"I came to the Northern Territory as a twenty year old, on a Harley bike with sidecar. The trip from Mildura to Darwin took three months with many interuptions such as rabbit trapping looking for opals and cutting fence posts to earn money for fuel and food. There were only two wheel ruts in a dirt road between Port Augusta and Alice Springs in '53.

Being young and enthusiastic I wanted to do and see everything so I spent time on a pearling lugger, crocodile and buffalo hunting, mining in some very primitive conditions and I worked as a surveyor on the proposed beef roads for several years. I got married to a local girl and we had a son and in 1963 we went to British Columbia in Canada surveying on pulp mill projects.

I returned to Darwin in '68 and in '69 started as a ranger with the NT Parks and Wildlife Sevice and the next 25 years we spent in northewest Arnhem Land until my retirement. I've seen a lot of changes in the territory - most of them for the better to an old bushy - but it was a good life. I had my 78th birthday yesterday and wouldn't even dream to get this far as a young fellow."