Remember the dust storm? 18 years ago today.

[Dan26]

I remember being picked up from school by my mum at about 2:00PM. Everyone was sent home early. I was 7 years old and was in grade 2. Within half an hour of getting home, day had turned into night. It was truly a scary and awesome sight. Living in the western suburbs meant we were in the firing line.

Anyone else remember that day in 1983?

 

[Carey_is_King]

And living in the western suburbs was scary enough, eh ?

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Trample the Weak,
Hurdle the Dead.

 

[Captain Sensible]

I was in the Mall in Footscray-I thought that it hit earlier in the day. We ran into the Venus shop and an old bloke told us he'd grown up in the malee and it happened all the time up there.

 

[sandie]

I remember it, my son was 4 & had justed started school. I was on tuck shop duty that day, the children were terrified. After we got home our house was full of dust, because I had left the windows open, you could see the dust rolling towards you from the western suburbs. As scary as it was, it was an awesome sight.
Cheers

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Frodo does not exist outside of Tolkien's imagination

 

[Mr Ripper]

Like it was yesterday. I'd just started yr. 9 and was in the library at the late Preston Tech. Came over all dark. Packed me dacks. Remember getting home and seeing everything covered in a film a dust.

 

[Mobbs]

I was living in the Wimmera, and would have been about 12 ... thing is ... I remember reports of it hitting Melbourne, but don't remember if we copped it out Marnoo way.

Probably did, we tend to get a bit of that stuff, not like the Mallee though.

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Hallowed be thy Roy

 

[Darky]

Yeah I remember it, I was at school that day in Grade 3. I remember looking to the west and everything was black as a dog's guts, had no idea what it was. I'd only been in Australia 2 years and in Germany these sorts of things just don't happen. Friggen hot day it was too, but don't recall being lucky enough to get let out of school early. They must breed 'em a bit tougher out Sunshine way haha.
Only a week later my family went to Mt.Macedon and it happened to be the day the Ash Wednesday bushfires broke out. Maybe as a 7 year old I wasn't old enough to comprehend the extent of it all, which is probably the only reason I didn't get freaked out by it. But I did think this place was a pretty phucken weird country after that!

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"Not by speech-making and the decisions of majorities will the questions of the day be settled... but by iron and blood" - Otto von Bismarck 1862

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by Mr Ripper:
Like it was yesterday. I'd just started yr. 9 and was in the library at the late Preston Tech. Came over all dark. Packed me dacks. Remember getting home and seeing everything covered in a film a dust.

Mr. Ripper,
I was at Keon Park Tech. in yr. 9, the day of the dust storm. Can remember riding my bike home and not being able to see a thing (a mate of mine rode into a parked car landing on the bonnet) Was my last year at Keon Park Tech. Transferred to Preston Tech. at the end of the year and had my two most fun years at school (84/85). I was in form 10 B/11 B. Were you in my form?

where's wally?

 

[Richmondfan#1]

Yeah i remember it

.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Originally posted by Wally:
Mr. Ripper,
I was at Keon Park Tech. in yr. 9, the day of the dust storm. Can remember riding my bike home and not being able to see a thing (a mate of mine rode into a parked car landing on the bonnet) Was my last year at Keon Park Tech. Transferred to Preston Tech. at the end of the year and had my two most fun years at school (84/85). I was in form 10 B/11 B. Were you in my form?

where's wally?

Strewth! Almost Wally. I was in 10A! Anything else you can divulge?

 

[CJH]

Momentous events seem to happen every year on February 8!

I would have been in Year 10 at Mazenod College, Mulgrave. I remember being in art class and looking out the window at half darkness! That would have been my 15th birthday!

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This is a hallucination and these faces are in a dream. A computer generated environment; a fantasy island you can do anything and not have to face the consequences.

[This message has been edited by CJH (edited 08 February 2001).]

