by The real Crocodile Dundee was an outback bushman whose survival skills made him a celebrity, before a tragic fall from grace.
Rod Ansell was born 1 October 1954 in Murgon, Queensland.
The third of four children, his childhood was unremarkable. He was a knockabout kid, who disliked school and loved the outdoors.
In 1969, when he was fifteen, he left home and took a job in the Northern Territory as a buffalo catcher.
The Territory has an estimated 300 000 feral buffalo. The animals were originally brought from Indonesia for pack work, many got loose and thrived in the local environment.
Adult animals can weigh up to 1200kg, and when roused will sometimes attack farm animals, or even humans. Their large size means they also cause damage to the environment, eating grasses needed by native animals, and damaging riverbanks where they like to rest.
Catching buffalo is difficult and dangerous work. The catchers work in small teams, usually in remote areas; conditions are hot and harsh, accommodations basic.
While Ansell was a loner, he showed a natural proficiency for the work, and enjoyed the rugged outdoor lifestyle. He continued as a buffalo catcher through his teens and into his early twenties.
In his free time he enjoyed camping, hunting, fishing, and honing his bush skills.
In May 1977, Ansell went on a solo fishing trip up the Victoria River.
The river ran for more than 500 kilometres from the Territory’s interior to the Timor Sea, exiting at Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. This was proper wilderness: isolated and remote.
Ansell intended the trip to be extensive, he told his girlfriend he would be back ‘in a few months’. Setting out in a motorboat, he took his rifle, some canned food, a bed roll, and his two 8-week-old bull terriers.
But early in the trip, disaster struck. Ansell hit something large, submerged in the river, and his boat capsized; unable to right it, he was forced into a small dinghy he had with him, with his two dogs and whatever supplies he could salvage.
The dinghy only had one oar, he was then adrift with the tide.
Ansell drifted downriver, and eventually washed up on a small island near the mouth of the Fitzmaurice River.
No one knew where he was, and this area saw little human traffic; he was hundreds of kilometres from the nearest settlement. With no fresh water and limited supplies, his chances of survival seemed slim.
But Ansell’s years in the Territory had served him well.
He collected rainwater, tracked wild bees for their honey, and hunted buffalo and cattle; he later claimed he not only ate their meat, but drank their blood to fight dehydration. At night, he slept in trees to evade the plentiful crocodiles; he also shot a 5-meter croc, and kept its head as a trophy.
Ansell’s ordeal would last 56 days. Then he was discovered, emaciated but surprisingly healthy, by Aboriginal stockmen and cattle manager Luke McCall, who were out searching for runaway horses.
Ansell’s feat of survival was hailed in the press, and turned him into a minor celebrity. The exotic nature of the story would cause it to be reported around the world.
In 1979, Ansell wrote a book about his adventure, ‘To Fight the Wild’, which was then adapted into a documentary.
Ansell’s natural inclination was to downplay his exploits. At the same time, he saw fame as a way to make his fortune, and would embellish his public persona as an adventurer with almost supernatural skills.
After his rescue, Ansell met radio operator Joanne van Os. They married shortly after and had two sons together, the family initially living in a tent in the bush.
In 1981, British talk show host Michael Parkinson was in Australia to record some episodes. He interviewed various local celebrities and public figures, compiling a portrait of life down under.
Among his subjects was Rodney Ansell, who travelled to Sydney to recount his adventure.
His appearance was striking, particularly for a British audience. Appearing barefoot, with fluffy blond hair and deeply tanned skin, Ansell presented as the picture of frontier masculinity.
His knockabout manner augmented his look. As well as recounting tales of life in the bush, he admitted to culture shock having never been to a major city before.
Ansell said he slept on the floor at his hotel, having found the bed ‘too soft’, and had been puzzled at the purpose of his room’s bidet.
Among the viewers of Parkinson’s show was Paul Hogan, then one of Australia’s most popular TV personalities. Hogan was the star of ‘The Paul Hogan Show’, a sketch comedy series that was one of the highest rated programs in the country.
Hogan wanted to jump to movies, he and his creative partner John Cornell saw Ansell’s story as a good basis for a script.
They imagined a comedy, centred on a legendary Australian bushman, who is discovered by an American TV program on location. They later bring the bushman to New York where he becomes a cult figure, while grappling with comic fish-out-of-water situations.
Like Ansell, this character would be particularly skilled with buffalo, and have advanced bush skills. And when in America, he would sleep on his hotel room floor, and have an encounter with a bidet.
The character, and film, would eventually be called: ‘Crocodile Dundee’.
Crocodile Dundee would take a long time to develop. Hogan and Cornell had no experience in film, and rounding up investors would initially prove difficult.
But the project would finally come to fruition, and premier in 1986.
