George Barratt @ Moonan Flat
Featured Image: Bert Lillye’s article in ‘The Sun Herald’, Dec 9, 1979
There’s little doubt that George Barratt was an ‘unlikely’ resident at Moonan Flat. Even less likely was it that Australia’s leading racing journalist of the day and a ‘Hall of Famer’ Bert Lillye would track him down? Both reckoned without the exquisite detection skills of long-term Scone resident Archie Shepherd. Archie had honed his survival instincts as a Forward Scout at Shaggy Ridge (NE Papua New Guinea) in the epic WWII contest versus Japan in the Pacific arena. ‘Keeping a (betting) book’ was part of the scenery. It was a wartime habit Archie fine-tuned to perfection when back in civvies at Scone. Uncovering the whereabouts of the likes of George Barratt would have been child’s play for Archie? There’s no racetrack at Moonan Flat but there used to be in the halcyon gold mining days of yesteryear. See ‘The Dennison Diggings’ elsewhere in this ‘Blog’. Does anyone remember George Barratt?
