Post by unclebigdave on Mar 7, 2012 20:16:00 GMT 10
I was about 14 at the time, in yr 8 at school - it was a long weekend and dad was taking us camping. I was bringing my friend Rob, so it was "dad and 4 kids" including my two brat younger sisters.
I arrived home from school to find the car fully loaded, dad had the latest bounty hunter and a wicked 4" dredge/Sluice, a canvas tent to sleep at least 12, and all the other associated odds and ends that go with a long weekend in the bush.
With the Chrysler "Regal" station wagon packed, the 5.9 litre hemi fired to life and we were away after picking up my mate, Rob.
4 hours later and just as it was starting to get dark, we arrived at the cricket pitch in Hargraves - central west NSW.
There was a slab hut across the gully, roughly 50 meters away, a faint light visible through the side window.
I noticed an old bearded man cooking something just outside the hut on an open fire, he waved to us as we drove into the camp site - Dad waved back.
Anyway, by the time the tent was pitched, sausage sandwiches eaten and cups of tea or (beer) finished it must have been about 10:00 pm, we put out the campfire and retreated to the tent..
So, we'd been playing cards (euchre) for about half an hour when a thunderstorm struck.
The front flap of the tent was rolled up a little, so I could still just see the faint lights from the little slab hut across the creek, we rolled down the tent flap and prepared for bed.
I would say it was about midnight, when approximately two seconds after everyone was zipped in and the last gas latern or torch finally turned out when the front tent flap was thrown open and in stepped the old man from across the gully, drenched to the bone.
In one hand he held a well worn miners pick and in the other a lit kerosine lantern.
Dad sprang upright, I was pinned in my sleeping bag - The old man held up his lantern and said "You all had better get out of here.... the creeks comin up soon...."
Dad switched on a lantern and with that, the old man turned around, exited the tent, walked back across the gully and that was it.
Everyones imaginations were racing for the next 20 minutes until it suddenly stopped raining and Dad assured everyone it was all safe and to "just go back to sleep".
I dont remember falling asleep but I woke up the next morning at around 7:00 am, I was the first awake and wasted no time in getting out of my sleeping bag and being the first to have breakfast.. !
I noticed something was missing the second I opened the tent flap "the hut across the gully" was gone.
I woke Dad up and told him, he mumbled something and sat up in his sleeping bag, he was still half asleep, I said again "Dad - the old house and the old dude are gone" - he rubbed his eyes and looked through the tent door, It was a quiet walk across to where the slab hut "was", in fact there wasn't a trace of anything at all - just gravel, grass, trees and shrubs that looked like they had been there for years.
I remember looking back at dad, he had a look on his face I had never seen before, and I dont think I've seen it since.
There wasn't another house for a hundred metres and that was the general store.
To this day nobody can explain it? - myself, my father, my sisters and my best friend. We all remember it well, but we hardly talk about it.
The Hut Across The Gully.
