Publisher's Synopsis
Set in the Kimberley in the 1980s and 90s, the central character being a Dog of indeterminate breed that we found up in the remote Isdell river.
My wife and I never really wanted a Dog at the time when Bullet came into our lives. He was in such poor condition and close to death, I had decided to put him out of his misery with a bullet. He made a miraculous recovery and attached himself to our family much like a bush Tick to a scrub Bulls Genitals. The Dog was Irascible, so we named him Bullet to remind him from time to time that when he was extremely naughty, we still had a bullet with his name on it
This book is as much about the Kimberley, and the Characters we lived, worked, and came in contact with during our 17 years of living on Koolan Island, as a Tale about the dog himself.
I wrote it from memory many years after leaving Koolan. Its written in the vernacular of that time and place, when Political Correctness was an unheard-of concept, and Men and women alike liberally used four letter words to stress a point in conversation.
Bullet was a tough little Bush Dog with a voracious appetite for adventure or misadventure. Often placing us in extreme danger, and at other times putting us close to running afoul of the Law. Such as the time he caused a multiple car collision in Perth. Another time when he single handedly Killed a Large Scrub Bull that attacked us in the wild; attacking and causing the demise of a Tiger Shark in a shallow Lagoon at Wood Islands that had decided we would be its next meal, and the time he jumped on and latched himself to a very large Crocodile that lay in ambush of us on a dark night near the Mouth of the Prince Regent.
I also shared some Poignant moments with him, like when we sat together at the precipitous edge of the Summit of Mount Trafalgar sipping on a can of beer and gazing in awe of Gods creation, and other times of sheer terror when I began to wonder what Bullet and I had done to annoy the big bloke upstairs.
And the time he helped save the lives of a couple of hundred hatchling turtles from the marauding sharks and sea birds. He nearly killed a Dog many times his size that attacked him out of nowhere. In the aftermath, he showed his compassionate side by assisting it back to consciousness and befriending it.
He became quite a well-known character in the Kimberley due to his fearless tenacity to take on any beast whether it be bull, shark or crocodile. He became so well known, that he featured in his own article in the West Australian. The paper sent a Journalist and Photographer just to interview him! We also featured in articles in the Weekend Australian and the West Australian and a feature in the BHP review. Assisting a feature film company, Climbing Mount Trafalgar.
Our time in the Kimberley also brought us in contact with many wonderful people of some renown, people such as Dick Smith who we helped in an Australian Geo project, by taking Mike and Susan Cusack to Kunmunya, for their 'Year alone in the wilderness' and returning them to Derby. Happily, Dick and his family were with us in Derby when a tourist went missing in a boat at Yule Entrance, and volunteered to take his Helicopter for an aerial search that located the hapless tourist and guided the rescue boats to his location
I became mates with Malcolm Douglass and helped him in the filming of some of his adventure films. I also trapped some problem Crocodiles around Koolan for him and flew them to his newly established Croc Farm in Broome at that time.
I recall with mirth the time when Ernie Dingo entertained us at the Koolan Club using a Vacuum cleaner Tube as a Didgeridoo
With a backdrop of Koolan and Cockatoo Island, and the hard working, hard drinking, and hard swearing Miners, readers will find the book Hilarious in parts, exhilarating in other parts, and steeped in melancholy when BHP finally closed the Mines.
