Today marks 5 years since my friend Tony Stott passed away. The Doc has previously published a series of posts about Tony’s life, you can read them here. The Doc misses his friend.
Tony on the Outback trip, drinking coffee at the Innamincka Pub and in the middle of nowhere near Epsilon Station.
The Doc has been doing some tests with Tony Stott’s Monaco F1 images – report here. Because of the film speed some of the images are blurred, not surprising as even modern cameras struggle using much higher ISO speeds.
So The Doc tried some new software on the images, which helps sharpen, stablise and improve focus. Here is one image, the before and after are identical except the after was run through Topaz Sharpen using the stabilise mode. What a huge difference, especially the race car.
The Doc will revisit the full size images in the coming weeks.
Second example, even bigger improvement with this image.
I was born in Melbourne to a family of fruit & vegetable wholesalers. At twenty, I took off for UK to follow my dream of motorsport photography, which I did for these three years with some success. While in the UK I married a pommie nurse, and brought her & her mum out to Oz by sea as 10-pound migrants. (The marriage lasted 31 years which was a fair innings).
Back home, I started a boring career in banking, with a little boost from being sent to Noumea by BNP for three months to optimise my French language skills. While there I realised that people living in capital cities are wasting their lives.
After Noumea, I was sent to Adelaide for four years. I used equity from the sale of my Melbourne house to commission a new 25-foot sailboat, which I raced in the beautiful SA waters, culminating in a fantastic Adelaide-Port Lincoln race, which took my little yacht out into the Great Australian Bight. After a week competing in the local regatta, we had a lovely cruise back to Adelaide, which included sailing amongst a 150 strong school of dolphins for an hour or more. We took turns lying on the foredeck, and stroking the heads of dolphins alongside us as the bow buried into the swells. All us blokey blokes were crying like babies!
When I got transferred to run a branch in North Sydney, I reluctantly had to sell the yacht, and moved as far away from the coast I could to drown out the call of the Lorelei. But (surprise surprise!) I took to chartering yachts on Pittwater, drawing crewmates from a big e-newsletter mailing list to help pay for 40-foot monohulls or 33-foot catamarans. I was staggered to realise that I actually totted up no less than 33 weekend charters, and actually outlasted two owners of Pittwater Yacht Charter, and teaching about 100 people how to sail.
When my marriage fizzled out in 2000, I moved to Dundas in Sydney, and met another pommie nurse via RSVP. We started as a couple but in due course she decided that she would be returning to UK to look after her parents and dote on her young grandson, so our relationship changed into great “best-friends”.
Katie went back to UK in about 2011, and we kept in touch by constantly playing Words with Friends. Anyway, I sold my Sydney unit and cleared the decks and debts, and moved up to Forster in February 2009.
In mid-2012, I made quite a big change in my life, by selling my sporty Subaru WRX STi and buying my sailing trimaran, a Hobie Adventure Island. I started to sail around the Wallis lakes and out to sea. I was involved with a Hobie Facebook page and made more friends.
Schoolhood friends and others friends I had made in the WRX Club and sailing would visit. We would go sailing on the Lakes and I even did an Outback trip. [Part 1 here and Part 2 here.]
I returned to my photography finally, and use to run a part-time business via my website www.scenefromabove.com.au sending a camera up a 40-foot mast or up to 400 feet under a giant kite, for interesting elevated images.
1966 Bowater Paper, Knightsbridge
1967-9 Lazard Bros merchant bank London
1969 Management trainee family fruit & veg wholesale company
1970 Banque Nationale de Paris, Melbourne
1976 BNP Noumea 3 months French language immersion (after 2 years French tuition)
1977-81 BNP Adelaide
1982-85 BNP North Sydney
1985-87 Dai Ichi-Kangyo Australia, Sydney
1988-1995 State Bank NSW, Sydney
1995-2008 Contract IT Project Manager
Part time Self-employed with Scene from Above
Farewell Tony, from your family and friends. A selection of selfies Tony took and were on his computer.
