A generation of Australians first met Ernie Dingo on The Great Outdoors, the TV program he hosted for 16 years from 1993. The Yamatji man now helms a different travel show: Going Places with Ernie Dingo, which sees him journey to Australia’s most significant landmarks.
Outside his hosting gigs, Dingo has also kept busy as an actor since the 1980s, appearing in everything from Crocodile Dundee 2 and the original Heartbreak High to more contemporary hits including Redfern Now and Mystery Road. In 1990, he was awarded an Order of Australia medal for contributions to the arts – but the physical prize for that honour was later stolen from his home during a robbery.
Here, the 66-year-old media figure tells us why he’s only a little bit annoyed about the robbery, as well as the story of two other important personal belongings.
What I’d save from my house in a fire
There are so many things in there of cultural, personal and family significance. But a painting my brother Buck did for me is possibly the most important.
I took my brother bush in one of our Going Places programs when he had cancer. It was like a last rite, visiting all the significant places in Yamatji country, where we come from. He painted me a picture of the everlasting flowers that grow there, which now hangs on my wall.
I have lost two brothers. I’ve got two nephews and a niece from my other brother Murray, so I can still see my brother in them. Buck was pop, uncle, brother to loads of people, but he didn’t have any kids. So the painting is one of those things through which I can remember him. It’s something to keep.
My most useful object
My 2005 Land Cruiser, affectionately called the BluTruck. It’s the duck’s guts – that means it’s better than the best.
I’ve done 750,000km in this vehicle all around Australia. It’s been up the Cape, to the eastern point of Australia, the southern point of Australia and while it didn’t get all the way to the western point of Australia, it came pretty close. It’s been up the middle, down the centre, through rivers, through floods.
I’ve got a big queen-sized tent on the rooftop, which I call the Taj Mahal – it can fit four adults in it. I’ve got an inverter in the back like they have in caravans so I can plug in my coffee machine, my toaster, my sandwich maker or my kettle. It’s got 270-degree shade off the side of it. Oh yeah, it’s the duck’s guts.
The item I most regret losing
I had some people come into my house once and steal a few things. One of the things they took, which was of no value to them, is my AM award for service to the arts.
Getting that award was significant for me because it showed me that I was going in the right direction with my work.
Somebody’s got it. It’s got my name on it, so I don’t know what they’re going to do with it – probably wait for me to try to buy it back and get a ransom, which I’m not gonna do. But that’s OK, I’ve still got the letters – not that I use them much.
It was something I was hoping I could pass on to the kids, but these days they can go online and see Dad’s got an AM. It just means now I don’t have anything to show off when I go to those big flash conferences where everyone walks around in a suit.
Going Places with Ernie Dingo airs 7.30pm weekly on Saturday nights, on NITV and SBS.
