Broken Hill - 80s Jota owner?

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I have received the following enquiry...

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Hi Guys, I'm looking for a friend who worked on the roads out in Broken Hill in the 80’s. I think he actually came from QLD. And he owned a Ducati and a Laverda Jota. I was a nurse out there in the day. If you know anyone who may fit that description please let me know. I think his name may be Graham Wright.
Many thanks Nadia​
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Clearly working on the roads pays well in Oz 😂 But drop me a message if you need an email/phone number for Nadia
 
Admin said:
I have received the following enquiry...



Clearly working on the roads pays well in Oz 😂 But drop me a message if you need an email/phone number for Nadia
Click to expand...
Please note my friend won’t be on social media so I would really appreciate anyone letting him know, I’m the nurse from Broken Hill who stacked his Jota just out of Silverton and would love to simply say g’day, see how he is going and to let him know I finally got that Guzzi - 🙏
 
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Motorcyclists and Nurses, a natural affinity. And the glue is Gravel Rash. Thanks for the work back in the day.
 
Hi Nadia, and welcome. I hope you find your friend. It's quite possible that someone here will know him and respond here eventually. In the meantime, tell us more about stacking his Jota. It might be an interesting story or it could jog someone's memory.

BTW, you're brave, posting your phone number on the internet. You could end up with all sorts of nutcases calling or sending texts.
Obviously we're all respectful gentlemen here (except Chris K of course 🙄 ) but anyone can read these posts without joining the forum.
I hope it's one of those pre-paid SIM cards that you can chuck away when you're done with it.

Cheers
Cam.
 
Nadia said:
Please note my friend won’t be on social media so I would really appreciate anyone letting him know, I’m the nurse from Broken Hill who stacked his Jota just out of Silverton and would love to simply say g’day, see how he is going and to let him know I finally got that Guzzi - please give him my number. Thanks all 🙏
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& the beauty of this forum is that it's populated w/ gentlemen! Good on ya. Nadia- hope contact is made & welcome to the forum!
 
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Dellortoman said:
Hi Nadia, and welcome. I hope you find your friend. It's quite possible that someone here will know him and respond here eventually. In the meantime, tell us more about stacking his Jota. It might be an interesting story or it could jog someone's memory.

BTW, you're brave, posting your phone number on the internet. You could end up with all sorts of nutcases calling or sending texts.
Obviously we're all respectful gentlemen here (except Chris K of course 🙄 ) but anyone can read these posts without joining the forum.
I hope it's one of those pre-paid SIM cards that you can chuck away when you're done with it.

Cheers
Cam.
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Or you can straight away go in and edit the post removing it.
 
Dellortoman said:
Hi Nadia, and welcome. I hope you find your friend. It's quite possible that someone here will know him and respond here eventually. In the meantime, tell us more about stacking his Jota. It might be an interesting story or it could jog someone's memory.

BTW, you're brave, posting your phone number on the internet. You could end up with all sorts of nutcases calling or sending texts.
Obviously we're all respectful gentlemen here (except Chris K of course 🙄 ) but anyone can read these posts without joining the forum.
I hope it's one of those pre-paid SIM cards that you can chuck away when you're done with it.

Cheers
Cam.
Click to expand...
Hi Cam,

Thanks for the welcome.

The Jota story….Firstly, my friend G, G and I did miles on his Ducati Desmo (me as pillion - of course, him graciously and patiently teaching me to ride - though as a bush kid I had some idea but not on bikes like the Ducati - (I did however, grow up with my stepfather’s old Vincent).

My first trip to the Bathurst Races was with G on that Ducati. He was truly the best person to travel with and always looked after me like a silk worm - he always had my back and was a true gentleman.

From Broken Hill (BH) everywhere is at least a day trip or more so you can imagine the miles we did.

G had a mate in QLD who brought the Jota down to BH. I don’t remember that guys name nor do I remember why the Jota was in QLD in any case. For some bizarre reason the friend convinced me to take a short trip out to Silverton (11 miles) with him. I had never ridden with him nor had I ever been on the Jota before, but stupidity won that day. I remember I had a hot chocolate (cause I was due for an afternoon shift at the BH hospital) and he had a couple of beers. No biggie in those days right? When it was time to leave Silverton for some crazy reason I agreed to ride us back 🙈 (I know how dumb this sounds but remember I was once a very naive 24+ year old), if you know that country it is all powdery red bull-dust, on a red bike, with a red sun setting behind us. The crew who were making the movie Razorback were traveling back out to Silverton and simply ran us into a water channel off the road - they said they never saw us.

The pillion guy flew straight over the top of me and the front Jota forks just (well let’s say - weren’t as they were supposed to be). All I remember was landing on my knees and hearing bones popping so I just slid onto my back. My pillion was fine and ran over to be with me. I was conscious enough to tell him to just stay with me and get an ambulance.

When the ambulance arrived they cut most of my clothes off me, secured my neck, spine and left arm and got me to casualty at BH. I spent hours in theatre that night - in fact until my lungs gave out so they sent me to ICU. After a few days the surgeon, who was a great guy, gave me the news - stabilised fracture of C3 (cervical 3), two broken clavicle, two broken scapula, three broken ribs (front forks I think) with contusions on my left lungs. Additionally, I’d torn most of my left arm off by shattering the head of my humerus - nothing of it was left (and nothing humorous about loosing my humerus at the time haha) and I’d completely lost my olecranon process AKA left elbow - what was left of the arm was in the jacket sleeve that the ambulance brought back in with me. So back to theatre for a new titanium humerus to join up my arm and some screws and wires to make a new elbow - pretty impressive surgery for the 80’s. Thank G-d I was in BH - as I had a total of 17 units of blood and no HIV out there in those days 🙏

I was in rehab for nearly a year, about nine months and that’s the time when I lost track of G - (with the pain, the meds, bloody physio etc I really don’t know what happened with him) but I have always had this sad feeling that he may have blamed himself - he was that kind of guy. It was absolutely never his fault he wasn’t even there and I truly want to tell him that. And that I’ve had a charmed life all things considered.

If you are still reading my only comment is you need a life. Re my phone number, I’m cool with it out there as I know G, if he wants to he will only contact me that way.

Take care all.
Regards
A very lucky woman!
 
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Holy guacamole! 'Hearing bones popping' helps the visualization of your 'in flight and landing' dilemma. The long list of injuries has put me off my bacon sandwich ;)

Hang around Nadia - you spin a cracking (if painful) story.
 
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