Amazing Australian Legends
Crocodile Dundee
In real life known as Paul Hogan, used to paint Sydney
Harbour Bridge ( a never ending job as once you finish at one end
after ten years it's time to start at the other again) so took up
a career as a TV comedian which he continued through the 1970s and
did tourism commercials in the US . Most noted for his performances
in the Crocodile Dundee movies where with Aussie bushman skills
he managed to defeat well armed Amnerican gangsters. His classic
line "That's not a knife.. THIS is a knife still llives on.
Many Aussies did not appreciate him dumping the missus for blonde
bomb- shell movie co-star Linda Kozlowski.
Don Bradman
Australian cricket player that retired from the game
in 1948 but thanks to his outstanding performances was made a 'Sir'
and his legend still lives on in as if he was playing only last
week. Originally from Bowral,New South Wales, he started at the
age of 20 with the local cricket team in 1920.
If this means anything to you ( to many overseas people the way
cricket works is a total mystery); he played for Australia in 52
international cricket test matches where he averaged 99.9 runs each
time he batted ( normally 50 is deemed to be a good effort) and
totally demoralized English players to the point where they started
trying to hit him with the ball rather than trying to get the ball
somewhere near his bat. In his final test innings he nearly got
his average up to a 100 but narrowly missed out. Australian singer
Paul Kelly immortalized him further in one of his songs.
Greg Norman
Greg Norman, also known as the Great White Shark,
is an Australian golf legend who plays the game that well that his
personal fortune in 2006 was estimated around the $278 million!
Pity that he is just about to divorce his wife Laura who might take
200 of the 278 with her. He owns his own Gulfstream helicopter with
Great White Shark emblem on the side, a mansion in Florida and a
1200ha ranch with golfcourse in Colorado, Great White Shark Enterprises
that owns and operates 40 golfcourses in 12 countries and a few
other little investments that generate around $50 million annually.
Lasseter's Reef
Not a part of the Great Barrier Reef but located well
away from the ocean in Central Australia. According to legend it
is a huge "reef" of solid gold, discovered by Swedish
Mr. Lasseter ( a sailor, not even an outback explorer). Unfortunately
Mr. Lasseter died so nobody could verify his discovery or get any
instructions on how to get there but since then many people have
exhausted themselves or even died wandering the deserts trying to
find this amazing reef of gold, all with no results at all so many
other people believe Mr. Lasseter might have had a bit too much
sun on his head causing him to imagine this huge gold deposit.
Ned Kelly
Actually named Edward Kelly, this enterprising young
Irish lad from convict parents managed to gain fame by starting
a crime career in 1870 at the age of 14 by robbing a Chinese man.
He received his first jail sentence at the age of 16 for receiving
a stolen horse.
His career lasted ten years in which time, together with his brother,
he robbed travellers, banks, shot and kiled at least three policemen,
took posession of an entire town and held the population hostage
in the local pub and even forced workers to remove railway tracks
when they knew police were on their way by train. The police managed
to find other transport and after a big shoot out witnessed by 600
people wounded and captured him and took him to Melbourne where
he was hanged on 11 november 1880. Some of his accomplices were
still holed up in the Glenrowan Hotel but died when the police burned
it down.
His legend lives on today, his reputation of a Robin Hood resisting
authority and helping the poor people in his area made him a folk
hero. Also his home-made armour has inspired many artists in their
paintings and at the National Gallery of Victoria you can admire
Sir Sidney Nolan's 'Ned Kelly' series of pictures. In 1906 one of
the world's first feature films 'The Story Of The Kelly Gang' was
filmed in Australia. Years later Yahoo Serious made the movie 'Reckless
Kelly' and around 1990 it even inspired Mick Jagger into a brief
acting career playing Ned Kelly but the movie was not hugely succesful
and he wisely returned to the microphone.
Ned Kelly's remains were at the Pentridge prison grave site, Melbourne,
and his head was on display at Old Melbourne Gaol before being stolen
in 1978. His death mask, armour and the gallows on which he died
are on display at ye Old Gaol.
It has long been disputed where and how the armour was made; was
it made by blacksmiths or did Ned and his gang make it themselves
out in the bush? In 2005 the armour was taken to the Lucas Heights
nuclear reactor in Sydney where a whole range of test was carried
out, including X-rays that could determine how hot the metal would
have been. The results were quite patchy, it showed some of the
surface had been heated for long periods up to 750 degrees ( the
approximate heat a forge in the bush would have been able to reach,
a black smith in his workshop would be able to reach higher temperatures)
and other parts of the armour surface had been formed at much lower
temperatures, this indicated that it most likely would have been
Ned's own handywork out in the bush.
