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