Oh! What An Outback Show!

THE OLD SALTY WHO PIGGYBACKED THE TINY TINNY

(A true story retold by Les Pickering)

This story was told to me by an old friend of mine called Fruity.

You see Old Fruity is a funny old chap; he does not wear boots and does not spend much money on clothes or books, he barely reads and writes. But don’t try and learn him anything about bush craft, or you will come a gutser. He can live off the land and snakes don’t worry him. He lives next to Mother Nature. This story is true.

One night Fruity and his mate Sparrow decided to do some illegal fishing. They found an old abandoned net which was not in the best of shape, but shall do, but they had no boat. They looked everywhere but came up empty, so old Fruity put his thinking cap on and after a lot of thinking they remembered seeing a kid’s type of boat. It was small; only two people could squeeze into it. Most people would not even think about putting this into a pretty dangerous river like the Norman. It’s so small you look like you are sitting on the water and the paddles were made of hard plastic and only about two feet long. Old Fruity said to Sparrow, She’ll be all right mate, it will do the job.

So the night was right and they had a little bit of moon. They set off carrying this little boat and net not knowing what lay ahead of them. They got to the river and put the little boat in and both climbed in ok but they had to cross the river, they did this ok. Old Fruity steered it to the other side ok, now they had to place the net at the mouth of the other river where it junctions. In this area roaming around free as the breeze, a monster of a salty. He has shortened the life of many animals. Some horses, many cattle, wallabies and pigs in the hundreds; and he is not alone — there are others that come and go.

They put their miniature boat in and started running the net across, but they had a slight set back — they broke one paddle and that means you cannot go straight with only one paddle, plus Sparrow won’t help without one. So Old Fruity gave him his paddle and they carried on, Old Fruity using his hand to paddle the water.

Both sides of this river, growing at the water’s edge are mangroves. They are like scrub and you have to remember where you get in and have to get back out.

It was all set up, Bingo, ready for action! It would not be long before the net would be getting some big strikes. But while this was happening they did not know that every movement was being watched by this Old Salty. The tinny was right with the tide and they decided that they had enough fish by now and started getting them free and putting them in the boat. By now the Old Salty was getting very hungry and watching all these fish being placed in the boat, he knew where they were and must try and get a feed soon.

So they headed for the other side of the first river. After going three quarters of the way, things were getting strange. By now they could not reach the water with the paddle and Fruity could not reach with his hand, so they are virtually not paddling but the boat was still heading for the mangroves. Old Sparrow, his hair on his neck and back were standing out like bristles on a pig, he sang out, "What the hell is going on?.

Fruity said I don’t know, I can’t touch the water. By now the bottom of the boat is almost out of the water, Old Salty was right under the boat carrying it straight towards the bank. The boat was going up and down. It was a mystery how it hadn’t tipped over but that was Old Salty’s intention to shake the fish out. He kept the tinny going straight for the bank in a pretty fast manner, and then it went flying out of the water onto the dry land! They landed in one piece.

They don’t know to this day how they were so lucky. The old fellow up above must have been on their side that day, and probably the only time Old Salty missed out on a feed. Old Fruity said to Sparrow, You know this is the closest I have ever been to water skiing.

Sparrow said, Never mind about your water skiing, you ratbag; never, never, think about asking me to go fishing with you again, this is going to haunt me for weeks, I will be having bad nightmares. I thought I was a goner!

Old Salty keeping an eye on the fishermen.

RUBY BEING CHASED BY A BULL.

A true story retold by Les Pickering.

One day on a property outback, Ruby and Dan were working cattle through the yard. They had drafted about twenty head of cattle into the yard where the crush operates.

Ruby was working this gate that goes into this yard. Amongst these cattle was a big Brahman bull; he was not a bull you could really rub down or pat.

Dan was busy drafting and penning up. Ruby must have moved away from the gate a little, when this bull came through the cattle and, without a warning, started chasing Ruby.

Ruby tried to make it to the crush. She was going to climb up out of harm’s way but the yard is a very sandy one and it was very hard to run fast. The bull was catching Ruby. Her feet by now seem to be going up and down in one place, not because she intended to do so, but she fell flat on the sand!

Luck must have been with her because the bull was right behind her when she fell. He got that big a fright, he blew his nose, bucked to one side and kept going back into the cattle!

Ruby was screaming out to Dan for help. He climbed over to help Ruby, but it was all over. Everything turned out ok. But if Ruby would have kept running, she probably would have got horned in the back and then there could have been a big problem.

Dan decided to sell that bull in case it happened to chase someone else

RUBY’S QUICK THINKING SAVES THE KIDS.

In the outback on this property, at a place called Steep Creek Hut, Dan and his work mate called Dogger were mustering and Ruby was doing the cooking.

This little old hut served its purpose while you were mustering. It had an awning part extended on to the hut and you could bring your car underneath, so it would be out of the sun. The children used to sleep there on the back, and right next to the car was a bench made for a table, which had all the food on it. Inside the hut were some homemade beds.

On this particular day, Dan and Dogger were yarding some cattle into the yard, which was about a hundred yards away. Dan had his three cattle dogs helping him when one cow broke away from the mob. The dogs chased her; she was refusing to come back to the rest and decided to head for the old hut. The dogs were biting her on the legs making her bellow out. Dan was worried by now thinking the worst ─ what if she gets inside the old hut where Ruby and the kids were?