It is a sad moment for me as one of my all-time favourite musicians, Richie Hayward, drummer for Little Feat, died from complications with his liver cancer.
The first live band gig I attended was Little Feat at the Melbourne Stadium in 1976. I was so blown away that I bought a ticket for the 3rd concert too (2nd was sold out), and even when my hearing came back a few days later, I was still in awe.
So I bought their records & CDs, and joined a Little Feat mailing list, where fans could swap their stories. Fast forward to 1997, when a fan was whingeing about “only” seeing the band 12 times… so I decided there and then that I just had to see them again myself.
I emailed the list moderator and asked if he could find out the schedule of the band for about 3 months out, so I could plan a trip to USA. Imagine my amazement when I received an email from Bill Payne, leader of the band, saying that since I was going to so much trouble to see them, the least they could do was have me as their guest! Talk about going weak at the knees!
I booked a trip encompassing ANZAC day and a weekend, meaning I had a 5 day trip only missing 2 working days (important as I was managing a big project at the time).
I flew out to LA and then on to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Once in my hotel I walked to the nightclub venue and saw two of the band members unloading stuff from their huge red “rock bus” which was everything the cliché expects, but I was too overwhelmed to introduce myself.
Later on I sat in on the sound check, and say the drummer, Richie Hayward, walking past me, but no, he pulled up a stool to chat with me (I was blushing like a silly school-girl) He waxed lyrical about his last trip down under, and said he had been a passenger in an HQ Holden from Adelaide to Darwin! He had even been on the school of the air. He put me totally at ease…
The show was stunning, and I was almost in the front row, and right then the whole trip was worth it.
Afterwards, the road manager came and got me and led me backstage, announcing “Found him” before we entered the room. There were my seven musical heroes all bearing huge grins! We soon got into small talk mode, and Richie mentioned how he had found this large crescent-shaped beach with awesome sand & surf, and said that anywhere else in the world it would be covered with people, but here there were just the five people in his group. Once I suggested this would be Byron Bay, Bill Payne added there is a recording studio on the northern tip of that beach, where he spent a fortnight working with Art Garfunkel (I can’t top that name-dropping, LOL).
I handed over my “Aussie pack”, which included Violet Crumbles, Vegemite, etc and went back to the hotel hyped up.
Next day I drove the hire car to Austin, and met up with another fan and his wife, who kindly offered me accommodation in their spare bedroom, so I got to experience suburban Texas (trucks in every driveway, etc). We went for lunch at Fothergills, the holder of liquor licence #1 in Texas and the place where Janice Joplin worked as a waitress while at the nearby university.
That night I went to the venue and took my video camera. The band was happy for me to make a video of the show so I took full advantage, and moved around in front and behind the stage. At one point, the bass player, Ken Gradney, dragged me on stage from behind a curtain and attempted to get us in a two-shot with my camera in the middle of a song! Cool! I had a big chat with Paul Barrere the lead guitarist, about getting the band to come back to Australia.
My gift this time was a bottle of OP Bundy rum.
Next day it was off to Houston, driving past endless rows of oil wells and fifth-wheeler horse floats. I got lost in Houston due to road-works, and when I arrived at the Band’s hotel, the road manager expressed relief and said there were worried faces in the band about my non-arrival.
The gig this time was an outdoor one, and as it was drizzling, I was invited to wait with the band in the bus. – yup the clichéd classic sign of the world of rock and roll. Inside, there was a huge kitchen/lounge area, and then about a dozen railway-style bunks, finishing with a private room at the rear which was definitely not explained. Soon, the band’s female lead signer, Shaun Murphy, offered me cookies she have made in the kitchen (not the tough R&R image ). My gift this time was the coffee table book “Australia the greatest island” a pictorial record of a journey by three light planes around the coastline.
The gig was once again simply awesome, and I was very reluctant to say goodbye and head on home.
Once I got home, Bill suggested that I channel my enthusiasm into helping to get a world-wide “Feat fans” grassroots movement going, to help the band grow, and help support local gigs. So I found myself in charge of Feat Fans for everywhere except in USA! Ambitious eh?
