Tom Kruse

Main

Biography

Esmond Gerald ‘Tom’ Kruse was an outback transport operator. Tom began driving the Birdsville Track Mail Run for Harry Ding a pioneer outback operator. Tom used a Leyland diesel truck for this long and arduous journey and encountered many obstacles on the way, including sand dunes and flooded creeks. A film made of Tom’s journey called The Back of Beyond, by acclaimed director John Heyer in 1954, saw Tom become a popular Australian icon. In the late 1990s Tom’s life became the subject of a documentary called The Last Mail from Birdsville, along with his restored Leyland diesel truck. Visit the SA History Hub for more.

Object

1936 Leyland Badger Truck

Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: B 69530/57

Details

Date of Birth28 August 1914Date of Death30 June 2011