Nat Buchanan is credited with opening up the Murranji Track in 1886 with his son and ‘Greenhide’ Sam Croker, who was shot dead in 1892 by Charlie Flannigan at Auvergne Station in the Victoria River District.

Charlie was found guilty of murder and hanged at Fannie Bay Gaol on 15 July 1893, the first official execution in the Northern Territory, but that’s another story for another time.

In 1877 Nat Buchanan was the first to cross the Barkly Tablelands from east to west and in 1882 Nat Buchanan and Sam Croker took part in overlanding 20,000 cattle from Queensland to the Northern Territory runs.

Four years later in 1886 they pioneered the Murranji Track from Daly Waters to Top Springs. Nat was 50 years of age at the time and the Murranji shortcut was overgrown with lancewood and bulwaddy scrub.

Lancewood, one of the hardest timbers known, was used by Aboriginal people for spears and lances, and by station owners for yard rails which lasted in some cases for over 80 years.

Both lancewood and bulwaddy trees have a dense canopy and can form impenetrable thickets.

In Buchanan’s day there were no bores. When he travelled the track the Murranji waterhole was one of the vital sources of water. If the waterhole was dry the cattle and horses faced a 110-mile dry stage before reaching the next water.

Considered the worst of all stock routes, the Murranji earned the name of the ‘Ghost Road of the Drovers’.

In 1905 on The Murranji one man died and all but two stockmen deserted a drover who also lost 800 cattle and 11 horses. Evidence indicates five or six people died around the Murranji Waterhole with another 12 perishing as they tried to negotiate the track. But if owners wanted to get to the west or had cattle for market in the east then there were those willing to take the gamble if they thought they had the right boss drover.

The track remained in operation for 81 years with a boss drover named Pic Willetts credited with overseeing the last cattle drive along the Murranji in 1967 when he drove a mix of cattle from Auvergne and Newry stations to market in the east. On June 20, 1967 Willetts dipped a mob of 1390 head at Pussycat Yard then started them on the Murranji. He was 36 years old and had already completed the trip 10 times. By then five bores had been established along the route.

Pic, whose real name was Noel, was born at Nanango in Queensland in 1931. In 1945, at just 14, he moved to Winton to work on a cattle station. He had a series of jobs on cattle and sheep stations as well as work on cattle drives before getting his own plant in 1952. Willetts was a boss drover by 21 and finished his droving career in 1995. It is estimated by then he had shifted more than 100,000 head of cattle.

I first met him in 1988 at Newcastle Waters when he was boss drover for the Northern Territory Bicentennial event which drove 1200 cattle the 2000 km from Newcastle Waters to Longreach in Queensland.

This was the last great cattle drive, and it was the most romantic event of Bicentennial year. It was conceived to raise money from the sale of the cattle to help build the Stockman’s Hall of Fame in Longreach.

The atmosphere at Newcastle Waters while awaiting Pic’s arrival reminded me of the expectation captured in Banjo Paterson’s poem ‘The Man from Snowy River’ as they waited at the homestead for Clancy of Overflow to turn up in an attempt to recapture the colt from Old Regret.

In the case of Newcastle Waters, the movement at the station included that among some 40 members of the media, from all over Australia and as far away as Germany and France, who were pacing the red dirt for three days awaiting the arrival of the legend.

When Genny O’ Loughlin, writing for the NT News, interviewed Pic she found him a man of few words. It was 20 years since he last took a mob over the Barkly. “I don’t think it will be much different this time,” Pic told her. “I’m a bit older now (he was 57 at the time) but I think I can do the job. I’ve been at it so long I wouldn’t know what else to do,” he said.

The day before, the only insight into Pic Willetts was through old droving mates who laughed, saying, “Yeah, he’s a hard man but a great drover.”

When Pic was asked how important he thought the last cattle drive was for Australia’s Bicentenary, Pic simply said, “Very.” He was blunt when asked why: “Well, I couldn’t say.”

When questioned about the media attention he was receiving, he replied, “I would not like to say, but I would like to say I am very proud to have my name on this event. I don’t see any big problems on the drove. It’s been a bit dry in Queensland, but we are counting on some rain.”

After leaving Camooweal, his depot for 70 years of his life, he has now moved back to the country close to where he was born. I caught up with him again in 2024 after 36 years. I wanted him to sign my 1988 Droving Australia cattle hide.

Pic is now 93, still active on a cattle property and as sharp as a tack. His face lights up with youthful exuberance when reliving his time as a drover and his experiences in the Northern Territory and Queensland.

I explained to him what the Mates of the Murranji were trying to achieve in their efforts to resurrect the old Junction Hotel and Jones Store at Newcastle Waters. He must have liked what he heard, and he agreed to become one of the Mates of the Murranji.

He wished the organisation well, reminiscing about the many times he sought refuge at the old Junction Hotel after one of his drives.

None before him or after him drove so many cattle over so many years.