Peter Carey has written an excellent book based on historical records
and diaries titled ' The true history of the Kelly Gang ' which
is recommended reading, it tells a tale of how Ned was basically
an honest man who was not afraid of hard honest work but with a
corrupt police force of English background that did not like the
Irish it was pretty well impossible to not get in trouble with the
law from time to time.
The mask worn by Mick Jagger in his Ned Kelly movie
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There are a few Ned Kelly letterboxes around Australia
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The big Ned Kelly in Maryborough, Queensland
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Postcard Bandit
During the 1990s Brendan Abbott traveled around Australia
for years robbing banks in the days when police in different states
could not yet see the point of working together so all he had to
do was move from state to state to elude capture and felt that confident
he even used to tease the authorities by sending them postcards.
After a career spanning a decade and reportedly stealing about five
million dollars he was finally captured in Darwin, N.T. in 1998
. He was sentenced to thirty years maximum security at Longland
jail in Brisbane and early november 2003 went on a hungerstrike
for one day claiming to be a political prisoner, he also has lawyers
traveling to the U.S. to try and exploit some United Nations legislation.
Later a movie, titled The Postcard Bandit, was made of his escapades,
though some criticized this as romanticizing a violent criminal.
Skippy
Though this series only ran for three years and finished
in 1971 Skippy is still world famous. The series showed the adventures
and mishaps in the life of a park ranger and his family but there
was always a happy ending as Skippy would save the day and a few
lives at the end of every show.
Steve Irwin
Legend Steve Irwin is no longer with us after a lifetime
career of do-not-try-this-at-home stunts with dangerous animals
came to an abrupt halt when a stingray whacked a 20cm. barb into
his heart while he was snorkelling at Batt Reef off the coast of
Port Douglas on Monday 4 September 2006, he was 44 years old. He
became worldfamous through forever risking his life in front of
the camera by confronting huge, dangerous and poisonous animals
while pouring out colourful Aussie language at the same time. Many
Australians consided him way over the top and an embarrassing ocker
but his mad adventures made him a super hero in the U.S. where his
TV series and movie made millions and in november 2003 he auditioned
mad Americans to join a reality TV show to be filmed at his wildlife
park. Over the years he has received numerous bites, one of those
was on stage in Alice Springs at a Toyota conference where a two
metre long Perenti lizard latched on to his arm. He is also reported
to have trade marked the name Crocodile Hunter, as was pointed out
in a letter from Steve's lawyer to real crocodile hunter Mick Pitman
who claims to have roamed the north for 20 years, much of it with
legendary croc hunter "German Jack", and who is outraged
his primary job description has been hijacked. He claims he was
hunting crocodiles while Irwin was still in nappies and says that
Steve is only a 'crocodile photographer'. The hype has gone that
far that Steve was even nominated for Australian of the Year, though
this is more for his generosity in sharing the proceeds of his crazy
crocodile empire with numerous charity organizations.
Despite making it to Queenslander of the year he came under fire
early 2004 when he held his baby son Bob a metre from the mouth
of a 4 metre crocodile at his Australia
Zoo to teach him to become completely familiar with crocodiles.The
stunt was slammed by child support groups and compared to the furore
caused by whacko Jacko dangling his newborn baby over a German hotel
balcony in 2002. After this stunt his chances of becoming Australian
of the Year diminished and it was Steve Waugh that snatched that
title away from him.( See our jokes
page for more on Steve's stunt.) This stunt caused the Queensland
workplace health and safety division to re-draft crocodile handling
guidelines which included a ban on children entering crocodile enclosures.
On 5 January 2008 a crowd of 4500 people paid $90.- each to get
in to a show at the Australia Zoo where controversial American psychic
John Edward was supposed to make contact with the deceased Steve
Irwin. You guessed it, nothing happened....
The American cartoon show South Park has devoted a whole show to
John Edward in which he wins the award of Biggest Douche In The
Universe, beating several douche contestants from other galaxies.
The Irwin's family spokesman John Stainton announced
in 2007 that 15 November had been declared Steve Irwin Day, the
Irwin family was hoping that everyone would take a day off work,
and they hoped that it would even become a national public holiday,
also people were encouraged to wear khaki to work.
The Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said there were no plans to
make November 15 a public holiday, and he doubted Steve himself
would have wanted that much fuss. A few people saw it as just another
ploy to get more crowds to come to the Australia Zoo festivities
and spend money....
Do you know of (or are) an amazing Australian legend?
Then contact us !
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