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Mail Contractors of the Birdsville TrackPrint Page Print this page

17-May-1986 (Mark Metzger)
17-May-1986 (Mark Metzger)

Photographs supplied by Mark Metzger / Henry Moulds

The monument commemorates the mail contractors of the Birdsville Track who served from 1886 to 1975.

Marree is essentially a railway town and, consequently, has been located not in a place where there are natural advantages but on a flat plain extending north to Lake Eyre and beyond. Its great claim to fame (apart from the fact that it is the southern starting point on the Birdsville Track) is that in 1954 the film Back of Beyond helped turn the local Royal Mail service provider, Tom Kruse, into an outback legend.

The film told how Kruse took the mail and supplies across flooded rivers, over huge sand dunes and through fiercely difficult terrain. It portrayed him as a simple man who handled adversity with dour outback stoicism and was committed, regardless of the cost, to getting supplies to the outlying homesteads.

Location

Address:Oodnadatta Track, Marree, 5733
State:SA
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -29.644916
Long: 138.062919
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:Technology
Sub-Theme:Industry
Approx. Event Start Date:1886
Approx. Event End Date:1975

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 17th May, 1986
Front Inscription

In memory of the mail contractors of the Birdsville Track

1886 - 1975

"The real pioneers"

 

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au