Dinky the Dingo

On our way back to Alice, we stopped off at Jim’s Place, a small roadhouse that’s famous for being the home of Dinky, the piano playing and singing Dingo.
Dinky was found when he was a baby and bought up as a pet and used to sing when Jim’s daughters played the piano.
As time went on, he started playing the piano himself, and has become a bit of a celebrity. Apparently Martin Clunes paid a visit during a recent series on dogs and their masters. Anyway, he gave us an impromptu rendition of something and Jim told us of his exploits and fund raising activities. I’ve got his performance on video, so watch this space.

Jim’s life has been pretty amazing too, well before Dinky came along, so I'll try to repeat the story as accurately as I can here...

His father was one of the pioneers of tourism in the outback and pretty much single handedly opened up Kings Canyon, were we had just been, to the world. It was an amazing place, I’d say even better than Uluru. Anyway, his family started with a couple of tin sheds at the foot of the Canyon and over 30 years, built a multi $m resort there.
The land at the time was part of a huge cattle station, owned by an early white settler and very good friend of their’s, Mr Little. Jim’s family built everything on a small part of this land, on a handshake agreement with their friend.

Anyway, in the 90’s when the Aboriginal Land Reform’s came into practice, the daughter of Mr Little, Linda, whose mother was of Aboriginal descent, made a claim for the land on which the business had been built. The land claims were common at this time, and many Aboriginal communities lodged claims to land which had been taken over by white settlers, including the communities around Uluru, which is obviously now back in Aboriginal hands.

Jim’s family were happy to come to an agreement with Linda, the daughter, so the local communities shared in profits and were employed by the business, giving them long term stability and income. Unfortunately, Linda didn’t want to share anything, did I mention by this time she was a lawyer? She wanted the whole business for herself and after 6 years of legal battles, the judge upheld her claim and awarded her everything. Jim’s family were given 14 days to leave their house and their business and walk away with nothing.

So the Cotterills packed up and Jim sent the family away within 2 days. Here’s the good bit… well, in some ways. After his family had gone, Jim set to work with his JCB and levelled the whole place. The house, the hotel, the restaurant, even the airstrip. Everything. So the greedy lawyer ended up with nothing after all, and sadly neither did the local Aboriginal communities, who could have prospered under an agreement that Jim was willing to make. Those people are now some of the poorest Aboriginal communities in central Australia. And Linda? No-one seems to know where she is. Good story eh?