It was an immediate box office sensation. In Australia, where Hogan was a household name, it was the most popular film of the year, and would end up as the highest grossing Australian film of all time; a record it still holds.
Perhaps more surprising was its success in America.
The movie grossed over $170 million in the U.S., making it the second-highest-earning film of 1986 behind ‘Top Gun’. Critics praised Hogan’s charismatic performance, and audiences embraced its laconic sense of humour.
It would go on to earn a Best Original Screenplay nomination, at the following year’s Oscars.
Crocodile Dundee was so popular it sparked a cultural craze. American audiences briefly flipped for all things Australian: watching other Australian films and TV shows, adopting local slang, buying its products, and visiting Australia in record numbers.
Hogan was so associated with the country he would front a tourism campaign, inviting everyone to come down under.
While Crocodile Dundee became wildly popular, Rod Ansell did not see any personal benefit.
In interviews, Hogan would admit that Ansell was one of the inspirations for the character, but would claim a range of influences. Tall tales of bush survival and bushman skills were common in Australia, Hogan said Mick Dundee was an amalgamation of many different sources.
By the mid 1980s, Ansell was running his own cattle station in northern Arnhem Land, called Melaleuca. After the film came out, he attempted to re-badge this ‘The Home of Crocodile Dundee’ and turn it into a tourist attraction.
The move was blocked by Hogan and the film production company’s lawyers.
Instead, Ansell’s role was recognised by the territory government. In 1987 they named him ‘Territorian of the Year’, for having helped but the NT on the world map.
Running the cattle station, Ansell lived a more settled life. He owned thousands of head of cattle, and also experimented with running herds of buffalo, which he sold to an export meat market.
The property provided a steady income and he built a homestead, leaving the tent behind. A profile of him for ‘The Independent’ seemed to capture a contented man:
‘Ansell was strikingly handsome with blond hair, blue eyes and bare feet. His looks and charm captivated everyone. He had an engaging laugh and would talk at length about the bush and its animals.’
– Robert Milliken, ‘The Independent’
But trouble was on the horizon.
Wild buffalo are carriers of tuberculosis, their close association with cattle could cause the disease to jump species. This became a serious threat to the cattle industry, in the late 1980s the Northern Territory government began an eradication campaign.
This called for a mass cull of wild buffalo and infected cattle. Ansell, and other cattle farmers, were forced to kill thousands of their animals.
While the program was backed by science and supported by conservationists, it caused great financial difficulty for impacted farmers. While compensation was provided, Ansell claimed this was not enough to offset his losses.
Railing against the government, he fronted a protest campaign, even touring the US to raise awareness. But his efforts were unsuccessful.
The losses mounted up, and Ansell was eventually forced to sell his property. He separated from his wife shortly afterwards, in 1992.
Critics of Ansell would claim he had mismanaged his farm; other farmers had been able to survive the crisis.
Ansell then returned to the nomadic life he had known as a younger man. He began living in a tent again, often pitching it in one of the remote indigenous townships in Arnhem Land, forging a close relationship with those communities.
The odd journalist would still seek him out, to report on his link to Crocodile Dundee. He told one he was ‘living on unemployment benefits and bush tucker’.
Ansell grew bitter as he aged, blaming the government for the loss of his farm, increasingly frustrated that he had never seen any profits from the film loosely based on his life.
He eventually retreated into alcohol and drug addiction, and his behaviour became erratic.
On August 2nd, 1999, Ansell showed up on Kentish Road, in Acacia Hills, a rural community about 60km south of Darwin. He had his girlfriend, Cherie Hewson, and a rifle with him, and appeared to be mentally impaired.
Ansell would fire his gun into two local houses, then try and steal a truck. Confronted by the truck’s owner, Ansell fired at him, taking off one of his fingers, before feeling into the bush.
When the police arrived, the occupants of the houses claimed to have had no dealings with Ansell, or know why he attacked them.
Roadblocks were set up in the surrounding area.
The following day, August 3, Ansell suddenly appeared near one, and shot a passerby who asked him for directions. This alerted police to his presence, and a short, deadly gun battle ensued.
Ansell shot and killed one officer, Sergeant Glen Huitson, before being fatally shot himself by Senior Constable James O’Brien.
A coronial inquest would later determine that Ansell was suffering from amphetamine-induced psychosis. He was 44 years old.
While Ansell would meet a sad end, his connection to Crocodile Dundee would ensure a footnote in history.
He would leave another connection to the film industry as well. His former partner, Joanne van Os, was the sister of Leonie Hemsworth; the mother of actors Chris, Liam and Luke Hemsworth.
Years before they were famous, the Hemsworth boys would spend time on Ansell’s property, in the remote NT. Chris Hemsworth would later recall having dreamlike memories of ‘buffalo and crocodiles’ under a blazing sun.
