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The Aussie Pinball Podcast Ep 7: Rob Milla

The Pinball Network·video·46m 8s·analyzed·Jul 28, 2022
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TL;DR

Australian pinball champion Rob Miller discusses collecting, restoration skills, and Townsville's competitive pinball scene.

Summary

Episode 7 of the Aussie Pinball Podcast features Rob Miller from Townsville, the current Australian pinball champion (2020, longest-reigning due to COVID). The conversation covers his background in agricultural engineering, his entry into pinball collecting via a $40 Williams Flash purchase around 2007-2008, his famous restoration work including a 14-machine 'possum pins' haul from Magnetic Island, and the thriving competitive pinball scene he helped build in Townsville with monthly tournaments across four venues.

Key Claims

  • Rob Miller is the current Australian pinball champion, having won in 2020 before COVID shutdown, making him the longest-reigning champion due to skipped years

    high confidence · Host introduction and early conversation; directly stated as fact

  • Rob purchased a Williams Flash machine for $40 at a garage sale around 2007-2008, which was his entry point into pinball collecting

    high confidence · Rob's direct account of discovering pinball hobby via honeymoon games room experience, then garage sale purchase

  • Rob acquired 14 pinball machines from Magnetic Island in a stash for $2,000 total (averaging $250 per machine), which included machines stored there for approximately 8 years

    high confidence · Rob explicitly states the purchase price and haul details; confirms possession of specific titles including two Twilight Zones, two Doctor Whos, Addams Family, Creature, Getaways, Party Zone, two Fish Tails, Dracula

  • A live possum ran out of one of the Magnetic Island machines when inspected, inspiring the 'possum pins' nickname for the haul

    high confidence · Rob's direct anecdote about inspection experience on Magnetic Island

  • Rob built a Medieval Madness conversion from an NBA Fast Break cabinet without an original Medieval Madness beside him for reference, using photos and forum resources, completing it over 18 months to 2 years

    high confidence · Rob's detailed account of conversion project; notes he had to lathe up custom axles and shafts for gearboxes

  • Rob posted a video of himself cleaning a flooded pinball machine (Terminator 2) with a garden hose after Townsville experienced a 3-day flood; the machine had been underwater for 4 days with water over the DMD

    high confidence · Rob explains the post generated overseas criticism misinterpreting Aussie dry humor; machine has since been fully restored with new cabinet, clear-coated playfield, powder-coated rails

  • Rob currently owns approximately 15 pinball machines in a 6x12 meter home rumpus room, and previously sold 16 machines to fund a wakeboarding boat and custom shed

    high confidence · Rob's direct statement about current collection size and past sales decision

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm pretty happy about that long-running Australian champion title even though I've got it through means other than my own skill I'll still claim it for a couple of years.”

    Rob Miller @ early in episode — Self-aware humor about longevity of championship title due to COVID disruption

  • “I had zero idea what pinball machines were worth. and because I always like a bargain, I talked them down to $40.”

    Rob Miller @ mid-episode during first machine story — Sets up his entry into the hobby; demonstrates casual discovery approach

  • “opened one of them up and a live possum ran out it was uh quite phenomenal”

    Rob Miller @ discussing Magnetic Island haul — Key anecdote that spawned 'possum pins' nickname for the entire haul

  • “Townsville had just been through a horrific flood in the preceding three days. And, yeah, this machine had actually sat for four days completely underwater. It was over the DMD. So me spending 30 seconds with a hose was going to have zero impact on it.”

    Rob Miller @ garden hose cleaning story section — Context for the viral garden hose cleaning video misinterpretation; illustrates the actual scope of damage

  • “I'm no woodworker but I'm not scared to to give cabinet work a go I taught myself and a lot of help from forums and that sort of thing doing the electronic and board repair side of things”

    Rob Miller @ skills discussion — Describes self-taught restoration approach; emphasizes community knowledge sources

  • “So Lewis just went up there with that mindset and I think it freaked poor old Farley out and yeah, he actually won the whole competition. So he had a grin from ear to ear for the next few days.”

    Rob Miller @ Lewis tournament victory section — Proud parent moment; highlights psychological element of tournament play with high-tilt machine

  • “I think very early on in the days of Aussie Arcade when there was a few meets about, I organised one and two people other than myself turned up. And, you know, some people might get a bit disheartened by that. It was good fun.”

Entities

Rob MillerpersonDr. JohnpersonLewis MillerpersonPeter Farley-JenkinspersonEmilypersonTonypersonJuan Peter WattpersonBillpersonRyan Cperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Vintage European pinball imports were viable commercial opportunity in Australia; Tony imported machines via container loads and did restoration work before retail sale

    high · Rob bought machines through Tony as importer; later discusses Euro machines vs Australian machines; bought Doctor Who Italian import with custom bearing modifications

  • ?

    event_signal: Summer Slam tournament series in Townsville with 35+ participants including top-10 and top-50 Australian ranked players; multiple venues and monthly competitions across four locations

    high · Rob describes Summer Slam meet with 35 people in December, mentions 'at least one competition a month and often more than that'; references four venues in Townsville with varied collections

