[Mike K]

I did a TAFE course years ago and the guy sitting next to me had grown up in Coburg in the early 1950's - he said Bill Hughes was his best mate at school . He would visit Bill and be goggle eyed at the fantastic model train setup Bill had .

This chap said there was a council tip across the road from their yard and anything of low value , not worth selling, would be pushed into the tip . He used to scrounge the tip as Hughes had thrown out thousands of mortar bomb holders , the clips being made from gun metal , he would spend a few hours there and take the salvage to the scrap metal yard and make enough to go to the pictures .

He said the old man would buy a new Rover car each year !

I know one of them went to Europe on a buying trip as some German items were turning up in their yard .

They used to run full page adverts in the Weekly Times .

At one stage they were buying so much surplus , they ran out of space and they rented a paddock at Broadmeadows , trouble is the paddock owner was selling off the stuff on the side !