Surviving on fishing, crabbing, foraging and the occasional backbreaking supply run to Babinda, the self-exiled northerner, through his writing, provided a window into the past through the telling of his often funny adventures and encounters with the strange characters forged in remote Far North Queensland tropics.

Now 46 years since the publishing of Around the Cassowary Rock, the reluctant author reflects on his time of solitude, eking out an existence at a bush camp where the Russell and Mulgrave rivers meet.

After publishing the book, Richie spent time in the jungles of Papua New Guinea and survived food poisoning, malaria and armed threats made by primitive tribes.

But with the essence of Babinda coursing through his veins, the little town in the shadow of Queensland’s two highest mountains eventually lured him home to the Far North.

The now 84-year-old was tracked down to an old shed, literally a stone’s throw from the favourite hangout of Clyde the croc on the banks of the Mulgrave River.

He’ll likely never leave.

Surrounded by partially-built boats stacked precariously with towers of books, Richie is surrounded by river relics.

It’s a rag-tag collection of decrepit vessels that lie, spider web-encrusted, and in wait of well-intentioned restoration.

Outboards, engine parts, crab traps, typewriters and an archive or future book ideas represent the life catalogue of a man who describes his “escape” from school at 14 before an about-face led to Richie becoming an accomplished author.

With this journalist arriving at the East Russell shed unannounced, Richie quickly donned a pair of shorts to sit down, shirtless, for an interview in the baking December heat under his hot tin roof.

“When they published Cassowary Rock they put it in the biggest contest in Australia’s history, I got all the letters here,” he said.

“And the judges said they would have given first prize, I think it came second.”

His second manuscript chronicling the lives of North Queensland sugar canecutters became a casualty of publishers Rigby Limited being acquired by American interests, which led to declining interest in Australian content, though parts of the story were published in the North Queensland Register.

Asked if he looks back on his time spent at Cassowary Rock as a hard existence – it was without electricity, running water, food security or even a fridge, and left to the mercy of the cyclones and floods – Richie gave an emphatic “no”.

“Because you were so fit then,” he explained.

Growing up in a poor family, Richie is no stranger to hard work.

He hand-cut sugar cane, felling and preparing cordwood in the tropical jungle for use as sugar mill boiler fuel during an era when the lack of a regular pay packet during the slack season forced many to live off the land.

His account of living at Cassowary Rock is a collection of hilarious, sad and crazy stories about the many unusual characters that passed his way, including the resident crocodile who is claimed to have walked on two legs.

It was during his time living at Cassowary Rock in the 1960s that Richie claimed to have accidentally discovered the crash site of a World War II bomber when looking for wayward dogs who had got lost in thick bushland after chasing a scrub turkey into the jungle.

On April 21, 1942, Lockheed 14 operated by Guinea Airways was on a “special work” mission for the Department of Civil Aviation and had ten “important passengers” on board when it went missing.

Babinda residents reported flashes and noises from the Graham Range in between Russell Heads and Bramston Beach but due to the secret nature of the mission, the flight was not public knowledge at the time.

“It must have been (the plane) because what else was up there like that?” he said.

In the book the author described the aircraft as a “pay plane” that went down in between the twin peaked summit of Mount Graham en route to “the islands,” in the Torres Strait, however the report was largely ignored until some time in the 2000s when efforts were made to find the wreckage.

“Wayne Coutts from the Gordonvale SES got me to tell them all about it,” he said.

But after a major operation, the final resting place of ten World War II airmen remains a mystery due to what Richie attributes to a breakdown in communication.

“They came for one last briefing and spread the maps out on the table showing me where the plane was supposed to be, and I said ‘where’s that?’ and they said ‘that's where you said the plane is’ and I said ‘bulls--t’, I must have been drunk or something,” he said.

“And they really went there because a bloke I know, Johnny Oliveri, I was telling him about it and he said he was down the river that time and he said we saw them going in there on the wrong side of the mountain down in the mangroves.

“I told them a totally different place.”

Richie left his river camp in 1967 but his account of the early years of life within the Babinda district remains a valuable account of a time and place eroded by progress.

Never short of an engaging tale, the author’s impeccable recall of past events is warm comfort during his twilight years, living alone with his collection of memories and memorabilia; the physical reminders of a bygone era that’s long past but thanks to his writings, never forgotten.

Around the Cassowary Rock was reprinted in paperback in 2000 with the inclusion of historic photographs, a selection of which have been included in this story.

peter.carruthers@news.com.au