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Going Backwards
Going Backwards
Going Backwards
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Going Backwards

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GOING BACKWARDS

This book depicts how Australian Administration's policies, together with local and overseas managed Corporations are ruining their economy and gives many examples of how these policies are degenerating the community, physically, financially and philosophically, hence the title, Going Backwards.

The author deals with pollution and the harm this malaise is having on societies around the World, together with a plan of large scale decentralisation from the city of Sydney, thereby relieving the financial burden being experienced by all intending home and land buyers and those trying to rent, as Australian homes are among the most expensive in the World, and prices increasing.

Further, the writer contends that home and land prices are artificially high, and should return to a realistic ratio, related to the average wage, again using statistics to support the proposition.

He indicates that decentralisation will negate the need for billions of dollars of rail and road works being planned within New South Wales.

Corporations are dealt with, demonstrating their effect on society and deals with their often deceptive practices and that many are run by psychopaths, and outlines his own experience within a Corporation, finishing in his unjust retrenchment.

It is proposed that Australia again concentrate on rural production, to support our economy and the sheer financial waste, and harm to humans and our environment, in cutting grass, is documented.

The Australian Prime Minister is proposing that Chinese developers construct vital infrastructure on a joint venture basis, something that, as suggested, is tantamount to Australia surrendering to the Japanese in World War Two, and various points are made to reject this arrangement.

Whilst most issues are applicable to New South Wales and Australia, many of the matters covered are also relevant to societies in other Nations of the World, and offer numerous innovations to improve our standards of living.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherBookBaby
Release dateJun 5, 2014
ISBN9781483530277
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    Going Backwards - Philip Tonge

    GOING BACKWARDS

    by Philip Tonge

    Australia, June 2014

    Copyright Philip Tonge, June 2014

    GOING BACKWARDS

    PREFACE

    As the title suggests, I submit that our society is going backwards in many ways.

    In this book I will give many examples of how the Australian community is degenerating, physically, financially and philosophically, mainly at the hands of our public administrations and both local and overseas corporations.

    I hope that what I have conveyed, may bring about changes to our living standards, putting our society on a more resilient base, enabling us to prosper by more efficient administration of our Nation, employing better and more intelligent principles.

    I will refer to my own experiences in life and indicate my perception of some advantages that the past has over present day living. I will also outline numerous proposals to alter this downward trend and to build a better future.

    Technologically, the world has come forward in leaps and bounds, but without our sense of community and financial stability, it matters little, and it appears that many creditable skills and trades are being or have been lost to society, perhaps forever.

    I believe that the time is right for readers to consider the various philosophies I will outline in order to build a better future for all.

    I think you will find this book both innovative and thought provoking.

    Philip Tonge

    The author, sole security for Sir Robert Menzies, Prime  Minister, on his arrival at Mascot Airport, circa 1963.

    MY PROFILE

    Born in Sydney in 1940 (an en-caul baby), I lived with parents and two brothers (and later with our grandfather), in Lewisham, where I was educated to Intermediate Certificate standard.  

    I will dwell on our lives in Lewisham in a later chapter, being relevant to observations that I make.

    I am now retired, living on an aged pension, with my wife and eldest son in the Northern Rivers area of New South  Wales, between Sydney and Brisbane.

    I have resided herefor some 15 years, basically retiring from permanent employment when we moved from Sydney.

    We have four great children and three wonderful grandsons.

    After a few years in the Public Service (in the NSW Police Department), I joined the NSW Police Force in 1960, attaining 1st place in the final exam, eclipsing some high profile contenders.

    Our class was the first to have four women, recruited for their academic ability, and four men who later qualified as barristers, one becoming a Judge of the Criminal Court.

    I was encouraged to leave the Police after more than 8 years to join a large construction firm, where I served with great benefit to the company for two periods, totalling 20 years.

    Between jobs, I was obliged to undergo a lengthy aptitude test by an employment agency, without prior warning, and the agency later informed me that I had achieved the highest ranking in their experience, putting me in the top 2% of the population.

    I mention these attributes only as a means of perhaps, conveying to the reader an idea of the level of my mental aptitude.

    On being retrenched (unjustly) from a construction company, I worked with a major supplier of freezing installations, a position in which I was termed an engineer, which I am not.

    My most rewarding work experience was with an air compressor company with which I was NSW Sales Manager for two years.

    I undertook this position after I had been self employed in which I dealt in construction plant and equipment, during a break in my employment with the large construction company.

