Roland Long

Bullet Roland Long

BULLET. Set in the Kimberley in the 1980s and 90s, the central character being a Dog of indeterminate breed that we found up in the remote Isdell river. My wife and I never really wanted a Dog at the time. He was in such poor condition and close to death, I had decided to put him out of his misery with a bullet. He made a miraculous recovery and attached himself to our family. The Dog was Irascible, so we named him Bullet to remind him from time to time that when he was extremely naughty, we still had a bullet with his name on it This book is as much about the Kimberley, and the Characters we lived, worked, and came in contact with during our 17 years of living on Koolan Island, as a Tale about the dog himself. I wrote it from memory many years after leaving Koolan. Its written in the vernacular of that time and place, when Political Correctness was an unheard-of concept, and Men and women alike liberally used four letter words to stress a point in conversation. Bullet was a tough little Bush Dog with a voracious appetite for adventure or misadventure. He became quite a well-known character in the Kimberley due to his fearless tenacity to take on any beast whether it be bull, shark or crocodile. Also sharing some Poignant moments with him, like when we sat together at the precipitous edge of Mount Trafalgar sipping a beer and gazing in awe of Gods creation, and other times of sheer terror when I began to wonder what Bullet and I had done to annoy the big bloke upstairs. There are many Historical sections that are as accurate as available research allows. The journey of Philip Parker King, William Dampier, and George Grey, who went on to become Governor of South Australia. The ill-fated Settlers who tried to farm Cattle and Sheep in Camden Harbour, all interwoven in as integral parts of the book We also came in contact with many wonderful people of some renown, people such as Dick Smith who we helped in an Australian Geo project. We took Mike and Susan Cusack to Kunmunya, for their 'Year alone in the wilderness'. Dick also used his Jet Ranger to locate a Tourist who had overturned his boat in the Vicious, giant Whirlpools of Yule entrance. I became mates with Malcolm Douglass and helped him in the filming of some of his adventure films. I trapped problem Crocodiles around Koolan then flying them to his newly established Croc Farm in Broome. With a backdrop of Koolan and Cockatoo Island, and the hard working, hard drinking, and hard swearing Miners, readers will find the book Hilarious, exhilarating, and steeped in melancholy when BHP finally closed the Mines. Roland Long