country so barren so dry so lonely it could kill you the soft country they call it because of the soft sifting sand sand that whips your face slits your eyes thickens your tongue for two days now he's been riding lost and losing hope if he doesn't find water today this country will quietly take him it will be a day that will change the course of this boys destiny and the destiny of Australia for within his lifetime this boy will become a legend he will be knighted and he will achieve immense wealth he will go on to become the largest landholder Australia has ever seen building an empire across this country that has never since been equaled yet money won't be his motive people will call him a miser a philanthropist a visionary an opportunist they'll call him ruthless and mean spoil and generous yet they'll all respected and few will know that it all began on this day in 1872 the day he nearly died of thirst that's when this young man realized a basic rule of the bush you need water he would take that rule and apply it on an epic scale spending a lifetime battling the elements across a vast continent and along the way they call Sydney Kidman the Catalan king he spent his whole life locked into a life-or-death struggle with this land land that he loved so much land that brought him to his knees so many times Sydney Kidman understood this land he knew it intimately as a friend and as an implacable enemy it was the sort of land few others would take on harsh uncompromising land land that allowed no mistakes no misjudgments land you had to respect never seen it drought as bad as this one Pratt we could lose close to a hundred thousand dead just when you think you're winning she knocks you sideways she knocks it so advice Sydney Kidman had that respect and because of it he was able to amass an empire that stretched the length and breadth of Australia over 100 properties he controlled 125,000 square miles of the toughest land Australia has to offer he owned more land than anyone else in the then grand British Empire and more stock than possibly anyone else in the world when he died in 1935 he was in our terms today a millionaire many times over if he was more than that he was a master strategist playing a gigantic chess game with nature using his stock and his men as pieces and the map of Australia as his board in other words that man was balancing himself against nature and he probably found a way better than a lot of people have to do that I found that he was not a mean man but he certainly expected it his employees to be as frugal as he was he was a great great trickster and a joker I don't think he needed to be liked I think he needed to be respected I don't think he ever felt that he was wealthy except in the land which he loved he was born near Adelaide South Australia in 1857 his father died when he was six months old his mother had to bring up six sons Sydney helped out by working part-time on neighboring farms and at the Adelaide cattle yards by the age of 10 he was working as hard as any man saving a portion of his meager earnings and listening to the stories of drovers who brought mobs down from places beyond his imagination at the age of 13 he left home determined to get a job at North on one of the big properties with the money he'd saved over the years he'd bought a horse an aging mare with only one eye which he caught Cyclops in his pocket was the last of his savings five shillings he was undertaking a journey of several hundred miles into some of the harshest hottest country in Australia where Burke and Will's had perished only ten years earlier the start of Sydney Kidman's journey was to be the start of a legend he spent his early years working on properties around Broken Hill as a rouse about stock hand Shepherd he would wander through the bush for months on end hundreds of miles from the nearest town tending sheep with the help of an Aboriginal mate yeah five more yeah so are they wrong I did it was during these years that he learned to understand the land he grew to love the harsh country west of the barrier ranges and he was forever asking questions finding out as much as he could about the country around him weather conditions the stock he was tending risin for today give him their head the boy who ran away from home was developing into a young man with a tenacious memory and a mind eager to learn it was during this time too that he learnt to respect the Aboriginal people a respect he would carry with him all his life he utilized them very extensively those that were available and his instructions to all his managers were to look after the aboriginals and to feed them well they by virtue of their knowledge of the country and their tracking ability were the eyes and ears of any white man who lived there and kidman would know obviously that the Aborigines were the best possible people to man his stations you're Dannette sugar no more left he heard it all last night Kidman served a long hard apprenticeship in the bush it was a period which forged not only his skills as a Bushman but his character as well no sugar that's best I have to get used to it yeah lefty can used it long time before you get sugar again his weekly food ration was four pounds of flour two handfuls of tea and two pounds of sugar everything else he would have to forage for himself need fanny filler it would force him to learn how to survive in the bush how to track and how to hunt skills that he would use in later years to save his life thank you rapidly he want someone what it was a period - that would instill in Sydney