This public lecture was a part of the History Trust's Talking History series. Hysteria is both a memoir of author Katerina Bryant’s experience of illness and a historical account of four women whose lives have intersected with the idea of ‘hysteria’. The book looks at the strength of women who were not seen as themselves but as patients alone. Katerina examines the lives of these women, touches on the South Australian context and speaks to what it means to contextualise herself within this complex history. Katerina Bryant is a writer and PhD student based in South Australia. Her first book, Hysteria: A Memoir of Illness, Strength and Women’s Stories Throughout History (NewSouth), is out now. Music in this episode thanks to -&nbsp; Myuu (http://www.thedarkpiano.com) | Track: Outsider Chris Zabriskie (http://chriszabriskie.com) | Track: I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io) | Track: Despair and Triumph Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Hysteria - Talking History Summer Series

SPELLBOUND TRANSCRIPT:
It was towards the end of the 1950’s when Doug Osborne, an overseer/stockman working at Ned’s Corner sheep station on the banks of the River Murray above Renmark was ‘spellbound’ 
He witnessed one of the most delicate operations he’d ever imagined. As an avid horseman and animal lover, in his own words he related this experience to me.

“I was riding my horse across an island on the River Murray looking for stray sheep. It was a calm mild day as I stopped to adjust my saddle, when I dismounted I could hear someone talking not far away. I tethered my horse and walked over to a thicket of tee tree about 60 metres away, looked through the titre and a further 60 metres or so away I saw a man who I recognised as Possum. He was a person I’d only had fleeting glimpses of over the years walking along the creeks and river banks, but I’d never spoken to him. He always seemed so shy, and was a real mystery man.
I knew he was fond of animals and birds as I’d often found evidence of his work attending to sick and flyblown sheep. He’d fish all day to feed the pelicans and cormorants which had flown in from up North, it used to happen when their lakes had dried up.
On this day, Possum was standing in a little grass-covered clearing. He had several horses standing around him and was holding one by the mane and appeared to be trying to get it to lie down. The horse was in a distressed and poor condition and Possum kept repeating ‘Easy boy! Jim will make you better!’ Eventually he got that horse to lie down and I could see a ‘crow’s nest’ of barbed wire tangled round it’s right foreleg.

Possum sat down just under the horse’s neck ,placing his right arm over the top of it’s shoulder and stroking and patting it with his hand, all the while he was talking to it with soothing words.

As I watched this drama I became absolutely ‘entranced’ and was frightened to move in case I disturbed the horses which were quite wild, as they hadn’t been used for years and just ran untamed on the island.
Possum took a rusty looking pair of wire cutters from his little sugar bag. It must have taken him half to three quarters of an hour to cut all the barbed wire from around that poor horse’s fetlock and when he finished, Possum stood up and stretched saying to the horse, ‘Now isn’t that better.’
The horse was still lying on the ground but had it’s head raised up as if looking at what Possum had done.    (Chapter continues....)

A Man Called Possum

A Man Called Possum Sample Chapter -  Spellbound

Paul Clancy - I grew up in Renmark in the 50s and 60s and knew about Possum - saw him briefly when camping up river as kids. A few years ago Tony Hersey (who illustrated the book) and I “walked in the footsteps of Possum” we trekked along the Murray from Wentworth to Renmark. 

We visited one of his “hides” on Lindsay Island and retrieved an old axe head from a hollow log. Tony and I are both Vietnam Veterans and grew up together in Renmark and became fascinated by the Possum story when we were kids. 

We felt that by walking from Wentworth to Renmark in Possum’s footsteps we were making our own tribute to this remarkable man - a little known but significant Australian bush legend.

FIVEaa

In the footsteps of Possum - Graeme Goodings talks with Paul Clancy on 5AA–

The official launch of A Man Called Possum Audiobook was held at the Paringa Silos where there is a giant mural of the legend of the bush.
It was the perfect location as although Possum roamed far and wide along the Murray River and the Darling he lived most of his life between Renmark and Wentworth. 
 It was a wonderful launch and some of the locals told previously unheard  stories of a man called Possum. Thanks to all involved

In the footsteps of Possum - Graeme Goodings talks with Paul Clancy on 5AA–

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