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong community response to Rob's garden hose cleaning video with overseas misinterpretation of Australian dry humor; video went viral on Facebook despite context being the machine was post-flood recovery

    high · Rob describes video linked to worldwide Facebook sites; comments about his intelligence and electronics knowledge; context was Townsville flood with machine underwater 4 days over DMD

  • ?

    community_signal: Townsville pinball scene shows strong grassroots growth from single-host meets with 2 attendees to established tournament infrastructure with 4 venues and 35+ player events

    high · Rob's narrative of building scene over multiple years; progression from Aussie Arcade era to current monthly tournaments; cross-venue competition structure to justify travel

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tournament strategy using high tilt sensitivity to equalize skill levels on unforgiving machines; 11-year-old player uses tilt awareness tactically

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.138

0:00
The pinball network is online launching the Aussie pinball podcast. Hello and welcome to episode 7 of the Aussie pinball podcast. and playing us in this week is that fantastic aussie american-based country legend keith urban playing walk in the country and although i'm not a country music lover myself this is a favorite of this Episode's guest, Rob Miller from Townsville.
1:00
Rob is the current standing Australian pinball champion, having won the title in 2020, just before the dreaded COVID shutdown.
1:13
In this episode, we'll chat to Rob about life in North Queensland, his pinball hobby, his restorations, his possum finds. And how to clean a machine properly with a garden hose. Hope you enjoy.
1:34
And we have as our guest Rob Miller from Townsville, who is the current, probably the longest reigning Australian champion because we had to skip a year due to that nasty bug that came around. But the current Australian open pinball champion who resides in beautiful sunny hot stinking hot Townsville. How are you Rob? Good thanks Dr John, lovely to talk with you. Yeah I'm pretty happy about that long-running Australian champion title even though I've got it through means other than my own skill I'll still claim it for a couple of years. And somewhere in the background there would be the largest Australian pinball championship trophy ever built because I organised it. Yeah. I'm hoping your children are happy when that thing came home in two or three pieces. Well, I certainly couldn't bring it home on the plane with me, so we had to get Bill, the legend of pinball transport in Australia, to bring it up in his big-ass van because it was the only way it could fit. That's good. That was a fun time. That championship came down to the wire against Juan Peter Watt, who will be also appearing on the podcast in the near future. But, yeah, congratulations for that. But enough about competition because people don't like talking about competition unless you're actually in the competition, which is fair enough. So what can you tell me about Townsville? What is it? How long have you been in Townsville? Are you born and bred or did you migrate north? No, I was born in central west New South Wales in a very cold place called Orange that grows no oranges but plenty of apples and cherries. Grew up on a farm there and went to university in Toowoomba, which is not too far from Brisbane where you are. And then about 20 years ago, moved up to Townsville. I didn't even know where the place was. For people that don't know the geography of Australia, it's very large. We're about 1,200 kilometres north of Brisbane, so in the dry tropics. I remember when I used to, I lived in Townsville for three years in my army days, and I always loved the people from Melbourne, including one Ryan C. He said this to me once. He said, I'm coming up to Brisbane for a week's holiday. I might pop up and see you. They don't quite realise it's actually further from Brisbane than Melbourne is. Yeah, that's exactly right. Townsville is nearly as far. Four hours for us to get to the closest town, pretty much. Cairns is four hours north and Mackay is four hours south. That's major centres, so a fair bit of travel distance. I used to like to think of it as a roulette game, driving on the road between Townsville and Cairns when you see a puddle after a bit of rain. Is it a puddle or is it a four-foot-deep pothole? So it was always an interesting drive north. That's it. And remember that we measure rain in metres up here as well. So, yeah, I think Innisfail north of us gets over four metres of rain per year. Now, Tully's not going to be happy if you say Innisfail's the wettest because I'm sure the Tully locals wee in their rain gauge so they keep the record as Australia's wettest town. What do you think? Yeah, I think there's a fair bit of rivalry that goes on there. But anyway, we get about a metre where we are. So, yeah, we're due for about 300 or 400 millimetres in the next couple of days and then we'll be back to beautiful, fine weather. So you're a country boy. It doesn't sound like a lot of city living going on there. What dragged you from the metropolis that is Toowoomba up to Townsville? Purely employment. I was finishing uni, tried for some work experience, and they said, no, we won't give you work experience, but do you want a job? And it was my best job interview ever. I said yes, and they said, right. Sounds like you're the right person for the job. How much do we have to pay you? And that was the end of the interview for me, and I got the job. Wow. Now, give us a clue. Were you a fry cook at Macca's or what were you doing at uni? No, so I did agricultural engineering at uni and it was a job in the sugarcane industry working with irrigation. So, yes, since then I've been working with sugarcane farmers for the last 20 years. You're a doctor. Some people describe me as a plant doctor. Were you the one that came up with the solution for the cane beetle? I used to work for the organisation that did actually introduce the cane toad to try and eat the cane beetle and it was massively unsuccessful. 1935, 102 cane toads are shipped to Australia to eliminate the beetles that are destroying the sugarcane crops. By the book of things, this dirty fellow is ready to go to work. So three cheers and welcome, brave champion. Now, one of Australia's master strokes was to introduce the cane toad to eat the cane beetle. And, of course, they came over to Australia and discovered they liked to eat everything else rather than the cane beetle and nothing could eat them. So we have a good cane toad problem, especially in North Queensland, but we're all close to WA by now, I think. Yeah, that's correct. I actually had a bus full of school kids. I took around the sugarcane growing area last week and was telling them exactly that story. But I did mention too, not every biological control agent is a failure like that. We've actually got some really good ones. What's some good ones in Australia? There's been one to control the prickly pear and then we're working on some too to control some armyworms in sugarcane and corn crops. Armyworms? Yes. What the heck's an armyworm? A green grub that's about two inches long and can fly 200 kilometres in a night and almost obliterate a corn or sorghum crop in a few days' time. So we've got some native flies that actually come in and lay their egg inside its head and then the little fly larvae hatch and eat the fall armyworm from the inside out. It's really cool. Finally, I'm a beautiful butterfly! that's correct yeah one of the uh biological agents that did work well is the dung beetle i was watching a hard quiz the other night they brought in the dung beetle to help with the dung problem and that has adapted quite well to australia life rolling up the poo-poo around the place and hey who wanted the poo-poo platter Do you have anything to do with dung beetles? Only, apart from the fact that they actually hang outside our back door. I don't think it's because we defecate near the back door. It's simply they get attracted to the light. But yeah, they hiss and carry on and the dog barks and then the kids quite like having a look at them through this green door. Yeah, that's the thing. Living in the tropics, we've got all sorts of creatures. You know, we've got a couple of acres here. We've got cane toads, beautiful big green tree frogs. Snakes get around a little bit. all sorts of the Aussie wildlife that lots of people from overseas get a bit concerned about. Sometimes the best thing to do with a deadly snake in the house is to starve it out. I'll have a look around and then I'll tell the family just how to do that. Yeah, any snakes in the house? Yeah, I have actually had one. I walked out the back door and shut the door and one dropped on my head from there. Myself and the wife and my wife gave a bit of a squeal, but yeah, got rid of him pretty soon after that. Ah, Townsville. Yeah. I always liked going out camping anywhere in Townsville and do you leave a light on overnight coming back and just seeing the variety of stick insects, creepy crawlies that would be attracted to the light. Same as the Miller backyard door. Yeah.

