Helmut Schmidt's Shack

There is the ruins of an old shack in the middle of the riverbed here. It was built by a German migrant called Helmut Schmidt. A local Aboriginal man told us Helmut was a German fighter pilot in WW2 before coming to Australia and ending up as a commercial barramundi fisherman. He was quite a character, a real "bushie" and lived a hermit lifestyle here on the river, although he welcomed visitors if they wanted to visit him. Apparently he liked his beer warm and made his own bricks to build the "shack" using beer bottles and cans as filler in the concrete mix. When the river flooded, pretty much each wet season, he moved up to his second storey and carried on living as usual until the flood waters receded.

I've added a downloaded photo of him in his "budgie smugglers" that was taken by a photographer who was visiting him. He looks like he could do with a good feed!Read more