This story was written by Joy and Norman Wogan

TOM KRUSE

Mailman of The Birdsville Track

Tom Kruse is a living example of "The Mail Must Get Through", though in his case it was not the rain and sleet and snow, but rather the sand and heat and breakdowns that were the test of his endurance, a test that he passed with flying colours, because Tom Kruse was, for 20 years, the mailman on The Birdsville Track.

The Birdsville Track, which in those days was mostly sandhills, dry watercourses and stony desserts, stretches 1,000 kilometres from Marree in South Australia to Birdsville, Queensland, and Tom would drive this track once a fortnight, delivering mail and freight to the people on isolated outposts and stations along the route. He was a welcome respite for lonely folk who enjoyed his laid-back, friendly nature, and they looked forward to his arrival and the opportunity to chat for a while and catch up on news. His reliability was legendary.

Tom, as he became known, was born Esmond Gerald Kruse on 28th August 1914 at Waterloo, South Australia, the tenth child of Harry and Ida Kruse. He had eight brothers and three sisters and all the children were brought up with a strong work ethic, following the example set by their parents.

His father Harry had two horses and an old hearse and was the local blacksmith and undertaker. Money was short for the family and the situation was intensified by the depression that gripped Australia in the late 1920s and 1930s. The advent of the motor age meant that the demand for blacksmithing of essential items used in the horse and buggy days decreased. This affected Harry's business badly, but Ida Kruse always set high ideals of hard work and strong religious faith, ensuring that all of the children were confirmed into the Lutheran Church and that Sunday remained a day of rest and a time for family worship.

Tom was given his nickname when just a boy. He became the shadow of an old gentleman by the name of Tom Poole who used to roam around Waterloo buying steel and bits of scrap metal which could be resold to make a profit. Esmond was quite often called Tom Poole because of the assistance he gave this old man, and so his nickname became his commonly used name. It was only his mother who always called him Esmond.

At the age of thirteen Tom left school to look for employment, doing any job that came his way. He helped out in his father's blacksmith shop where he learnt bush repairs and the ability to improvise with what was available in order to restore all types of machinery. At this time he lost half a finger when it became caught in the cogs of a drilling machine. He worked at a local farm, milking cows and sewing wheat bags, and as a road builder for the local Council. During the depression the Council gave two days work to needy men. This work entailed crushing blue stone which was then neatly stacked as the rate of pay was per yard.

With part of his savings, Tom once purchased - for the princely sum of one shilling (ten cents) - a Kelpie pup which he named Swifty. With infinite patience Tom trained Swifty to cut out three chosen sheep from a flock of 75, and Swifty would wait for Tom's command as the sheep raced by him.The local butcher offered Tom three pounds for Swifty, which was a lot of money in those difficult days so, very reluctantly,Tom sold his mate. But Swifty was strictly a one-man dog and would not do a thing for his new owner.

John Penna, local shopkeeper and Postmaster of Yunta, South Australia, was impressed with Tom's ability as a hard worker and offered him full time employment when he was just eighteen. This was the start of Tom's career as a truck driver because John Penna also owned a carting business and three mail deliveries out of town. Tom took over from the previous driver Jack O'Loughlin, who had severed a thumb while unloading a drum of petrol and chose not to ride the mail run again.

Tom held this driving job for a period of eighteen months, carting stores and supplies and back loading wool from local stations. He was able to send some money home to assist his family at Waterloo. John Penna sold his business to Harry Ding and the staff made the change along with the trucks. Harry Ding upgraded his fleet from the American Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge trucks and utilities of Penna to the larger and heavier Leylands which he found more reliable and capable of carrying the 4,620 kilogram loads. However he realized that he would have to find more work for these vehicles outside of the wheat growing periods, so opted also for the mail and freight runs.

During periods when there was not enough work to keep them fully employed as drivers, Harry Ding subcontracted his men as labourers. So in August 1935 Tom found himself working at Murnpeowie Station, cementing a water storage tank. After a heavy day's work in the searing heat, the manager Mr. Newland, approached the men at sundown asking “Who is this E.G.Kruse?” Tom stepped forward and he was handed a letter from his Mum who wished him a ‘Happy Twenty-first Birthday for the 28th’. It was that very day and Tom had spent his birthday unloading, carting and mixing bags of cement. By way of celebration the men opened a warm bottle of beer, Tom’s only present.

In 1935 Harry Ding tendered for the Marree to Birdsville mail run at a rate of 300 pounds for twenty-six trips per year. He would charge two pence per pound to cart goods to Birdsville with a fare of five pounds per passenger. Harry won the tender in 1936, and sent Tom Kruse to establish the service as Tom was his most experienced driver. The trip involved a three day journey from Marree with one day in Birdsville before the three day return run. Tom would be kept busy on the off week doing shorter carting jobs.

The Birdsville Track had been established by the droving of cattle from south-west Queensland to Marree, there to be loaded onto the railway for shipment to Adelaide and the sale-yards. The advent of the motorised carriage of mail, freight and passengers was not welcomed by all, as it spelt the end of the Afghan Camel trains that had been an institution in the area for many years.