  • Rob's 11-year-old son Lewis won a Summer Slam tournament in December with 35 competitors including top-10 and top-50 Australian players, beating Peter Farley-Jenkins (age 16) and Emily (age 18)

    high confidence · Rob's account of the competition held at his house; describes Lewis's victory on TMNT with high tilt sensitivity and game selection strategy

  • Townsville's pinball tournament scene grew from Rob hosting early meets with only 2 attendees (besides himself) to now having four venues hosting at least one competition per month

    high confidence · Rob's historical account of scene development; mentions progression from 2-person meets to 10-12 attendees to current 4-venue scene with venues run by Alex and Jason

  • Rob works in agricultural engineering with a focus on sugarcane irrigation, a job he secured directly after university graduation without a formal interview process (~20 years tenure)

    high confidence · Rob's direct account of job interview and career; describes being asked to name his own salary and securing position on the spot

    • Rob Miller @ tournament scene growth discussion — Shows persistence in building competitive community despite early low turnout

  • “It's exactly the sense of humour that really gels with me... And, you know, a bit of a story of the Aussie battler and sticking it to everyone else.”

    Rob Miller @ Australian movies discussion — Reveals cultural perspective and humor style; explains affinity for 'The Castle'

    • Alex
    person
    Jasonperson
    Chris Somervilleperson
    Dave Berryperson
    Keith Urbanperson
    Captain James Cookperson
    Townsvillelocation
    Magnetic Islandlocation
    Aussie Arcadeorganization
    Williams Flashgame
    Medieval Madnessgame
    Terminator 2game

    high · Lewis Miller's victory on Data East TMNT with intentionally high tilt sensitivity set for all players; described as psychologically advantageous against experienced opponent

  • ?

    community_signal: Rob Miller uses long-term iterative approach to restoration projects, willing to pause work for months when hitting roadblocks to maintain enjoyment and avoid stress

    high · Rob explicitly states 18-month Medieval Madness project included multi-month pauses; 'I didn't want it to stress me out. I wanted to really enjoy it.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Data East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles described as 'absolutely terrible game' that plays for an hour if not set up hard; requires custom modifications to tilt sensitivity

    medium · Rob notes machine is difficult to regulate; had to increase tilt sensitivity; Farley tilted every ball on it during competition

  • ?

    technology_signal: Pinball restoration community relies on internet forums, online resources, and peer knowledge sharing for repair and conversion guidance rather than official documentation

    high · Rob describes teaching himself via pin repair webpages, forums, and photos from other builders; notes Medieval Madness manual 'is a little bit useless' and doesn't describe some mechanisms

