Ep. 20 | Advocating for education.

Duncan Fysh was passionate about many things, with keeping a record of history high on his list. Duncan spent years contributing local history stories to The Prickly Post.

Spending his early years at Toolebuc, Duncan's family moved to Answer Downs after WWII. Both in the McKinlay district.

From there it was to Proa for 50 odd years. Julia Creek became home and his passion grew to take in the Town and Country Club.

Duncan was always on the hunt for his next big fossil and enjoyed flying. Duncan also had the Nelia mail run for seven years in the 90s.

Most of all, Duncan loved a chat. 

Duncan passed away on October 16, 2023 aged 84. 

It was a privilege to reminisce with Duncan about his life.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Isaac Carmona grew up in Barcelona, population 1.6 million.

For the last two tourists seasons, Isaac has worked at the Walkabout Creek Hotel in McKinlay, population 10.

Despite the obvious differences, Isaac has loved working in such a small town. The tourists have filled his book with suggestions of places to visit in Australia, and he has fine tuned his English. Which has mostly meant learning a whole lot of slang.

Isaac's excitement for local events rubs off. His enjoyment of places and events that locals take for granted make you step back and realise just how fortunate we are to be living amongst such wide open spaces.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Luke McNeven worked on properties north of Julia Creek before calling Colwell home for 13 years. 

First as a base while working at Eloise Mine, before managing the property.

Luke, with wife Mary-Ann and their three daughters, took the opportunity to buy their own place after Colwell was sold. 

And started a new life as bee keepers. Actual real life bee keepers! 

Luke has had to learn about a completely new industry. And how to keep 'his girls' happy. He has also discovered producing honey is a little different to producing beef.

Learn more about Mrs O'Connell's Raw Honey.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Danielle Wust went to France for a gap year, skyped her parents and discovered they had bought the Walkabout Creek Hotel and upped and moved. 

Danielle quickly refreshed her memory of all things Crocodile Dundee, but ironically could not get a job in the namesake hotel in France.

A big mail user, Danielle has mail tales from all over the world, including working at Amazon in Scotland (and literally being stuck in Scotland during the pandemic!).

Danielle has spent the past two tourist season working at the Walkbout, and made some great memories while working behind the bar, in the kitchen, cleaning and in the mail room. Her energy levels are next level.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Mount Isa School of the Air is the standard way of schooling for the kids on the mail run.

And for 19 years, majority of them have had the same teacher at some point - Mrs Mills.

Jo Mills has always taught the lower year levels at MISOTA and has been able to visit students in their homes and attend activity days and mini schools all over north Queensland and the NT.

Mrs Mills has a lot of special memories from her years as at School of the Air, including her first attempt at retirement.

Learning the vocabulary of outback kids was no easy task, but Mrs Mills has always taken anything the kids throw at her in her stride. 

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Angus Brodie once made his sister lead her horse home after a fall, only to discover she'd broken her arm.

Growing up at Redland Park, Angus got up to lots of shenanigans. He was also the last child to speak on the radio at Mount Isa School of the Air before the big switch to the phone system.

Angus has returned home recently after some adventures, including starting a paddock to plate meat delivery service - Horizon Grazing. Beef from the paddocks of Redland Park delivered to your door.

The last few years have been big ones for Angus, becoming a dad to daughter Louie and marrying his wife, Jo.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Makenzie Mills moved north to work and fell in love with the way of life.

Growing up in the Hunter Valley,  Makenzie followed in her sister's footsteps and headed to Queensland.

Five years later Makenzie has worked on various properties including Barkly, Millungera and Coolullah. 

Makenzie has a great group of friends, loves the long days at work and enjoys the social scene. But it hasn't always been easy being so far from her family. 

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

The number of TAB country race meetings continues to increase. 

Branden Wood and Didier Kay are part of the Panosonic Studio Productions (PSPVideo) team and head to country race tracks, providing video footage to Sky Racing for broadcast.

Seems like a simple job, but when you are dealing with heat, wind, flies, cold and an assortment of infrastructure, it can sometimes be a little stressful.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Regional Cast supply the footage of non-TAB country race meetings for Racing Queensland.

The logistics of covering five, six or seven race meets a weekend across regional Queensland is intricate.

General Manager Mark Jones has the job of ensuring Regional Cast find the best solutions for providing the footage from often tricky locations.

First hand experience tells us that videoing the races is not as easy as it seems.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au

Roxy Weston is the photographer behind RLR Photography.

Roxy has a passion for photography and racing, combining the two to take fantastic racing photos that are about more than just the winning horse. 

She also captures the emotions of the jockeys, trainers, strappers and owners.

Based in Windorah, Roxy travels thousands of kilometres capturing the horses and the humans of country racing in Queensland. And for that, we are very thankful.

Roxy also has a spectacular portfolio of channel country landscapes and wildlife that you will want to hang on your wall.

More Than Mail is proudly brought to you by Brodie Agencies, McKinlay.

Contact Jim Brodie on 0427468713 or Lachy Smith on 0401168915. 

You can follow More Than Mail adventures on Instagram, on Facebook, or at morethanmail.com.au 

Or, you can send me an email hello@morethanmail.com.au