I tried to get them to Australia, and even found an entrepreneur prepared to put up some money, but his idea was a low-key clubs & pubs tour, which was definitely beneath the band’s status as one of the US’s all-time classic rock & roll bands.
A few years later, the band announced they were performing in the 2001 Blues & Roots festival in Byron Bay. Awesome! I rented a fancy town-house and got a few other fans to join us there to share the costs.
I met them at their hotel in Ballina, and it was like a family reunion, with warm hugs all round.
I organised a small afternoon party for the band in Byron, and laid on the Aussie cliché for them, with beer in the washing machine, fairy bread, Balmain bugs, etc and those members of the band who made it enjoyed it. Happiest moment for me was seeing two of the band sitting outside under a grass-roof gazebo, discussing their home renovations – just the easy-going atmosphere I had hoped to create…
The gigs on the two nights were incredible, with about 13,000 fans overfilling the giant circus tent and rocking away in a surging mass to the music. We watched from back stage, and Peter Garrett joined us, and clearly loved the show too.
Next day we drove back to Sydney, where we enjoyed another great gig at the Metro Theatre.
Next day, I joined the band on a flight to Melbourne and one of the 15-20 US fans who came to Australia with the band kindly paid for a room for me and another fan who came down with me from Byron. This time the gig was at the Melbourne Casino, and yet again, I was in heaven…
At this point I was supposed to go back home to Sydney, but my enthusiasm got the better of me, so I booked a flight and joined the band in Auckland, New Zealand! As this was unplanned, I had no accommodation, but the road-manager let me sleep on a sofa in his room. So, I got another fix!
Sadly, Richie died in 2010, but he secretly coached his drum technician Abe, to take his place when he got too sick to continue. Typical wonderful consideration all the band showed for each other.
I also got to see them again in 2011, when they performed at the State Theatre in Sydney, along with Leon Russell. It was great to catch up, and swap notes with bass guitarist Ken Gradney about hip replacements, as his wife has had several. We are all getting older!
So, I do qualify as one of the oldest groupies around? LOL
I have always been a rev-head, from way back in my motor-racing photography days, and my previous treasure was a Torana XUI similar to the sort Peter Brock won Bathurst with, and I had it maintained by the team racing garage in Melbourne. For its day it was one of the highest performing cars you could buy. (Don’t worry, this is not going to be a catalogue of my cars!)
Fast forward to 1998. I was interested in Subaru’s WRX, but the papers were full of them being stolen and used for ram-raids etc, so I cleverly bought a Falcon XR6, which was soon stolen (Karma is a bitch sometimes). So I ordered a Subaru.
About this time, I found out there was a WRX club in Victoria, but not in NSW, so I decided to start one from scratch here. In April 1998, 16 of us assembled at a pub in Frenchs Forest, Sydney, and the Impreza WRX Club was formed. We allocated member numbers alphabetically, so I got number 10.
It became an obsession for me, and we eventually got more than 500 cars in the club. I was rather frightened when one member said at a club meeting “I want to race my car” – this was getting serious.
Next thing I know, I have a track licence, and I am participating in supersprints, which involve timed laps of a racetrack in multiple sessions during the day, with final results based on the best single lap. Not long after, I have piles of track & dirt wheels & tyres at home, and my car is getting loaded with modifications (my marriage was stuffed well before this I promise). Runs on the dyno confirmed that horsepower was increased lots, while my lap times improved, and I got to know a bunch of really nice people.
Over the next few years I competed at Eastern Creek, Wakefield Park (near Goulburn), Tomago Speedway, Raymond Terrace Hillclimb, Richmond and Canberra on dirt/grass, while also effectively running the club and acting as advanced driving instructor at our driver training days. I treasure all the great weekends away for club events. My wife was not interested apart from very rare occasions…
By 2000 Subaru brought out the Impreza WRX STi, which was a greatly enhanced high performance version of the WRX. I couldn’t resist, so traded in my well worn WRX. I sold the STi, but don’t really miss it (see below), but it was utterly fantastic, and easily capable of outperforming almost any motorbike except on the straight. Once I retired from the racetrack I removed some of the modifications, including the over-ride on the speed limiter, so maximum speed was governed from 255 to only 180. But with its 4wd, it is a real rocket ship on any surface, to the point where I banished myself from driving to Sydney via the curvy Lakes Way, because I found myself travelling at insane speeds out in the empty roads!
