Back in the late 60s I was known as Cleo from Go-Set Magazine. This is a new episode of my adventures back in the day. Taken from my upcoming memoir.
I often hitched a ride back to Orange to see my family. Hitching a ride home is exactly what I was doing in November 1968 when I got a lift with pop band The Executives. Normie Rowe, Dinah Lee and the Execs were headlining a big show in Dubbo. I was leaving the troupe in Orange where they were to pick up Normie who had flown in, then continue to Dubbo. Lead singer of the Executives Gino Cunico who was driving the van and road manager John Swiney had just changed positions, putting me in the middle seat and John in the left passenger seat. Gino said he was doing 50 mph when an oncoming semitrailer taking up most of the road had forced him into the gravel where he lost control of the vehicle and we ploughed head on into the embankment, overturned and finished upside down in a ditch. We were lucky to be alive. The van was a complete write off and most of the $4,000 worth of equipment badly damaged.
First on the scene after rescue crews arrived to extract us from the van was Normie Rowe, who had been waiting for his ride to Dubbo just up the road from the accident site. He helped gather and salvage the damaged equipment. My heart went out to John Sweeney who in the left passenger seat suffered horrendous facial injuries and was in hospital for a very long time. There but for the grace of God go I. In the middle seat I had the full force of the weight of the van full of amps and PA equipment hit me squarely in the back causing terrible problems for years. Gino and I were checked out thoroughly in hospital and sent home with a few bandages on our scratches. Kind souls rallied to get Normie and Gino to Dubbo where the show did go on.
A strange coincidence that only a few years later my cousins Nicki and Brian Turner purchased the property at the exact location where the van had crashed, only 2 kms from Orange. They built their magnificent home and started Turner’s Vineyard there. Whenever I drive past that spot, I am reminded of this close call and say a little prayer for John with a thankful heart to have survived.