    • 8:44
    It's a menagerie of insects. All right. So pinball. So you really started your pinball habit in Townsville or was there a bit of prior experience? No, because we grew up in the country and I grew up on a farm, We didn't really have exposure. Like I'm certain I would have seen them in shops. Yeah, never really played them. Maybe a little bit sad, but my wife and I actually on our honeymoon, there was a games room at the resort we were playing. And yeah, we played a fair bit of it. And I thought this is pretty cool. And it wasn't until maybe four or five years after that, I saw a garage sale where a pinball machine was advertised. So I jumped on the motorbike and ran in there and there was a Williams Flash and it had $50 on it. I had zero idea what pinball machines were worth. and because I always like a bargain, I talked them down to $40. The machine turned on, but then that was it. And yeah, like I said, I knew nothing of the value or nothing how to fix them. They said, yep, they'd hold it for me. So I rode home on the motorbike and got the car and the trailer and went and picked it up. And between that hour and a half, apparently a whole lot of people had also wanted to buy the machine, but I'm thankful to that lady that she honoured her word. And I got it home and started typing up flash pinball. looked up the old pin repair web pages and a common fix for those is to reseat the 40-pin connector between the two boards and lo and behold the machine worked 100%. So that was my first little entry into the wonderful hobby of pinball. Excellent. What year was that? I don't know the exact year but it'd have to be around 2007 or 8 I suspect. So in the days when pinballs cost $50 and you could talk them down to $40.
    10:24
    And that started the disease that is pinball collecting? Yeah, correct. I then put a few wanted ads in the paper and got a few responses there. I think I got an Indiana Jones and a Star Trek. So again, I knew Indiana Jones from my brief searching on the forums trying to fix Flash. It was meant to be a reasonable machine. Didn't really know much about Star Trek Next Generation. But yeah, again, following my nose on the pin repair webpages and a couple of Aussie pinball forums. I managed to repair them and get them going. And then, yeah, started talking to Tony from the pinball shed and ended up buying quite a few machines through him as well as plenty of finds up here in the tropical north. Excellent. So, yeah, Tony was a big importer of games, especially from Europe, who would come in and bring them in by container loads and do them up and then sell them to us. Yep. And I must admit I always have a chuckle when people put ads up on whatever social media or for site and they say oh it not a Euro trash or container import rubbish This is a good solid Aussie machine Well You could out us French folk with your silly knees running about advancing behaviour I'll wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second-hand electric donkey-bottom biters. I've got Euro machines that are absolutely amazing condition, and I've seen some Aussie machines that are pretty ordinary, and I've had a lot of experience with some of them. I bought a beautiful Doctor Who, which is an Italian import.
    12:04
    And Doctor Who's notorious for the time expander raising up a playfield mech that will just shift from side to side and wobble on its way up and occasionally get jammed and remove your finger if you're not careful. And this Italian game I bought, someone had re-engineered the entire thing with bearings and massive rods that it was so solid that it always went straight up and straight down, never got jammed, belt-driven, double-geared. It was magnificent. So, yeah, sometimes those importer games have some really good stuff in them.
    12:36
    Yeah, so actually, Doctor Who, just yesterday, I started in the shed restoring one of those, and it is the second-last machine of probably, well, definitely my biggest haul I got. It was commonly known in the pinball circles quite a few years ago as the possum pins. So I managed to come across a stash of 14 pinball machines on Magnetic Island, which is about 5km off the coast of Townsville.
    13:11
    And went backwards and forwards with this guy for about a year and a half. And eventually went and inspected machines. he didn't live there anymore he lived a thousand kilometers away and when we went to inspect the machines uh opened one of them up and a live possum ran out it was uh quite phenomenal and yeah the machines were in all sorts of disrepair uh cabinet bases falling out most of the boards had acid damage and interestingly i put a number of posts up on forum saying what do you reckon most people said you wouldn't pay me to touch these well i'll tell you what it was a real adventure hired a trailer went over on the barge to magnetic island collected them all took about a day to get them out because we only had a an opening that was about oh about 1.2 meters square to get them out of this shed and it was dark and yeah there was possums lucky you possums you're invited to my place for christmas there are gifts for everyone uh yeah but got them home opened them all up aired them in my shed luckily i had a bit of room in my shed then and uh yeah started restoring like there was two twilight zones two doctor who's adam's family creature a couple of getaways party zone two fish tails dracula uh yeah like a heap of really really good fun 90s machines and i guess that's what allowed me to um expand my collection a fair bit and also get an incredible amount of experience doing restorations and repairs. Are you allowed to make people cry and say how much you paid for the haul? Oh look it was that long ago now and I think it matters. Yeah two grand for the whole lot so it averaged out pretty good $250 a machine or something like that. I could feel the tears flowing from current pinball buyers that's great. So diving head first into the restoration game where did you get the skills to do it? Probably growing up on a farm John I really just I like getting into stuff and and learning about it and pulling apart so yeah I'm I'm no woodworker but I'm not scared to to give cabinet work a go I taught myself and a lot of help from forums and that sort of thing doing the electronic and board repair side of things and then yeah just pulling mechanisms apart I suppose if you've got half a mechanical brain on you it's I find that stuff fairly intuitive and a little bit relaxing it takes away from the stresses of your day job so yeah i really enjoy it and how do you go with part supplies getting parts to townsell yeah you know we've got um some pretty good aussie supplies here and those unusual parts