Kidman a passionate hate of waste he would comment about a man who was using a match to light a cigarette or a pipe around the campfire and say what a match what a waste of a good match that shouldn't be there coals in that fire there twigs or embers that could be used and they should be used why waste matches he really though he in a sense he didn't mean it he thought of people like he thought his of his cattle he wanted them to be fit well and well looked after and he realized that it must be food as far as his men were concerned and he made sure that they got food but if he were to come along and find that somebody had thrown away a half its in a jam needlessly or a bottle of sauce or a bottle part fuel resource pickles anything like that this would upset him immensely he could not bear that sort of thing and he would not hesitate to tell you about it by the time Sydney Kidman of 16 he was getting restless once more drovers coming through had told stories of the big mining rushes to the north and to the east Kidman was no fortune seeker but he could see an opportunity a damper didn't turn out too bad after all love exert what up tells on for breakfast - what's across those ranges we saw today Snider uh-huh Tobar deep like yes but the strike honor like that whatever it is I don't know sort of people moving me too many for me I'm heading back toward the darling perfect quarter at their poppy needing stock horses supplies maybe yes could probably want some sugar too well they'll probably take some sugar too he spent the last three years working for other people and that was long enough he had money saved and he had a head full of dreams it was time to strike out on his own he began karting food and provisions to the miners of Khobar t flour jams soap sugar supplies were short and he sold his Goods quickly and within a few months he would establish a flourishing business buying and selling on a large scale his horse and cart would become a team of Brooks and his Freight would be measured by the ton kidman quick to seize an opportunity open up a butcher store then began buying cattle so he could sell the beef a greater margin of property and all the time he was saving the money that was rolling in Australia too was prospering the mining discoveries were opening up the outback and ratios were moving into the flat dry plains of the interior with their sheep and with their cattle for the young Kidman still a teenager it all meant business they needed food these men they needed clothes they needed transport Kidman made sure he was there to give them what they wanted all at a competitive price he was very quickly learning the principles of business establishing a reputation as a fair and honest trader certainly a tough negotiator but a man as good as his word but not everyone he dealt with could be said to be the same often Kidman would get wind of a debtor leaving town at sunrise to avoid paying a bill Kidman though was always one step ahead hey Frank I said pay him up early yeah it's gonna cheat a couple rabbits eat leftover yarn summer well be honest I'm just gonna visit my mom she's B crook is that before or after you get the rabbits suppose you want your money said that's an atheistic month right when I took my first pack saddles to him I waited at the office encouraged to eat and he indicated that I should send him an account I told him that it wasn't possible for anybody in my position who didn't own any money at all to to go on making Goods because I had no money to buy the the raw materials and I put this case to him he said that well we don't do business like that we always have a 30-day at Calvin said well not possible with me because 30 hours would be too long I need it now and he gave a bit of a grin he wasn't the man to smile much but he gave a bit of a grin and he gave me the money even from his early days working after school around the sail yards of Adelaide Sydney Kidman had been fascinated by cattle he soon realized he wasn't cut out to be a merchant forever selling flour and tea across a counter he wanted to be out in the bush moving the stock he loved so much maybe selling a few here and there he very quickly got his chance first selling as an agent on commission later buying small mobs with his own money it was during this time that he learnt as much as he could about the animals that would one day make him his fortune grab it like that come on down like that down through the back cut away put their names already Nick yeah bring them all right right up like Bernal in thank omec by the time Kidman was 23 he'd saved enough money to buy a half share in a small property near Alice Springs for Kidman it was the realization of a lifelong dream the property was called Owen Springs it cost Kidman 1,000 pounds 2,200 square miles virtually smack bang in the middle of Australia the homestead was little more than a shack there were no windmills no boars no fences around the patterns the cattle had long since vanished I reckon it is a yet Kidman didn't mind it was his first property he would rebuild a homestead put up fences and he would muster the wild cattle and sell them for more than he paid for the place and within two years Sydney Kidman would buy out his partner his remarkable Empire had been born for the past 10 years Sydney Kidman had spent virtually all his life in the bush rarely in the company of women all that was about to change he was about to meet someone as strong willed as dogmatic and as difficult as himself Isabelle Wright a spirited Scottish schoolteacher from cap under sorry