Bruce Simpson has lived a full life and chronicled a vital part of Australia’s heritage for future generations.
Story By Bruce McMahon
“Thankfully I’ve still got my marbles,” quips Bruce Simpson as he crosses the lounge room, a welcoming handshake as firm as his opinions. A confident, bow-legged gait on high-heel riding boots belies the old bushman’s 92 years. “I’ve done a lot of things – saddler, real-estate salesman, insurance agent – and droving was just one of them,” Bruce says.
Yet it was his work as a young fella droving cattle that supplied material for acclaimed bush poetry and eight books while he sought to record history and a way of life being swamped by 21st century technology and apathy. It is fitting that a portrait of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson hangs in the doorway to his study in Caboolture, just north of Brisbane, for Bruce’s work has been likened to Paterson’s.
This Story is from Issue #104
Outback Magazine: Dec/Jan 2016
