Thomas Ernest Cole | |
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 Tom Cole, buffalo shooter with his horse and a dead buffalo. | |
| Born | 28 February 1906 London (United Kingdom) |
| Died | 9 December 1995 (aged 89) |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Tom Cole |
| Spouse(s) | Kathleen Callen |
| Children | 3 daughters |
Thomas Ernest Cole OAM (28 February 1906 – 9 December 1995) [1] was a labourer, stockman, buffalo hunter, crocodile shooter, coffee grower and writer who rode the Australian Northern Territory outback. [2]
Cole was born on 28 February 1906 in London, the eldest son of Ernest Cole and Adelaide Arundel. [3] In 1923, after a falling out with his father and following World War I, he sailed on board Ormuz to Australia.
Cole has been described as the original Australian crocodile dundee, a buffalo shooter, a crocodile hunter and a horseman of the Australian outback.
Cole had started out in Queensland in the Blackall Ranges as a rouseabout or stockman, moving from here to Lake Nash in the Northern Territory and then onto droving cattle down the Birdsville delivering cattle to other states in Australia. He met and worked for many of the big cattle properties.
Cole became acquainted and worked for Jim and Paddy Ambrose from Banka Banka station (Chapter 8 of Hell, West and Crooked). He did not have any horse breaking experience until he met Jim and Paddy and had only helped out a few times but was anxious to get the experience.
Cole was put to the task of breaking in horses for Jim and Paddy Ambrose. He broke in horses and was given the pick of one for every four that he broke in.
Cole would also later race horses named Curio and Black Watch at the race at Barrow Creek. Cole and the Ambroses travelled more than 200 miles for the annual race. Arriving at the race Cole thought it was unspirited that a race be convened without booze. A would-be publican had bought a two tonne truck full of liquor and expecting to make a 300% profit, Paddy and Jim purchased the entire outfit, lock-stock-barrel and bottle. The Banka-Banka encampment then became host for the rest of the meeting and were deemed by the rest of the race meeting as "terribly good fellows". Cole rode in three races and managed a 2nd and a 3rd and whilst not winning a race, Jim Ambrose told him "it's the booze and the company that counts".
Cole worked at many jobs in these first few years a cook at Brunette Downs to a position on one of Sidney Kidman's properties. By 1928 he was appointed Head Stockman at Wave Hill Station one of the Vestey's properties. Cole moved around the stations in the early 1930s as a horse breaker with Vestey's.
By 1932 Cole tried buffalo hunting with Harry Hardy and sold horses to other shooters. He continued buffalo [4] hunting, acquiring a lease at Kapalga, near the Wildman River and then in 1937 buying properties near Pine Creek, Goodparla and Esmeralda which his partner stocked with cattle. Gold deposits were later mined at Esmeralda. In 1932, Cole was at Kapalga where he received word from Jack Hales on the Maroubra about two pearling luggers Raf and Myrtle Olpa which had called into Caledon Bay on the Arnhem Coast and the entire crew had been speared. He heard more about the massacre from other lugger crews that called in to load his hides.
Cole moved to Papua New Guinea in 1950, where he worked as a professional crocodile shooter. He was granted land in 1955 and developed a coffee plantation. He also worked a sawmill for a time. [1]
Cole returned to Australia after 30 years in Papua New Guinea and began writing memoirs.
In 1994 Cole was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to history. [5] His publication, Hell, West and Crooked sold over 100,000 copies. [1]
Cole died on 9 December 1995, survived by his three daughters. His wife predeceased him in 1987. [1]
Books written by Cole include:
The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced to about 50,000 - 60,000 years ago, when people first migrated towards the Australian continent. The written history began when European navigators first sighted New Guinea in the early part of the 17th century.
Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, 171 km (106 mi) southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded living there in the 2016 Australian census.
"The Man from Snowy River" is a poem by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson. It was first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 26 April 1890, and was published by Angus & Robertson in October 1895, with other poems by Paterson, in The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses.
The saltwater crocodile is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats and brackish wetlands from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaic region to northern Australia and Micronesia. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 1996. It was hunted for its skin throughout its range up to the 1970s, and is threatened by illegal killing and habitat loss. It is regarded as dangerous to humans.
