By ERWIN CHLANDA
Without people like Dave Hancock, media produced by Australian news persons who infrequently venture beyond the limits of big cities would have yawning and embarrassing cavities.
The photo journalist, writer and publisher of six books, fixer and go-to across the vast outback, fills in these gaps, for customers in Oz and around the globe.
He became a nousy navigator of the Territory’s political labyrinth.
He worked more than 35 years for major companies, including 12 with The Australian and 15 with Fairfax, but the continent’s north became his patch.
He knows it and it knows him: There is only line on page two of volume one of the trilogy in production now, bundling together his great yarns and stunning photos.
It says: “Many of the people depicted in this book have finished up.” If you’re from here you’ll know what it means.
Hancock got to the top in other ways as well. He was a member of the Australian Parachute Team for five years, and organising the Katherine skydiving week (at top) was another early magnet to the Top End.
The Alice Springs News is starting a series of Hancock’s captivating work. His book, Decades in Darwin, is available from Red Kangaroo Books in Alice Springs.
PHOTO at top: No, they are not naked. They are all wearing parachutes.
Riding the ship of the desert to prosperity
Camels are captured from the wild and trained for a variety of activities, included export, racing, tourist rides and provision of meat and wool. Paddy McHugh with traditional owner from Fregon, Roger Kayipipi.
Roger Kayipipi (above) has turned the ancient bush skills honed for thousands of years by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia to his advantage by tracking and catching camels for sale to the world
The 42-year-old tribal elder uses ancient talents to search for wild camels but has made several concessions to technology by tracking from a motorcycle and rounding them up with a four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Roger and other First Nations peoples from the Fregon community in the north-west corner of South Australia have found a lucrative market in catching the feral animals that inhabit their homeland of the Great Victoria Desert.
Australia’s booming tourism industry, an emerging dairy industry and a lucrative racing market in the Middle East has put the humble dromedary in great demand. Camel farms have been established in Central Australia and camel safaris have become an attraction for local and overseas visitors to Alice Springs.
But for Roger the benefits of catching camels is about more than financial gains.
“There are big mobs of camels in that area, more than a thousand,” he said, with a flick of his hand to the west. “I think catching them could be a very important industry for my people.
“We catch them the Pitjantjatjara way; we look for the tracks, and track them sometimes for a week. We follow them on motorbikes because it’s quicker than by foot or by horse and it’s always a good way to show the young fellas the bush and keep our ways going.”
After they locate a herd of camels, the Pitjantjatjara men slowly drive the animals through the desert sometimes for more than 100 kilometres. At night, with no stockyards they light fires around the animals to keep them calm and contained before finally herding them into yards at Fregon.
Paddy McHugh ropes a feral camel in Central Australia.
Roger was schooled in the traditional ways of his people. His parents lived in the bush until he was born, and he plans to return to his father’s desert homeland to catch camels permanently.
Up until early last century camels played a key role in opening up outback Australia; they were used mainly as pack animals, and tales of the amount of freight they could carry are legendary.
Camels thrived in the harsh terrain of Western and South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory and some experts estimate there are now up to one million wild camels roaming the outback.
The Weekend Australian, The Bulletin, overseas agencies. 1987.