This is a wonderful story about Australian birds. A friend of mine Ray Puddy, has a sulphur crested cockatoo called Alex. I have two cockatiels that are each one tenth the size of Alex. One is called Linus Pauling after the great American chemist, and the other is call Lucy Lupins. Now I'll get back to Alex Hurley.
Alex the cockatoo was taken from his nest when he was little in 1910 or 1911 in a Victorian town called Dargo. Dargo is at the foot of the Victorian Alps in Gippsland, Australia. The little bird was taken by a boy named Alex Hurley. Alex was the son of Dan and Jane Hurley who owned the Dargo Hotel in Dargo. The Dargo Hotel was the last stop to the local goldfields called Grant-and-Crooked Rivers goldfields. Dan and Jane raised eleven children and all the children were born at the Dargo Hotel. How about that for pioneering spirit!
Alex was a free pet and free spirit and had the run of the hotel and the surroundings. In 1950 Alex had a ring and a chain fixed to his left leg. By then he was was forty. Would you like to have been chained up when you were forty? Well Alex responded by being a nuisance. He learned how to let down the tyres of the only two motor vechiles in the town. He learned to pull clothes-pegs from the clothesline while the washing was attached, and also pulled the roofing nails out of the hotel's roof.
Eventually Dan and Jane Hurley crossed the river. The Dargo Hotel was left to Jane's sister Jean whose married name was Lee. Alex remained in the hotel until the late sixties when the hotel passed from Hurley ownership. Alex the cockatoo was given to Tony Hurley a grandson of Dan and and Jane Hurley. Tony was young and the only person that could handle Alex. The bird spent thirty years in the hotel environment. He breathed in the cigarette smoke, he put up with the drunks and all the other things that happen in hotel bars.
When Tony left for the big smoke in Melbourne he took Alex with him. From Melbourne the pair went to Tootgarook and stayed there until 1969. They left Tootgarook in 1972 and returned to Melbourne. Now Alex's whereabouts becomes fuzzy. However, in 1980 Alex found a new home in Mildura where he resided for seven years. In 1987 he went to the Parkmore Caravan Park with Ray Puddy. Ray is a Vietnam Veteran who was looking for a friend after attending the Vietnam Veterans' Welcome Home March in Sydney in 1987. Alex didn't like men. Who can blame him after spending 30 years in a pub! Ray and Alex got along great, as long as Ray didn't try to handle him.
Alex still resides with Ray and his partner. Ray's partner can handle Alex but Ray can't. I hate writing stories with morals. However, there is a moral in this wonderful story of an Australian icon, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. Alex is 98 years old this year 2007.
Alex the cockatoo was taken from his nest when he was little in 1910 or 1911 in a Victorian town called Dargo. Dargo is at the foot of the Victorian Alps in Gippsland, Australia. The little bird was taken by a boy named Alex Hurley. Alex was the son of Dan and Jane Hurley who owned the Dargo Hotel in Dargo. The Dargo Hotel was the last stop to the local goldfields called Grant-and-Crooked Rivers goldfields. Dan and Jane raised eleven children and all the children were born at the Dargo Hotel. How about that for pioneering spirit!
Alex was a free pet and free spirit and had the run of the hotel and the surroundings. In 1950 Alex had a ring and a chain fixed to his left leg. By then he was was forty. Would you like to have been chained up when you were forty? Well Alex responded by being a nuisance. He learned how to let down the tyres of the only two motor vechiles in the town. He learned to pull clothes-pegs from the clothesline while the washing was attached, and also pulled the roofing nails out of the hotel's roof.
Eventually Dan and Jane Hurley crossed the river. The Dargo Hotel was left to Jane's sister Jean whose married name was Lee. Alex remained in the hotel until the late sixties when the hotel passed from Hurley ownership. Alex the cockatoo was given to Tony Hurley a grandson of Dan and and Jane Hurley. Tony was young and the only person that could handle Alex. The bird spent thirty years in the hotel environment. He breathed in the cigarette smoke, he put up with the drunks and all the other things that happen in hotel bars.
When Tony left for the big smoke in Melbourne he took Alex with him. From Melbourne the pair went to Tootgarook and stayed there until 1969. They left Tootgarook in 1972 and returned to Melbourne. Now Alex's whereabouts becomes fuzzy. However, in 1980 Alex found a new home in Mildura where he resided for seven years. In 1987 he went to the Parkmore Caravan Park with Ray Puddy. Ray is a Vietnam Veteran who was looking for a friend after attending the Vietnam Veterans' Welcome Home March in Sydney in 1987. Alex didn't like men. Who can blame him after spending 30 years in a pub! Ray and Alex got along great, as long as Ray didn't try to handle him.
Alex still resides with Ray and his partner. Ray's partner can handle Alex but Ray can't. I hate writing stories with morals. However, there is a moral in this wonderful story of an Australian icon, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. Alex is 98 years old this year 2007.
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