Tom Kruse was the tenth of twelve children and left school at thirteen to assist in the family-run blacksmith business. The Depression years were very difficult for a large family and as well, motorised transport was beginning to take over horse-drawn transport.
By the early 1930s, Kruse was transporting livestock, wool and wheat from stations to the Port Pirie Broken Hill railway line. For three decades Kruse delivered mail and supplies up the Birdsville track from Marree, South Australia to Birdsville, Queensland. In 1954 a documentary The Back of Beyond was made about Tom Kruse and became a classic film of outback travel and hardship.
In 1963 Kruse sold the business and moved to Adelaide, South Australia.
