Boinga Bob

Articles

By Rien O'Mara

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Robert Prudhoe
Dip. EE, Post Dip. (Heat, Vent, Air Cond), Masters Mech. Eng. (Systems), unfinished Ph.D. (Alternative Energy Systems).

About the Author
Rien O'Mara enjoys the outdoors, talking to other people, and (secretly) analysing and catagorising nearly everything he sees, including people. Rien first met Robert Prudhoe in the Spring holidays of 1998, in the sleepy little town of Warburton.
Always a haven for alternative types of people, Warburton naturally attracted Bob and he built his house there. Rien and his friend Ross were staying at Ross' aunt's Bed and Breakfast there and went for a Raké massage. Somehow the Raké lady, also a very alternative person, knew that Rien and Ross were going to Nepal in 1999. She said, "You should go and talk to Boinga Bob, he's gone nearly everywhere, I'm pretty sure he's been there too."
"Where does he live?" we asked.
"In the Tibetan Monastery behind the Fire Station."
And so it began...
I would like to thank Ross' aunt Valda, and recommend that everybody go to her tearooms "Valda's Treet", the Raké lady (I'm sorry I have forgotten her name), my mother for driving me to Warburton (twice), and my friends for being open-minded enough to come along, and listen to Bob, I'm sure that they gained from the experience.

Chapter 1: "Would you like a glass of that lovely Guinness?"

When we first walked in to Bob's house, we were greeted by a happy, smiling, energetic man, whose first action was to pull us all into a group hug. "The world needs more hugs, and less mugs," He proclaimed. "Damn right!" I thought, and with that we were up for a day of stimulating conversation.
Being a man who has been very nearly everywhere on earth, and spiritually beyond, he seemed to be very down to earth. Sipping a glass of stout beer, he asked, "Would you like a glass of that lovely Guinness? How about a nice white wine, or orange juice, or water?" We really needed to get some photos and film of his house in daylight and as it was already dusk we asked him if we could do that. "Go ahead, go wherever you want, make yourself at home."
For a house made so ornate and full of interesting things, Bob's Temple is surprisingly livable, with seats, little spots to reflect in and just amazing places to look at, you feel comfortable there. Very rarely do I feel comfortable in someone else's house straight away, but somehow in a house full of priceless artifacts and virtually Bob's whole life experiences displayed on every wall, filling up all the nooks and crannies, I felt like I could go anywhere, sit anywhere and look at anything lying around without being intrusive. If you ever do get to meet Robert Prudhoe, you will find he exudes this air of freedom and friendliness, that extends into his hospitality.
Everywhere you look in his house is something that has a fascinating story behind it. Even the stuffed children's toys are there because they are meant to bring happiness. "Teddy bears and toys are suppose to be things to make children happy, I also want to be happy." Indeed, Bob believes that he is still a child, he doesn't think he ever grew up, and he isn't that keen on growing up at all.

Chapter 2: An Alternative Youth

My first question to Bob was, where were you born? He responded in a flood of information that made it seem like it was a clear as yesterday. Robert Prudhoe was born in Richmond, Victoria, at the Epworth Hospital, at 6:00pm on the 4th of February, 1940. He added, "...and my mother was my mother." At that stage his family (Mother, Father and Bob) was living in South Yarra. They then moved to Stuart Street, Prahan, and then when he was five years of age the young family moved to Ivanhoe, on 25 Hawk Street. Bob lived in Ivanhoe until he was around 35 years old. Bob always had a good relationship with his parents, in his own words, "it couldn't have been better." His mother was very supportive of him all of his life and he was very attached to her. He didn't speak much of his father but what he did say indicated that there were never any problems between them and he was much the same temperament as Bob's mother. I suspect that he could have died a long time ago so naturally, Bob wouldn't be as close to him as he was his mother. Bob's first school was Ivanhoe State school where his teacher was Mrs. Snowball. Mrs. Snowball called Bob's mother in and said, "look your son Bobby, he's a bloody idiot. That bloke will never learn anything, he's a total imbecile and you'd be wise to take him out of school and put him to work. He's not going to do anything in the world."* Bob's mother didn't take any notice of Mrs. Snowball and Bob soon went to Collingwood Technical College.
For the first couple of years, Bob spent his time at High School fighting and mucking around, in the third year he started to get a little bit academic, in the fourth year he really got stuck into his studies. He did very well and got very good marks in everything. He always got top of the class in practical subjects like Woodworking, Metalwork and Electrical Wiring. After his stunning results there he went to Footscray Technical Institute.
In his first year at Footscray he passed everything, in the second year he was getting very academic but in the half year he failed Engineering Drawing so he decided he would excel in that subject. He worked really hard at it and at the end of the year he came top of Victoria in Engineering Drawing. He also got top marks in Mathematics 2a and 2b and he won a commonwealth scholarship. He graduated from Footscray and got his Engineering Diploma apart from English. He didn't think it was important for an engineer to have English but soon realised that you need it to express yourself. He finished English and got his Electrical Engineer's Diploma.
When he was very young, around six, Bob can remember asking his mother, "Why am I living in my own body?" She replied, "Small boys don't ask those sorts of questions." From then on Bob has sought to understand that, he thinks that we should know. As he puts it all of the scientists research power, animals, space, the earth, but no-one can tell you why we are alive. Essentially what Bob is asking is 'What is the meaning of life?'. He has spent his life trying to find the answer to the question.
*Quoted from Bob not actually Mrs. Snowball

