Inarrabri

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Feature
Don “Spider” Cunningham
“I moved to Sydney when I was seventeen
and didn’t like it. I put in the time and
worked at the Roundtrees lolly factory. So
I always had a car full of lollies. I drank at
the Astro Hotel which was a pretty rough
hotel in Bondi. Seen a guy get his eye poked
out with a pool cue over a two dollar game
of pool. Seen a guy get his throat slit with a
schooner glass. Didn’t kill him but slit his
throat over a game of pool. Pretty rough
stuff and it wasn’t for me. I was seventeen
years old and when we had a fight we made
a ring and everyone watched two blokes
have a fair fight. I decided I wanted to move
back home so I packed up and moved back
to Narrabri.”
“I was a lumper at the old Narrabri flour
mill. They’d mill flour twenty four hours and
had to have storage so you’d build stacks of
one hundred and fifty pound bags of flour
like you’d build a house. I used to jump from
stack to stack throwing flour over everyone
below so they called me Spiderman. The
name ‘Spider’ has been with me ever since.
I played football for Narrabri, North Tam-
worth and Wee Waa. First grade as a hooker.
Back in those days if you were any good as
a hooker the teams were looking for you.
I wasn’t a good footballer but I was a good
hooker. If you won a couple of loose heads
in a game they’d nearly carry you off.”
“I was the manager at Narrabri pool for
twenty two years. From the time I left school
till I started at the pool I’d had thirteen jobs
and never been sacked from any of them. I
was the groundsman at the primary school
when I left the pool job and had eight years
around there.
About four years ago I started a B&B here.
It had been boarded up for a long time and
was a pub before that. It took me about six
months to tidy it up again and on the third
of September in 2012 it opened.”
“I have a little farm out at Eulah Creek,
about three hundred and forty acres. I put in
a hundred and sixty five lemon, mandarin,
lime and fig trees. I take it a lot easier these
days. I was told when I started the B&B
that it would be like a gaol without bars. I
start here about six through till about ten,
depending on how busy you are, then I’m
back at three thirty and I go home at eight at
night. In the meantime I go up to the farm
and water the trees or go out to my son’s fish
farm to help. So I do what I want to do and
take it a bit easier.”
“In another ten years I see myself selling
oranges and lemons and still getting myself
into trouble for saying what I’m thinking.
I’m getting worse as I get older and I’m not
going to change. The wife has been trying to
change me for thirty five years.”
photo: John Burgess
Words & Photography by Namoi based
professional photographer, John Burgess.
To contact John, phone 0423 690 586 or via Humans of the Namoi
24 | iNarrabri Magazine | December 2016