THERE'S more to mines and wines in the Cessnock district. Scratch the surface and you'll find, well, lots of colourful, almost unbelievable stories.
Take James Robert Scott, who remains Cessnock Council's "most flamboyant and notorious employee".
His adventures in public life in the bad ol' days make for a ripper of a yarn.
Mind you, this was in the 1920s, when Cessnock had a shire council, before it was suddenly dissolved, an administrator appointed and then the modern council came into existence.
And the person largely blamed for the furore, Cr Scott, was president for mere months. His incredible tale has passed into local legend.
"I call him the gun-toting (deputy) coroner," his former neighbour, farmer George Magennis, now 94 of Nulkaba, recalls with a chuckle.
"Oh, I'm telling you, Jimmy Scott was a strange man, a true eccentric. I remember the time there was a cartoon of him, probably now lost, in the old newspaper, the Cessnock Express. It showed him shooting two six-shooters into the ceiling at a shire council meeting with a cat jumping out the window," Magennis says.
"In the cartoon, Scott was saying to fellow councillors 'Now, who defies my ruling?'. I heard mum and dad talk about it. Scott's friend Vic, a newspaper artist, had drawn the cartoon. Now you'd think Scott might be angry, but instead he just laughed his head off. That's the sort of bloke he was.
"And I always knew much later on when Jimmy Scott was sitting on a case as the relieving coroner because he'd wax both ends of his moustache and twirl them upright in the style of the German Kaiser."
So, Weekender will now relate the official version of James R. Scott's controversial public life, then briefly look behind the scenes, via the rare, invaluable memories of Magennis.
But why the renewed interest in the Greta-born Scott (1886-1946)? It's because he features in an exhibition titled Scandalous at Cessnock City Library until May 31.
Scott was 19 when he became Cessnock's original Shire Clerk in 1906, despite having a primary school education and no administrative experience.
Soon there were complaints he was unfit for the post. There were hints he might be unstable.
An avid gun collector, Scott was reported to hold the No.1 revolver licence in NSW.
He would also regularly hand out his business card, which listed a string of false qualifications after his name.
Scott attacked the council and councillors over tenders, electoral rolls and elections. His career ended, but later he was elected a councillor, then shire president in December 1924. At this point, Scott surprised councillors by warning them that 'the gloves are off, gentlemen". He then went on to run the shire as a one-man band, suspending employees he didn't like and instigating legal actions against councillors.
He was accused of claiming false expenses (including a non-existent horse and cart), of sleeping in council chambers and collecting all the keys from officials, giving himself sole access to council buildings.
At one meeting, a councillor moved a motion of dissent against a ruling of Scott's. On hearing this, Cr Scott pulled out a pistol, laying it on the table, saying; "who is going to second this motion?" People hid under the table. The resolution lapsed.
It all came to a head on February 2, 1925, when Cr Scott went rogue. After getting a letter threatening his dismissal, Scott locked the council offices and refused entry to all.
About 200 people, including police, gathered outside. Amid the chaos, the deputy shire clerk forced a side window and opened the main door. The crowd surged in and a meeting was held, condemning Scott as "not a fit and proper person" to hold office as shire president.
Cessnock library staff's recent research has also revealed the council's minutes were missing, along with the official seal, keys to the safe and other local government records.
Much to Scott's outrage, a police raid on his Pokolbin home soon found missing items.
Despite this setback, Scott was elected councillor for the new Kearsley Shire Council in March 1927. Here he stayed for two years. By 1930, Scott was Cessnock's relieving district coroner. He died 16 years later aged 59.
Rewinding now to the past, former neighbour Magennis said Scott was crippled in an early sporting accident. Not one to be downhearted, the amputee used two crutches to rapidly get around.
"He was very fast," Magennis says.
"My dad said he'd always have to run to keep up with him.
"At home, Jimmy used to tell funny stories, grab his stump and rock with laughter. You'd think he was going to fall off his chair."
"An example of his humour was when the police arrived at the shire council chambers that time over the pistol. Jimmy said it wasn't real, but a replica. He knew the law and had lawbooks ceiling to floor lining his home office as well as newspapers going back for decades and all in order.
"Jimmy was a brilliant man, but he had to have his own way. A most determined man. He did me a lot of favours, such as stapling my old school magazines into books. Being young, he also wrote me a work reference in 1945 which I still have with his unusual business card attached."
Magennis says Jimmy also spoke, rollicking with laughter, of the time when two police arrived at his property with a search warrant to seize missing council documents.
"You dog, keep out," Scott yelled at the shire official accompanying the police who started searching, only to find nothing but Jimmy's wooden leg, which he wouldn't wear because it chafed him.
Earlier, Scott had torn out the inside walling in his house to conceal documents inside before nailing back the boards. Jimmy would shake with laughter telling the story, but he then feared his half- brother, Bill, might have looked in his window, seen what he'd done and report him.
"But Jimmy did have real guns, rifles and so on, at home. He had two German Lugers and a wild west Colt with a long barrel. A schoolmate and I used to go there and practise shooting.
"Jimmy once fired a bullet through the hat of one of his sisters who lived nearby. He thought she was a rabbit. She was almost hidden, standing up in a quarry," Magennis says.
