Last updated: 23-Dec-2025 05:29 AM AEST by Don McKenzie
Search Home ATL-TAB Don shares his Journey
Automatic Totalisators Limited. The Old ATL Sydney Head Office Letterhead. No Longer Valid.
Employed during the transition across to the new mobile PDP 11/34 systems, and the new VAX 780 VOTS Central site based at Moonee Valley.
I found David awkward to get to know well, and I guess I got along with him as good as anyone. He was the son of Doctors, and was a very sharp, young programmer. I would place him in guru class. David was found mainly at Moonee Valley doing software support inside the VOTS computer complex.
I remember one Saturday night, I was in one of the mobile (semi-trailer) PDP 11-34 vans, running the Moonee Valley trot meeting, and David was inside the VOTS building, which was just outside the door of the mobile van. David wandered into the van, and saw me with graph paper, mapping out the lower case letters "a to z" in a 6 by 8 matrix, then hand converting the values to Hexadecimal. When he asked, I told him it was for a new character generator ROM, I was designing for the TRS-80 Model One Computer I had at home. These don't have lower case characters, and I had designed the hardware to fix this, and now I needed an EPROM chip mapped out to generate the new lower case characters. I had thought of writing a small program to do it, but decided it wasn't a big job to map it out by hand. David then rushed off inside. I wasn't sure if he got called away, or was up to something else.
Note for TRS-80 Model One die-hards: There was a conversion kit variable for lower case, however it had the 5 letters "g j pq and y" sitting above the base line. Mine was the first to drop them below the base line.
David came back 15 minutes later, and told me he had written a program that will run on the 11/34 to do my little job, and we should test it. Today, if you wanted to transfer an exe file from one PC to another, you would do it with a USB memory stick. In 1980 on the systems we had, basically you had a very large Pertec tape drive, and our tape drives were used as audit tapes during any race meeting. They would be backing up the complete transaction file. We did run a duplex system, so it isn't a major problem. David dismounted one tape drive, mounted his executable file, then re-mounted the transaction file tape.
We then ran his new program. He had used the cursor keys, and space bar, to set and reset each individual pixel. The Hex values appeared to the right of the character box. Precisely what I needed. I thanked him, and pointed out that he had only mapped it 5 wide, not 6 as I needed. He deleted the file, grabbed the tape, and took off. At this stage I had two thoughts. 1) He has gone to fix it. 2) What a great programmer. Saw what I needed and had it running in 10 or 15 minutes.
An hour later I went to look for him and found him inside, tapping away on a keyboard on the VOTS system, and asked him how he went with the 6 bits wide version. "You said it was no good, so I deleted it!". Sorry, I don't have a moral to this story, as David had completely shocked me with this action. Needless to say, I found out why I had to stay at arms length from him in future. Some people are like that.
How do I explain Mick Weiss? At one stage, we had a team of four men covering the PDP 11/34 race meetings. This was Michael Higgins, Graeme Twycross, Fred Estcourt, and me. Graeme was starting to move into the new team of three at our new central site at Moonee Valley, known as VOTS (Victorian On-course Totalisator System), so to help cover the roster, as well as give us on-course software support with a new system, Mick Weiss was employed as an on-course software engineer.
Mick had one big problem. He loved a drink. The three of us probably protected him too much, and I feel he was really hated by management, but as long as he pulled his magic on course when the system went down in a screaming heap, we were happy to continue to let things go.
We had unlisted phone numbers between systems, and whenever you rang Mick, he would answer with just a yep, a grunt, or an OK, and you would know it was him, even with the very short response, but you were never quick enough to react with a silly response back. One day, he answered "Telephone", so I shot back at him "Person", and I heard him slide to the floor in giggles, so I knew I had finally trapped him at his own game, and got the better of his telephone technique.
The three of us remained firm friends with Mick, right up until we did the transfer to the TAB in 1988. Most of the techs got on well with Mick. For some reason, Mick wouldn't have a bar of the transfer to the TAB, and resigned. Off he went, and we never heard from him again.
Were all key personal, employed by ATL to implement the conversion of the on course tote, to the new VOTS system. If I get the actual titles, and a little more information, I'll add it here. I knew them all reasonably well, and had a good working relationship with them. Geoff and Mike went onto for their own software business venture UNICO. Gasp!, I just Googled UNICO, went to the link and saw a picture of Geoff. Has it been that long Geoff? Glyn took off to New Zealand for a similar racing project.
