Cracking true stories from the Outback - Part 4: stories from Neil Mack - the pioneering era

David Allan
Aug 9, 2021
6 min read

Updated: Aug 9, 2024

Cracking true stories from the Outback, is a series of journals about life in remote Australia and the characters who live there.

The stories are not so much about an event but rather a time, an attitude, a way of life.

The stories in this post come from Rosemary's father, Neil Mack, who was a third generation grazier in the South West Slopes of NSW.

Neil's true stories come from a bygone pioneering era in the bush around the 1930's to 50's. Neil was self sufficient and resilient. He could make, improve or fix anything. His mantra was "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome".

Neil was a great story teller and a prolific writer of poems that recorded hundreds of his incredibly rich stories. Neil inspired me to not only tell my own stories but also record them so they could be passed down from generation to generation.

Why tell stories?:

Story telling is an essential human need that has been used, for ever, for entertainment, education and cultural preservation. Compelling story telling is the path to imagination and people are hungry for stories. Memorable travel turns you into a story teller.

Here are a few of my personal favourite stories from Neil:

Story # 1 - ring of fire:

Neil always liked a practical joke. When he was a kid, there was a friend of the family who regularly visited and he had one of those hats with dangling corks to keep the flies at bay. Neil noticed that every time the friend was leaving he always put on his hat then lit up his pipe. This got Neil thinking.

So next time the friend came over, Neil with his brother Ron, carefully took his hat off the rack, soaked the corks in kerosene and hung the hat back on the rack.

When the friend got ready to leave, sure enough he put on his hat, lit up his pipe and 'whoosh', a burning ring of fire around his head. (image from Those icons)

Story # 2 - "you stupid horse":

Neil and his brother Ron decided to go down to the local community hall at night, where they were holding a ball, yet they were too young to attend. When everyone was busy inside, Neil & his brother unhooked a sulky from the horse and led the horse way up the road to a gate and then brought the horse all the way back on the other side of the fence where they reconnected the horse to the sulky through the fence.

They then waited in the shadows until the owner came out. Finally, the owner came out after a full night of partying. He looked at the horse and sulky for some time very, very puzzled and finally blurted out…"you stupid horse".

Story # 3 - the stolen steering wheel:

One of the characters in Neil's home town was Charlie. After a pretty solid drinking session one Saturday night, the pub was closing and it was time for Charlie to go home. Despite his inebriated condition, Charlie didn't see any problem in driving home. Being only a small town, it wasn't far to his car yet it would have been much quicker had he been able to walk in a straight line.

Upon finally getting to his car, and despite a momentary rest break, things did not look so clear to Charlie and he managed to get into the back seat instead of the front seat. Charlie sat there for a while quite disorientated, knowing something was wrong but couldn't put his finger on it.

Eventually, Charlie could see the problem so he got out of the car and staggered into the police station which was not far away. Charlie was no stranger to the duty sergeant who said, with a somewhat exasperated tone, "Whats the matter Charlie?"

Charlie, who had propped himself up against the counter, turned to the sergeant and said, slightly incoherently, "I would like to report my steering wheel stolen".

Story # 4 - "no room for me":

On another Saturday night, after closing time, Charlie made better progress getting home than the previous story. Charlie got about 10km out of town, on this dark night, when he faced a terrifying sight in front of him.

Unbeknown to Charlie, there was a semi trailer, carrying cars, coming the other way who some time earlier had all the lights on the semi fail. Undeterred, the truckie climbed up to the car on the top deck, above his cab, and turned its head lights on so he could see where he was going.

This all went pretty well until the semi met Charlie coming the other way. Charlie was still pretty inebriated and when he saw these lights coming towards him he panicked, drove his car straight off the side of the road and rolled it into the scrub.

The truckie could see what happened and immediately stopped to see if Charlie was OK.

The truckie was completely puzzled why someone would just drive off the road like that and asked Charlie, with great curiosity, what happened? Charlie took a while to get his words out and finally explained, a tad incoherently," Well, I figured if that thing was as wide as it was tall there was no room for me there".

Story # 5 - split ‘em:

When Neil was just a lad, Hawkers travelled throughout regional Australia selling supplies and household items.

Such a Hawker rolled up to Bill’s farm, being of a friend of Neil, who noticed a dog tied to the back of the Hawkers wagon. Bill asked the Hawker if the dog was for sale? The Hawker replied, “Yes, and he is a very special dog. In fact, he can do things other working dogs can’t do. Let me give you a demonstration. I will send the dog down to that mob of sheep in the distance and just before he reaches the mob I will tell him to split the mob in two which I know you wouldn't believe unless you saw it with your own eyes".

So, off the dog went and just before he got to the mob the Hawker yells, at the top of his voice, “Split ‘em”. On that command, the dog ran through the middle of the mob and split the mob in two.

Bill was amazed “I have never seen a dog split a mob in two” said Bill. So impressed was Bill, he bought the dog. As it turned out, the dog could not round up sheep. All he could do was split up a mob.

(side note – working dogs are born with a natural instinct to round up. If they don’t have that instinct as a new pup they are rejected as a working dog)

Story # 6 - not a great first impression:

When Neil needed a truck on his farm, his first thought was to just build his own. Trucks were very hard to come by in those days and cost prohibitive. Over some months, Neil gathered lots of truck parts and placed them in a big pile under an old Elm tree on the farm.

Upon collecting enough parts, Neil started building the truck which included two in line gear boxes for extra low range on their hilly property. Neil cut timber floor boards for the cabin floor where the last board needed cutting to size to make a nice neat fit. However, Neil never really got around to fitting that last floor board leaving the cab with loose boards and a gap in the floor.

Soon after completion, Neil's brother Alan borrowed the truck to take his new girl, Rita, to the local ball. Alan picked up Rita, who was all frocked up, and Rita carefully climbed up into the cab. They travelled down the long, bumpy dirt road to the ball and that gap in the floor boards soon found its way to where Ritas dress was starting to bunch up on the floor.

With more bouncing around, the vibration of the floor caused Ritas dress to move through the gap until it got all the way down to the tail shaft. Eventually, the dress snagged itself on the spinning tail shaft and in a heart beat, 'whoosh', Rita's dress was ripped off around her waist and disappeared under the truck. Unsurprisingly, Rita & Alan did not become an item.

Story # 7 - improvise, adapt, overcome:

Our group trip to the Simpson Desert in 2015, Operation Desert Sky, was 'Dedicated' to Neil Mack and included in the trip branding above. Neil passed away 4 months before this trip and would have loved to come along. Neil was known and much loved by many in our group. The slogan on the back of our trip T shirts, 'Improvise, Adapt, Overcome', was Neil's mantra.