43° at Pearce Airbase, Perth Airport, and Gooseberry Hill at the foot of the Darling Range - and a minimum last night of 24.2°. It was 40.9° on Rottnest Island! Hot N/NE winds and thunderstorms moving from the N along a trough line, but no decent amount of rain. We spent most of the day under the A/C, up in the hills at SD's place at Stoneville.

I was quite surprised to find that solar panels perform admirably, even when covered with a layer of snow. Add in the fact that solar panels become more efficient at low temperatures, and the net result is solar panels are still quite suitable for wintery, cloudy, snowy climates. https://www.ecoticias.com/en/confirmed-first-snowfall-covering-solar-panel/22395/

Eye-v bee-n work-king on de r-ale road.

And the Trump-class Navy ships will be known for spewing out nasty toxic products. They will turn on their own men, and eliminate them. Finally, they will make a lot of noise, and essentially do nothing.

I don't even want to think about how Nev dressed for work, at this TRANS airline.

First - he's going to have to build a giant sewerage ship, to carry away all the s*** that comes out of his mouth. Just wait, tomorrow the battleships will be forgotten, and some other totally unbelievable BS idea, will take their place.

I can't wait for Donald to order the U.S. Navy to position every single U.S. Navy ship side by side, so he can play a round of golf across all the decks, without touching any water. Caligula would be proud of him.

Confusion reigns supreme with the vast majority of trans people - and that play will only leave a lot more people, more confused than ever! 😞

Quote of the week from an Imgur contributor .... "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun, is a greengrocer from the Shire!" 😄 For those who came in late - it's a send-up of the (in)famous (and often repeated) NRA pro-gun quote, "The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun!"

He hasn't been to the engine hamster shop yet.

I thought Ian meant "No Idea", when he said "NI".

And is Etsy on the banned list?? https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/900398866/funny-christmas-card-with-lost-3-wise

If I post a Farcebook link, will that get through?? https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10233003193135829&set=gm.722633917251086&idorvanity=405525975628550

Good grief! Now, AI, combined with idiotic bureaucracy, is stopping us from even posting funny photos!! 😢