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Possum. Follows on from story 998.

Some years ago I flew out to the corner of NSW, Victoria and South Australia to aerial muster cattle. The property owner and I flew the area and he briefed me. In the sandhills surrounding the property he showed me a cemetery in which possum was buried. The Possum story was unknown to me and it is part of my story of homeless people. Here it is.

David Jones was born in New Zealand and was a shearer in Australia. He had his wallet stolen and couldn’t pay his subscription to the powerful and domineering shearers union. so elected to live as a hermit along the banks of the Murray River where he acquired the name Possum. Everybody along the river knew of him, but only a very few had ever met him. For more than 50 years he lived alone eating fish, ducks and rabbits and making camp in various locations.

The story is told much better in a newspaper, so here it is.

Possum was a shy, gentle person who didn’t do any harm. He always kept himself clean and fit and his pride would not allow him to accept food or shelter. Station owners often found fences and gates mended, wood chopped, sheep crutched, weeds cleared and newspapers missing (although always put back a few days later!). The only payment he ever accepted was for salt and matches. He was well trusted, although if no-one was about, he also habitually released station dogs which were chained up.
Possum lived till he was 82 and is buried at Wangumma Cemetery. Wangumma doesn’t show on Google Maps however Wangumma Billabong does. It is at the southern end of Lake Victoria. That is where 3 states boarders meet. A statue of the man stands in Wentworth where the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers join.