Tom Kruze

[Bellobazza]

G'day all...
The prodigal returns! Been busy with several projects recently, but the news today of Tom Kruze' passing prompts me to post this. Another unique character of Australia's pioneer days passes into history. Cheers.

The Ballad Of Tom Kruze (b. 1914 d. 2011)


There’s a bloke who was a legend to some people, so I’m told,
and they reckon when they made Tom Kruze, they threw away the mould.
If you’re thinking of that other Tom, you’ve taken the wrong tack.
This Tom Kruze, he was the Mailman on the barren Birdsville Track.

As the Thirties and the Forties and the Fifties came and went,
in that unforgiving country almost half his life was spent
carting mail and food and fuel, six days there and six days back,
in a battered Leyland Badger down the long, dry Birdsville Track.

Between Marree, South Australia and that Queensland border town,
it was mostly sand and saltbush; dust and dirt of red and brown.
Seven hundred miles of gibbers with huge sand dunes now and then,
there and back the mailman travelled...and then did it all again.

To the people who were strewn along the distance in between,
as he followed in the faint tracks where the camel teams had been,
he became a vital life-line to the world beyond their gates
bearing news and fuel and letters stacked up high in drums and crates.

Miles and miles away from nowhere, scorched by day and chilled by night...
where a drover with some cattle was a rare and welcome sight...
in that god-forsaken landscape, nary shanty, shed nor shack,
year on endless year he battled with that blasted Birdsville Track.

Blinding heat and stoney stretches, wild dust storms and flooded creeks,
busted spring or broken axle, could maroon him there for weeks.
If the poor old Badger’s tailshaft took a really solid whack,
it was hoof it out or fix it on that fearsome Birdsville Track.

Two years straight the Cooper flooded causing old Tom lots of pain,
punting cargo cross the water...then re-loading it again
on another of his lorries waiting on the other side.
Month on weary month repeated ’til the turgid waters dried.

But Tom Kruze, he had a contract to make sure the mail went through;
camping rough and mostly barefoot, doing what he had to do.
Whether inching over sandhills in fierce, unrelenting heat
or digging out of boggy ground, old Tom was never beat.

In Nineteen Fifty Four, Tom Kruze’s fame was spread afar
for Tom Kruze The Birdsville Mailman had became a movie star.
And for all his years of service between Birdsville and Marree,
in Nineteen Fifty Five the Queen gave Tom an MBE.

So, this postie was now legend far beyond his outback beat
and a truer, dinkum battler you could never hope to meet.
Outback characters are many...one stands out amongst the pack.
Old Tom Kruze, the Barefoot Mailman of the barren Birdsville Track.

[william williams]

I dips me lid and I say it with pride he was the greatest man that ever walked Australia

I meet him in 1962-3 at Birdsville General

Bill williams

[warooa]

Great to see the return of the prodigal Will. And with a great yarn about a great bloke who had a spectacular innings.

Onya mate,

Marty

[r.magnay]

Welcome back Will, a good tribute to a genuine bush legend, I never actually met the bloke, but I did quite a bit of work around Marree in the '80's, his name was a houshold word in that country.

[Maureen K Clifford]

That is wonderful Will - what a tribute to a simple man - he would feel deeply honoured I 'd reckon

Cheers

Maureen

[Leonie]

Good to see you back, I was wondering where you had got to. Another beauty ... as always, gotta love those Bellobazza moments.

[Vic Jefferies]

By sheer (unhappy) coincidence I am reading the book Mailman of the Birdsville Track which deals with Tom's days on that track.
Very sad to see another Australian pioneer and legend leave us.
I understand one of his trucks, a Leyland Badger, has been restored and preserved and as someone who drove a more modern (but still old and by today's standards primitive) Leyland Comet semi trailer in the Northern Territory from 63 to 65 I can really appreciate the amazing skills Tom must have possessed. I was driving mostly on bitumen and still remember the incredible heat in the cramped cabin.
Vale Tom Kruze we shan't see his like again.

[Neville Briggs]

Good to see you back and productive Will. Great story. I suppose sometimes it's a bit hard for some of us suburban bushies to realize the significance of the mailman in the outback.

[r.magnay]

Vic, I reckon anyone who drove a bloody leyland and lived to tell the tale is a legend themselves!

[Vic Jefferies]

Can't claim to be a legend Ross, just old enough to have been required to do so. Not to boast but I also drove a Diamond T (the second world war variety) that had a top speed of twenty seven miles an hour (about forty five Ks an hour I reckon) a Chev Blitz that would break your thumbs if you didn't handle the steering wheel correctly and an assortment of such now vintage vehicles. Truckies today don't know their alive and would probably faint if the air conditioner didn't work. Still I had a far better time than Tom Kruze and his mates.