Dick Jones selling penny camel rides in Newcastle in 1937.
Dick Jones, the travelling camel man
When the above photo appeared in our first book, Newcastle, The Missing Years, we were delighted to hear from the family of the camel-wrangler. Marilyn Bycroft got in touch to tell us that it was her father, Dick Jones, in the photo. Dick apparently seldom discussed his early life, but his family was from Tasmania. He had left home at the age of 12, was sent back to his parents, then ran away for good at age 14 to get a job on an outback cattle station. He never saw his parents again. Dick had many…