The Mailman of the Birdsville Track: The Story of Tom Kruse

(Paperback, Illustrated edition)

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The Birdsville is one of the best known, and loneliest, tracks in Australia, and for 20 years, Tom Kruse was the mailman, battling searing hat, floods and mechanical breakdowns. He made the run every fortnight, and was a lifeline to the isolated settlements along the way. This is his story, a truly classic Australian story. Tom Kruse first drove the Birdsville Track in 1934 - and from 1942 to 1963 he was the mailman, making the run every fortnight. He battled floods, sandhills, the heat (sometimes as high as 49C) and frequent breakdowns - and that was in between the back-breaking loading and unloading stores that he delivered along with the mail. The Track was just that - a track through the sandhills and desert and Tom did much of his work before the days of easy air access in case of emergency, radios, and reliable vehicles. In 1954, Tom was the subject of the famous documentary "The Back of Beyond" (seen by millions in Australia and around the world) - and then in 2001, he and his famous truck (The Badger) starred in another documentary, "The Last Mail Run From Birdsville to Marree".