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In the years we lived in Bourke, we often heard warm praise from the locals for the Bush Brothers. They were an Anglican order, begun around 1900, which mobilised young men from Oxford University to tackle the tyranny of distance in the Outback. The first Australian recruit, 21 year old John Dent Martyn, caught my attention with his enthusiasm. Here is a snatch from his diary. “The old Lizzie in which I have to travel is quite a specimen for the Museum. It is six years old, has done 76,000 miles, has been up two trees, has torpedoed one cow, has had the chassis snapped, has been bogged, I might say, hundreds of times! I have just got in tonight from a 150 mile trip. That is the shortest trip I have to do…Who wouldn’t be a Bush Brother? This district is half the size of England and just as large as the whole of Victoria." LISTEN as Paul tells more of Brother John's story. 
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The wide red country round Bourke on the Darling is Paul’s patch and even though he’s explored it for forty years or more, it still surprises him. That’s mostly because it’s story-rich. And it’s not just local yarns either – there are stories there that will knock your socks off. Explorers, poets, bushrangers, cameleers, riverboat captains, and a host of plain folk are ready to tell us extraordinary things about our own country that we would never have realised. Join Paul as he takes a group of travellers on a journey of a lifetime in their own backyard. #D2B2020  |
AuthorJoin The Outback Historian, Paul Roe, on an unforgettable journey into Australia's Past as he follows the footprints of the Master Storyteller and uncovers unknown treasures of the nation. Archives
October 2023
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