So we will start at the beginning because the end has not yet arrived.

1949.

Resting between jobs but learning new songs before he migrated to Australia.

1952.

Entertained sheep, cows, rabbits, foxes and birdlife, singing the latest Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray, Jo Stafford hits whilst pretending to work as a jackeroo on a property in mid western NSW. Boss was not impressed.

1953-56.

Joined by friend George Beasley who played an accordion very badly. The only tune he knew was ‘La Paloma’ and would only play it in the dunny when no one was watching. Although they enjoyed George and Robert’s version of Hank Williams’ ‘Kawliga’, their boss was equally unimpressed. Also the animals were losing interest.

1963.

Taught himself to play the bass guitar and with Pete Johnson on drums, Terry Barnard on lead guitar and Doug Luckie on rhythm guitar, (I should add, they also played these instruments) formed a group under several names; The Westerners, The Fyreflies, The Planets and The Awful Sons of Lady Chatterley, finally settling with The Jindiviks. The other Member of the group Mike Harding unfortunately belonged to the Cloth Eared Society and became their manager. They won a competition at the Wentworthville Leagues Club as The Most Unimproved Band in the Western Districts.

1964.

After a successful engagement at a Central Coast hotel he earned the title of ‘The Man With The Golden Voice’ from eighty two year old Vera, the wife of the local butcher. The other members of the band never let him forget it.

1965-66.

Terry Barnard quit the band to open a fish and chip shop in Manly. Terry Miller, this time a local lad of eighteen, filled his winklepicker boots and still under the ‘Jindivik’ banner they did gigs at Katoomba and Meadlow Bath where they shared bills with Ray Brown and The Whispers, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs and Ray Columbus and The Invaders. John Harrigan their manager approached  Mike in view of adding ‘The Jindiviks’ to his stable of bands, but the fee offered suggested that they would need to get used to living on cardboard and gravel sandwiches for the rest of their lives..

Pete Johnson managed to persuade the manager of The Robin Hood Inne at Blacktown to employ them for three nights per week. When advised of the going rate, they leapt at the chance. After three weeks they discovered, via a well meaning friend, that every preceding band had had their gear smashed by the rabid crowd. A week later The Jindiviks departed whilst theirs was still intact.

No longer wishing to be a ‘prawn’ (his words) to the public, Doug married and went to live in Glen Innes where he raised sheep (usually in the small hours and onto the back of a truck.) Johnnie Walker, a guitar/vocalist from Pendle Hill, replaced him and they worked in the Blue Mountains and on the Central Coast. They were very popular with the managers as their music was so lousy they didn’t need to pay bouncers or regulators, for the audiences stayed away in droves.

1967.

The Jindiviks fragmented after Robert had a slight disagreement with the front end of a fast motorcar whilst riding his pushbike to work one dark and stormy night, receiving three broken ribs, one fractured clavicle, a broken ankle and multiple fractures to the skull.

After spending three weeks in RPA hospital’s highly critical ward, he was suspected of malingering and thrown out to accommodate more serious cases with tonsilitis and shingles.

On returning home he and Pete, the drummer, were joined by Les an accordion player, calling themselves The Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Boys or, The Sue Becker Admirers and worked in local pubs and clubs. Unfortunately Les joined the Australian Navy to play glockenspiel in their marching band. Pete became an ex-drummer and took up working as a short order chef, whilst Robert joined The Appollo Five, a promising group from Birchgrove.

Due to his inability to sight read music his career with The Appollo Five lasted no longer than three weeks. In a fit of frustration he then traded in his bass guitar for a nylon stringed folk guitar and spent most of his waking hours, via the means of ‘American Folk Guitar Tutorial’ learning to play it.