LEGENDARY WALKING EQUIPMENT OF THE MID 20TH CENTURY
Piero Pagliaro, October 2000

Reproduced here with full acknowledgement, much gratitude and fond memories of the gear from the 50th Anniversary Special Edition of "The Catholic Walker".
(The truly frightening thing is, I had most of this gear once, much of it even bought from Auski. His price list has been added at the end. R N C)

In a forgotten corner lies my elderly Paddy Pallin "Pioneer Rucksack". In appearance: a semi-triangular, thick canvas pack attached to an iron frame (not your fancy light-weight space alloys). Its designer clearly considered that the outer 270 degrees of its perimeter would have looked bare without 4 pockets for easy access to choofer, first aid, etc. To the unprejudiced eye it probably looked like a travelling salesman’s outfit from the Middle Ages. It had a token waist strap, but most of us thought it tougher to carry the full weight on our shoulders rather than transfer any of it to our hips. To counter the pulling back of the shoulders, the walker stooped forward which we thought looked big-time. Not your modern ergodynamic pack. But whenever I look at it, I emit a sigh of nostalgia for those great old days of bushwalking. (Price £3-18-3)

In a special nook for footwear in honourable retirement lies a pair of scarred Federation walking boots. I think their place of birth was Tasmania. They still hold about ten of the original 30 triple-hobs. The tricounis which acted as a battering ram have gone leaving a toothless gap as apt sign of old age. (Priceless).

In a drawer full of little used assorted clothing lies a now sleeveless fleecy-cotton shirt much faded by the fierce rays of the sun on the Victorian Alps. (Price 15 shillings)

My hat – ah my very dear hat – with the Club’s badge still attached, is even more faded and battered. But it bears the battle scars of honour acquired in days of active service in defence of the young master. Oh yes! many were the sneaky guerilla March flies, who, in their war against us gentlemen of the mountains, met their well deserved Nemesis with a swift thwack from the trusty tough green canvas hat. Even today, their remains litter the Alps. (Also priceless – the hat, of course).

For personal weatherproofing there was the PVC-proofed Japara groundsheet with hood. It had the merit of protecting wearer and pack whilst allowing complete freedom of movement. I still use it. (Price: £2-11-6) Well-dressed bushwalkers wore the oiled Japara parkas from NZ. One day yours truly attempted to reproof his with linseed oil. It smelled like a freshly opened can of paint. It was sent into exile or, as one bushwalker put it, "It’s either it or you". (Price: forgotten).

The mobile home was none other than the ultra light Paddymade Golden Tan Japara 2-man "A" tent. None of this effete nonsense about a floor. In honourable retirement (Price: £8-1-3).

Those golden hours of sleeping in the tent (on the groundsheet laid over the hard ground without those namby pamby sleeping mats and decadent li-los.) were spent in a ‘Paddymade Regular’ superdown sleeping bag – weight 3 pounds (Price £11-14-0). The down migrated.

Then there were the dehyds in those big drums in Auski’s, extracted with a trowel. You’d boil them for ages and they looked great: peas, carrots etc. However I have to say that they were tasteless. As for the powdered egg: I could make a great scrambled egg or omelette of your choice – perfect consistency AND flavour – I liked it, BUT … it wasn’t egg flavour. Dehydrated steak? A mere fantasy.

And where were the intrepid bushwalkers and skiers of the 1950s outfitted? It was in that one-room shop housed in an upper storey of McEwan House in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, (entrance in Little Collins Street) and accessible, I seem to remember, by a metal cage lift which moved at a proper pace (not one of your modern rockets). Its name? Auski. Today’s Auski is a swish emporium by comparison.

On arrival one was greeted by the friendly and helpful proprietor Tony Aslangul, or one of his colleagues. Many of us owe our first choices of bushwalking equipment to Auski. [See his price list reproduced below, after the Paddy advertisement. RNC]

Who could ever forget Paddy Pallin’s compendium of everything the bushwalker needs to know. eg. ‘every ounce counts’, ‘the bigger the fool the bigger the fire’. Ah yes those were the days!! Decidedly!!!!

From an old Paddy Pallin brochure

The Auski price list from about 1966 - RNC files