 

[TheGlove]

Gee at least you can all remember it... I can sort of remember the freaky looking sky but I am buggered if I can remember what I was doing.

That is bloody ages ago. I hadn't even finished primary school....... Makes me feel REALLLLY OLD!!!!

TheGlove


[This message has been edited by TheGlove (edited 08 February 2001).]

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by Mr Ripper:
Strewth! Almost Wally. I was in 10A! Anything else you can divulge?

No names, no pack drills. But does the name 'Budge' sound familiar? Our crew used to smoke on the footpath at the bottom of the sports field at lunchtime.

where's wally?

 

[jod23]

I was 3 and in Perth so i missed it

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I can handle the fighting, its the affection i cant stand and i dont mind us talking just dont try to touch my hand.

 

[Bernie]

I was working in an office that overlooked Albert Park Lake and the bay , and everyone was hangout for the cool change ( so what's new ). You could see this brown line on the horizon getting closer and closer , and then you could see it side on, just rolling over buildings , cars, pedestrians like a huge dirty wave. Armageddon time !

I still think that I've had many more weeds in the garden since that time. The dust stroms we used to get were from the north - the red Mallee dust - which was worst because the dust came with the hot wind but nothing was as wierd as that 83 storm. Especially as the next cool change brought the Ash Wednesday debris all the way from the West Coast - I had burnt leaves in Clifton Hill !

Isn't nature wonderful ?

 

[StrengthThroughLoyalty]

i was on the beach at brighton with a mate(wagging school), because it was a stinking hot day. we saw the dust cloud in the distance as it rolled over geelong and across the bay. it was extremely eerie to watch its progress as it got closer and closer. when it eventually enveloped us, everything went dark and everything went silent, birds, traffic and general noise around you, it was spooky.

it is something i will never forget.

 

[coxon]

18yrs ago.. shit, only 5 at the time... and was in a friggin place called shepparton.. hahaha...

yeah i knew a 'budge'.... patrick jackson??

 

[Mr Ripper]

Wally teased:
No names, no pack drills. But does the name 'Budge' sound familiar? Our crew used to smoke on the footpath at the bottom of the sports field at lunchtime.

Drawn a blank there, I'm afraid. I would have been playing kick to kick on that very oval with my NON-smoking mates!

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by Mr Ripper:

Drawn a blank there, I'm afraid. I would have been playing kick to kick on that very oval with my NON-smoking mates!

Not surprised, i kept a pretty low profile at Preston. Had to after my Keon Park exploits.
Give us names, we need names.

where's wally?

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by coxon:
18yrs ago.. shit, only 5 at the time... and was in a friggin place called shepparton.. hahaha...

yeah i knew a 'budge'.... patrick jackson??

Sorry coxon, the 'budge' you knew was an imposter.

where's wally?

 

[Faline]

and I suppose it was a bigger ,better, darker, stronger, longer dust storm than any other state in Australia !

Faline

 

[walshy1993]

Originally posted by coxon:
18yrs ago.. shit, only 5 at the time... and was in a friggin place called shepparton.. hahaha...

yeah i knew a 'budge'.... patrick jackson??

any chance u know of the dookie pub???

and btw i wasnt even 1 at the time so i have no idea where i was at them time

 

[Grendel]

Yep remember it clearly. Just got the washing inside about five minutes before it hit. Wouldnt have been impressed if id had to have redo the washing. Aside from that, all i can say is it didnt last to long, but it did leave an impression.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Wally, do you remember school assembly the Monday morning after the 1984 Grand Final when Mr. Pollock got up and waved an Essendon flag?

 

[Anton Grbac]

Originally posted by Mr Ripper:
Wally, do you remember school assembly the Monday morning after the 1984 Grand Final when Mr. Pollock got up and waved an Essendon flag?

Sure do, i was one of the idiots cheering when he did it. Never had Pollock as a teacher, what was his subject? was it Edub? Can't remember. Remember Wilko?, he was cool.

where's wally?