Tim Griffin: From cyclones to psychopaths

Tim Griffin relates some of his more extreme experiences of GSWA field work. 

Transcript

00:01 Tim

So there was a murderer on the loose. And the police said, “Oh look, it's probably okay for you to go out. You're working up in the back blocks, aren’t you? Have you got a gun?” And I thought, ‘Oh, goodness, this isn't for us’.

00:11 Julie

Welcome to The Rocks Beneath Our Feet. In this series, five geologists talk about their years devoted to working for the Geological Survey of Western Australia. From understanding early life, to the tectonic processes that shaped our planet, and making the maps that unearth our understanding of Western Australia’s geology, they reveal their shared passion for discovering the stories in the rocks beneath our feet.

I’m Julie Hollis.

From cyclones to psychopaths. In this episode, Tim Griffin relates some of his more extreme experiences of GSWA field work.

First up, Tim talks about Cyclone Bobby, a category 4 cyclone that hit Western Australia in February 1995.

01:06 Tim

Cyclone Bobby was a cyclone that came through the Pilbara. And it was a massive cyclone, disrupted the offshore petroleum activity and the mining activity in the Pilbara, and it came down into the northern goldfields. We were up there east of Laverton. And I was running a bit of an introductory tour for some new geologists. So there were four or five vehicles traveling in convoy.

And one night, it started to rain. And it rained and rained, and we put up a big tarp between the vehicles and managed to stay dry. But it just kept raining and raining. And of course, we woke up the next morning, and all the roads were flooded and boggy. We wondered how we were going to get out of there. Well, one of our geologists was an orienteering, rogaining type guy. He used to go for run in the morning.

01:53 Julie

Yep.

01:53 Tim

And so we said, ‘Well, can you check this track and check that track?’ because it doesn't look like we'll get out a certain direction. So we worked out the best way to get out of there. But in the process, we had all the vehicles bogged and took hours and hours to unbog them and get out. We finally got down to Laverton and booked into the caravan park to dry out and sort of wondered what we could do. And then we found out that all the roads out of there from Leonora down, north and south were all blocked. We couldn't get it in or out because

02:23 Julie

Right.

02:24 Tim

what had happened, there'd been so much rain, it had filled up the extensive lake system in the goldfields. And the lakes had actually done what had been predicted would happen from some early geological work, that these were actually part of an ancient drainage system.

02:41 Julie

Oh yeah?

02:42 Tim

So the water started to flow out of the lakes and flow to the south or south east. And it took out the Trans line, and it actually stopped vehicles on the Eyre Highway.

02:54 Julie

Wow.

02:54 Tim

So people were stuck as the water flowed out. And I think most of it ended up flowing into the ground, into the cave system. I don't think anything actually got into the ocean because of these extensive cave systems along the Nullarbor there. Anyway, what we had to do, we could drive from Laverton to Leonora, and we left our vehicles in a government yard and chartered a plane out. And I think it was three or four months before we came back to get our vehicles and all our gear.

03:23 Julie

Wow.

03:25 Tim

That was Cyclone Bobby.

03:27 Julie

Yeah.

Later the same year, in March 1995, the cult movement – Aum Shinrikyo – perpetrated a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, killing more than a dozen and injuring five and a half thousand people.

03:41 Tim

The sarin gas attack in Tokyo subway? I don't know if you’re familiar with that?

03:46 Julie

Yeah I am. And I’m intrigued as to how this relates to your field work.

03:51 Tim

relates to the goldfields, eastern goldfields fieldwork. Well, I was actually supervising at a time. It happened in March 20 of March 1995, where there was an attack on the subway,

04:01 Julie

Yeah.

04:03 Tim

and there were 13 deaths and 5500 people injured. And so this was a really quite an unusual thing and attracted a lot of international publicity.

04:15 Julie

Yeah.

04:15 Tim

As it turned out, the people responsible actually leased sheep station in the northern goldfields called Banjuwan.

04:24 Julie

Oh!

04:25 Tim

And some months later, they realized this, that there was a connection between what they were doing there. And so they did a raid on Banjuwan. But prior to this, I'd been up there mapping. And one of the ways I map a lot of the time was, often the best outcrop was in the back blocks of a pastoral lease, because it was difficult to access. So the road access and the house was in the easy areas where there's probably less rocks and hills and difficult terrain.

04:55 Julie

Right.