Rodney William Ansell was an Australian cattle grazier and a buffalo hunter. Described to be from "the bush", Ansell became famous in 1977 after he was stranded in extremely remote country in the Northern Territory, and the story of his survival for 56 days with limited supplies became news headlines around the world. Consequently, he served as the inspiration for Paul Hogan's character in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. In 1999, he was killed in a shootout by policemen of the Northern Territory Police.
In Australia a stockman is a person who looks after the livestock on a large property known as a station, which is owned by a grazier or a grazing company, traditionally on horseback. In this sense it has a similar meaning to "cowboy". A stockman may also be employed at an abattoir, feedlot, on a livestock export ship, or with a stock and station agency.
Alligator Rivers is the name of an area in an Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia, containing three rivers, the East, West, and South Alligator Rivers. It is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia, with part of the region in the Kakadu National Park. It is an Important Bird Area (IBA), lying to the east of the Adelaide and Mary River Floodplains IBA. It also contains mineral deposits, especially uranium, and the Ranger Uranium Mine is located there. The area is also rich in Australian Aboriginal art, with 1500 sites. The Kakadu National Park is one of the few World Heritage sites on the list because of both its natural and human heritage values. They were explored by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King in 1820, who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles in the estuaries were alligators.
Michael James LeahyMBE was an Australian explorer and gold prospector, famed for his exploration of the Highlands area of Papua New Guinea. He photographed, filmed and published many of his explorations widely.
The Coniston massacre, which took place in the region around the Coniston cattle station in the then Territory of Central Australia from 14 August to 18 October 1928, was the last known officially sanctioned massacre of Indigenous Australians and one of the last events of the Australian Frontier Wars.
Hugh David Sawrey, was an Australian artist and the founder of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach. Sawrey was an artist whose prolific output of paintings, and drawings of the Australian landscape and its people contributed in a profound way to the preserving of the memory of times and places in Australian history that were in danger of being overlooked and lost to posterity. Throughout his long career, he experienced firsthand events that shaped Australian identity in the 20th century and documented through his work many of the characters that lived in this period.
Ion Llewellyn Idriess was a prolific and influential Australian author. He wrote more than 50 books over 43 years between 1927 and 1969 – an average of one book every 10 months, and twice published three books in one year. His first book was Madman's Island, published in 1927 at the age of 38, and his last was written at the age of 79. Called Challenge of the North, it told of Idriess's ideas for developing the north of Australia.
Charles Edward "Ceb" Barnes was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Country Party and served in the House of Representatives from 1958 to 1972. He was a long-serving government minister as Minister for Territories (1963–1968) and External Territories (1968–1972), holding office under five prime ministers.
Walk Into Paradise is a 1956 French-Australian international co-production adventure film directed by Lee Robinson and Marcello Pagliero and starring Chips Rafferty and Françoise Christophe. It was shot on location in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Bulman is a cattle station town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Along with the Aboriginal community of Weemol, 5 km (3 mi) away, Bulman is considered a closed community meaning all visitors require a permit from the Northern Land Council to transit or visit the town. The combined population of Bulman and Weemol at the 2011 census was 291 and is one of few significant settlements on the Central Arnhem Road between Katherine and Nhulunbuy. Facilities in the town include a school, health clinic, police station and an all weather airstrip. Languages spoken in Bulman include Kriol, English and Rembarrnga.
Wave Hill Station, most commonly referred to as Wave Hill, is a pastoral lease in the Northern Territory operating as a cattle station. The property is best known as the scene of the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike by Indigenous Australian workers for better pay and conditions, which in turn was an important influence on Aboriginal land rights in Australia.
Helen Springs Station more commonly known as Helen Springs is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station.
Adventure Unlimited is a 1965 Australian anthology TV series. It was produced by Lee Robinson and associate produced by Joy Cavill. The directors included Ken Hannam.
John "Jack" Watson was a frontier cattle station manager and drover in the British colony of Queensland and in the Northern Territory. He was renowned for his fearless behaviour and also his sadistic brutality toward Indigenous Australians. He was called "The Gulf Hero" due to much of his fame being achieved while working on pastoral properties located in the Gulf Country.
Flora Shaw Stewart (1886–1979), better known as 'Ma' Stewart, was a popular pioneering hotel owner in the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea from 1920 until 1979.
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