But Ruby could hear all the commotion, so she quickly put the kids on the back of the car where they would be safe. The cow was going around inside the hut with one dog hanging off her ear. Ruby was trying to call them off but with the bellowing of the cow and screaming of the kids, the dog could not properly hear Ruby.

The beds were all capsized, buckets of water and tin dishes were all tipped over and most of the food was knocked off the table, she even put her hoof in the camp oven that had the evening meal in. What a mess, you could not imagine so much carnage done by one cow!

Dan eventually got the dogs to come behind and the cow walked out of the hut and went back to her mates. No doubt she would not be in a hurry to break away again.

Ruby was so disappointed, she stood there with a sad look on her face, saying, Look at our table and our supper and the beds are smashed and I will have to cook another lot of supper. Dan and Dogger started to smile, then the kids started to talk about this cow and dog, Ruby had to smile then.

RUBY’S MIRACLE ACCIDENT.

Back in 1986, later in the year, on a big mill station, Dan and Ruby were fixing a flood gate across this Dam called Red Eye Dam. This flood gate has three strands of barb wire going across it; three of those strands were down on the ground and had to be fixed straight away. It was a fair way from one end to the other.

Dan and Ruby got to work on repairing it. A mob of horses came in for a drink; they had to walk over the wire on the ground. Ruby was on one side of these wires and Dan was on the opposite side.

While they both they’re busy at work, the horses had got a fright from something in the water. They took off fast over the wire but somehow one horse got the wire tangled around his back leg. He was an unbroken horse and well, did he put on a show!

He raced back the way he had come from, kicking like a horse in a rodeo. The wire now had caught Ruby around the stomach and she could not free it from herself. The horse by now is going berserk, continuously kicking up in the air and is dragging Ruby along the ground and she is now screaming out for Dan to help her!

Dan was running as fast as he could but could not reach Ruby and by now Dan was thinking the worst, if she doesn’t soon break free from this entanglement she could be cut seriously.

Then in desperation the horse frantically kicked himself free. Ruby had already been dragged along about 50 yards but at last she was free of the awful barb wire.

She sat up, her dress in front was all torn, scratches over her face and tears in her eyes, shell shocked and white as a ghost and blood coming from all around her waist. They both feared the worst waiting for Ruby to look at her stomach area, but to their surprise there were some bad cuts but nothing life threatening, it was a miracle!

BULLY THE BLUE CATTLE DOG LEGEND

Old Bully was a marvellous dog that had such a successful and exciting life, he had done many great deeds in his lifetime. I remember one time Jim and George were chasing a huge black and white boar pig down along the bore drain not far from the station. Old Bully was not invited on this occasion and just happened to hear all 0f the commotion that was coming from that area. If Bully was a part of the action he would be wearing his leather breast plate for his protection against nasty rips which could be fatal.

The old pig had got very hot by now he had enough of this running at full speed and decided to hide in the middle of the bore drain where the water lilies and bull rushes totally camouflaged him. But Old Bully was in hot pursuit he would have had the scent of the pig by now and is honing in on him!

Bill and George could not stop him he had done this so many times before. He raced straight to where the pig was hiding and grabbed him by the ear. Jim and George held their breath thinking about the breast plate. By now the squealing was loud coming from the pig, George ran in and got the pig by the hind legs and dragged him out onto the dry land. They tied him up while Bully took a well-earned break. He was loaded onto the Toyota and taken back to the sty to join some other captured mates who would soon be exported overseas for some salami sausages.

Old Bully was in hot pursuit

On another occasion Jim and George were going to kill a beast for meat rations for the station. Jim was hiding in a tree branch well above the ground with his trusty old rifle waiting for the right one to walk under the tree close to him. George was keeping his cattle as close to the tree as he could. The moment came, a loud bang went off and the beast had fell to the ground but it got up again staggering and wobbling around then it got its bearings and took off straight over a nearby fence and up along the track.

Jim jumped on the back with George on his four wheeler and sped off after this wounded bullock. In the meantime Dan was driving along a fence line not far away. He had Old Bully with him on the back of his vehicle; they joined in the chase. This country was pretty open. Dan saw Jim jump off the bike and try to pull the wounded bullock down but he had no luck. George tried his luck he was trying his hardest to bring him down but his luck was running out also.

But, to their surprise, Bully was catching them fast; he had jumped out of the car and done a few summersaults but was in full speed in no time. He ran up beside the bullock and grabbed him by the nose. This caused the bullock to spin around trying to horn Bully but only managed himself to crash in a heap lying flat on the ground. Jim and George dived straight onto him keeping him on the ground. The rest is history he ended up in the station cool room. As for Old Bully he saved the day again. What a faithful old dog.

Old Bully, he saved the day again!

On another day Dan had to go to another property to work for a couple of days. Old Bully always wanted to go with Dan; he didn’t like stopping home, there was no excitement doing that. The station was called Larum - which had a lot of big white Brahman cows. Some of them when stirred up got very savage; you could not get in the same yard with them.

Dan always left Bully tied up on the back of his car with a piece of twine off a hay bale. The car was parked under a shady tree Dan would always water and feed him at lunch time.

After lunch the men were working in the yard drafting the cattle when this big white cow decided she was not going anywhere. She spun around and knocked one jackaroo chap