SA town to celebrate outback icon with double-screening
The mid-north town of Waterloo, population 82, will host a nostalgic double-screening of historic films this weekend to celebrate 110 years since the birth of local and outback legend, Tom Kruse.
Waterloo Community Hall, 120km north-east of Adelaide, will screen the 1954 docudrama The Back of Beyond and documentary Last Mail from Birdsville – the Story of Tom Kruse on Sunday, August 18.
Featuring Tom Kruse as himself, The Back of Beyond tells the story of Kruse and the 500km mail run he would make across the harsh outback, delivering along the Birdsville Track from Marree in South Australia to Birdsville in Queensland.
Photo: The Tom Kruse Collection
His debut journey took place on January 1 1936, on a 45-degree day. He made the mail run each fortnight, delivering mail, fuel and supplies along the way on a round-trip which could take anywhere from seven days to six weeks, weather dependent.
Twelve years to the day after Kruse took his first trip, he took the Birdsville mail contract over from Harry Ding, who he had been working for.
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The contract was worth 396 pounds a year, the equivalent of around $32,785 now.
Kruse held the contract for 15 years, selling it in 1963, having stopped doing regular trips in early 1951.
Tom Kruse is reunited with his Leyland Badger before its restoration. Photo: The Tom Kruse Collection
During 1951 and 1952, Australian filmmaker John Heyer filmed The Back of Beyond, starring Kruse and his 1936 Leyland Badger mail truck.
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“Tom Kruse is a dogged, tough giant of a man who was awarded an MBE in 1955 for services to the people of the outback,” Ian Doyle, executive producer of The Tom Kruse Collection, said.
“We recognise far too few of our heroes. This film celebrates the life of one of this country’s outback legends.”
Now, 110 years after Tom Kruse was born and 70 years after The Back of Beyond was released, the town of Waterloo, Kruse’s birthplace, will come together to celebrate the icon.
Alongside the award-winning movie, the 1999 documentary Last Mail from Birdsville – the Story of Tom Kruse will be shown, documenting a mail run re-enactment by Kruse in his restored truck.
Tom Kruse’s restored Leyland Badger. Photo: The Tom Kruse Collection
Former director of the Sydney Film Festival David Donaldson will attend the double screening, having been an associate of Heyer.
Tickets for the event sold out following our publication of this story in a regional newsletter on Wednesday. The first screening begins at 1 pm.
