There was a bloke who lived in Lake Cargelligo, Ray Montegue. I had seen him around Giltraps on many occasions. Although I was not particularly fond of him, I was also not antagonistic towards him. He hung out with his Social Circle and I with mine.
Ray was married to one of the Gibson girls. She was a half-caste Aboriginal. The whole family had been brought up in the township, rather than on the Mission like most of the other Abbos'.
Living at the Lake were another couple of characters who used to do a lot of painting. They were both from Yugoslavia. Tom Tomazin was one of the blokes and the other, who was his helper was called Ivan.
On many occasions Rays' wife used to come down to Giltraps with him on the weekends. He would drink in the bar and she would do her drinking and socializing in the Sow Pen. On one of these evenings, Ivan, who happened to be in the Sow Pen, playing records on the Juke Box was introduced to Montegues' wife. Things being what they are, a spark of friendship began to blossom which soon turned into romance, which in turn, made them take off to Sydney where they decided to live together.
From that day on, Montegue, who had been left with four small children, was very angry towards anyone who was not a born and bred Australian. Little by little, over a period of a few months, he started to focus his anger and frustration on me. It started off with the odd, dirty look and progressed to standing next to me, making crude remarks to his friends about Wogs and Pommys' being no different from one another. I was never that insecure that I would get involved with his obvious problem. Once it became quite clear to him, he started to make his attacks on me more direct and personal.
On many occasions, I simply walked away even though a few of my mates said,
"Jesus mate, I wouldn't put up with his crap for as long as you have!"
I remember, It was a Friday evening. Gundy, myself and a few other shearers had just come into town from a camp-out shed on the Mount Hope Road. Once we'd cashed our checks over the bar, we found a quiet spot and proceeded to have a few well-deserved cold beers, after a hard week of sheering big, rough-necked wethers. We'd only been in the bar about an hour before Montegue started to make his way over to where we all sat.
Montegue knew Gundy pretty well so he used that connection to advance his purpose. He would say things to Gundy, in front of me. For example;
"You're not shearing with that Pommy bastard are ya Gundy?" or "How can ya work with those wife-stealing Wog-Pommys?"
As was my habit, I totally ignored him which sometimes made matters worse. When Montague went out to the toilet, I said to Gundy,
"Come on mate, let's go down to Twitcheys' place. At least we can have a cold beer in peace there."
"Why d'ya put up with all that shit Chummy?", said Gundy.
"Cause I know what he's going through mate."
"So do I sport but it's nothing to do with you. You didn't run off with his old lady!"
'Yeah, I know but what do I do about it?"
"Knock him arse over head mate. It'll wake the bastard up. He may have a lot of problems now but it's not right, him dumping 'em all on you and you're a bloody idiot for allowing him to get away with it for so long. He's never gonna stop, ya know. It'll get worse the more he gets away with it. Plus, he's fucking up our peaceful evening."
At that moment, I knew that Gundy was absolutely right. The decision was made to do something about it, the next derogatory remark Montegue made.
When he walked back in the bar from the toilet, he made a bee-line to where we were all sitting. It wasn't 5 minutes before he mouthed off something to Gundy about my background. Very casually, I finished the small amount of beer in my glass as I fixed Montegue with a cold, silent stare. I said, "Alright Ray, ya time has finally come mate. You've left me no other option but to knock ya arse over head. Where do ya wanna pick your self up from, the bar-room floor or the pavement outside?"
Silence came over Giltraps' Hotel for the next 30 seconds as people dug an elbow into their drinking mates and motioned to where I was now standing, two feet away from Montague.
Montague started to laugh now as he said.
"I don't think I'll be going down on the pavement mate."
"What you think and what's a fact are two different fucking things Ray. Anytime ya ready mate, make a move!"
"Alright ya pommy fucking louse, outside mate!"
As we got to Giltraps' front door, Montegue said to me, "After you Cobber! If I'm not there in a couple of minutes, start without me."
Now I knew I had him. I could smell the fear starting to ooze out of his pores.
"After you Montegue. I wouldn't want ya to miss out on the free lesson mate."
There was now a big crowd outside on the pavement. They'd all gone out of another door to make sure they had a ringside view. As we stood on the pavement, a few feet apart, I handed mi shirt to Gundy who was acting as my un-asked for 'corner'. Montegue handed his shirt to one of his mates, who obviously supported him.
"Let's go Ray!", I said as I loosened mi shoulders and mi fists automatically closed. I assumed the well-trained fighting stance!
We danced around the pavement for a few seconds and then I said to Montegue, as I stared into his eyes, "Come on Ray, take ya best shot and make sure ya don't miss cause ya won't get another one!"
After a few more seconds, he threw a big, wide clumsy right hand. It missed by about 6 inches. As it flew past my face, I sprang forwards and sent a crashing right hook, which connected with the lower part of his jaw, just under his ear. The shock from the blow sent his eyes out of focus. For good measure for all the months of abuse I'd tolerated from him, I hit him hard up the side of the rib cage with mi left fist then automatically my right fist slammed hard, just below his heart.
I knew it was all over as his knees buckled from under him in slow motion. A couple of his mates tried to catch him but the weight of his uncoordinated body was too much for them as it hit the pavement. Then one of his mates said to me,
"Ya didn't have to hit him that hard, ya fucking pommy bastard!"
"Would you like to take his fucking place mate?"
"Well no, but...."
"Then shut ya fucking mouth and mind your own business or you'll end up on the pavement with him!"
"Come on Chummy.", said Gundy, with a big grin on his face. "It's all over now mate. I guarantee ya won't have anymore problems with old Monty from now on."
The drunker Gundy got that evening the more he talked about the hard right hook that transported Ray from his dream world to the waking state.
Next morning, I was up a bit later than my normal time due to the heavy partying after the Montegue moment. As I closed the door to my room, a mate of mine came walking down the hallway.
"Hey Yorky.", he said. "Are you gonna have another go at Monty this morning?"
"No, why d'ya ask?"
"Well, he's proppin' the bar up in the corner, with a couple of his mates."
"Ah shit!", I thought. "I'm not lookin' forward to this. I needed a hair of the dog and I wasn't going to walk down to Twitcheys' place. I thought to myself, "Fuck it! He has to deal with me!"
As I walked into the barroom where Monty was standing, three or four blokes, who were drinking in a 'school' saw me and yelled out,
"LOOK OUT MONTY! THE POMMYS BACK FOR ANOTHER GO!"
Monty looked at me and said, "Fuck that for a game of tin soldiers! My jaw and ribs are still fuckin' aching from last night."
He then said to Giltrap, "Give him a middy, 'Trap. I'm shoutin'!"
I thanked him for the beer and made mi way over to where Gundy was drinking.