It was in August 1936 that Tom's younger brother Curly, at the age of nineteen was killed in an accident while working for Harry Ding. Curly hopped out to open a gate for a truck laden with wool bales and slipped unnoticed under the wheels of the moving vehicle. Tom rushed home to be with his close-knit family when he heard that Curly had been involved in an accident, and it was only after he arrived that he learned that Curly had been killed. It was ironic that one brother, Joe, had returned unharmed from the dangers of the First World War, yet Curly had been killed in a senseless accident not far from home. Harry Ding later recounted that Curly "whose splendid young life was cut short by an accident in my service-- was a lot of man".

On Tom's first trip from Marree to Birdsville, on the 31st December, 1936, Harry Ding sent along a guide, Kevin, who had accompanied Harry when he did his initial trip along the track to establish freight contracts with the northern cattle stations. Tom had not traversed this route before, but he found his guide less than helpful as Kevin did not like the weather or the water, and he did not know the way. His dislike of the weather is understandable, as the temperature was 115 degreesF (45 degreesC).

Also on the inaugural trip were Mr & Mrs Fred Hey, Mrs Gloria Willis the wife of the Birdsville policeman, and Tom's offsider Jimmy Simmons. Tom was driving a tandem-drive-axle Leyland Cub and only had room in the cabin for the ladies. The men had to ride on the top of the load, making as comfortable a position for themselves as possible. The track consisted of two wheel ruts made on the previous trip, but obliterated during frequent sand storms. Tom however, had an uncanny knack of knowing just where he was on the track. With this new venture Tom was given a wage rise to the princely sum of 35 shillings per week.

His arrival in Birdsville was a joyous occasion, with the residents gathering to meet the new mailman. Harry Ding had given Tom two pounds to shout a drink for the first passengers. Tom ordered several five shilling bottles of beer which had been cooled down by a wet hessian bag with water dripping on it, hopefully aided by a bit of a breeze to evaporate the water.

The first trip from Marree to Birdsville and back was incident free, however Tom was not so fortunate on all of his trips. On his second run he snapped a universal joint about half way between Marree and Birdsville. After a long trip by horse and on foot, back to the nearest town of Mulka, he was able to borrow the local store owner's Dodge truck to complete his mail run, and it was several weeks before a replacement part from Adelaide had the Leyland under way again. Tom's next trip found him caught in heavy rain at Goyder Lagoon while driving the Leyland's temporary replacement, a Ford. Tom was marooned here for two weeks living on potatoes, which had been ordered by the Birdsville Hotel. Tom and his passenger had the potatoes grilled, baked, chipped and raw, just for variety. It was this breakdown that convinced Harry Ding to equip his long distance trucks with radio transceivers.

Flooding rains in the Diamantina River were another challenge for Tom, as he would have to anticipate the progress of the rising water, which could widen the channel near Birdsville Crossing from 20 metres to between 10 and 30 kilometres. The town's folk would wait on the Birdsville side of the crossing with boats, to help Tom deliver his load and the mail.

It was also in 1936 that Tom's favourite truck, the Leyland Badger came on the scene. The Badger had a powerful diesel engine but a single rear drive axle, so when the Thornycroft truck came to a nasty end, Harry had the superior transmission, dual rear axles and more robust tail shaft fitted to the Leyland Badger.

In 1936, Tom had met Valma Fuller, the daughter of a sheep property owner near Yunta, and he courted her for five years before, on 24th January 1942, they were married and moved into their home in Marree. Tom and Valma had four children, two boys and two girls.

In 1952 the film Back of Beyond was made, telling the story of Tom Kruse and his journeys as the mailman on the Birdsville Track. A sub-plot told of two little girls who became lost after their mother died and they tried to walk for help.Their father returned home from droving two days after they left home. He followed their tracks until they petered out in the sand.Tom and Valma's daughters, Pauline and Helen, played the parts of the two little girls in the film.

In 1947, Tom purchased the business, including the Badger, the Blitzes, the Marree home and the mail contract, from Harry Ding, and then became the official Postmaster-General’s Department contractor for the service, with an annual wage of 396 pounds.

In 1955 Tom was honoured by the Queen for his efforts in ensuring that the Royal Mail was delivered, and he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Upon this honour becoming public knowledge, the Marree Post Office was inundated with telegraph mail for ‘E.G.Kruse Esq., MBE’. However the Cooper River had not yet finished with Tom and he was unable to journey to Adelaide for his investiture on 24th June because the river was in flood for the fourth time in seven years. A second effort was made when the wife of the Governor General, Lady Slim, came to Birdsville on 18th July. Despite his best efforts, Tom was again not able to cross the Cooper and was wading in chest deep water 351 kilometres away at the time of the proposed investiture. It was not until the following April that Tom was finally able to attend his investiture, along with the recipients of the 1956 awards.

Tom's citation reads:

Written by Joy and Norman Wogan

Reference: Tom Kruse by Khristin Weidenbach 2003

Kilcoy Station