Published in Overland Issue 208 Spring 2012 Main Posts Australia is a film about a red dog Campbell Thomson ‘not so much extraordinary but merely in touch with the emotional ebbs and flow of the Pilbara ... you’re left with the feeling that it’s the legend that counts, not the real thing.’ – Mark Naglazas in the West Australian Dogs float here with the first boat people to become dingoes but Gadiya design you to round up stock & name Dampier after a pirate. In 1861 they invade & kill a big mob of Yaburara when a policeman is speared. Hooves pockmark the red earth’s skin then they build a port to take tons of country to Japan. Now Rio Tinto sends ships every day to China & aims for 333 million tons a year. Homeless men drive monsters that eat Marga ancestors turned to iron ore & don’t know why they feel so bad in this place. No one needs working kelpies here. You try to fit them in your pack. Most go for grog. At nearby Murujuga, which means ‘hip bone sticking out,’ (Woodside names it Burrup Peninsula, after a Gadiya killed in 1885) they pipe gas under the sea to a plant among thousands of stories on rocks Marga etched millennia ago, that chemical fumes erode. In the movie you adopt an American, John Grant, played by Josh Lucas, based on a bloke in Bernierès’ book, modelled on a company bus driver John Stazzonelli, who died in 1975, after Col Cummings named you Tally Ho in 1971. Our Red in Canberra loves Yanks too & sends soldiers to die for democracy in Afghanistan, like we did in Vietnam. You steal food, fight heaps, fart noxiously & sire many pups. The film makes you fight a cat and fart once. It leaves the Yaburara and Ngarluma mobs on the cutting room floor & makes sure Koko as you is a shoo in for best shaggy dog. Grant rides his Harley to work after nookie, hits a roo, and skids. We don’t see the face of the only (dead) native in ninety minutes probably played by a stuffed toy from props (you can’t really count the shark that mauls Bill Hunter’s leg & doesn’t get a mouthful of Jocko the reluctant suicide). Was it the cat-loving caravan park owner who poisoned you? With WA and the Feds putting up the seed funding no surprise it makes mining beautiful with upbeat tracks from Skyhooks and Daddy Cool. Campbell Thomson Campbell Thomson is a Melbourne writer, artist and barrister. He used to talk about films on ABC local radio. More by Campbell Thomson Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays First published in Overland Issue 228 11 November 202211 November 2022 Main Posts On the last day of Subscriberthon, our amazing online editor gives you one last (very good) reason to subscribe Editorial team What's in store for the last day of Subscriberthon? First published in Overland Issue 228 10 November 202210 November 2022 Main Posts On the second-last day of Subscriberthon, our favourite editor-duo give you reason #1002 to subscribe to Overland Editorial team What's in store for the second-last day of Subscriberthon?