Dale Story place keeper
All sellers were female. Age didn't matter all that much, as long as you were over eighteen. Support staff, such as dividend calculators, odds calculators, tote and house supervisors, bankers, payers, runners, and money counters, were made up of a mixture of male and female staff.
We had several generations of staff in many cases. Gordon Collier, Frank Dowdle, Allan McCalman, and Joyce Mackintosh are just a few examples of three generations employed on the tote. There would have been many more. Virtually everyone had some sort of family on the tote. My daughter Penny had a short stay as a seller. Now she runs my business.
What we called the core group (A.K.A. The royal family) often worked six, seven, or more shifts a week, as many days had double header meetings because of day and night commitments, and mostly at different tracks, so there was a scramble to get from say a Mornington day meeting, to a Sandown Dog night meeting. Most of these sellers covered all country and dog tracks, as well as any races and trot commitments in the city.
At this point, I wish I had a selling staff race day roster, anywhere from around 1976 to about 1986, as it is impossible to mention everyone personally, even if I wanted to do so.
When I met Cliff, he was a part-time actor, and it appears he still is. See his Internet listings at:
Cliff Ellen Wikipedia page Cliff Ellen IMDb page Facebook Cliff EllenIronically, he played the part of the horse float driver in the 1983 Australian movie about Australia's most famous horse, Phar Lap. The movie bearing the same name. He was responsible for driving the horse float down the members' drive with Par Lap on board, as portrayed in the movie, on Melbourne Cup Day 1930.
Cliff is 7 years older than me, but he was prematurely bald in the days when I had a reasonable head of red hair. Because of his age, he usually got the part of someone's dad, the caretaker, the undertaker, the hospital patient, etc. At one stage, he did a TV series that was named after his character: "Bingles" .... Ron (23 episodes, 1992-1993).
Cliff was a very experienced manual dividend calculator and is a qualified accountant. When the manual calculator job vanished because of the introduction of Computers, he became a tote house supervisor. He also has a very good idea of horses and the sort of money they should be paying on the tote. He helped ATL and me with what we called "Mechanical Errors" on many occasions. If the equipment went wrong, and you had to make an educated guess on a dividend, Cliff was the right person to have handy.
I worked with Cliff directly on all the old electromechanical totes still running at the time I joined the team. This consisted of all city Interstate tote houses every Raceday, and all country tracks. So I knew him very well indeed.
For Cliff, the tote was a family business. His in-laws, Allan and Rose McCalman, his wife Mary, and daughter Jenny, all worked on the tote. He also had a brother and a sister in-law working on the tote. There may have been other members of the family. This is the way the tote operated during these years.
Today, I sit in front of my computer, tapping away, always keeping busy. And I always have a TV running. Hardly watch it when I am tapping away. A voice from the TV stops me in my tracks. It is Cliff doing yet another ad. I can pick Cliffy's voice every time. I know it so very well.
The first time I had seen a computer virus was on Cliff's computer. It was the first time I had ever dealt with one. I had trouble believing that a computer could catch a virus. Now, of course, it is a fact of life.
AHA! It's amazing what a little Google can do for you: "Mr Ellen writes a column for a local newspaper based on the Mornington Peninsula." Neighbours: The Perfect Blend | Interview: Cliff Ellen
Stone the flamin' crows. It's Mr Ellen now!
Lucky Grills was a national Australian treasure and had a TV series called Bluey in 1975. A comedy team of writers grabbed the series and did their own voice-overs, and turned it into a comedy, Bargearse, in 1992-93. Cliff's image appeared in the series a couple of times, and he was getting a small royalty because his image appeared, even though his voice was no longer heard. Check out: TV series called Bluey in 1975 ▶ I would love to pinpoint the two episodes he appeared in.
Today, Cliff lives at Rye on the Mornington Peninsula and has a Facebook entry.
A further Ellen family reference: Kevin Johnston 11-February-2010Mary Ellen (pictured twice on this page) is the daughter of Allan and Rose McCalman (long-time toties) and married to Cliff Ellen. Their daughter, Jenny, also worked on the tote for many years. Mary was always involved in some sort of admin control position on the tote. I remember her mainly operating the switchboards in the tote control area or the mobile vans.