about this let's all make the market before Saturday does that mean you've got to run them Street down public thoroughfares you've got the whole of Australia to run your cows my pet this track not fade anywhere else well I'm late for school and I'm cross and your cows smell so get out of my way it was to be the start of a remarkable marriage that would last more than 50 years and many would say that it was this young stroppy Scottish schoolteacher who made Sydney Kidman the cattle King she encouraged him to go off and do things and she taught him a lot of things as far as schooling is concerned because he didn't have any education at all having left him at the age of 13 and event she came back met her Scott a schoolteacher and somehow everything clicked and it all worked what's the longest river in Australia going is that your answer mr. Kidman or your way of getting frisky if it's your answer you're wrong and if it's the other you're wasting your time it's the Murray and it's 1962 Moore's law where pay attention and stop distracting me but perhaps the greatest thing Bell gave Kidman was his freedom she rarely complained about his long absences from home even though he was often away for nine months of the year she bought up their four children including a son with polio virtually by herself while Kidman chased his dreams throughout the outback and all the while she coped that was her function not many could have coped with a man like Kidman I can remember my parents telling me about when they used to go round to a ringer when they were bitten for supper and he would say we're going to play mahjong tonight bill get out the mahjong so the marshal would be eyes and they would play with Robins he hated losing but on the other hand when he lost he would say to Belle get your jewel box out at once and pay Muriel that's my mother let her choose something out of your jewel box and that's that's how that was kidman began to diversify he moved into the coaching business in partnership with a man named Jimmy Nicholas Kidman supplied the horses Nicholas the coaches they started by running male between a few towns always reliable always on time within a few years they'd established a flourishing service carrying passengers freight and gold throughout the nation second only to the famous column yet all the while Kidman was consolidating his cattle business moving mobs between states now instead of towns and wherever he went he studied the country asking questions of those who knew filing it all away in a faultless memory his curiosity and willingness to learn was about to pay him dividends come from many miles is water probably coupledom all over warmer come down take a little giddy attend what day five six weeks to get in when the tribulation the diamantina runs down good somewhere swap in Watergate some country it was to be the turning point in Kidman's life and the start of the largest chain of properties in the history of Australia the Cooper the georgina the diamantina three rivers that together built Sydney Kidman and Empire their tributaries snake hundreds of kilometres from the north and from the east to lace the dry land they call the channel country in the southwest part of Queensland it rarely rains here but it often floods that's because these creeks are fed by rains which have fallen hundreds of kilometres away in the tropical headwaters and because this dry and dusted land is so flat these rivers break their banks when they run and floodwaters spill out and attractor for ten or twenty miles so grass grows here in the middle of the desert even though no rain may have fallen in the area for years and years kidman quickly realized that if you owned a property around one of the three rivers you had a good chance of surviving the terrible droughts that crippled the inland and because he was a man who thought in huge terms he realized that if you owned a string of properties around the rivers you could fatten your cattle in the north and bring them down the river system to the markets in the south a grand scheme yes but the only way Kidman saw of effectively battling the devastating drugs and his one great ambition was to have a sufficient tract of country in individual Lots spreading over hundreds of miles even thousands of miles where he could move his stock from one lot to another in order to save their lives and keep them in good condition but mainly to conserve the soil and see that it was not abused and so he began buying properties embarking on one of the most ambitious attempts a man has ever made to protect himself from the vagaries of nature each purchase was a strategic part of his epic plan each property was carefully chosen to be part of something larger and slowly gradually his chain began to emerge huddled close to the river systems and the stock roots of this huge country and as his empire grew so did his workforce men as tough and as uncompromising as the boss they worked for Kidman didn't pay them much and he'd often make them work for 10 or 12 weeks without a day off and those that didn't like it he said Sydney Kidman demanded total loyalty from his men yet there was something about the man that made one give that loyalty in spite of everything we're walking down and sir Sydney Kidman is talking about these cattle it just he was overcome really with the fact that we'd got them to the market and they were beautiful and anyway he's telling these chappies about these cattle and the country and he said look look he said it is wonderful country beautiful country said look at those cattle today