Herbie Lamble

I see on my Facebook feed that Herb Lamble died. Herb was always warm and welcoming to me. I did a Signpost article on him some years ago. I copy it here.

Tractors, Racing Bikes and Tourist Coaches

In 2013 Herbie Lamble visited the Isle of Man, between Great Britain and Ireland in the Irish Sea, to see the ‘Isle of Man TT’, an annual motorbike championship regarded by many as the most prestigious in the world. It was something Herbie had always wanted to do, and he was one of thousands of bike racing fans from far and wide.

The bikes race on the island’s roads and Herbie stood outside a hotel watching the competitors flash past when a man approached him and said, “Herbie Lamble? How are you these days?”

Herbie had no recognition and had to ask who he was.

“I was Harry Hibbert’s sidecar passenger that day when we could have been killed.”

Amazingly, decades after the day they cheated death, having not seen each other in the interim, they had met again on the other side of the world.

Herbie explains, “Harry Hibbert and I were rivals. On that day I knew I had Harry’s measure. Graeme Biggs was my main threat, so I sat on his tail on his right side. I had a little more power and knew I could outbrake him on a particular corner and get past. Lap after lap I waited patiently, not wanting to move too early. There was a small rise before a sweeping corner. Graeme could see ahead but I couldn’t. He veered right, so I veered left to avoid him. Suddenly right in front of me there was Harry Hibbert‘s bike stopped in its tracks, having spun out.”

Herbie was travelling at perhaps 230-240kph and his bike with brother Ken in the sidecar ploughed straight into it.

“In the instant there was nothing I could do. I thought that’s it, we’re all dead. We went over the top of them; I came off the bike and slid along the bitumen, the leathers saving me being torn up. I was dazed and it took me a while to realize my eyes were open and I was alive. I looked over to see Ken slowly getting up. I was relieved to see him alive. As it turned out we had no broken bones, miraculously, and Harry and his passenger escaped serious injury too. The bike was wrecked though.”

Herbie had broken each of his arms in separate accidents racing in Tasmania and South Australia previously. He raced all over Australia at major events and was regarded as one of the top three sidecar riders in Australia. He came second in the Australian titles and third in the Malaysian Superbike Round, and second in many other events in Australia, being dogged by mechanical bad luck to deprive him of victory a number of times. He started racing bikes in 1969 and gave it away in 1974 and took it up again in 1984 for 8 more years.

Herbie was born in 1946 and grew up in Cloverleigh Avenue Emerald with three younger brothers, Robert, John and Ken. Their father Bert worked locally in the Forest Commission and their mum was from the Jones family who were early settlers in Emerald. Her grandfather owned Jones’ store around 1900 on the corner of Monbulk Road where Woolworths is now.

Herbie went to Emerald Primary School and Ferntree Gully Tech. His first job was at Hasset’s Machinery in Ringwood which sent him to David Brown Tractors for training, giving him the mechanical background used through his working life. After 2 years he went to work at Herb Sherriff’s garage in Emerald for three years before returning to Hasset’s.

In 1969 he bought the ELTO garage, near the Emerald Lake turnoff, where he stayed till 1974, coinciding with his first bike racing stint. In 1974 he went into business with his friend John Tolley as mowing contractors ‘Tolley and Lamble’ on a handshake agreement successful for 22 years. They had a contract with the City of Knox mowing roadsides, ovals and parks and did extensive work for the Board of Works through Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

In 1992 Herb and wife Vicki bought an ’87 Custom Coach with the intention of using it as a mobile home to travel around Australia, but first took it on a trip to Birdsville with seventeen local blokes who contributed to the costs. The trip was so successful it gave rise to a new venture, ‘Lamble Tours’, which this year celebrates 20 years of business. Herb and Vicki have driven and escorted coach tours extensively through Victoria and New South Wales and all over Australia including southwest West Australia, north to the Kimberleys, Alice Springs, the Flinders Ranges, Cairns, Townsville, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast. They have also conducted tours to Canada and New Zealand where they hire coaches, and Vicki has done river cruises in Europe.

A remarkable road travelled since Herbie’s days at the single building Emerald Primary School in the 1950’s.

Not long after I wrote that Herb sold up in Emerald and moved to Benalla in retirement. Brother Jod worked for Herb driving tractors slashing for some years. Herb owned Elto when we were first in Emerald in the early '70's and was always friendly and helpful whatever problem we presented to him at the garage.