Post on 30-Sep-2014
The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 28 January 1981, page 13
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55462507
The Pilbara wandererIn of Red Dog
ABOVE LEFT: Red Dog before his death in 1979. He had friends everywhere.ABOVE: Solo, a dobermann pinscher, took a close look at the statue of Red Dog.
No one owned him, but he
won friends wherever he
went. They're determined
that he won't be forgotten
People in the mining towns of the
North-West say there never was a
dog quite like him.
Red Dog was a legend in a colourful
frontier land: a kelpie cross, hitchhiker
extraordinaire who enjoyed unlimited
travel in cars, buses, trucks and trains.
Doting miners gave him his own bank
account and made him a paid-up union
and sports club member, with a canteen
meal ticket.
Now Red Dog is dead, finished by a
poison bait - but there's no chance he'll
-
be forgotten.
His larger-than-life statue in bronze
has been set up on an iron ore boulder at
the entrance to Dampier, hub of his wide
ranging territory. The plaque reads: "Red
Dog - the Pilbara Wanderer. Died
November 21, 1979. Erected by the manyfriends made during his travels."
Part of the Red Dog saga was pub-lished by The Weekly in a reader's storyin 1978: how Red Dog, intrinsically a
loner, teamed up briefly with a Dampierbus driver who was later killed in an acci-dent. From then on Red Dog belonged to
no one, but everyone helped to look afterhim.
He occupied a seat ol honour behindlocal bus drivers, joined the iron ore
train for the 320km trip inland to TomPrice and
Price and was rightly confident of gettinga lift from drivers anywhere in the northby waiting on the side of the road.
Red Dog's hitchhiking took him as faras Perth and back, more than 3000km.He ate like a king at the local singlemen's mess and at hotels.
But for all that, his life was not shel
tered. In his eight-year lifetime, he was
shot and poisoned several times and had
savage fights with other dogs. And look-
ing after him could be an expensive busi-
ness . . .like the time two Dampier men
rushed him 350km to Port Hedland with
bullets in his leg. While Red Dog recov-
ered from surgery, his rescuers went on
the town to celebrate. Some heavy fines,
loss of wages, änd vet bills later, theyreckoned that next time it would be
cheaper to fly in a surgeon.
Later, vet Rick Fenny came to the
area and looked after Red Dog for free.
Rick recalls: "When I first saw him I used
to wonder what was going on, he'd be
brought in by different people. Then I
found out it was the famous Red Dog."He had friends all over the place
whom he'd visit, and my house became
one of his calling points. Once itgot to
the embarrassing stage where Red was
chasing away my customers! One lady
brought her healthy dog to be vaccinated
and Red went and bit him."
One sad Sunday morning, Red Dogwas brought in convulsing from strych-
nine poisoning. At first, he appeared to
get better. Then it became apparent he'd
suffered brain damage. He grew weaker,and Rick Fenny had to put him down.
But Red Dog's memory was not
destined to die. Friends Orky Date and
Bob Heath got talking over a glass of
beer in a Dampier pub, and decided
something ought to be done.
Orky set the ball rolling with a $500
a
donation, and the Red Dog memorial
fund got under way.
At the formal unveiling ceremony,
people turned up from nearby miningtowns, some in 'Red Dog' T-shirts. A col-
ourful wreath of gladdies, carnations and
daisies was placed on the statue, courtesyof the Transport Workers' Union.
Orky Date was moved. "I'm real proudof it all. The North-West community will
welcome this statue. It'llput us on the
map like Gundagai, NSW, I reckon."
Guest of honour at the unveiling was
Perth sculptress Meri Forrest. She of-
fered to donate her labour after readinga newspaper story of the Red Dog mem-
orial fund.
She had the hard task of re-creating a
legendary dog, one she'd never seen andthat so many people had known well.
Happily, her work was successful.When the polythene wraps were drawnoff Red Dog, ah admiring ripple ran
through the crowd, then applause.Meri said by the time she'd finished,
she felt she knew the dog well."I was happy to sculpt Red Dog, as a
tribute not only to him, but to all dogswho have made life happier for people in
pioneering Australia."- KIM DOUGLAS