So in a way, selling the car to buy something bland I could leave at a boat ramp, while buying an awesome Hobie Adventure Island which will get me fit, has got to be a satisfactory close of the rev-head chapter. I will stay in the club forever though as a Life Member, plus all the friends I have made in the earlier years of the Club.
Tony enjoyed his time at Arkaroola Wildness Sanctuary in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. We dined at the restaurant at night, went on the world-renowned Ridgetop Tour to Sillars Lookout (with Lamingtons, tea and a hair raising 3-point turn at the Lookout), observed the stars in the Observatory (there are 4 at Arkaroola) and even took a plane flight over Arkaroola and Lake Frome.
On the Ridgetop Tour Tony got to sit in the passenger seat upfront, the rest of us bounced around in the back!
We visited a few abandoned copper mines – the Ridgetop Tour track was made when mining companies where looking for uranium in earlier times. The Flinders Ranges generally and Arkaroola in particular is one the most beautiful places in Australia and it is geologically unique in the world.
Arkaroola and the nearby Brachina Gorge are also home to the endangered Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby, Australia’s most beautiful macropod (kangaroo or wallaby). Pictures of Arkaroola and the Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby can be viewed here.
Our flight over Arkaroola.
In 2014 Tony and I travelled around outback NSW, Queensland and South Australia. Places like the Warrumbungles, Broken Hill, Marree, the ochre pits at Lyndhurst, ruins at Farina, Arkaroola Wildness Sanctuary, Innamincka, Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, Epsilon in outback Queensland, Cameron’s Corner, Tibooburra, Menindee Lakes and lots of others.
Characters like Talc Alf, roadtrains and huge coal carrying locomotives, the odd emu and even some water in this parched part of Australia.
Tony had a long chat with Talc Alf and enjoyed his stories (Alf was also the Outback postmen, talc carver, talc miner and general dogs’ body!).
Here is a map of the trip. The kink over Lake Frome near Arkaroola in SA was a plane flight we both took around Arkaroola. Doug Sprigg was the pilot and he thanked us all for financing his hobby (flying) when we returned. Lake Frome is the whitest salt lake in the world and is used by NASA to make various measurements.
Tony often spoke about the trip. He had photos on his phone he would show to nurses on his many trips to hospital. Tony is in five images below and I have written a little story around each one.
Coffee at the Innamincka Pub in SA
We had a shower at the public shower block – after being so remote for a few days a shower felt amazing.
Tony is drinking coffee before lunch. Then on to juicy steak sandwiches, chips and salad in the dining area. Then cake and ice cream for desert. The food was superb. The Innamincka Pub at the time was owned by the same people who owned the Birdsville Pub, Innamincka had better food IMO.
Tony also retained fond memories of the Innamincka Pub. We talked about it for years after.
Canonba near Nyngan Outback NSW
Tony sitting beside the car near his tent around 6.30am. My bed is in the Patrol.
We had refuelled and resupplied at Nygnan the previous afternoon and drove out to the free camping ground at Canonba. It was on the Canonba Road about 10kms out of the Nygnan township. Close by us in the camping ground was a wandering drover with his dogs (hidden by the Patrol).
Canonba was once an important Outback town when it was a supply depot for Cobb & Co coaches. Once the railway went through Nygnan, Canonba disappeared.
Middle of nowhere
Tony with the trailer gate down boiling the billy for tea. We had camped overnight in the middle of nowhere. The driver was tied. We camped beside the Wool Track between Ivanhoe and Cobar, NSW. It was an access road to the surrounding stations and not a single car drove past the whole time we were there.
