| THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL
FIRST THINGS FIRST
COLUMNIST, TRAVELLER, NEMESIS OF MURPHY:
LIONEL MUSSELL JOINS THE GORV TEAM.
As this is my first column with
GoRV, editor Max suggested I
tell you about myself – a bit of
a task after a life crammed with
adventures and experiences.
My column writing started
some 40 years ago when I was
the editor of the Mornington
Apex Club’s Dinner Notice
(Victoria) and used to forward
it to the local paper in case they
wanted to print anything of
local interest. Eventually, the
editor of the paper asked me to
write a weekly column for the
paper on any subject I liked.
We called the column
‘Peninsula Diary’ and every
Sunday night I sat down with my
old typewriter and racked my
brains for a topic. I enjoyed my
time as a columnist and much
later in life, after writing quite a
lot of articles for Caravan World
magazine, I started the column
‘On the Wallaby’, which was to
last for an unbroken 20 years.
I was born in the UK and went
to Bishop Wordworth’s School
in the shadow of Salisbury
Cathedral. I played the
trombone in musical groups at
school and when I’m not on
the road I still play in the City
of Stawell Brass Band.
FLYING DAYS
When I was 18 I joined the
RAF as an aircrew cadet and
qualified as a flight engineer.
My posting to Transport
Command saw me flying all
over the world, including visits
to Australia when we flew to
the Maralinga nuclear test
site and took back radioactive
samples, with UK boffins
checking our load with Geiger
counters every morning. I was
very pleased when we finished
that particular flight!
My wife’s sister lived in
Australia. She and her husband
agreed to sponsor us as ‘10-
pound Poms’ and we arrived
at Station Pier in Melbourne
one cold rainy day in 1959.
MURPHY POKES
HIS NOSE IN
I first became aware of Murphy’s See you down the track.
Law when I borrowed a mate’s
new pushbike one
dark Sunday
Lionel spent 2000 hours flying all over the world as a flight
engineer in the Hastings aircraft of RAF Transport Command.
22
gorv.com.au
night when I was a teenager.
We lived on the edge of the
New Forest, from where ponies
used to stray. Peddling the bike
along a narrow country road, I
saw horses galloping towards
me – when I hit the brakes the
lights went out and I hit a horse
that was running as if it was in
the Melbourne Cup!
I landed on a bunch of keys
in my pocket and scored a
nice bruise but the bike was in
worse strife and cost me quite
a bit to get repaired.
I hadn’t heard of Murphy back
then but I now realise it was him
starting to interfere with my life.
He appeared as a real person
in the first ‘On the Wallaby’
column back in 1997 and has
been a constant companion
ever since. I even wrote a book
about his escapades called
Living with Murphy. (If you
would like to read the book,
it’s on my website:
www.caravanning-oz.com.)