    Being viewed perhaps as being too old, my last job in Sydney was a Caretaker at a large tennis complex.

    In our current location in have picked fruit, conducted my own business as a cleaner of rental properties, worked as an Election Official, a Census Collector and three terms as Santa!, only ceasing because of an ankle replacement (very successful), and I may return in that role in the future. I will expand on my work experiences, that form part of my submission.

    CHAPTER ONE

    YESTERYEAR

    MY YOUNGER DAYS

    I might seem to be somewhat self indulgent in this chapter, but I feel that several aspects of my early days are worthy of re-introduction into modern society, and in many cases, I raise the question of why society has lost these beneficial practices.

    I was raised in Lewisham, an inner suburb of Sydney, where I lived with my parents and two brothers and later with our grandfather in a rented semi detached cottage. My grandparents had rented the home for many years prior and we continued to pay a reasonable rent, up until I purchased the cottage in 1966. our only other periodical bill being electricity, which in those days, was very affordable.

    My earliest memories were of life immediately after the Second World War, but I have vague recollections of the depression in our household, apparently bought about by the fear of a Japanese invasion and of the war in Europe.

    Food was in short supply and almost everyone was on rations, the iceman delivered a block of ice, weekly, for our ice chest and milk was delivered daily, poured into our containers from a large jug carried to front door of every home.

    Despite this, we survived fairly well, Lewisham being a self contained community, with most goods available within walking distance, and our school, a short stroll from home.

    A corner store provided a small selection of goods and I have fond memories of the hot bread being delivered by horse and cart from the nearby bakery.

    The proprietor also fronted as the local SP bookie!

    Though raised a Catholic, I am a sheep that has strayed from the flock, and I have no belief in the Church's teachings, but believe in Christian principles.

    I have mentioned this as I will now detail the considerable influence Catholicism had in Lewisham, having four schools, three close to the railway station and a fourth in a different part of Lewisham. I was educated up to Intermediate Certificate standard, in the two boys schools, being taught firstly by nuns and lay teachers and later by Christian Brothers.

    The Blue Sisters ran Lewisham Hospital, a large public facility, where I attended the casualty on many occasions, and sadly, my mother died in this Hospital.

    An incident on 31.1.1946 almost ended the lives of class rooms of very young children, I being one of them.

    A military plane, a Firefly, suffered a major malfunction and crashed into the laundry of the hospital, killing the observer and two of the laundry staff, virtually skimming the top of our class rooms, impacting some 50 metres away, one of my brothers being in a room at right angles to our building, probably closer to the crash site than I.

    I can recall the shock of the tremendous impact and seeing a lot of flames, not far from our classroom, and we were promptly evacuated to safety.

    A small shop operated opposite the nun's school, but numerous stores existed immediately on the other side of the railway station.

    All these businesses thrived for many years and included a chemist, a cake shop, boot maker, real estate agency, dry cleaners, post office, milk bar, news agency, baby wear shop and a restaurant, among others.

    The only stores operating when I last visited Lewisham were two small, somewhat dingy mixed businesses and a couple of shops fronts, that seem to be struggling for existence, a far cry from the past.

    People give many reasons for the demise of these facilities, but I ask how this has occurred, and this situation has been repeated many, many times over, throughout our Cities.

    Another loss is the removal of 21 poplar trees from a nearby road, Brown Street, where we played for many hours, on the roadway, without intrusion from motor cars

    I could climb all but one tree, to the envy of others, and all enjoyed gathering cicadas in the summer months, which we treated with respect, targeting the rarer species, there being numerous varieties, but all have now apparently disappeared from our modern day cities.

    The trees were removed, seemingly unnecessarily. on diverting traffic off Old Canterbury Road, making Brown Street a very busy bypass.

    All in the name of progress!

    Society is the poorer for this ongoing circumstance, and I yearn for the return of some semblance of this community rich structure.

    The church and a presbytery remain, the hospital has not operated as a general hospital since 1987. the convent closed many years ago, as did the boy's secondary school and the nun's school has been sold to another religious order.

    The school closures may be incidental, but the cessation of the activities of the blue nuns and the General Hospital can only be considered as being detrimental to all, as the hospital was considered to be a first class institution.

    PAST RAILWAYS

    I, my father, and my two brothers travelled to work, and return, on a relatively efficient electric train system from the nearby railway Station.

