Possum in the Outback

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 27

Possum in the Outback

A Man Called Pottum: The Myatery Man Who Became a Legend. By Max Jonea. Angut and Robertton. 112 pp. $17.95. (Reviewed by Ruth Zanker)

Possum was a well known hermit in the River Murray basin of Australia until his death in 1982. He was familiar to the local pastoralists by his good deeds — crutching sheep, fixing fences, cutting out noxious weeds — but he avoided all human contact Max Jones, a local policeman, gradually befriended him and wrote this story about their friendship. Possum was born in New Zealand in 1901. He became a recluse during the

Depression when he found himself too poor to pay the shearers’ union fee. He refused all hand-outs and lived off the land until his death of old age ,54 years later.

Possum’s birth-name was Jim Jones. His father, of the same name, farmed at Ikamatua, Ruapuna, Geraldine, and Hastings. Mrs Millie Harris, of Christchurch, Possum’s cousin, gave the author many of the details of Possum’s early life. Here, in turn, is the opportunity for New Zealanders to read about how this simple man chose to live in the Outback for over half a century. Max Jones’s book is a tribute to his memory.