04:55 Tim

And so I would often, the way I'd work, I would start mapping quite systematically, come in the front gate, talk to the people. And then I'd work back up through their block and then I’d go through the back fence, often had to put it down, because there were no gates, with the neighbor at the back, on the other side and then work there and then go down and come out through the homestead and the front gate of the adjacent property.

05:18 Julie

Yep.

05:19 Tim

And I’d generally try and contact people and do this, but occasionally I was unable to do it. And I’d go through and do it anyway. And I had no problems. They were a bit worried when they see you coming down from the back hills. But once you explained, they were quite intrigued. Anyway, so I did this and I came down and as we're coming close to the Banjuwan homestead, there was a big pit with some dead sheep in it, which is not unusual. You know, I've been in the Kimberley where there've been mobs of dead cattle where they’ve been shot for brucellosis.

Anyway, I went to the homestead and knocked on the door. And but as I went there, I looked at the shed and there was strange writing and I thought it might be Japanese writing on the shed. And there was a Japanese lady came out who didn't speak any English or didn't admit to it. And so we had a conversation, which didn't achieve anything at all. Then I drove out the front gate and didn't think much more of it, just thought, ‘Oh, that's a bit odd’.

06:03 Julie

Yep.

06:04 Tim

Anyway, some months later, it was the next year, some time after that attack in March, we were driving down the road past Banjuwan and came to the gate and there were police cars everywhere. And they were doing a raid on Banjuwan homestead.

06:20 Julie

Wow.

06:20 Tim

And it turns out they were importing chemicals and taking them up to there and apparently testing for the sarin gas.

06:28 Julie

Wow.

06:29 Tim

There you go.

06:30 Julie

Sounds like you might have had a slightly close call there.

A few years earlier, in 1987, Tim had another disturbing experience while on field work, this time in the Kimberley.

06:41 Tim

There were some news bulletins coming out of the Northern Territory, where there was a person shooting at buffalo heading up towards Darwin. And then the next thing we hear is that people have been killed at Victoria River in the Northern Territory, just across the border from Western Australia. And so there was a murderer on the loose. Before they really got going, this person had killed some more people on the Pentecost River in the Kimberley, west of Kununurra. And so Northern Australia went into a lockdown, particularly the Kimberley. And we were up there doing field work at the time. And I don’t know whether we heard and went into town, but we were in town and we decided we wouldn't move out of town while this person was in the bush, potentially.

07:21 Julie

Yep.

07:22 Tim

What was worrying to us is that, it was two or three days, so the person could have driven virtually anywhere in Australia by this time.

07:29 Julie

Yeah.

07:30 Tim

And so they were looking for a particular vehicle, which was a white utility with a canvas back. Now the geological survey vehicles are white utilities with canvas backs. And one of our geologists, way down south in the Murchison was pulled over by the police and checked and they said, “Can we have a look in the back?” So he opened up the back and stand back. And they said, “Oh what's that box up there? It's got a padlock on it,” because there was a box on top of the spare fuel tank, which we put gear in and so things don't get stolen. He said, “Oh, I'll jump in and open it.” “No, you don't. Where's the key?” And they thought there might have been guns. Anyway, they realized there weren’t any guns in there. So it was pretty serious at the time.

08:06 Julie

Yeah.

08:07 Tim

But it dragged on for several days. And we were checking with the police on a regular basis, to see what they were doing? And they said, “Oh, look, it's been a while now. Look, it's probably okay for you to go out. If you, you're working out in the back blocks, aren't you? Yeah, well, that'll be alright. Stay up in the back blocks. Have you got a gun?” And I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, this isn't, isn't for us.’ I don't want to go to the back blocks because the recommendation was for the station owners to move up into their outstations or a camp that they've got up in the back blocks and take some guns up there

08:41 Julie

God.

08:41 Tim

and stay up there so that the person, they're not exposed to this person. Just imagine us driving up there unannounced.

08:43 Julie

Oh God. In a white utility vehicle with a canvas back.

08:47 Tim

So we, we didn't, we didn't do that. And but it wasn't long before we heard that they'd identified a potential person and they found this person near Fitzroy Crossing, and he fired at the police. And he was shot and killed.

09:03 Julie

Yeah.

09:04 Tim

So that was the German gunman Schwab, Joseph Schwab.

09:08 Julie

Pretty scary story.

09:10 Tim

Yeah, it was quite a story at the time.

09:12 Julie

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