Ray Mears interview in Australia

[Kolskeggur]

Hi guys,
I was wondering if you could help me remember a guy's name.
He was interviewed by Ray Mears in his Walkabout dvd on the same episode that he met the Bush Tucker man if I remember correctly.
He was an former police deputy in the outback and became well respected amongst the aboriginals. He even got his own aboriginal name which I seem to have forgotten. I think it's something like "Marlenmaar". Anyway, I wanted to find his book that he wrote several years ago.
Anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[drewdunnrespect]

yes i seem to remember something along those lines but cant remember the name of the guy but had an idea why not put it in wikipeida cos it will probably be in there if you hang on to secs i will give it a try

drew

 

[Retired Member southey]

here you go chap.

"Kyle-Little wrote about his adventures - in particular about his enduring friendship with Aboriginal chief Mahrdei - in the book 'Whispering Wind'"

from the above blog.

 

[Retired Member southey]

Looks like his book is out of print now, but here's another blog with more info, good luck matey, hope you get your book.

 

[drewdunnrespect]

gave it my best shot but cant find anything sorry mate

 

[drewdunnrespect]

well done southey lad

 

[Kolskeggur]

Awesome guys!! Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! I'm gonna see if I can't get my hands on that book. It seems fascinating.

 

[Kolskeggur]

I'll have to wait until I win the lottery before I buy it though :/
It's unbelievably expensive.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090426042845AAxw6nT

 

[rommy]

There's a 1957 copy on Amazon at £285.74 ! :yikes:

 

[Retired Member southey]

Holy smackrals, thats a lot of gozunger, mind you I bet it's a great read.

 

[JonathanD]

There's a 1957 copy on Amazon at £285.74 ! :yikes:

I'll be giving that one a miss then.

 

[Wallenstein]

I'll aim to get this from the library next time I'm visiting my folks - I'll stick some pics up and a quick review, might help you decide whether to shell out the cash!

 

[Retired Member southey]

Ahem...How pages would your review be?

 

[Kolskeggur]

Holy smackrals, thats a lot of gozunger, mind you I bet it's a great read.

I'm pretty sure it is a great read but for a university student it's a little too much green. I'm gonna check the library but I'm pretty sure it's not available. At least not in Iceland where I'm studying.

 

[Wallenstein]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread... I eventually managed to get to the University Library in Cambridge, which can often be relied upon for hard-to-find books.

I'm reading my way through this book at the moment but thought I'd post up a few pics.

(This images are reasonably large so they might take a while to load!)

MODS: I believe this limited number of images counts as a reasonable "fair dealing" use of the text, but let me know if you need me to remove any of them.

First up is the cover: the library version comes without a dust jacket, with just an aboriginal symbol on an otherwise plain front cover:

Turns out this book isn't too popular with students in Cambridge!

You'll note from the info page that this is a first edition, published in 1957. The library obtained their copy on 10 July 1957 (i.e. shortly after it was published).

However, it turns out that I was the first person to borrow this book... that's over 54 years sat on a shelf gathering dust! I'm actually rather pleased that this book is being read at last... seems a shame to leave such an interesting story unread over all those years.

The contents page gives an impression of the stories in the book - as robust and uncompromising as the landscape in that part of Australia.

But while the prose is real boys-own stuff in some places it's also a very nuanced discussion of the land and its people seen with outside eyes.

Here's the first page as an example of the style:

The centre pages have a number of pictures from the author's travels which help to put some context around the stories:

There are better reviews of this book elsewhere online (see here and here), but I hope this post is of some interest... fingers crossed it gets republished soon (I think an eBook would be excellent), as this is certainly a story that would benefit from being more widely shared.

 

[Mountainwalker]

Can recommend another book along a similar theme, called Jacksons Track, about two brothers who lived in East Gippsland and set up a saw mill deep in the forest. They lived a very rustic bushcraft life with the local aboriginal community for decades (lionel Rose, the first indgineous world boxing champion who just passed away, was actually born at jacksons track). It's one of the best books I have ever read, and still in print.