Obviously you are referring to the bloke before Wimpy Baker, Wimpy was a good operator.
"and of course James and Robertsons topdressers doing absolutely what they liked "
Not quite. Robbies used the West side, James the East side, Robbies tracked North initially, James traffic headed South. worked well for those real early morning take offs, especially when there was a ground fog as well. when it is considered that the early Fletchers had nil effective nav lights it was just the fact that there is so much room in 3 dimensions that there was no collisions. Must have been some very near misses, but if you didn't see opposing traffic, nothing to worry about.