Coally Station, Far North West NSW
Tony is leaning on the passenger’s seat setting up his camera. This was at a small ephemeral wetland off the Silver City Highway near Coally Station Homestead.
Earlier we had driven through Cameron’s Corner (fancy hamburgers for lunch that time, yum), then through Stuart National Park in the far north eastern corner of NSW.
Epsilon Station, Outback Qld
The image with Tony standing at the car door looking forward was near Epsilon Station in remote Outback Queensland. We were travelling out of the area on private roads used to service the Moomba Gas Field oil wells. Earlier we saw the white camel also pictured.
The road is called the Nappa Merrie-Santos Road. We were on the Santos end, Nappa Merrie Station (Ranch for any American readers) being at the other end. In remote Australia it is common to name roads after the destinations at each end, it sure helps you know where you are going.
How do I remember these details? First, I add keyword to my images. Second, I keep a travel diary to help indexing. Last, I add GPS co-ordinates to the images. Here I mainly used the GPS co-ordinates and memory.
Due to some medical issues with Tony (bruising mostly) the trip lasted only two weeks instead of the planned three weeks. Due to Tony’s limited mobility I was visiting places where I could drive Tony close to the scenery or eating place. It worked out well. I still remember those delicious BLTs (bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches) at the Blenheim Pub, Flinders Ranges. SA.
Click on the first image and a slideshow will appear. Take five minutes to look through the images.
Happy Easter everyone. He is risen!
I recently scanned more of Tony’ personal slides including some of his cars. His beloved Holden, purchased from Garry Rogers Motors.
Tony later upgraded that to a green Holden Torana GTR XU-1. He often spoke of this car.
I know Tony had a Ford V8 along the way but have no photo (EDIT: photo found). He upgraded the Ford to a 1998 White WRX with gold Simmons mag wheels, then founded the NSW WRX Club and later upgraded to a White Subaru 4 door STi, with the number plates Sic Em.
Tony and many others loved the dirt days at Bathurst where we see Sic Em in action below.
When he moved to Forster, Tony took the STi and later sold it to finance his Hobie Adventure Island. It was a smart move as Tony enjoyed immensely sailing around the lakes and out to sea. Tony was then using a Holden Commodore Wagon as his motor, serviced free of charge by Dave Dick. Thanks Dave.
Not only did Tony photograph the F1 cars, he has several images of F1 drivers. A few of which later died on the track, so Tony told me.
The image with Tony speaking to the driver was a photo I found when helping clean out his unit. It is just an iPhone image of the photo. If you do not recognise a young Tony, it is the image with three people in it and Tony is on the left (last image in list).
EDIT: from Paul Harper:
Wow. I have seen some of these before, but not all of them.
Top left, Dan Gurney – great American driver who started the tradition of spraying champagne on the winners podium. When he won at Le Mans, he no doubt appalled the french organisers by spraying his bottle of champagne over the other winners and anyone else within range! Also invented the little flap on the end of the wing (gurney flap) that greatly increased the downforce produced for very little additional drag. He was a genius engineer as well as a genius driver.
Immediately below Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart. Nothing more needs to be said.
Also a couple of shots of the late great Graham Hill.
I have seen the pic of Tony talking to Jacki Ickx before. Amazing.
EDIT2: Top right is Karl Jochen Rindt. He was a German-born racing driver who represented Austria during his career. In 1970, he was killed during practice for the Italian Grand Prix and became the only driver to be posthumously awarded the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship. (Source: Wikipedia) His name is on his racing suit!
Driver to the right of Jackie Stewart is probably Pedro Rodríguez de la Vega from Mexico.
Third row left is Mike Spence, Spa 1967. I found a copy of the image Tony put on the web. He was killed in an accident in 1968 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Middle of the top row is Jo Bonnier, Swedish driver. He was killed in the 1972 Le Mans race.
Bottom row, middle image, Guy Ligier, French driver.
Tony did not limit himself to fast cars, fast motorbikes were also on the menu. They look like British motorbikes, but I know nothing about motorbikes. The safety gear has sure improved since those days. Images sponsored by Foster’s Lager.
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