To finish this little story off, I have to mention that there was one other direct member of the Ellen family I was aware of. During school holidays at the quieter country tracks, Mary would bring in her other daughter, Suzie. She must have been all of seven or eight at the time, and Mary would sit her in a corner with crayons and a colouring-in book. Many, including myself, would approach her from time to time to see if she was OK, and needed anything, including a good cheer up, but she was very happy and contented to sit for perhaps eight hours a day, colouring in, and keeping an eye on us. Hardly said a word all day, quiet as a church mouse. Very unlike her parents.
Sadly, Mary passed away in 2004, and was one of my favourite people. As was her husband, Cliff. (As was Jenny)
Two stories Jenny told me many years ago, and I have never forgotten, and feel the need to repeat them here.
Jenny, the Tram, and "That's my dad!"
Jenny was having an early evening dinner with a friend at a restaurant in Glenferrie Rd, near Dandenong Rd, Malvern, when an elderly drunk was verbally abused, then thrown from a passing tram, right in front of them. He started to go through a rubbish bin, before the tram moved on. Jenny's friend said something along the lines: "Isn't that shocking, seeing an old man so drunk, and down on his luck, that he has to go and do something like that". Jenny replied "That's my dad".
Colonial Tramcar RestaurantDining in Melbourne can be a fabulous experience, especially aboard the fleet of historical trams that have become The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. These glossy, burgundy restaurants on wheels are the first travelling tramcar restaurants in the world and ensure a delightful innovative approach to dining.
Cliff had an acting gig on the Tramcar and was the annoying drunk for the trip.
Jenny, the Greek Shop Assistant. Jenny has some good Greek friends and was invited to Greece for a short working holiday. All she needed to do was sell a few clothes to the tourists in the shop. If you know Jenny, she could easily pass for a Greek with her long black hair and dark complexion. The tourists all believed she was a local and couldn't possibly understand much English, so she was able to pick up on what they were saying very easily, which gave her a good advantage when it came to sales. When asked if she could speak English by the Americans, she positioned her thumb and index finger about 1/2" apart, and said "Leettle beet".
I can only start to imagine the fun Jenny had with this one. I think she was there for three months. I see from her Facebook, she still has a lot of Greek friends.
Back in the electro-mechanical days, calculating the dividends was a big job. The tote staff had to manually work out the payouts, which could take a while, especially on busy race days. When the PDP 11/34 systems came in, it was a game changer. The computers could calculate the dividends in seconds, and it made the whole operation so much smoother. I remember the old hands grumbling about the new technology, but they soon came around when they saw how much easier it made their lives.
Cliff Ellen, Steve Smith, Ash Conroy, Pat Paul, Elsie Hibberd and Elsie Gardiner, Ross?
Along with the dividend calculators, the odds calculators were a big part of the tote operation. These were the guys who worked out the odds for each horse, based on the money coming in. It was a real skill, and you had to be quick on your feet. The professional punters like Chris and Neil were always watching the odds like hawks, ready to pounce when they saw a discrepancy. The introduction of the computer systems took a lot of the pressure off the odds calculators, but it was still a critical job.
Win Folley, Betty Miles, Dulcie Lewis, Dot Westcott, Mattie Rainsbury.
Many of the roles below, swapped around a little bit from time to time, and my memory needs a good prompt on some of the names:
Control Supervisors: Vic Lees, Bryan Whittard, Ash Conroy, Ian Uren.
Race Day Control: Val Farrell, Mary Ellen, Sandra Kinsella, Pat Randell, Judy Berry, Pat Samble, Karen Anderson, Marilyn Moloney, Judy Williams.
There are a lot more groups associated with the race clubs than I have listed below, however these are the people we had a close race day working relationship with.
Government Inspectors played a critical role in ensuring the tote operations ran fairly and complied with regulations. They were always present on race days, keeping a close eye on the systems and the staff. Their job was to make sure everything was above board, from the ticket issuing machines to the dividend calculations. It was a tough gig, but they were professionals who knew the industry inside out.
Malcolm Van Acadi, Jack (Doc) Mannix, Ian Davies, Ross Johnson, Richard Lachall (His father was Secretary Of the VRC), John Condon, and Ross Kennedy.
The TAB Representatives were our link to the broader betting network. They coordinated with the tote staff and ensured that the off-course betting systems were in sync with our on-course operations. It was a role that required a lot of communication and quick thinking, especially when things got hectic on race days.
Wally Kenny.
