What this nation needs more than a 15 cent cigar for puffed up men of finance are more prickle farmers like former Darwin ABC journalist and musician , the late Mike Hayes , whose life on an odd hobby farm at Gundaroo , near Canberra, with his blushing child bride , became a long running source of entertainment on radio and in books.
One of his 10 books, seen here , was recently acquired during another grand tour of Townsville op shops. Born in England , Mike spent time in Sri Lanka with his parents before coming to Australia , grew up in Melbourne, became a journalist at the Age, went to Darwin for the ABC where he made an impact on the Top End.
In Darwin at the time of Cyclone Tracy in 1974 , his early reports of the devastation were heard across the nation and repeated at anniversaries of the natural disaster down through the years and in ABC promos . A Darwin band he played in went under the name Brown Sugar because it was rough and unrefined , he explained .
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Fishy yarn.
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Acknowledged as one of the pioneers of Country Music , he and his brother formed the Hayes Brothers band and their Bluegrass Ramblers was said to be Australia's first true bluegrass group.
Another claim to fame for Mike was winning the highly prestigious World Yarn Spinning Championship in Darwin, downing veteran raconteur and former NT yarn spinning champion, Communist author and song writer , Frank Hardy.
Mike is captured above in a Little Darwin photo hamming it up in Darwin , the suggestion being he was engaged in a new exciting and highly dangerous sport catching Killer Whales with a bow and arrow... or a tame , tiny Tommy Ruff .
After the cyclone , Mike went to the Canberra office of the ABC and once more became a local hit , winning a large national following through his hilarious Prickle Farm radio talks and books .
Moving away from the Prickle Farm at Gundaroo, he and his child bride became deeply involved in community and environmental issues. The bride became the Mayor of Kempsey and Mike, a freelancer , wrote a regular column for the Sydney Morning Herald . He died in 2003 at the age of 58 shortly after being the subject of an Australian Story on ABC television.
In a matter of public interest in the Senate , it was said that Mike, with a huge social and political conscience , had been well known by many in the parliamentary press gallery . Through his Prickle Farm series he had become larger than life, outrageously caustic and an astute observer of human nature.
