Thong Man in history

Thong Man once mentioned to me that he had been Shire Clerk/CEO of the Diamantina Shire council. That seemed so unlikely to me at the time, and I was unable to substantiate it with internet searches, that I dismissed it.

However, in Desert Yarns 4(61) p.5, former Shire Clerk Paul O'Sullivan writes:

My successor was Simon Diplock who arrived around April 1974. I was told in correspondence at the time that he took it upon himself to destroy the Council’s archives. This is no doubt the reason that you have been unable to obtain documented details of the Council history – I know the old minute books were up to date and in the strongroom when I left at the beginning of 1974.

A previous Desert Yarns article listed CEO "Dipplock, S." so this now seems plausible if not confirmed. I also vaguely recall Thong Man acknowledging that he was a relation of Lord Diplock.

I do not know the current status of Thong Man. He would be about 75 years old today, if the cigarettes have not taken him.

It has been some time since my last post here;  I did not intend every post to be about Thong Man. This evening I noticed this blog again and decided to google around to see what had happened to him. Instead I found the Desert Yarns newsletter.