058

Trilby



There's not too much Trilby doesn't know about the bush, its plants and animals. She's pretty much a bush tucker encyclopaedia, and her knowledge comes from years in the bush working on fencing contracts and mustering.

She also has a pretty fair hand on Astronomy, enough to run the show at the Arkaroola observatory. Perhaps not amazingly, she learned that from books, while she was living under the stars, working from her swag as a Jillaroo.

This is a shot which has an extraordinary memory attached, as we spent a morning in the bush with herself and her children sniffing plants, chewing berries and generally trying not to freeze! Her husband Jack isn't too bad at the wheel of a Troop Carrier either!

057

Scott



Scott is based in Leigh Creek in North East South Australia, where he is an itinerant teacher for the School of the Air, which means he gets to drive around his "classroom" keeping contact with his students who are normally taught via the internet via sattelite, rather than HF radio as in days gone by.

Like many teachers he has a love for kids and learning which shines through.

He's also an active member of the Community Fire Service, and was one of those volunteers who headed out to Victoria earlier in the year when the monster fires were on.

056

Pru



Pru was too shy to be photographed "unless one of us was in it too", so I did the dirty on her, which explains the rather strange crop. She and her husband own Coward Springs, a railway siding on the old Ghan line, in the middle of nowhere on the Oodnadatta Track.

Apart from completing a masterful restoration (not renovation I hasten to add) of the statiion master's house, and the engine driver's cottage, they have turned the springs into a delightful Oasis, protecting the adjoining wetlands, but retaining the date palms planted by the original Afghan camel drivers.

They've set up a bush camping ground in the midst of it all, with structures created from sleepers and even track from the old line, and in their spare time run seven day camel safaris into the Simpson Desert, which after all, is on their back door.

Check 'em out at http://cowardsprings.com.au/

055

Janelle



I could talk about how I was going to post a photograph of Janelle at work, feeding the raptors at the Alice Springs Desert Park, presenting them to the assembled audience and captivating them with her sparkling personality, and the birds' understanding of her simple hand movements.

If I did that, I'd post one of my pictures of her hand feeding a great eagle in mid flight and it would be all very spectacular and you'd all love it. The truth is, I didn't want the "context" to detract from the subject this time. I just loved the way her complexion, hair and clothing tone so beautifully with the desert background, and yet her personality seams to beam through it all.

I'm so shallow that sometimes the colour is more important than the story or even the person... bah!

054

Pypes



Pypes has driven almost every road and track in Australia firstly as a heavy hauler, running road trains from Adelaide to Darwin at an average speed of around 50 kilometres per hour, but for the last twenty years as a tourist bus driver and guide.

He's also written a couple of books, and more importantly has a perfect example of that great Aussie trait:

The lean.

053

Jol



Jol was a difficult person to photograph as I wasn't sure how to portray him, so I chose this photo of him in his "office".

He is a paraplegic with limited use of his hands as a result of a car accident some years ago. That is where his story gets interesting though. He is an accredited 4WD trainer, arguably one of the best in the country, he leads off road expeditions and is the race director for the world classified off road race, The Finke Desert Race. To add a degree of difficulty to his off-road adventures, he does it all in a conventional ute.

His smile is infectious, his ability legendary so I didn't think there was a need show that his hands are so crippled he drives using a steel spike that inserts into a special slot into the steering wheel, attached to a sort of glove.

He's just one of those inspirational people that make the world a better place to be in.Here's his story.

052

Teresa



Teresa is from Adelaide, but for eight months a year she forgoes her nursing career in the big smoke to work with her partner in the Bakery in Birdsville.

The morning we visited her they'd sold all of the 26 loaves of bread they'd baked because some "selfish" property owner had come into town and bought twenty of them.

The bread rolls were delicious.

051

Franka



While this photo was taken quite early in the morning in Quilpie, we first caught up with Franka on the road between Quilpie and Thargominda.

She's riding her bicycle from Adelaide to the Gulf with no agenda other than to show others that "older woman" can do anything they set their hearts on. Her husband accompanied her in a small campervan as the support vehicle, and she was happily covering around seventy kilometres every day.

This is a real "souvenir" photo for us, and I'll happily fix it when we get home. The lighting was deliberate, I'm not sure that it worked and it was taken about an hour after sunrise.

050

Bill was stoking the campfire in the caravan park at Quilpie (look it up!). He's a travelling musician, playing mostly bush ballads, based in Tamworth (why does that not surprise me?).

He's been doing the pubs and clubs circuit in the far west for a few weeks while his wife looked after the grandkids at home, and bunged on a bit of a show each night at the caravan park.

048

Bob



I was wandering the streets of Nambour the evening before last, when I came across Big Bob.

The light was poor and I couldn't get a shutter speed high enough to cope with the movement in his err... girth. I'm not saying he's larger than life, but Bob is the Mayor of the Sunshine Coast Region, and plays harmonica in a blues band.

Of course he won his seat on the back of his electoral slogan:

Big Bob For the Big Job.

049

Julian



Julian is a delightful young Frenchman staying for a time in Toowoomba. We bumped into him at a friend's place and later in the day downtown, on his way to (what else) a French movie festival.

He's a nurseryman by trade, but in chilly Toowoomba he's working as an arborist, and simply infecting anyone he can with the joy of life.

047

Rod



I'll bet you can't guess that Rod is a spanner-man!

He's the sort of bloke that can turn his hand to most things, and isn't afraid to tackle all sorts of challenging automotive repairs, which is why his workshop is full of old European cars and why he's trying to patent a hand operated mechanism for a recumbent bicycle.

In the late sixties he was a renowned motor cycle drag racer, and he started to build a replica of the old bike recently but his "management" reminded him that at his age that may not be so smart.