Frank Verstrepen, and his step son David Ferrier, provided the video distribution systems on many racecourses we attended, certainly all of the country ones. This was from the camera work, right through to the video monitors, and provide the video recordings of each event. Frank was from the old Channel 0-10 TV network, and knew a couple of my friends that also worked at the Nunawading complex.
I met David at Sale racecourse, when he was all of about 14. I was just relating a story about David to Brian Conlon, and felt it should be included in this archive.
David was Harley Davidson motorcycle mad. Possibly still is. He would impersonate Arnold Schwarzenegger with the rifle holster, and the sunnies from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), during coffee breaks, etc. He would cock the rifle using one hand, holster it, and then flip the sunnies on with the other, saying "I'll be bark". He would then jump on the Harley and ride off into the nearest tote house spinning his wheels. I always imagined a fish tail-swing of the rear wheel as he took off. David now tells me he is a grand father.
Currently David operates Race-Tech Australia The Big Screen Company. The Big Screen Company
The TIM Cartage Contractors were responsible for transporting the ticket issuing machines to and from the racecourses. It was a logistical challenge, especially for country meetings where the equipment had to be moved quickly between venues. These guys were the unsung heroes who made sure the tote machines were where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.
Mayne Nickless, Peter Kennedy, Jack Asmar, Asmar Transport, (Also big Terry, the wild man from Borneo), Jack sub-contracted to Border Express later.
The Race Course Administrators were the backbone of the race day operations. They coordinated everything from the racing schedule to the facilities, ensuring the day ran smoothly for everyone involved. We worked closely with them, as the tote was a key part of the race day experience. They were a dedicated bunch, and their efforts made our jobs a lot easier.
Special mentions: David and Gavin Burke, Bunny Drake, Allan ??, and Pakenham. Ted Walker, Ron King, VRC, Ron Snell (VATC, Sandown Dogs, Cranbourne Dogs), Ian McEwen MVRC.
Ron Parkinson, Chris Robertson, Neil Rieck, and Norm Scott are pro punters that readily come to mind.
Chris Robertson 27-December-2009Neil Rieck and Norm Scott. Norm is still betting at city tracks. Neil lives in Clifton Springs and has dropped off the radar. Ron bets from home in between mutterings about the Essendon Football Club's playing group. He rings me from time to time to talk about the current state of Australia's horse race betting. He might not appreciate me paraphrasing him, so you'll have to guess what he thinks of the current deregulated system. We were more recognisable as a 'gang of four' at distant meetings. The locals must have thought us a very odd assortment. They'd have been right. There are others, but they might value their anonymity. As for the 'gang of four', too late for that now.
There was a small group of professional punters, that made a living from punting, perhaps working on a margin of only 1%. They turned up every raceday, and were as hard working as anyone on the course. In the early days, to me, they seemed to have been treated a little like lepers, as they appeared to be hogging the tote window queues, as far as the general public was concerned. They sometimes needed to place numerous bet types, and usually very large sums of money. So, they would be at the front of the queue, and the queue traffic wouldn't be moving. General public didn't like it. Sellers and pro punters had a very good relationship, and most knew each other on a first name basis.
Years later, after examining the turnover, the clubs decided that pro punters were an important part of their business. Special facilities, such as purpose built tote houses were constructed and used on all major city courses. They had their own TIM, and operator. Tea, coffee, soft drinks, a selection of sandwiches and hot snacks were also provided. Only very experienced staff were rostered in the Pro Punters Room.
After I retired, I think the situation reverted fully back to the leper approach. The introduction of the PC based TIM in 1994, seems to have spelt the deathblow for on course professional punters.
Quoting Chris Robertson from Brian Conlon's Page in 2001: "What was really sad was the replacement of J25s in 1994. To me the Tote was no longer the Tote. Nowadays it seems any generic computer terminal can handle the functions that were previously carried out by highly specialised machines that were a delight to watch perform... That's progress. Computers have been the nemesis of the old fashioned 'Overs' punter. My Saturdays are now spent watching football, and last year I missed my first Derby Day at Flemington since 1969... "
About a third of the way into this page: ATL Award Under the Heading: "Following are some extracts from emails received from Chris Robertson in September 2001" You will be able to read the full email from Chris.
