The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
'Big Tom Kruse was a real Australian hero. He'd pile his truck high with bags of mail, and furniture, and passengers, and would drive back and forth, across the outback, come rain or shine' (Back cover).
Teaching Resources
This work has teaching resources.
Teacher’s notes from publisher’s website.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
'For the people who lived in the desert between Marree and Birdsville, contact with the outside world was hard and sporadic - but one man was their lifeline: Tom Kruse. For more than twenty years he was the connection with the outside world for the families, station workers and others who lived along the Birdsville Track.
'Tom delivered everything from the mail and newspapers to fuel and food - whole communities waited in anticipation for him to drop off their supplies. But it was a hard life, from regularly making running repairs to his truck to unloading and reloading tons of stores so that he could ferry his cargo across flooded creeks. Come sandhills, hell or high water, Tom Kruse kept faith with the locals up and down the Track. Tom was a real Australian hero - and no matter what happened, the mail always got through.'