    15:50
    four candles four candles here you are four candles no four candles Well there you are, four candles. No, four candles. Candles for forks. You know, for the old Gottliebs with EMs and that that we have to get from the US, well I've got accounts with those and yeah, normally shipping's not too bad except for the last 12 months or so. So yeah, I haven't had big dramas, although sometimes you've got to get creative and make some stuff up yourself, which I quite enjoy the challenge of that. happened with Medieval Madness? Was that one of the halls or what did you do with that? Because I know I played that at your house in an NBA cabinet. What can you tell me about it? Yeah, so a mate of mine that was living up here now, then, he's now on the Sunshine Coast, he'd been one of the very early people to do a NBA fast break to Medieval Madness conversion. And so that sort of gave me some inspiration talking to him. And I bought an as-is NBA fast break that had all sorts of parts missing from it off the playfield which didn't really worry me from one of the importers and pulled it to pieces and made my own medieval madness so yeah it was certainly a challenge like it was quite a few years ago now I know a lot of the people have done conversions have got an original beside them whereas I didn't have that luxury so yeah I just got a whole heap of photos off the net other people on forums that had stripped down medievals from memory the manual is a little bit useless there's a few mechs that it doesn't even describe I've been there. And yeah, I had to lathe up some of the axles and shafts for one of the gearboxes, I remember. But look, it was a fun project. It did take me quite a while because when I hit a bit of a roadblock, I'd just park it for a few months. So I didn't want it to stress me out. I wanted to really enjoy it. So yeah, after 18 months or a couple of years, I had a fully working medieval madness. I still haven't put the flashes in and I still have an NBA cabinet with rusty legs on it but hey it's good fun to play it sits in the lineup and it tells a bit of a story like it is there'll be many an older pinball player that's happy there's no flashes in it yeah that's correct nothing better than being blinded by flashes going off everywhere but medieval's not too bad for it just more of the modern games can really hurt the eyes there was a post on one of the aussie forums about the best way to clean out a game if it was a bit dirty can you tell us number one what the post was and number two the reactions you got from it yeah so what happened i had a machine on my trailer and i thought everyone's asking me for pinball tips and i thought well quite a few people want to know how to clean a playfield so i started off the clip and maybe you can link it in the show notes of uh that some people like to use novus or nifty is a product we use here in australia that's quite good and then i went say but look my favorite tool is the good old garden hose
    19:00
    and there's a video of me with the hose spraying it on the play field and i'm saying look it's really good you just get the moisture to soak right in there uh we'll probably probably dry it out for a few hours before i have a game this afternoon And then people linked it to one of the Facebook sites worldwide. And I think a few of our overseas friends don't quite get the dry Aussie sense of humour. Nor did they cotton on that Townsville had just been through a horrific flood in the preceding three days. And, yeah, this machine had actually sat for four days completely underwater. It was over the DMD. So me spending 30 seconds with a hose was going to have zero impact on it. But, yeah, it certainly got the desired reaction. Lots of comments about my level of intelligence, severe lack of knowledge of electronics and water. But yeah, what's really interesting is as we speak, John, I'm looking at that same machine. It's got a brand new cabinet I built. The playfield was actually perfectly okay. I got a mate here to clear coat it and I had to powder coat the rails because they were all rusted and pitted. but all the plastics were fine and most of the other mechs except every globe holder was completely rusted so that was a real pain re-soldering all the globe holders but that machine is 100% working and playing like an absolute dream and looks fantastic right now What game is it? Terminator 2 I'll be back I just remembered that post it was so funny Townsville's not as humid as Cairns and Darwin. Is there a problem with pinball maintenance in the subtropical to tropical areas that you know of?
    20:50
    Yeah, I don't really think so. Like, I've stored a bunch of machines, like those Magnetic Island ones, they were stored in a shed on the island for eight years or so. And certainly the cabinets deteriorated there, but that was only a kilometre from the salt air and it was they did have an opening on it i've got machines in my shed i think if the back glasses are on the way out you'd have to be really careful with flaking of of old glasses and uh but on the most part the rest of it is quite okay like machines i've got in my collection they're inside and we run the air conditioner not constantly but when we're down here and it's hot no on the most part it's it's all pretty good as long as you don't get moisture in the cabinet or completely over the cabinet like that Terminator 2 machine. What do you use as your prevention for back glass flaking? Yeah I haven't had a whole lot of experience with that. I did buy some triple thick that people suggest but I haven't actually used it yet so most of the glasses that I've got here are quite good. I have got a joker poker in my shed and it's really good and I'm actually thinking I should maybe just bring it inside just for a little bit of extra care to make sure it doesn't let go. Just give people a picture too. How many in the games room at the moment? I've got about 15 machines we've got a what's called it's not a really a Queenslander house but a typical Queensland house in that the all living and sleeping is upstairs and then at ground level it's all closed in so we've got a 6 by 12 meter big rumpus room where lots of pinballs are and a few a few other little toys what every house needs an entire downstairs filled with pinball and the family's upstairs. Correct. And you have a very nice