OUTBACK PEOPLE
Step into the light
Ben Dark is a bushy at heart and the Darwin-based Getaway presenter is eternally glad of his origins.
By Fiona Gowers
Few people can attribute their dream career break to a character called ‘Bush Pig’. Less, probably, have been discovered at the Ekka in Brisbane by a man known as ‘Agro’. But Ben Dark has had an extraordinary life or, to borrow both his words and emphasis: “Amazing. Amazing. My life has just been the most incredible ride that I could have imagined.”
Ben was drinking with mates in the Cattleman’s Bar at the Royal Queensland
Show when puppeteer Jamie Dunn tapped him on the shoulder. Seeking a country
boy’s perspective on the annual event for his B105 breakfast radio show,
Jamie spotted his prey and pounced – Agro style. The next day the boy from
the bush – who had never owned a cassette tape – hit the airwaves and was
seduced. Instantly.
"I thought, ‘what a great job, they get up, they laugh all day long’,
I mean they have to work at it but I really enjoyed it. I went home again,
it just
stayed with me and I thought, ‘I would like to do that, I would like to
do that, I would like to do that’."
Full story OUTBACK Issue 35 June/July 2004
