Brushman of the Bush dies.

Allan, you beat me by 2 minutes, and you posted while I was typing!

I guess a few of the younger members have no idea who Jack Absolom was - but for the older members, I know many will be saddened to hear of this great bush characters passing.

The ABC article only just touches on Jacks interesting and amazing life, and life skills.
His cheery nature and "can-do" attitude to everything he approached - even to making instructive films and videos - denotes the status of the man as a legend, and as one of those rare breed of tough bushmen, that seem to be getting less and less in numbers every year.

These are the same resourceful, intelligent and independent blokes who performed outstandingly during WW2 as Commandos, and in other leadership positions, where they gave both the Japs and the Germans a hard time.

The world is a poorer place for Jack Absoloms passing and I trust he's now enjoying meeting up again with many of his long-gone mates. RIP Jack.

Cheers, Ron.

Here's an earlier ABC article on Jack, from March 2018.

ABC - Jack Absalom on his unconventional Outback life

Cheers, Ron.

Still got his cook books from over 35 years ago...RIP.

My camp oven cooking started with one his cook books about 35 years ago also, always in the car with the road maps.True Aussy Bush Man.

Yes, Allan .. I consider him a loveable rogue. We visited his gallery in Broken Hill en route to Cameron Corner. He strongly advised us to travel via Moomba Gas Field, and to call in and get fuel and ask for the free bag of ice once we had paid for the fuel.

It was shortly after 9/11 and we arrived at Moomba and waited at the gate for quite some time for security to came to OK our entry, but nobody turned up. We then drive in and bought fuel. At that point a security guy asked if the car at the pump was mine and I replied that it was. He said he wanted us off the place immediately...and none too polite about it either.

I went to the car. I had also picked up a small hammer which I was going to pay for with the fuel. When I got to the car,I asked if he could fixed up for my fuel .. Nope, back in and pay for your fuel and then "p*ss off".

I paid, but got no ice ... and had a bloody good laugh as we drove out .. while delivering a spray to the rude security dude.

RIP Jack ... a true legend!!!!

"People only eat damper in the bush because they cant cook bread in a camp oven" Jack Absalom

It was that quote that got me into camp oven cooking.

I've never seen two better dressed camp cooks than both Jack and his uncle Reg.

Another legend gone!

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Allan, Yes he will be missed!, Excellent knowledge on most topics,and probably the only bloke that would get to his destination in his Mits Sigma just as easily as those in a 4wd...lol.


Cheers Axle

Love your “generous style of communication” remark ;)
Learned a thing or two from his old books and later videos, which also had their element of amusement. Great character.
Had the pleasure of meeting him last year and he mentioned he had prostate issues. Whether this had any impact on his passing, I don’t know.
RIP Jack.

Edit: whoops... meant to be a follow up of Allan’s original post

Vale Jack Absalom, a true gentleman of the bush.

Macca.

Jack was terrific in his day, encouraging people to get out and off the tar. He had some great ideas for survival and keeping your car going in awkward and breakdown situations. Much of his ideas are no longer relevant because of technology but were great in their time. A lot of his episodes we in normal cars of the day, a Sigma Wagon comes to mind. One tip I took from him and implemented for many years, even decades was to pump your spare tyre to double the normal road pressure and carry a double ended Schrader hose so you could transfer half the pressure to your slow leaking tyre. Saved me many times changing to the spare and got me to the servo for a repair. Not a bad innings 91 yo. He had an interesting life and a great artist to boot! He will be missed greatly! Michael

We always used to enjoy Jack’s shows & at least he lived to a ripe old age. I know mentioning spelling is a sore point here, but it was disrespectful of Channel 7 to misspell his name this morning, it’s not hard to check.

Sorry to hear about your loss April, if your reading this my thoughts are with you.

I built Jack a couple of boats & was lucky enough to travel with him in the late 70's & mid 80's, he taught me how to cook (or a least yelled at me) & as previous threads always had a funny yarn but the funniest thing was when he showed how to start that sigma by jacking the backup & spinning the the rear wheel & it fell off the jack & started to drive away by its self (that never got on his survival movie) but after we all fell around laughing, Jacks wife Mary deserved a gold medal for putting up with all those bad jokes, wicked sense of humour, a lovely lady she would say don't worry how much he yells at you its his way of communicating, she is a close relative of explorer William Wills
He will be mist & it’s probably only Alby Mangles & Ben Crop that left of the well-known ones left of that era now
RIP old mate

.
Much has been published about Jack Absalom but this story on the ABC's 'Off Track' just a year ago, describes Jack's life pretty well. This was a digest of an interview and the full 25 minute audio is linked at the bottom of that article.

It is to be hoped that the ABC will soon air a special on Jack, perhaps on Australian Story or such. His whole life was colourful, from start to finish. And he lives on still in his artworks.

Thank God for Youtube! I watched a lot of Jack's shows in years gone by and he was one of my inspirations for travelling the outback in a Corolla in the 1970's and 1980's (along with Jeff Carter)
Last year I was fortunate to meet Jack in his Gallery for the first time.

But at least we can sit back and relive what Jack had to offer:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jack+Absalom