    The system served everyone well and was inexpensive, stations being fully manned and apparently operating at a small profit or on a break even basis, and had done since 1855, Lewisham being the first terminating station in the Sydney rail system.

    Apart from a series of new carriages, the system has gone backwards, with many complaints about service cancellations and the like, and the revelation that travel times are now slower than in the 1950's.

    As a young child, I would hear the goods trains terminating and leaving the flour mill at nearby Summer Hill, often spinning their wheels, trying to gain traction, on leaving the facility operated by Munco Scott and others, fully laden, on their way to Darling Harbour goods yards.

    My brothers and I were able to identify the various models of steam engines used, including the huge Garrett engines, considered too wide and otherwise too dangerous for use in railway tunnels.

    All were fired by coal, which we sometimes collected for our fire, when lumps fell on to the track.

    The steam engines were eventually replaced by diesel locomotives and the goods line has been closed for many years, only now being partially used by a new light rail system.

    It would seem that this freight line could have come to a better use, given the enormous cost of the track, which ran to the waterfront at Darling Harbour.

    Interestingly, troops, some American, were transported on this line during the war, hence the name of the railway bridge spanning Parramatta Road, the Battle Bridge.

    Twice our family holidayed in Kurrajong, then a sleepy rural area and I have fond memories of the bus from Richmond to Kurrajong, which, for some reasons, brings back the great times we had, firstly on a farm operated by a family whose ancestors were pioneers in the district, the McMahons, and the next year, in a guest house.

    Kurrajong was also serviced by the small steam train, the Pansy, pulling two carriages,  which commuted from Richmond from 1926 to 1952, initially traversing down a public road before heading off 11.2km to it's destination, through cuttings, farm land and over the Hawkesbury River. All in all, a great trip, especially for young children, such as my brothers and I.

    This service was ceased, partly on economic grounds, and there was talk some years ago of resurrecting the line, but it did not come to fruition.

    New South Wales was efficiently serviced, with steam trains regularly travelling to many centres outside of Sydney and did so up until some years ago (steam later replaced by diesel locomotives) when the Government decided that it was no longer economical for several lines to continue.

    The steam engines hauled passenger carriages and carried goods to all parts of the State from the turn of the century, and almost everyone used the efficient goods service for the delivery of their goods and chattels. The demise of this service leaves much to be desired, which I will deal with later.

    As a junior public servant, I was posted to a number of country towns, travelling by steam train, sometimes overnight, retiring to a comfortable sleeper, always having an enjoyable trip.

    I know times have changed, but I don't believe that our rail systems have improved in any way, from those of the old days.

    OTHER MEMORIES

    The general store, usually at least one located in each suburb and village, had a distinctively pleasant smell, apparently created by the many wholesale goods, such as sugar, teas, flour, grains and many other similar items that most stocked, and one could purchase almost everything in the grocery line.

    These stores were always a pleasure to enter and progress has rendered them only a memory.

    Fond memories also, of out local picture theatre, at nearby Summer Hill, we attended each Saturday afternoon where we enjoyed cartoons and the latest movie, a luxury to us as we were relatively poor, the admission fee being very cheap, allowing my brothers and I to attend.

    This facility does not seem to be available to children these days, and one wonders what has changed, to the extent that our theatre, the Grosvenor was demolished many years ago, as was many of the old public theatres.

    One survivor, the Capitol, in Sydney city has been refurbished, but I don't think that patrons would be paying any amount vaguely comparable to the small amount asked in our days, when we often went to town to enjoy the opulence of these theatres, particularly the Capitol.

    I inherited a large collection of post cards, mostly from the turn of the century, the quality and variety of these cards prompted a dealer to offer $600 for part of the set, giving you an impression of how good many cards are.

    These were not collected, as such, but accumulated over time by, perhaps, my grandmother and then my mother, and the workmanship involved in most cards leaves one to wonder how the producers survived, given that each card was apparently bought very cheaply.

    The point is, how has this skill, or anything approaching it, disappeared completely?

    And I fondly recall the parties, and the compulsory sing-along that our family and friends sometime indulged in, with mum (or another) playing on the piano and all and sundry in full voice, a custom some might view as being strictly old world.

    More often than not, a party participant was called on to sing, and almost invariably, they would deliver a most competent rendition of their chosen song.

    This practice was not restricted to our family and friends, but apparently, was commonplace.

    Of no great significance, but part of the picture of  days lost.

    BUSH FOLK

    I had the

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