Sydney Full Moon Hash

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In the beginning was the word…..

Observatory Hill, June 1992 Sydney FMH3 Run 1

Once back in the U.K., early in 1989, after an extended stint working in the Middle East, and now finding myself working at Stanstead Airport, I naturally wanted to continue Hashing. The packs in the area (Cambridge H3, Essex H3) were all a tad too distant, so I put an ad in the local freebie paper, couched in Hash-type language, asking if anybody out there was interested.

I got around 5 responses and one of them, from Allan “Smartarse” Drew, who had come across such a phenomenon in Singapore, suggested a monthly Hash on or about the Full Moon. And so it came to pass that on 10th March 1990 the First U.K. FMH3 was born. In fact if you look VERY closely in the group photo of the first Sydney FMH3 run you’ll see that “Candlesticks” (front row, second from right) is wearing the inaugural FUK FMH3 T-Shirt I sold him!

Fast forward to late 1991 and our hero wakes up one morning and finds himself in Sydney and all fired up to continue the Full Moon tradition. So far so good, but those who have since cast doubts on my sanity were given further ammunition when I chose to co-opt the “legendary” “Enos” as co-GM…… Still, he did manage to do a good job in procuring Inaugural Run T-Shirts with signatures of all who attended on the back. That run was on 14th June1992 and started and finished on Observatory Hill with the On-On at “The Hero of Waterloo”.

It’s been said of the 1960’s that if you can remember them, you weren’t there. Well I was there on that inaugural run and I don’t remember much of that evening. For example, where were all the others who attended but aren’t in the photo? Down the pub already? It was pretty wild, as were quite a few of those early On-Ons.

I do remember that the first ever “Full Moon Cocktail was awarded jointly to “Bo Peep” and “Calamity Jane” for some misdemeanour involving the Harbour Bridge. “Full Moon Cocktail”? That was an innovation I brought over from the U.K. that was invented by “Smartarse”. Put simply, it consisted of a raw egg dropped into a schooner of Guinness: A golden moon in the dark of the night…Simple yet capable of causing panic in the hardiest of Hashers. It’s sad to note, though, from the photo below that standing just behind “Calamity” and next to “Enos” is “Gazelle”. Sad, because she died in 1995…..

Bo Peep and Calamity Jane downing the first ever Full Moon Cocktail

Some other memories of those very early days….A winter run (set by “Hard On”?) from right by the base of the northwest pylon of the Harbour Bridge. It was so cold and windy at the bucket that we set out to find shelter. Right there, by the pylon was (and maybe still is) an open, unfenced, concrete-lined pit, about 6-8 feet deep and, wonder of wonders, clean and dry. Perfect. Here it was that Eveready became (again, from a wonky memory) the first person to refuse to down the Full Moon Cocktail. She chucked it over her head…..

Then there was the first Full Moon run from “Jukebox’s” place in Darlington. The run was fine but during the bucket the heavens opened…and stayed open. But was “Juky” worried? While the rest of us bailed out inches of water from his lounge and while “Enos” ran up and down “Juky’s” roof, allegedly looking for the source of the leak, “Jukebox” calmly carried on cooking the mother of all curries in his kitchen. He eventually served it up around 10:30pm and we found we needed some of that water to put out the fire inside from the curry.

So there it is; the “official” history of the start of the Sydney FMH3. Oh, and no membership, no subs, just bucket fees, and I don’t think there was ever a Hash Trash, but there was a halfway bucket!

What happened after that? I gave Hashing away in late 1994 and left it to “Enos” who apparently did nothing with it until “Jukebox” rode to the rescue. But that’s a whole different story, as is the story of the Hash Handles I had before I became “Vertigo”…..But buy “Jukebox” a schooner and I’m sure he’ll be only too happy to tell you.