home-built shed outside which has been purpose-built for something not pinball. What can you tell me about that? Yeah well last year a wakeboarding boat come up for sale not too far away. We decided that it was probably a little bit more family oriented than a whole bunch of pinball machines. So actually sold off quite a large number of machines, sold about 16 pinballs, and that paid for the boat and the shed. So my wife and I built a six by 12 metre shed four and a half metres high so that was quite an achievement And it was great last time you up John we we took you and one of your kids out and went on the beautiful Ross River where there only freshwater crocodiles that you water ski and wakeboard with and they only lick you, they're friendly. The trap is now set so it's just a matter of baiting it and that's where this little fella comes in you can't expect a croc to eat a bit of old meat so mate let's whack him into the trap and away we go come on. I didn't think we were going to kill the chook mate it's the law of the jungle just put him in there it won't take long we have to yes i thought you said we were going to get some meat from the butcher no only nibble a little bit at a time no no we we had a ball out in the river by and it's a magnificent boat for the for the boaties out there is it a what is it what brand uh it's just a supra 2007 uh but yeah nice great in fit 13 people on it so we can go out with all our we've got four young kids and another family with all their kids and yeah it's just a great day out and Townsville trivia why is Magnetic Island called Magnetic Island you might have to answer that one John because I believe you won a prize on the radio for that Maggie Island was named by Captain James Cook who was mapping the east coast of Australia on his HMS Endeavour and someone must have bumped a compass or done something strange because when he was getting towards Townsville His compass readings were out. So instead of admitting that someone had made a mistake in their cartography, he said, that island there must be full of magnetic materials, which is making my compass go wrong. So he called it Magnetic Island, which it isn't.
    24:38
    The good old correlation and causation. That's causing so much angst in the world today. So you have a young son, Lewis. Can you tell me about his pinball skills? Yeah, well, he's 11 years old and probably in the last 12 months, he's really started to understand the link between rules and shots and understand what you've got to do to capitalise on scoring. He doesn't mind a bit of nudging, but he also can be understanding of the tilt and can play the game differently if required. So he loves coming to local competitions. One of the only issues with that is one of our main monthly events is at a 18s only bar and it goes to too late at night for him he's got to go to school the next day but we had a competition here in December as part of our Summer Slam series and yeah you came up and and Emily and we had I think 35 people at the comp that night it was on a Friday night here at our place and I'm very proud to say that he actually won the whole competition and keeping in mind that had a number of people in the top 10 in Australia certainly a fair chunk in the top 50 and he won fair and square. He got in the finals. He beat someone very well in the first round. I think then he might have beaten Emily and then he had to pay Peter Farley-Jenkin, who is an incredible player. And it was Lewis's game... No, yes, it was Lewis's game choice for the second game.
    26:08
    And we had a Dada East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I was here repairing. It's an absolutely terrible game and it'll play for an hour if you don't set it up quite hard. Not your game. Your game played for about 10 seconds because I know I tilted every ball. That's it. So what we did to overcome that was, because I didn't really want to change all the outlanes because it wasn't my machine, we just set the tilt to very sensitive and everyone knew that because everyone was tilting it. And yeah, Lewis just went up there with that mindset and I think it freaked poor old Farley out and yeah, he actually won the whole competition. So he had a grin from ear to ear for the next few days. So it was really, really good. That's excellent. And we should point out that Farley is 16 years old himself. So the old men were taking the back seat that night. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you, me, Jason, Chris Somerville, Dave Berry, we were all knocked out very, very early.
    27:02
    And I think, yeah, so Lewis come first at 11, Farley at 16 and Emily at 18 with third. So that's great to see young people coming through. Yeah, good to see. So the pinball scene as far as tournament play is thriving in Townsville now after a bit of a lull? Yeah, that's right. I'm trying to think back. I think very early on in the days of Aussie Arcade when there was a few meets about, I organised one and two people other than myself turned up. And, you know, some people might get a bit disheartened by that. It was good fun. We had a chat. We played a few machines and learnt some of the history of some of the local machines. and anyway kept persevering and then I had another meet and we we had about 10 or 12 in that and I think that was the first IFPA competition that I hosted and then another guy got involved and suddenly we started getting 12 or 15 out here and then Alex started having comps at his place as well and then Jason opened up his venue in town after he bought a few machines from me and elsewhere around the place so now we've got four venues that have really got quite a varied collection of machines in Townsville and there's at least one competition a month and and often more than that as well. A thriving scene with a lot of very good collections my my favourite Alex story from his house was the Summer Slam meet about five years ago where he had the pole in the middle of his games room for people to practice pole dancing and one chap discovered the joys of fireball did some pole dancing didn't turn up the next day for the pinball tournament until lunchtime with his leg in plaster and on crutches. And we said, what happened? He said, well, apparently, while I was pole dancing, I broke my ankle. We didn't realise until he got up in the morning. It went to stand on it. So, five-ball, pinball and pole dancing do not combine well.
    28:55
