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Showgrounds
Spot on with the hickory Jim; the Brown's kept renovating old sulkies long after they stopped building them. My late mate I worked for at the time ordered a new one back in '76 and got his 24-year old model fully restored at the same time. The only way I could tell the difference was the differing paint jobs. His brother still has the "new" cart hanging in the stables. Spotted gum, as sulky shafts go, makes might fine slasher and shovel handles. I used to buy them by the hundreds from a bending works by the Clyde River at Batemans Bay in the late '70's for the forestry department. Decent hickory had become impossible to source locally; we were lucky to get onto an importer sourcing them out of the States. Initially, we were very suspicious because they had been painted rather than laquered. They proved pretty good, though. A few years later, cheap Oregon was imported into Australia - plenty of rotten pergolas and verandahs on houses from the early 80's.
Legend has it the last Royal Speed ever made was offered as a trophy at the Hopetoun Show in the Mallee. It resulted in record nominations from all over the place, only for desperate trainers to be disappointed when Ross Conway fronted up to his home-town show with his great filly Copper Satin! Wonder if he still has the cart?
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