The Versatile Man

Born in Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, to an Aboriginal mother and a white father, Don grew up on Neutral Junction station, between two worlds: the white settler world of his grandfather and other station owners, and the Kaytetye world of his mother's family. He knew both cultures and spoke both languages, and experienced the uneasy tension of living between the two. Don was an eager eight-year-old when he first started work in the stock camps on his grandfather's cattle station in the early 1920s. In a series of yarns he delights in recalling the many colourful characters who crossed his path, and recollects the arduous and often dangerous life of a stockman.