OUTBACK PEOPLE
The real Troy Dann
...all these blokes came up to me and said "we reckon you're a wanker, but we also think you're a legend"
Story: Mark Daffey
Photos: Mark Daffey and Steve Strike
Troy
Dann has performed practically every crazy stunt imaginable in Outback Adventures.
He has straddled raging bulls and mustered wild camels. He's water-skied
behind helicopters and wrestled crocodiles.
Yet the act for which Troy Dann is perhaps most famous is wearing a G-string. Dann's "Manpower" impersonation has gained such notoriety that top-rating radio personalities, Martin & Molloy, gave it number one billing on their 1998 list of television's most memorable moments.
So as we sit on the verandah of his family homestead, gazing out over the Western Macdonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, listening to the comforting patter of summer rain on a corrugated iron roof, the question of his fashion essentials begs to be asked: Are you wearing the humble crotch pouch now Troy?
"No," he says uncomfortably, "I only wore it for about five minutes. My producer asked me to do it for the American market. It was the only time I've ever worn one but I'll be living with it for the rest of my life."
Dann
is actually embarrassed. The nuggetty, self-assured little bloke who regularly
performs superhuman feats on the television screen may well be human after
all.
Perhaps he is caught off guard, but the simple question is his intimate apparel seems to have found a chink in the formidable armour that is Dann's front - one that oozes confidence.
It is unexpected and, most likely, uncharacteristic. But his choice of transport when travelling to the station is exactly what anyone who has watched his show would have predicted.
After meeting him at an hotel in Alice Springs, we drive to the airport where his Bell 47 3B-1 helicopter ("turbo-charged") is parked, all shiny chrome, new paintwork and spotless upholstery.
If it had wheels, it is the sort of vehicle you would cruise around
town in on a Saturday night with the stereo blasting and your mates cajoling
the girls on the pavement. A kind of levitating Monaro GTS. 
Full story: Issue 3, February-March 1999