Chapter 3: "Academia"

After Bob gained his Electrical Engineering Diploma he got a job with the Electricity Commission of Victoria (or the SECV), first of all as an Engineering Cadet. He was working, "...at such places as Thomastown Terminal Station, Morwell Power Station, Hazelwood Power Station, which is now known as Churchill, Eildon Weir and Rubican Power Stations for Hydro Power Electric Generation. I worked at Brunswick Terminal Station on 220,000 volt, 22,000 volt and 66,000 volt systems, I learnt all about that. I worked at Power and Protection Section at Yarraville Laboratories, at Yarraville and I learnt all about hydraulics protection techniques, railway tripping and things like that. When I eventually became an engineer...." he worked at nearly all those places again. While doing these, every night he would go out walking trying to spot native wildlife, marsupials and other nocturnal creatures. After doing that he ended up in the Electricity Sales Department in Flinders Street, Melbourne. He was there for about five years in which time he became interested in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, and Commercial Cooking. He did a post graduate diploma in Heating and Ventilation, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. At the start of the course there were thirty students, after several years, in the final exam room for Air Conditioning class 2 their were two students. The rest had given up hope, it was simply too hard for them. There was Robert and one other man. After 15 minutes the other man stood up and walked out, the questions were too hard for him. Out of all those people he was the one person who completed the final paper and passed. He did for his project, "Fully Automatic Controlled Environmental Control Systems for Bulk Potato Storage." That system was a world first. While on his first trip out of Australia (through Europe) he got into Archeology. He was digging pottery up in Germany, throughout Turkey and Greece, as he puts it, "I just went crazy on excavating." The idea of Archeology fascinated him, just the idea that there were people living there thousands of years ago. He went out one morning looking for mushrooms, and he came across shards of pottery where a tractor had ploughed the field and wondered if it could be old pottery from the Roman Age, or maybe from the Greek Empire, or the Solomon Empire, and he realised that he found it incredible.
He came back to Australia and got a job with Post Office Australia, later becoming the Australian Post Office and Telecom Australia, later still becoming Australia Post and Telstra. He was into Alternative Energy Systems and the Reliability of Thermal Controls of Electronic Equipment Equators, the latter of which he led the world in the development of. He was the inventor of, Phase Change Material Technology to protect Critical Heat Emitting Computers from Overload. He was involved in the development of Phase Change Material Thermal Storage Heat Pump Systems and he was very much interested in Solar Chimney Buildings, to name a few and a whole range of others.
He developed for Australia the Defensive Action Strategy to Protect Critical Computer Areas from Loss of Fueling in Times of Failure from the Normal System, "that was all good fun." In 1989 his section was offered a payout to reduce staff but that didn't bother him because he had won a scholarship for Ph.D. after great results in his Masters Degree of Systems Engineering.
He was doing his Ph.D. in Alternative Energy Systems at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), he won the John Storey scholarship and started receiving Government Grants. Meanwhile he was lecturing overseas and he visited the Indian Institute of Technology where he met Doctor's Kashik and Kasjik, who were the foremost leaders on the world for the Mathematical Modeling of Thermal Systems. They loved the work that Robert Prudhoe was doing and they wanted to set up an international research party between themselves and Bob being the world leading team of Mathematical Modeling. Bob's supervisors back at RMIT didn't want him to do it because he would get more prestigious than them and the vetoed the program, diverting the funds to other projects. Soon after, in 1992, his house burned down and he decided that he needed to get away. He thought, "Well Christ didn't have a Ph.D., neither did Buddha. I don't need one." And with that he took off to see more of the world.

