Who’s the nutty one? Chasing a bus, or serenely alone?
From the age of 12 Les Craigie was a professional boxer. In our interview he compared an easily bruised apple with the delicacy of a pummelled human brain. At 21 he’d had enough of the risks, and for the next 25 years he worked deep underground in the Broken Hill silver-lead mines – to face different but equally real dangers.
In 1948 Les climbed up out of the deep shafts and headed west, taking up his own silver-gold claim in the Barratta Ranges. From miner, he became a prospector.
Oh sure, that still meant picking and blasting his way beneath the surface, but with more time up top to gaze and to wander, taking in the beauty of the trees, the wildflowers, and to breathe unpolluted fresh air.
Twenty three years later, in 1970 when I interviewed him, Les Craigie was still his own man, content in the serenity.
00:29 - Seeking out the oddballs
02:00 - Les Craigie, lone prospector
04:54 - Professional boxer from the age of 12
09:40 - From Broken Hill’s deep mines, to his very own hole
23:05 - An ode to wildflowers, a requiem to kangaroos
31:13 - The lone bushman is less and less alone
