He had eight camels, most of which he had caught himself with some help, and had broken them in to harness and saddle. They grandly hauled this huge open-sided wagon which was both his home and money earning drawcard at the agricultural shows and where ever he went.
I was there to do a painting of an elegant homestead for property owners who knew me, having painted commissions for them before. He was a very slight figure, with the wildest glossy black hair, white streaked beard, standing there perfectly clean in his ragged clothing, merry personality and flashing smile.
I met Willie injured, stranded, and camped with his camels and wagon beside a drovers boiling hot artesian bore for watering stock, there in the wide lonely thorny dry landscape beyond Gurley, near Moree in New South Wales.
MAQ Magazine n. 9 /January 2019