Bondie Part 2

Just so I don't miss too many of the great stories I am going try to work through the different places Bondie went in an effort to be systematic. Penrith has to be first. So many soul crushing days. Piles of files feet thick. not even getting one matter actually into court before lunchtime.Being "Bullinghammed".I am using a pseudonym here, that I stole from Rumpole. You were Bullinghammed when you waited till after lunch to deal with a difficult matter, and just before lunch were sent to a court where a decent magistrate was sitting. At 2pm you are sitting at the bar table bright eyed and Magistrate Bullingham walks onto the bench.

Before Mt Druitt court opened Penrith was a very busy court indeed. There were three district Courts and two local courts on the main floor. Upstairs was Court 6 and up the road in the annexe, or caravan park were courts 7, 8 and 9. Nine courts, nine judicial officers. Bondie's lateness caused chaos. On one occasion we were due in Redfern after lunch for a function. I was anxious to get to it, and was reliant on him for transport. I dealt with all his matters and all mine before he arrived. He rushed in stammering apologies, but I was white hot with fury, and would not hear. But by the time we were on the road it was all forgotten.

Bondie had a complicated relationship with Prosecutors. He thought Police Prosecutors ought to be done away with, but he got on well with them. DPP Lawyers were a different matter. One day we were all at Penrith. One of our lawyers was well known to be gay. We were sitting in the office we had in those days. Bondie storms into the office. "Those DPP lawyers are a bunch of cocksuckers."
Then he looks up and sees the gay lawyer. Bondie never wanted to hurt anyone's feelings. "Not that there is anything wrong with sucking cocks, Billy".

On another occasion, one of the lawyers sent out a distress call. This happened at Penrith sometimes. It was easily our busiest court. Lawyers would finish were they were and go to Penrith to help out. Bondie was the last to arrive. All the matters had been dealt with. "What do you want me to do?"
"see my bag over there, pick it up and bring it over here" replied the boss.

One of Bondies self deprecating comments about himself was that although he was a lawyer, he remained a successful taxi driver. He was a terrible driver, I have screamed in fear on at least one occasion in his car. But what he meant was that whatever his failings as a lawyer, he made sure his clients got home. On one occasion he took a 14 year old client home to her Grandma's in Emu Plains, he dropped her at the corner and she went to friends place. Mum was waiting for her at Hebersham and reported her missing. That could have been disastrous for Bondie, but  the girl turned up, several anxious days later, unharmed. Eventually we were barred from taking our clients home in our cars. By the time of his death the wisdom of that rule had  largely sunk in with Bondie, but he was still doing it for years after it was banned. Could not comply with rules. I actually suspect he still occasionally did it, up to the last.

There was one client in particular at Penrith who we all loved. I will keep this anonymous so I will call her Lizzie. She had a speech impediment and an intellectual disability. She would call out "Bod" "Bod", when she wanted Bondie's attention. It was hard to resist to trying to help her. She had a boyfriend who was a heroin addict and she got into trouble a lot because of him. We all gave her money for lunch and so on. But Bondie especially liked her. And she him. Bondie and I were at the Cedars Hotel at Emerton one night and we ran into her Mum. We had not seen Lizzie for some time. We found out she had met a decent man and no longer got into with the law. That is why you do this job. I still have not seen or heard from her in years.

Bondie's driving was atrocious..Just before he was due to leave on a long trip to Malang he had an accident. He ran up the back of another vehicle while he was going down a short cut. He tried to blame the driver in front. "He jammed his brakes on" The car's bonnet was broken and he tied it down with wire. His car could only be repaired by a smash repair place in Penrith (according to Bondie), so he limped along the side of the M4 at 80 ks.  Unfortunately a semi roared past him at 120 ks and the wind blew the bonnet up and smashed his windscreen and seriously damaged the car. Two $750 excesses. These were the kind of disasters that happened to him. They did not stop him going on holiday either. He just coped.

He constantly rushed around with only one or two points left on his licence. He was booked for speeding during double demerits on a rushed trip to Canberra to get an urgent passport renewal for one of his trips. That one required an application to the Court and a Good Behaviour Licence. It must have been a nightmare for him driving around with no spare points.

 Anxiety was a constant feature of his life and was the reason for many of his more aggravating habits. He carried a serenity prayer around in his wallet, given to him by a psychologist but I doubt he ever actually prayed it. He was not a serene person, except on those rare occasions he would lose himself in child-like joy. You might be driving along Parramatta road with him and he would notice ducks waddling along the side of the road. Everything would be forgotten as he enjoyed this spectacle (meanwhile becoming later for his next appointment). His boring tours may have been an attempt by him to recapture the innocent joy of childhood.

But his tales of childhood were not always joyful. The family was not happy, and Bondie as eldest child seemed to feel responsible for making everyone ok. But he did not always feel ok himself. He told a story of him as a teenager, standing on Toongabbie station on a Friday night, dressed up ready to go out. A group a girls pointed at him and laughed at him. Apparently he did not look cool. It was something about the way he was dressed, but I can't remember what. He turned around and went home.

Daniel Taylor said something to me the other day about Bondie being an Outsider and I think that fits. He revelled in his outsider status, yet also railled against it. He simultaneously wanted, and didn't want, to be part of the gang. He found in the ALS a perfect fit for himself. He could participate in a job and a community, without his significant personality traits disqualifying him. In fact, as these posts try to show, they made him a much valued member. It took time for that to happen though, and part of the reason I am interested in the thoughts of Dan Taylor is that he saw Bondie when he was most vulnerable. When criticism still wounded him deeply, before the letter from Michael Kirby, before he managed to turn his continual lateness into something funny, rather than a failing that may result in his dismissal.

I told Bondie on many occasions that if I was boss of the ALS I would sack him. There were many others who felt the same. But there was this child like vulnerability about him, that I am talking about, that usually disarmed your criticism before you had really got started.


One night as I was leaving the Blacktown Office Bondie followed me out. Those who know me are aware that I sometimes get sick of conversations and get up and leave with out warning. Bondie had not finished talking. He followed me into the toilet, i went into a cubicle and lacked the door. Stood outside and kept talking. I told him several times to stop talking, but he ignored me. I came out of the cubicle and washed my hands, he was still talking. He followed me down the back stairs to my car. Still talking. I gave him a minute, Then said "I really have to go Bondie" I got in my car and started reversing out. Next thing I heard a loud thump and my car vibrated. For a terrible moment I thought I had run him over. But No. He was banging on my window. He had one more thing to say! That is that last time I  officially lost my temper.

Anyone who ever went out to eat with Bondie would know the agony of indecision he suffered at the prospect of a choice. He could not make up his mind what to eat, and would dither to and fro while everyone else looked bemusedly on. He seemed to have this idea that  good things and good times were fragile. You had to make the most of them while they were there because they would soon be gone. 


And I have a diverted a long way from my stated aim of telling stories about Bondie that relate to Penrith, so I will pause here and regather my thoughts. There is so much more to say about this complex, simple man.