"The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished" - Benjamin Franklin

beachball57 · Senior Member

billy carts

GaryKelly · Guru

Bit more sophisticated than the one I built as a kid with a few bits of timber, a fruit box, pram wheels, rope, a bolt, and assorted nails I found lying about.

03_troopy · Guru

We used to get large ball bearing races and shave down the end of the timber "axles" to fit the bearings over. Then a couple of nails into the end of the timber to stop the bearing coming off and use these on small lightweight carts. They used to really fly down the hilly streets of Georges Hall back when I lived there.

vk6tnc · Guru

I seem to remember that brakes were never a priority !!!

ibbo · Senior Member

03_troopy wrote:
We used to get large ball bearing races and shave down the end of the timber "axles" to fit the bearings over. Then a couple of nails into the end of the timber to stop the bearing coming off and use these on small lightweight carts. They used to really fly down the hilly streets of Georges Hall back when I lived there.

Yer Troopy,I remember your type, bloody hoodlums before Harleys.So good to have child hood memories to look back on.Remember "Fly Navy". aww

03_troopy · Guru

hahaah we were ball bearing bodgies... ouch that hurt though, Fly Navy?.. ;)

GaryKelly · Guru

Is Georges Hall near Picnic Point on the Georges River? I used to ride my bike there from Lakemba and rent a row boat for five bob a day. Real Huck Finn stuff that was.

hako · Guru

03_troopy wrote:
We used to get large ball bearing races and shave down the end of the timber "axles" to fit the bearings over. Then a couple of nails into the end of the timber to stop the bearing coming off and use these on small lightweight carts. They used to really fly down the hilly streets of Georges Hall back when I lived there.

Did the same in Canterbury/Hurlstone Park - single on at the front and 2 at the back - squirt them with kero before going downhill and they flew - magic for skids on a late summer night as the steel bearings on the road would make sparks - made a lot of noise which was good.

That's one of the special things I remember being a kid in Sydney in the 50's plus catching locusts.

GaryKelly · Guru

Yellow mondays, green grocers, black prince, something tuesday (can't remember that one). We called them locusts too but they're actually cicadas. I used to love the diamond "jewelry" on the head. Yeah, who the hell needed an ipod when you had all that bonza stuff?

And who could forget Tarzan, Hop Harrigan and Yes What on the radio?

-- Edited by GaryKelly on Wednesday 10th of April 2013 06:46:17 AM

bronnie · Senior Member

There is the Australian Billy Cart Association which holds derbys in S.A.

cheers Bronnie

beachball57 · Senior Member

well i've been in touch with them and they say there's nothing here anymore,,,some miss information going on somewhere, but there use to be a local assocation here also at some stage.

ozjohn · Guru

I have fond memories of rocketing down the side of the local quarrie in Nth Footscray at a thousand miles per hour.
Or maybe it was faster.
Mine was a little flasher (But not much) than the one in the pic on the site below
www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=167251
Ozjohn.

-- Edited by ozjohn on Thursday 11th of April 2013 03:32:40 PM

littledick · Senior Member

GaryKelly wrote:
Yellow mondays, green grocers, black prince, something tuesday (can't remember that one). We called them locusts too but they're actually cicadas. I used to love the diamond "jewelry" on the head. Yeah, who the hell needed an ipod when you had all that bonza stuff?
And who could forget Tarzan, Hop Harrigan and Yes What on the radio?

Cherry nose and the ugly, big Flowery Baker.
Dick.

-- Edited by GaryKelly on Wednesday 10th of April 2013 06:46:17 AM

Hylda&Jon · Guru

The ballbearing wheels were ok but if I could scrounge them I used to use old pram wheels instead. Made for a smoother and quieter ride and bloody fast from memory.

herbie · Guru

Walking down memory lane for me brings back Dad& Dave and I think it was called Green Bottle serial's every night listening to the old radio,..Also the Drive in movies.The times they sure have changed.

Hylda&Jon · Guru

ozjohn wrote:
I have fond memories of rocketing down the side of the local quarrie in Nth Footscray at a thousand miles per hour.
Or maybe it was faster.
Mine was a little flasher (But not much) than the one in the pic on the site below
www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=167251
Ozjohn.

-- Edited by ozjohn on Thursday 11th of April 2013 03:32:40 PM

Wow!!! that one looks just like my old one, right down to the pram wheels and old fruit box with one side missing.

03_troopy · Guru

GaryKelly wrote:
Is Georges Hall near Picnic Point on the Georges River? I used to ride my bike there from Lakemba and rent a row boat for five bob a day. Real Huck Finn stuff that was.

Georges Hall is near Bankstown Aerodrome. We lived in Georges Cres, and used to hire rowboats from a place at the boatramp at the end of Rabaul Rd, I think it was. We also used to collect golf balls at the golf course and sell them to players for the money to hire the rowboats. I remember getting chased a couple of times too because some of the golf balls may not have quite been lost when we found them. ;)