Up to the age of 16, My family and I lived on a rural property in the foothills of Bellenden Ker. Surrounded by dense tropical raiforest, we were completly isolated at the base of an immense mountain. The nearest sealed road from our property was approx 2km away and the only way telephone and electricy could reach our household was by overhead lines going directly from the main telecom line from the neighbouring town, and over a massive gorge that was virtually inaccessable. These 2 lines were for our house only, and did not grid off to anyother households. Due to its size, Mt Bellenden ker was prone to many severe stroms, Cyclones, Torrensial rain and severe thunderstorms were an everpresent factor in our lives....and this is where the story begins, during one of them.
We were experincing one of the worst storms of the season, annd with severe lightning strikes, heavy downpours and gale force winds, it was inevitable that sooner or later, there would be a blackout. As luck would have it, shortly after a massive crack of thunder ripped through the sky overhead. The transformer on one of the distant poles exploded with a tremendous bang, and we were plunged into darkness. At about 2am, as the rain drove sideways and the wind howled, we rung FNQEB (Far North Queensland Electricy Board) and asked for a call out. Shorty afterwards, a rather soaked ans sorry service man arrived and assessed the damage. The lightning strike was a direct hit, and damaged all the primary and secondry fuses on the last pole that feeded to our house. The fuse box had severe damage, as most of th components were damaged due to the extreme power surge. I was suprised as he then began climbing up the pole, as the heavy winds had not fallen. He
unscrewed 2 fuses, both were a dark chocoate brown and had been there since the 40's. Been the
kid I was, I collected everthing, and when they came crashing down to the ground below, I instintvley rummaged around the long grass, surrounding the base of the pole, and eventually found them. I didnt know what they were at the time, but a short talk to the service man when he came back down the ladder, answered my questions. "It takes a hell of a surge to blow these, your lucky that bloody lighning strike didnt take out every appliance in your house. He could see that I was intrigued by all of this, and he then went on to what the purpose of the other things on the pole were used for "Those things up there are called insulators. They are there are to provent the current in the wires from earting, espeically in storms like this when the pole is soaking wet...I was fascinated....and I was hooked.
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Our Road to our Property was a dirt track that was about 2km long, which ran along an old disused rail line. On a hot summers day, I was riding home from school. Id been down this track countless times, but today, something caught my attention. In between the forest on the side of the road, i noticed a shimmering piece of glass, Curiosy took over as I went to the base of the pole. Because we lived in a high rainfall area and the fact that the pole was surrounded by dense scrub, the crossarm on which this "strange obcject" was perched on, had almost completly rotted away and with a few hard shakes of the rusy iron pole, the glass object came crashing down, pin and all, into the shrubbery below. I was sweltering by then and all I could think of was getting home and having a swim in the creek, so i packed it into my school bag and headed home. After having a swim back home, i decided to take a look at what I found. I unscrewed the pin from the glass object, and gave the piece of glass a good wash with some gumption and a scrubbing brush. When I removed it from the dirty water, everthing suddenly rushed back to me from the past. I found my very first Insulator! It was a clear 423 with the marking C.C.G (Crown Crystal Glass) and had a strange embossing on the back that read 4::::::::