    No, we certainly appreciate people like yourself and the others. There was one year a big crew from Brisbane came up to our comps, like a few of us try and travel a little bit, and it's great when that is reciprocated and we love to host anyone up here. And what we try and do is combine a few comps so we make it worthwhile and that people get to experience three or four different venues. Aussie time. What's your favourite Aussie movie you've ever seen? I'm probably going to have to quote, John, the one that you did in your pilot episode, The Castle.
    29:26
    You know, I'm sitting in my pool room right now. Yeah, I don't know. I saw it when I was in university and I had no idea what to expect. I had a mate who worked in the movies and he'd just get us all in for free. They went to uni with him. He said, hey, go and see this one. I hear it's pretty good. And I just laughed the whole way through. This is going straight to the pool. Like it's exactly the sense of humour that really gels with me. How's this, boys? Woo-hoo! What do you call this? Chicken. So many great quotes in it. And, you know, a bit of a story of the Aussie battler and sticking it to everyone else. Your second favourite movie beside The Castle would be? Probably The Dish, which was almost a sequel to The Castle. Not quite as laugh-out-loud funny, but still some really good humour in it. So what's this all about? We've got the moonwalk. Huh? The moonwalk! Why'd they pick up? Turns out it's the largest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. What's it doing in the middle of a sheep paddock? Which town is part of the Apollo 11 mission? Parks. The people of this place, they know what they're doing?
    30:34
    I believe so. Bloody well hope so. I mean, no offence, but the Americans spend billions of dollars to let us watch man walk on the moon, and in the end it falls to you blokes.
    30:45
    I mean, how do you feel about that? A lot better before you open your trap. And then another classic too that has just... I haven't seen it for a while now, is The Nugget. Where's the car, guys? We go and leave a multi-million dollar gold nugget in the back of a ute. We should have made it easier for him and left the keys in the ignition. I think I did, didn't I? Got quite a few Aussie comedians in it about someone finding a gold nugget. Okay, who's in the nugget? Yeah, Eric Banner. There's a very funny podcast called Somehow Related with Dave O'Neill and Glenn Robbins. And yeah, so Dave O'Neill was one of the people in the nugget as well.
    31:21
    $2.40 short. What's so funny? It's just, we're so rich that... We could buy two burgers each easy. The Nugget. And your favourite Aussie music? What's on your playlist? I have a pretty wide-ranging taste in music. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I quite like country. So Keith Urban, I'm a big fan of his. We've been to a couple of concerts. But also really like Living End. I think they're a great Aussie band. And then an offshoot of them that maybe not too many have heard of is Area 7.
    31:54
    A little bit more... Yeah, it's along the similar lines of Living End. and then old classic Australian stuff. Love a bit of cold chisel. All right. And as good as Townsville is and as beautiful as Townsville is and it surrounds, where is your favourite holiday spot to get away from it all? Yeah. Well, as we said in the intro, I'm probably more of a bit of a country bloke than big cities. Like I love going to the coast and spending time at the beach. But probably my favourite holiday that I remember is going through with a bunch of mates when I was at uni through the Simpson Desert. So we had two four-wheel drives and we spent three weeks going from Toowoomba through the desert and then back down through South Australia. And it was just fantastic. You know, there was three or four days in the Simpson. I remember one morning we woke up and actually had rain in the desert, surprisingly, surrounded by water. The next morning we camped on top of a sand dune. You watch the sun go down one side, the sun rise the next and woke up to camels sniffing around our swags. so that's just part of Australia that not too many people get to experience it's fantastic scenery's not that varied but the vastness of it is just extraordinary yeah that's right and around the tropical north there are some absolutely stunning areas particularly a little bit further north of here right up in the wet tropics around Port Douglas the Atherton Tablelands and the Daintree so yeah all sorts of things you don't want to do is is wake up in the morning and have a casserole sniffing around your sleeping bag no no they're quite violent the old casserole is for those who don't know it's like a smaller version of an emu with a horn on its head that will uh just rip you to shreds if it disagrees with you and they often do disagree with people so when you see one you climb a tree because thank goodness they cannot fly just another thing in australia to kill you but yeah look the other thing i really enjoy about the i don't think it's unique to townsville and the tropical north but really the people are very diverse up here and when we get together with pinball competitions and and get togethers everything else just gets left behind and you sit around and have fun and it's fantastic and some of the other opportunities i've had too we've had some of the local car clubs bring all their members uh out here and we'll cook a barbecue for lunch and they hang around here for four or five hours play a whole bunch of machines that they haven't seen uh and then occasionally a couple of our kids get to go for a drive in some pretty nice old cars. Oh Steve, could you move the Camira? I need to get the Tirana out so I can get to the Commodore. I have to get the keys to the Cortina, I'm gonna move that Camira. Yeah, watch the boat mate. Yeah So examples of their favourite old cars Yeah well the best one that the kids liked was actually a new Mustang It was 1 horsepower We were burning up all the back streets of Alligator Creek in that It was great fun. But, yeah, some really nice old Chryslers and some old Holdens that have been done up fantastically well by some of the locals. You mentioned a bit of time on the beach. For those who don't know, not a lot of people swim in the beach in Townsville. Why is that? No, so, well, we've got saltwater crocodiles in the water, in the beach. We've also got Irukandji jellyfish, which are commonly known as stingers. But my tour opened in a place called Townsville, which was up in the north of Queensland, up in the tropical bit. And I went for a little walk, walking along the seaside, and there was a big notice board. And it says, beware!