he said we haven't seen anything to like it for so long and then he stopped abruptly he put his arm around my shoulder and he said look look at this young man nothing can help but grow fine and well in this country he said it's the most beautiful country you ever had in 1901 the year of Australia's Federation no rains came no rains came the year after as well and without any floodwaters from the north the land slowly surrendered Sydney Kidman tried to move his cattle from property to property hoping to find feed and water but the drought was too widespread he simply didn't have enough man to escape the stock began to die a few here and a few there at first and then in their thousands by the end of the following year Sydney Kidman had lost nearly 35,000 head of cattle which meant that he was flat broke without any more stock to trade with he toured his properties paid off his men Kidman's loyalty to his staff went as far as the black ink in his bank account did I dent hello mr. Kidman come to this has it if cattle all dead what ours all died just trying to pull a bit of Marga to keep our horse of the life I'll have to pay up you know you're the last fella when you go got nothing nothing at all that puts us both the same boat whose mob is that couldn't be the mob from Avon downs thought we'd lost them it is the journey will is we might be off the hook yet Kent he would take those cattle to market and sell them for 15,000 pounds just enough to keep him going to the drought broke Sydney Kidman had survived but only just Kidman quickly regrouped with the 15,000 pounds from the sale of the cattle he paid off his debts he had 6,000 pounds left better than with that money he began restocking his properties buying drought-affected stock for a bargain paying a small deposit the balance to be paid six months or more after delivery Sydney Kidman made that six thousand pounds go a long way for once nature was on his side the drought broke and Kidman immediately began moving cattle knowing the market prices were picking up that he was taking an enormous risk in five months he spent nearly 80,000 pounds on cattle ten thousand pounds on sheep all on 6,000 pounds deposit if he didn't get good prices at market he was bankrupt well and truly Kidman knew his stock though he knew their value and he knew what the markets were doing by the end of the year he'd resold his last mob he turned that 6,000 pounds into a clear profit of 40,000 pounds kidman had traded his way out of trouble alright but at the expense of the smaller land holders who'd been forced by the drought to sell for a song it was during this time that people began calling Kidman a cattle rustler or potty torture a man who steals and other man's unbranded calves and puts his own brand up it was a time when huge paddocks went unfenced a time when cattle from neighboring properties mingled and mixed a time when a man could acquire thousands of head of cattle without paying a penny talking about potty dodging you have heard the story that if ever you wanted to eat your own beef you would go to a next-door neighbor because he would kill yours and you would kill his to keep even this was more or less in a lot of places it was almost a none it was a sort of rule that I will say this that I never kill and I was never instructed to kill the other man's cattle in other words I would have been told my word car you Charlie tinker don't you do a thing like that we don't want you out there doing that you've got enough work to do without running around doing that and you've got enough cattle of your own to kill without killing so-and-so's and we don't want to set an example to him or to anyone else you look after ours never mind his no he was not a potty Dodger from 1904 Kidman began buying properties on a scale never before seen in Australia huge tracts of land he bought all according to his plan all at prices well under their value he would sometimes wait for years for a property wait until the owner was forced to sell bulu downs he bought five thousand square miles Sandringham four thousand square miles glen guile more than six thousand square miles each place was bought according to its strategic position Kidman's chain was stronger this time a line of defense he thought would make him invulnerable to the drought and as his empire grew so too did his legend stories of his ruthlessness his eccentricity and his frugality were becoming folklore like the time he was supposed to have spent a morning picking up bent nails on one of his properties and straightening them for the time when he got some Stockman to pull down the veranda around their homestead because he caught them resting in its shade when they should have been working he was a man who didn't drink who didn't smoke who never swore a man who had no time for friendships a man who distanced himself from everyone we want to tell you how much God loves you and no one cares being more than what God does yet he was an enormous contradiction this man he gave extensively to the Australian Inland Mission he helped fund the Flying Doctor Service and from his very early years he supported the Salvation Army making large donations as he became more wealthy do something about it today many generous people have helped the Salvation Army what about mr. Kidman over there one of our greatest supporters and when World War one broke out he bought aircraft for the airports he gave horses to the troops when Germany invaded Belgium and displaced the farmers there kidman organized a special fund to get them resettled he promised those of