R.M. first went bush in his teens - lime burning and building in stone in Victoria and on the Western Australian goldfields. In the late 1920’s, he signed on as a camel boy with the missionary explorer, William Wade, in his treks across Australia's central western deserts. He learned valuable bush lore and survival skills from the aboriginal peoples of the area, and honed his stock handling and bushcraft skills from the stockmen of the desert fringe cattle stations.

By 1932, the onset of the Great Depression (only Germany suffered greater deprivations than Australia during that terrible time) found R.M. camped out in the Gammon Ranges of South Australia with his young family, barely making a living digging wells. But it's an ill wind... and during this time he met an itinerant saddler named Dollar Mick.

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