George Harding Dalton

During the great depression George, his son Bill, Bill's father-in-law Harry Thornton and Harry's son Gill, were gold mining together at Corindhap., they had sunk a fairly deep shaft about fourteen meters deep in what was know as Elders back paddock, amongst old mines that had been worked some sixty odd years earlier. Harry was alone at the bottom of the shaft when he was overcome by "bad air" which had leaked into the shaft from the old workings. George alone at the top and not hearing any sounds from below, realised something serious had happened, climbed down the shaft, using his belt he strapped the unconscious Harry into the large bucket attached to the end of the winch and climbed up the shaft, then winched him up and revived him. A mighty effort for a smallish man in this fifties, considreeing he too would be have been exposed to the methane gas whilst down below, Harry by the way was in his sixties !

George only drove horse drawn vehicles, with one exception ! That was when Vic, his youngest son, persuaded his father to have a go at driving a car. George got behind the wheel of Vic's 1920 model Citroen, eventually go it moving and with the accellerator hard on the floor lost control and steered it off the road where it started mowing down the scrub, with George continuing to yell out , "whoa back there" while pulling back hard on the steering wheel, needless to say it didnt do the car much good and by mutual consent that was the end of his car driving.