    35:24
    So I was beingware. Stingers! Exclamation mark. I thought, stinger? Now I don't know if stingers burrow holes in the ground, drop out of trees or arrive in cantaxes, but I'm beingware and I thought I'd better read on. Stingers or box jellyfish? I said, my God, these guys are gift wrapped. What kind of country is this? Imagine you're giving it a bit of that. This box with the big bow on it. with a big bow on it. Oh I wonder what that is? It says if the heart stops. I thought what size is this?
    36:04
    The cloud comes over the sun you know. It says douse the wounds. Wait you hear this? Douse the wound liberally with vinegar. I always go swimming with a bottle of vinegar. You're probably the same yourself. As well as other things like box jellyfish which will kill you if you you go near them so yeah so there's uh bottles of vinegar all around the beaches here for the people who don't know not to get in uh normally between may to october it's okay to swim apart from the crocodiles the the stingers it's a little bit too cool for them and uh yeah during the stinger season some people if they're really keen to get in the water they'll put on a lycra suit that covers them from head to toe and go for a swim but to be honest you're better off going to a freshwater creek or your backyard swimming pool. So only the smaller crocodiles and slightly less venomous snakes are in the freshwater creeks. That's right. Well, actually, out here, our little suburb's called Alligator Creek. In one of the floods that we had a couple of years ago, we had water go over everything. Yeah, one of the locals ended up with a little crocodile that was about 20 centimetres long in their swimming pool from the floodwater. Why is it called Alligator Creek? I think there's a rock that looks like an alligator, and the creek, because we don't have alligators in Australia, But the creek next south to Alligator Creek is Crocodile Creek. And I can assure you, we've been fishing in there. There's plenty of big saltwater crocodiles. It's so enticing to come over to Townsville for a holiday. I tell you, if you do go there, you will love it. And people say the thing where they say, oh, we want to take a dive on the Great Barrier Reef too. You might just go up to Townsville and pop out for an hour or so and have a dive. And I don't think people quite know how far the Great Barrier Reef is from the shore of Townsville. No, that's right. Have you been out there for a dive? No, I haven't been directly out from Townsville. It's about 80 kilometres. So yeah, we've been to some other reefs and a little bit further away from Townsville, which is quite beautiful. I suppose if you need to stay somewhere in Townsville, remember that we've got probably the best Airbnb in Australia, the Pinball Airbnb. And one of the local guys has got a house that you can rent out. And I don't know, there's probably 14 or 15 pinball machines in a downstairs area, which we use for competition sometimes. That's fantastic. We stayed there in January with the family, and it's extraordinary. And if you ask him really nicely, he'll even put a keg on the bar for you downstairs. But it's not on the Airbnb website, so don't look for it. Contact myself, aussiepinballpodcast at gmail.com, or Rob or Jason in Townsville via the forums or Messenger, and you can do your booking directly with Jason at his house. and it's worth it. Pool in the backyard, foosball table upstairs, three bedrooms, kitchen, and it's a walk to the Strand, which is the major touristy beach bit that you can look at the water and go, that would be nice to swim in. There is a very slimy rock pool you can wade through. Yeah, no, look, it's all right. You can go for a swim there. But, no, they've done a lot of work in Townsville too, like after one of the cyclones. Oh, we haven't even talked about that. We get cyclones every couple of years here. It wiped out the foreshore area and they spent a lot of money importing sand and really doing up the gardens and it's really nice you're going for a walk there with the family go for a ride on the bike it really does feel like you're in a bit of paradise all right mate well um thank you for your time no dramas right out doing a good job mate good mate okay all right thank you very much gotcha boy and that's it for this episode of the Aussie Pinball Podcast I hope you enjoyed hearing all about life in tropical North Queensland and I'll leave you with a classic Aussie song by Russell Morris called The Real Thing. The song was featured in the film The Dish. For the Australians who have been around long enough, it was written by the Johnny Young and produced by one Ian Molly Meldrum. Don't forget all feedback is welcome at aussiepinballpodcast at gmail.com and I'll catch you all in a couple of weeks. Ooroo!
    40:08
    Come and see the real thing, come and see, come and see There's a meaning there, but the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing Come and see the real thing, come and see, the real thing, come and see
    40:29
    I am the real thing Thank you. See the real thing because it's you Real thing I am not seeing you Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Trying hard to understand, but really not your feeling. There's a real death, but the real death is a real thing. Come and see the real thing Come and see I am the real thing I am conceiving you. Thank you. These two ladies are equally guilty of neglect, if not untrue, problems.
    43:05
    This is a place designed to get rid of these children. A historic moment, a moment that will live forever. You're seeing the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The East, the West, and the West will be. The Berlin Wall, they keep the way.
    43:48
    The Berlin Wall, they keep the way. Thank you. Are you getting your notes, Stuart? This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against the Kuwait. Ruthless, callous are those of Saddam Hussein. That's the sound of heavy armor moving through the streets of Beijing. Just a short while ago, lead tanks rolled out of the inner-mid square. Then from up the corner and through the land, the avenue of the service... If we let it succeed, no small country will ever feel safe again. So let it go.
    45:25
    Then they can eat once a month, my food, the budget, or his money, and precisely the contributions. On the beaches, and men will always say that this was their finest hour.
    45:55
    Thank you.