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| David 'Chilli' Chilcott |
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A crocodile tooth leers from the side of Dave "Chilli" Chilcott’s akubra hat. "It's a $30,000 tooth," he says, fondling the memento of the cunning croc that got away. "I'll sell it to you for five bucks."
He’s joking, surely.
Outback legends don't give up their trophies lightly. Or do they? Perhaps it is enough to have done it all – bareback brumby riding, buffalo wrangling, barramundi wrestling, crocodile trapping for the lucrative zoo market – without having to keep souvenirs. After 40 years of Top End living, Chilcott hardly has the room on his hat to notch up all of his wild adventures. |
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Chilcott first fell for Australia's north when he ventured onto Darwin's rodeo track in 1969. After a decade on the competitive rodeo circuit, he indulged his love of untamed landscape, working at stations across the Top End. A stint as fishing guide at Bullo River Station then led to a ranger's job at El Questro Station in the Kimberley – a place that he now calls his winter home.
"I ain't leaving here," laughs the 58 year old, whose wife of 38 years, Kath, is also captivated by the east Kimberley. She's the skipper on El Questro's Chamberlain River cruise boat, is also handy with cattle and in her spare time makes jewellery. The pair have a property in northern New South Wales where they plan to breed horses should they ever retire.
His illustrious sounding full name David Charles Chilcott the Fourth was never going to sit easily with the lifestyle of "Chilli", as he has been known since childhood. The quintessential larrikin, he is quick with a joke and extremely down to earth. So much so that he can laugh at his own ignorance of the who's who of Hollywood – even when it comes to his home turf.
When the cast and crew of 'Australia' the movie came to El Questro, Chilli took homestead guests for a glimpse of the action.
"I knew the bloke who was in charge of the horses, so I went to find him to say g’day," he recalls. "I bowled up to the first bloke I saw and asked him where my mate was. He directed me to him. When I saw my friend I asked him 'So, where's all the big hob knobs?'
He told me that bloke I just asked for directions was one of the biggest."
"It was Hugh Jackman."
Explore more of El Questro Wilderness Park |
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