Chapter 4: Introduction to the Big Wide World

Bob first when overseas in 1965, with some friends of his to Europe. They arrived in England via the SS Fairstar, bought a Volkswagen Kombi-Van and traveled 29,000 miles around Europe. While he was doing this he was climbing mountains, skin-diving, fishing, hiking and discovering archeology (as discussed in "Academia"). After a year of doing that his friends were worn out and desperately wanted to go home but Bob was just getting warmed up. He decided to have a look in the wilderness of Africa.
He flew into Mombassa then to Addis Ababa all the while looking out of the window at the native animals underneath him. On the ground he hitch-hiked around using another little invention, not of worldly or international importance. He made a little sleeping sack that pegged into the ground with fly-wire for breathabilty. "I made it to protect me from the bugs and spiders. I didn't think of the Tigers, Lions and Hyenas. Luckily nothing happened."
While in Africa he ascended Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest peak on the African continent and met the legendary Buriba or "Mmm People". The Mmm People are a tribe in Africa that have a peculiar custom. When greeting they would say "Kuwando" and in reply, Bob would say "Anawisi" which means I love you in their language. After that the Mmm People would jump up and down on the spot just going, "Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm ,mmm, mmm, mmm, etc." They would do that for around 4 minutes. Bob said that by the time you had greeted everyone in the village in the morning, it would be close to lunchtime, "You'd end up being exhausted."
After Africa, Bob caught a ship, the SS Kampala, from Mombassa to the Seychelles Island chain, and then onto Bombay, India. He traveled all through India and into Nepal, and he then saw the Himalayas for the first time. He hiked through Nepal to Everest and up to Base Camp. "It just blew my mind." On his way there he met up with Sir Edmund Hillary, only Bob didn't know who he was as they didn't introduce each other to the other. The pack he was wearing was a Mountain Mule, "I said 'that's a great pack, a bloke called Hillary designed that for the first ascent of Everest.' But I was talking to Hillary, ( I ) didn't know who he was." After Sir Edmund left one of Bob's friends came up to him and said, "Do you know who that was? That was Hillary." And Bob didn't even know it. Bob says that if his pack could talk it could tell some amazing stories. Bob then returned to Australia.

Chapter 5: Many Varied Travel Experiences

Some of Bob's favourite moments in his life have been spent traveling. His home is jammed full of artifacts from Egypt, Israel, Africa, Nepal, Tibet, India, Indonesia, Guatemala, Alaska, Europe and many other places. Nearly each one has a fond story behind it. Underneath, I have selected some of the many stories Bob has told me about his travels, certainly some of the most peculiar, and also some of his own happy places.
After Bob's house was burnt down in 1992, he decided that he needed to get away for a while. Bob wound up in the isolation of Alaska. There he quickly made friends, "I was in a bar one morning, just talking to some people, and they loved my accent. They insisted on buying me drinks and talking to me. I finally had to leave because it was only midday and I was completely drunk and I had intended to climb a mountain that afternoon!" In Alaska he found the thing he needed: time to think. Quickly making friends with one man, he was asked to mind his house for six months while he attended business in mainland America. When he came back, Bob had completely redone his house into a kind of North American Indian version of his ruined one back home. His friend was so happy that he wept. The views that Bob got from the house were amazing and he spent most of the time relaxing, hiking, fishing, or making sculptures. One time when Bob was in Bali, Indonesia, in the mountain town of Ubud, he was privileged to see an amazing sky show. He met up with a girl from Brazil called Vicki in Kuta, he told her that he didn't like the noise and the hustle and bustle and he was going to Ubud, she decided to come with him. The night they got there, Vicki was translating a book to Bob from Portuguese called 'Urks'. It was about UFO's and their entities etc. At that moment Bob's skin felt like it was charged with electricity as well as Vicki's. She said, "Look, I think we're gonna see something tonight." Suddenly she said, "There's one!" Bob looked and saw a small ball of light flying across the top of the rice patties, no bigger than a soccer ball. Then it went straight up, Bob's eyes following, until he saw a great big dark shape. It was massive, sixty foot across or bigger, blacky silvery gray, making a low humming noise. "Oh my God!" Bob thought and with that it moved off and disappeared.
In fact, closer to home, Bob sometimes sits on top of the tower on Mt. Donna Buang to think and "contemplate the universe". One night it was 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and there was snow falling. He was up there with a friend from India, when a very strong, blinding white light that was coming towards them appeared. Bob thought, "Well, this is interesting. We're gonna get picked up." Then a great big cloud came across their vision and the thing disappeared. Bob believes that these ships are inter-dimensional, able to select who can seen or hear them. Bob has been to Egypt, where he fed his taste for archeology. He got to climb the Great Pyramid, meditate in the King's Chamber and excavate tombs, all because of his friends, the Guardians of the Pyramids. He was given many significant artifacts from his friends who believed he was a current incarnation of some important Egyptian historical figure, they gave him 5,000 or 6,000 year old Scarabs, Papyrus' that date back 1,000's of years and many special privileges.
Bob's trip into Tibet was made in 1994. Bob was in Nepal and got to talking to a man who also wanted to go into Tibet. Arrangements were made and they were granted an eight day permit to go into the deposed kingdom. When Bob approached Lhasa he was weeping tears of happiness, staring with joy at the Potala. Once in their he decided that eight days wouldn't be enough. He found that if you were with a tour you could stay for 23 days, so with the man he came into Tibet with, he organised a 23 all Tibetan Safari for 8 people. They found the people to go on the Safari, and they left the holy city in the back of a Chinese truck, with all of the people waving them off.
They went to Tangbotshe Monastery, Ongasaka, Ting-Gri, all the way over to sacred Mount Kolash and Lake Manisuroba, and did the pilgrimage walk around the base of Mt. Kolash. He then toured around more, approaching Everest from the Tibetan side up to Advance Base Camp up into the glaciers. They then had to leave Tibet because the Chinese government were having a celebration for the Chinese Autonomous Region or the Chinese persecution of Tibet and no foreigners were allowed in the country. Bob says that it is sometimes difficult to get into Tibet because the regulations change nearly every day.

