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The Buffalo-hide Hunters
Peter Pan Quee, from Daly River, is a quiet Chinese/Aboriginal, one of the Stolen Generations. He was taken to the Retta Dixon Home outside Darwin as a boy and at 8 started buffalo hunting on foot. During the 1950s, he was the last of the buffalo-hide hunters. It takes a brave man to shoot an angry buffalo from horseback. His wife Lena, also a child of the Stolen Generations, says he never missed a shot. Never? 'No, never - or he might not be here!' Peter took up crocodile hunting when plastic replaced the use of buffalo hide and the industry vanished. Buffalo fascinated him. For decades Peter led CSIRO research on feral buffalo impact on savanna lands. Lena also made the front pages, as a rare survivor of a full-on croc attack left her with horrific injuries. She was protecting Peter. They are retired now and live outside Darwin. |
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The Camel Lady
The camel lady, Di Zischke from the Brisbane valley, is married to Cedric. They breed Brahman cattle, Arab horses and camels; she races horses and camels. She is an explorer on camel-back. Her landmark expedition in 2002 alone with her four camels, and never acknowledged, was the first to successfully retrace Burke and Wills footsteps to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back to the Dig Tree. Cedric built her a bush timber complex so Di could entertain busloads of visitors and host annual camel races. Di, in Arabian belly-dancing gear, has been known to take a lovely white camel to the top floor in a lift when she was special guest at high flying corporate events! Di and Cedric's life is a love story. |
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Perfect Pearl
Torres Strait Islander Seaman Dan is a charismatic man, pearl diver, boat captain from the age of 19, jackaroo and engineer. His Jamaican great grandfather brought Christianity to the South Sea Islands. Seaman's family are sea people and love music and dancing. Seaman's diving career ended after he nearly perished from the 'bends' in the treacherous Darnley Deep of Torres Strait. He knows every inlet and reef from Cairns to the Timor Sea and Indian Ocean from years of plying the seafloor for new pearl shell fields. Whatever Seaman Dan did, he always played music, sang and drew on his island traditions for the lyrics. In 1999 at the age of 70, his singing and songwriting was 'discovered'. In 2004, Seaman Dan won an ARIA award for his Perfect Pearl album, the oldest recipient ever in Australia. He is a perfect gem! In April 2009, he released his fifth CD, Sailing Home. |
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The Colour of Life
Ada Clark from Millthorpe in central NSW is driven by the urge to create. As a child she made peg dolls and discovered she was a natural at trading. Her love of colour has led her into fashion design, decorating pots and painting exquisite wildflower calendars. Into her eighties she is an intrepid traveller painting vibrant landscapes and people, and collecting treasures from around the world to fashion into exquisite jewellery. With the help of her sister Kathleen, Ada’s Place is a mecca for lovers of art, pottery, jewellery and Ada’s homemade cakes. |
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Back-country Mailman
Bill Baird, Hay has had an incredible life. No schooling but self-taught and well-read. From meagre beginnings as the child of migrant parents who owned four cows, Bill built up to 500 cattle. It was the first 'paddock to jug' dairying business in NSW. He and his wife Doris raised and milked the cows, operated a modern dairy factory and delivered the products around Hay. His accounts of World War 11 surviving long POW years on the Thai/Burma Railway and digging coal under the sea near Hiroshima when the A-bomb fell, are gripping. He never spoke of his bravery, but other people did. Bill cured an aggressive cancer, caused by wartime radioactivity he thinks, by drinking apple cider vinegar daily. Also his cure-all for cow ailments! At 65 he became the back-country mail and milkman on the lonely 420-kilometre-round route between Hay and Ivanhoe - going strong until 93. Bill's personal life is littered with tragedy, but he is fatalistic and says people make their own decisions in life. Back country people regard Bill as a legend. He thinks that is a lot of nonsense! |