Due to the commitments of the TIMs on Saturdays, we would usually need to transport anywhere from 25 to 40 J18's from the major racecourse day meeting, to the trot night meeting. This night meeting was the Showgrounds at Ascot Vale, or Moonee Valley trots in later years. This meant specific tote houses would be designated to be closed and "unloaded" early, so that we could get the job done quickly. We would carry one terminal between two men, and we formed a daisy chain line of as many Technicians as we could get, to load up the truck. Example: Six men carried five terminals at once. If you needed to move 40 terminals, then you had eight trips out to the truck.
Depending on the daily roster, Graeme Twycross and-or myself, usually had the task of driving the white Leyland van out to the night trot meeting. When we arrived, it was then a rush to get the TIMs out of the truck and into the tote houses and "Loaded" up with type, before race one opened for sales. If Joe Waddington was rostered on the day meeting, he would get a lift out with us, as he came into work by train, and lived right opposite the Showgrounds. He was into his seventies then. The truck was only a two seater, unless you sat on the engine cowling (many did), but Joe was more than comfortable in the back, sitting on a wooden chair among the terminals.
Chris and Neil being pro-punters, and at the leper stage of pro-punter on course development, would give us a hand with the TIMs, in exchange for a lift out to the Showgrounds. This also meant they would get in for free, as they were in the back of the ATL truck. Quite a contrast to later years for them. The pro-punters also chased every country meeting they could get to, and as I spent a lot of time on the country tracks in the electro-mechanical days, I got to know them all very well.
As a footnote, I knew Chris's brother Jim Robertson extremely well also. When I told him I had known Chris since 1976, he got quite a shock. As Dontronics, I sold Jim's Warp-13 Australian (Geelong) designed PIC micro-controller programmer, for many years. It was a world wide known, and without doubt, the best available. I built Dontronics on getting the best of other peoples ideas, and marketing them on the Internet. This programmer hasn't been available for many years now, but if you Google "warp-13 pic programmer", (with quotes) you will still find plenty of hits. These hits will vanish as the years go by. I spoke with Jim in the last few days of writing this sentence. (Dec-2009) He purchased some gear from me, to do some more development work on a new idea he has evolving.
One of my favourite memories is of Chris and Neil helping out with the ATL tote truck. We had this old truck that we used to cart the tote machines around to the country tracks. It was a bit of a rust bucket, but it got the job done. Chris and Neil would often lend a hand, loading and unloading the machines, and they always had a laugh doing it. They'd tell stories about their betting wins (and losses), and it made those long trips to places like Colac and Seymour a lot more bearable. Those were the days!
From Brian Conlon Nov-2009:
Regarding Chris Robertson, I found him to be an absolutely amazing individual. His knowledge of ATL was uncanny. For a punter on the outside he wrote more like a tote manager with knowledge of what goes on inside the tote. He even knew the sort of things that "struck fear" into the hearts of tote managers, especially with the Julius tote but not isolated to that. He knew ATL's product line, every model of TIM and where they were installed. He certainly knows a lot more about this last subject than I do. In the "Caracas a latter-day Julius tote installation" I put an entry at the bottom about another latterday installation at Blue Bonnets at Montreal. Blue Bonnets at Montreal
I originally copied the writing on the back of the photograph which stated Blue Bonnets was in Ottawa.
Chris was obviously keeping a close eye on changes to the totalisator history website as he wrote to me after a long break in communication informing me that Blue Bonnets was not in Ottawa but Montreal. I checked the photo and it definitely stated Ottawa so I spoke to Neville Mitchell to ask for confirmation. Neville said I know it is wrong, that was a bugger of an installation, requiring long hour days 7 days a week and I was exhausted when I wrote that and it was the wrong location. The next paragraph now resides in the Blue Bonnets section. Of course not only had Chris been there, he also knew which ticket issuing machines were in use. The other totie like feeling he displayed was an emotion of disappointment when the ticket issuing machines stopped being custom built specialist devices and just became off the shelf generic type devices. To me Chris is an enigma. Most people on the outside know little of the inside. He to me appears to be an expert on the inside worthy of someone who has worked inside the tote for decades.
(Postscript - there was some confusion over the location of this installation. Neville's note indicates that it is in Ottawa. After receiving an email from Chris Robertson in March 2005 correcting this error, I spoke to Neville about it. He said he was exhausted after this project and recorded the location in error. I have included an extract from Chris' email - But any respecting Francophone Canadian will take umbrage at the suggestion that Blue Bonnets Raceway is, or ever was in Ottawa. It won't come as any great surprise to you to learn I've actually been to Blue Bonnets and I can assure you it is in Montreal Quebec.)