TaraDeS — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 12:41 PM)

Outback Adventure 🦘​ Following the real Crocodile Dundee
Rodney Ansell, an Australian bushman, served as the inspiration for the movie
"Crocodile Dundee"
.
Today, his myth lives on in the Northern Territory.
Paul Hogan (*October 08, 1939) and Rodney Ansell (October 01, 1954 – August 03, 1999)
The truth should never get in the way of a good story – a saying often heard in Australia.
Perhaps that's why you can encounter so many colourful characters in the Northern Territory.
Those who call this remote region home are rarely ordinary people.
This certainly applies to Rodney Ansell, who worked as a buffalo hunter in northern Australia in the 1970s
and is considered the
"real Crocodile Dundee"
. Tour guide Scott "Scotty" Hannaford tells Ansell's tragic story
to tourists as he drives his four-by-four along the Stuart Highway toward Kakadu National Park.
Ansell's life came to a dramatic end nearby in 1999, in a shootout with the police.
Ansell rose to fame in 1977 when his boat capsized on the Victoria River. He survived in the wilderness with
his two dogs for two months until he was found by indigenous people. The media pounced on his story, which Ansell himself embellished with numerous interviews. According to the story, he killed sharks, crocodiles and buffalo and drank their blood to survive. Ansell himself later claimed that a whale capsized his boat.
Or was it a crocodile?
His adventures provided the inspiration for the 1986 Hollywood classic
"Crocodile Dundee"
. While Australian actor Paul Hogan rose to world fame in the role of Mick Dundee, Ansell's fame faded. He ran into financial difficulties, became addicted to drugs and struggled with mental health issues. After a drug binge in 1999,
he was on the run from the police and eventually shot a police officer at a street barricade.
He was killed by a second officer in the shootout. Ansell lived to be just 44 years old.
Touch of the Wild West
Tour guide Scotty, also in his mid-40s, is no outback macho like
Crocodile Dundee
, but rather an outdoor enthusiast. When on tour, he always wears a holey felt hat to protect himself from the scorching heat. Scotty Hannaford came to Australia from Great Britain at the age of seven. Since 2023, he lives in Humpy Doo, a small town near Darwin.
Scott "Scotty" Hannaford knows the Australian Northern Territory like the back of his hand.
From Humpy Doo, he not only runs his own company
Down Under Safaris
, but also works as a firefighter.
He recently cut off his long dreadlocks
"so they don't catch fire"
. When asked what makes the Northern Territory so special for him:
"Everything is so relaxed here"
, says Scotty .
"You don't need a license to drive
a boat, and you don't need a license to fish."
Much changed in the Northern Territory since the days of wild crocodile hunters roaming the land. But a touch of Wild West charm remains. In the
roadhouses
along the highways, giant crocodile skins hang on the walls. Locals tell their outback stories at the bar. Some of the rest stops even keep their own pet crocodiles in their backyards.
"Warning"
and
"Brutus the Salty"
read the signs on a fence, where behind one of these four-meter-long reptiles lives. Brutus, the saltwater crocodile, peeks out from the small pool with only one yellow slit eye. He has no desire to pose for tourists' cameras.
Saltwater crocodile "Brutus the Salty"
.
….
….
https://www.t-online.de/leben/reisen/fernreisen/id_100825096/northern-territory-das-tragische-ende-des-wahren-crocodile-dundee.html
July 26, 2025
Apparently, an actor lives longer than a bushman.
The real Crocodile Dundee ​ ​ Rodney Ansell