Book of the Month

August 2008

Outback heart / Joanne van Os
Bantam, 2005
NTC B919.429 VANO

Outback Heart tells the story of Rod Ansell, the man who inspired one of the most famous Australian movies ever. Ansell was a bull-catcher by trade, a highly dangerous profession in one of the most inhospitable places in the world – the outback in Northern Australia. A dangerous experience in the bush very nearly claimed Ansell’s life and made news around the world. People everywhere were fascinated by his story, and by his lifestyle, including talk show host Michael Parkinson. Ansell was a hit on Parkinson’s show, and one of the people who saw him was Paul Hogan. The idea for Crocodile Dundee was born.

Ansell’s life came to an abrupt end in 1999 when he was shot dead by police during a drug-fuelled rampage. His story is recounted in this moving and informative book by his wife Joanne van Os. Os was a Melbourne girl who went to live with Ansell in the Northern Territory. Her descriptions of Darwin in the 1970s are a brilliant insight into just how weird and exotic the Top End must have seemed to somebody from the South. The pair spent a decade together, with Os learning to adapt to the rugged lifestyle of the Top End and Ansell learning to live with the unexpected celebrity that Crocodile Dundee brought. The latter stages of the book are unavoidably tinged with sadness as it deals with Ansell’s mental disintegration and increased drug abuse.

Read our past reviews.