Chapter 6: "Enjoy the Journey"

Bob's lasting advice is, whatever you do, enjoy the journey. This last chapter will hopefully give you some information on how to do that. Each paragraph is one of Bob's wise phrases that he has told me, and I value these phrases. They care more about the Spirit, the Body, Yourself and Others, and the Entire World than any religion ever could. They teach us why we need to be positive to ourselves and the entire planet.
"Consciousness + Energy = Reality." Anything is possible, just use this formula all we need is an idea or a dream or a fantasy (Consciousness) and add to it the energy necessary to make it happen. This energy can be your own labour towards the goal, money to buy things for the goal, people to help fulfill your goal, anything physically constructive towards it. As Bob says, anything is possible.
"If I adopt conventional thinking, I will become conventional. I don't want to do that." Nobody should be conventional, we need to strive to our own personal goals and needs. Even things we put in a team effort for are towards maybe not our own, but somebody else's dream. We must remain unchanged by others, their views and their often good intentions. We must create our own persona, not create ours to the specifications of others.
"People go beyond the beyond." We can only advance ourselves and humankind if we can do things that we usually would not or could not do. Man has created some amazing things, not because they spontaneously happen and luckily a scientist was there with a clipboard, because we put in the effort to make them happen. There is a high chance of failure but if we can learn from mistakes we will reach our goal. This more or less ties in with the "Consciousness + Energy = Reality" philosophy.

Glossary of Key Words
Please Note: Most of the names of places and areas mentioned are probably spelt incorrectly. They were taken off an Aural interview with the author usually in a state of bewilderment.
Bob's Temple: Alias; his home. It should be obvious why it is sometimes referred to as a Temple.
Academia: A state of fervent study, research and learning.
Fervent: Passionate, eager, enthusiastic.
Mmm People: The Buriba tribe of East Africa. So called because of their Greeting.
References:
Robert Prudhoe
The Aussie Post, September 20, 1997.
The West Australian, August 11, 1990.
Australasian Post, November 17, 1990.
The Sun, June 20, 1990.
The Express, October 5, 1992.
Mountain Views, October 5, 1992.
Yarra Valley Guardian Mail, June 26, 1997.
Editorial, Carter Holt Harvey - Engineered Wood Products, October 5, 1998.
The Telecommunication Journal of Australia, Volume 30 No. 2, 1980.
Australian Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating, Volume 35 No. 4 April, 1981.
SLA Måndagen (Swedish), November 15, 1993.
Daily Nation, June 9, 1970.
Energy Focus, No. 23 February, 1990.