his men who went away to war that they would have a job when they returned he gave a pension to those that returned injured and a pension to the families of those that didn't return at all by 1921 Sydney Kidman was sitting pretty for seven years the seasons had been good to him he now had a network of properties that he thought was impervious to drought he had an annual turnover of more stock than any other man in Australia and he had men working for him that he was proud of Sydney when are you going to let those people know I got another telegram today what they thought the government people about the knighthood uh-huh hadn't given it much thought well you'd better they want an answer what do you think mrs. Kidman I think it would be a good idea might make you into a gentleman instead of just an old drover all drivers can be gentlemen do you know he would be knighted for his contribution to Australia during the war yet this man who now controlled more than 125,000 square miles of land sensed trouble he sensed a drug coming a big drought they still talk about the draft of 26 that's when it started this draft yet it was the last five years for Sydney Kidman it was to be the final challenge stocke that in previous years have been fattened glossy began to look weak hungry and country that had once swayed with grass now stood lifeless and barren come in play Miss Brooks send a telegram to Anamika find out how the tanks are going what the Bullock's alive and they're all right tell us get to begin moving themselves to quinary she's decision right away miss Fuchs Sidney Kidman was prepared his chain of properties was now strong his men were tough and willing to fight Kidman was going to tackle the drought head-on he mobilized his cattle like a general moving his troops into battle his territory was under siege and he was mounting his well-thought-out defensive the drought though was relentless it had settled on the land like a huge leech slowly sucking the life out of the place many simply gave up as their stock died and their land became a debt collectors dream have a choice Kidman too was being pushed to the limit most of his stock had already died and those that were still standing were on the move to no place better his men were losing hope no one had ever thought a drought could be so widespread for so long are they holding up good he likes it he like in need of a drink move them over to Derry bit of water there but by the time they got there the water had all gone that mob died as well Kidman's master plan to escape drought just didn't seem to be working the cattle king's lifelong dream was slowly fading you know Pratt the blacks had the right idea that's where I've lost it out here so long they work in with the country not against it that's what I've tried to do with my life what with the country and something like this happens you realize you're out here on her terms not yours the dumbbells you have it Pratt my guess is it kidman toward all his properties that year bolstering his men's flagging morale like a military commander addressing a unit facing defeat his drovers were getting desperate to take a mob of cattle a hundred miles across flat open desert towards a waterhole not knowing if it was full or if it was dry and to get there and find it dry then face the prospect of riding another hundred miles to another waterhole it was enough to make some give it all in you don't hate there's no point in moving sir you're gonna die anyway they will pay off a lifetime he'd spent preparing for this very fight with the only pho he'd never been able to buy out or beat I remember my company for many gave in Sydney Kidman's dream his epic vision it was on the line nothing could stop him I'll never be to owner move a mother petal mr. Pratt when the rains finally came the dust slowly clear Kidman's Empire remained battered but intact to that extent he won but it was to be his last fight soon after he retired to Adelaide and settle down with his wife Belle it still operates today the Kidman company but with 14 properties now where once there was a hundred and those that loved him remember a day in 1932 when a huge crowd turned out to celebrate sir Sydney Kidman 75th birthday his managers and his men organized a spectacular rodeo to honor the man who'd been their boss for so long it was on that day that someone wrote a poem the old man sat in the grandstand and he gazed at the oval below but the boys in blue with the boys he knew round his heart was a sort of a glow and his thoughts travelled far from the city with its hustle and bustle and noise he was riding back on the cattle track riding with Kidman's boys once again with the green hide and stockroom he was wheeling the mob on the plain how they bulk and clash the riding lash sings its staccato refrain and his eyes they Kindle and sparkle his head takes a stately ax poised the horses Mane's toss as they bow to the boss aren't they ridden by Kidman's boys for these are the men from the stations who ride Neath the northern stars light where the salt bush blows and the Mulga grows and men must be men in the fight where they're not yarded by tram lines and no boundary of brick wall annoys a thousand mile ride they take in their stride to the day's work for Kidman's boys we who sit snug in the city and rail at the drabness of life rave of depression and have an obsession that we were just born into strife let us take a cue from these riders and stop all this gloom that a noise get a stock whip and rope put a lasso on hope and smile just like Kidman's boys you you
