One thing about Christmas is that you often renew contact with or receive startling news about people from your past. In the stream of emails that came in recently was one asking me if I wanted to be linked to a number of people, one being Colin Dangaard, who sells saddles in America. Colin Dangaard! When I left Darwin for the first time in l962 and went to work on the Cairns Post, Colin was a dashing young reporter who got about on a motorbike ; his lively , whip cracking , grandmother lived on Coen Station , Cape York .The Dangaards were prominent in the Mareeba area , a street named after one .
Colin moved on –New Zealand , Africa , America – where he worked on the Miami Herald , covered showbiz in a big way, had his own TV show; in Malibu his neighbour was JR of Dallas fame and he branched out into making fancy horse saddles and associated accoutrements in the Australian style. We eventually lost touch with each other , although I noticed that Derryn Hinch gave him a big mention in his latest book. From time to time a journalist mate in New York said Dangaard was “ really big in America.” Yesterday , I Googled Colin Dangaard and was bowled over to find an article, with him wearing a cowboy hat snuggled up to a horse , in which he is described as MALIBU’S CROCODILE DUNDEE , involved in horseback NEVER NEVER adventure tours in Queensland , starting at Cairns , which take Americans on 10 day trips, where they can ride like The Man From Snowy River . The bright idea for this venture came four years ago when Col was sitting with his brother in his jacuzzi in California. It seems his North Queensland family- mother , brother and sister are involved . Mum, the story goes, entertains the riders at her home by playing the piano and singing Irish songs before they set out on the great ride . NOTE: When contacted , Colin made it clear the horseback tours story was an old one , and said his dear old Mum is now playing the piano for the angels . (Peter Simon)
