Wolfe, Self reliant king.

The Wolfe, The self sufficiency mentor. 

Now where to start with Wolfe, Pronounced Vool-F.

I guess I should start with how we met, away from home, building my first humpy living in a camper trailer.

I had built a cage and decided to get ferrets, then in Balaklava I saw a sign, Ferrets for sale $15 please leave phone number here.

Odd to say the least but of course he had no phone, mine having only been installed months earlier I left the number and my name Jay, interested in ferrets. 

A few days later on the weekend I got a call approx midday Saturday, Wolfe introduced himself and asked how many ferrets I wanted, I said 2, then he asked where I live and I explained.

Turns out I am literally on his way home from Balaklava, He was at a phone box, problem of course was he didn't have any ferrets with him. 

Anyway about an hour later I am sitting out the front when a big Valiant pulls up next thing i know I am sitting drinking a VB longneck with this strange man with a German accent approaching his 70th birthday. 

From that meeting I could tell he was wise, and yet he looked around at my set up and I never felt he judged me, he treated me as an equal despite my youth right from the get go.

After seeing the cage / run and getting to know my dog, He really liked Patch, he asked me to follow him to his place, Oh and bring the dog.

I don't think he ever called by her name, she was just the dog, your dog, ze dog or come ere dog.

We took the dirt track down the west side of my place and to my surprise he lived only about 7 kms away on a back dirt track approximately 15 kms from Pt Wakefield. 

I could and did walk there many times it was that close.

He lived on 50 acres, about half wooded, in an old stone house, there were various sheds and some cars around the place, 3 little round mesh pens, one had 3 little lambs in it.

I could see some other sheep on the block, maybe a dozen or so then he showed me how he had converted one of the wrecked cars (kingswood stationwagon) to a ferret cage.

He had done the same on the other side of the house a good 50 meters away to a Jaguar full of chickens, I laughed as he opened the boot to collect eggs. looking back wish i had photos.

It was around this point it began to become clear to me, This may be the single most self suficcient man I have ever met. I was more right than I knew at this point. 

I would see him a few more times before really getting to know him but that day I got my ferrets and a transport cage on loan, good excuse to come back and see him, He was by no means a lonely man, although he clealy lived a very secluded lifestyle. 

Now for some history I learned over the next year or so.

To keep it as short as I can, Wolfe was a German born in Germany in 1931, see where this is going? 

He saw the worst of the war growing up and was only 14 when it ended in 1945.

He was alone having lost all connection to any family or friends, He didn't say much but I knew, he had clearly seen unspeakable things.

When the allies came there was a lot of confusion but being bilingual made him a great asset, he says he was sort of adopted by an Australian regiment and used as a guide, interpreter and general lacky, he was able to convince them he was 16 and after almost a year he was officially regognised with a medal of service.

Now 15 and thinking he was 17 the Australians managed to talk his way onto the boat home with them and he was bound for Australia.

Upon arrival in Sydney his new adopted family began to separate and he found himself working with and for a man he referred to as Sargent Richards or (Tricky Dicky).

Together they worked passage to his home state of South Australia and arrived at port Adelaide in Jan 1949.

He lived and worked on Tricky Dicky's family farm at Wild Horse plains for a year, gaining his drivers license and citizenship before both were awarded soldier settlement payments. 

The options were a small sum of cash or a random drawn plot of land. 

Tricky drove him to Adelaide and he waited as they posted a map with numbered plots and drew balls from a hat like a game of bingo he said. 

He drew lot 51 in the year 1951.

Wolfe continued working with Tricky who took cash until he was able to afford his first car, a 1934 Ford coupe ute, which he still had in a little makeshift shed.

I remember him talking about the day he first arrived to see his little 50 acre scrub block as he emphasised that he arrived on Febuary the 29th, 1952 was clearly a leap year. 

He immediately went to work on his house and took jobs with Tricky and friends to make ends meet, He did not qualify for a war pension and never even tried to get any benefits from the government, He had staunch views against any kind of welfare system.

Now to try and explain how self sufficient he really was, First up he showed me his current drivers license which said he was 71 despite actually being 69.

I will skip the early days, chopping and selling wood, collecting stone and building his house etc and skip to when I met him.

His house was around 5 meters by 12 meters, basically only 2 rooms with 40cm thick stone walls, then an add on across half the back about 3 meters by 6, then added to that a small 1 meter by 2 meter thunder box over a self styled long drop. 

It was basically dirt floor, he added beach sand and salt then just put second hand carpet sections over it, replace them every few years with free, traded goods or cheap off cuts or seconds from the local floor guy Richard.

He had 2 rainwater tanks 22,000 liters each with overflow directed to septic pit and gravel drain down to pasture about 30 meters from the house.

In the longest drought this half acre or so stayed green with knee high grass and there was no smell at all.

Rough map of house as I have no photos.

Now for food he had a lot of things on the go, sheep on property, he was given poddy lambs every year, chickens in 2 car/sheds, ferrets for rabbiting, a small garden, the occasional kangaroo and due to his proximity to the coast ample opportunity to go fishing / crabbing. 

Add to this he had a large pumpkin patch and multiple drums of various grains, his own mill and various fruit trees on the property including one HUGE apple tree and an even bigger fig tree.

It was almost all closed loop systems.

As the ferrets were the only carnivores they just cleaned up waste, fish, rabbit, chicken, duck, sheep offal, they fed themselves and he got rabbits he could sell in town for $7 per kilo.

The grain brewed beer and made mash he ran through a still, guess how he paid for a drum full of barley? That would be 5 longnecks or 2 bottles of his "invisible death", a clear moonshine not unlike vodka. 

He showed me a place he could buy 5ltrs of house port for $20, then he put that in a 12ltr barrel and would add plums and cherries and such to make his own brew. 

Basically with the still he could make booze to the point of fuel from his apples, potatoes even a local weed called horehound. 

Apart from selling surplus apples and plums or lemons and such he also had 16 olive trees and made oil, 9 almond trees and I don't think he ever ate a nut, shelled and sold the lot, as well as his apricots, he would sell enough to buy sugar and make 20 or 30 jars of jam each year.

His diet was seasonal however he was well versed in trade and sales in the community, everyone wanted his booze, and he would stop for a beer at the pub after selling some rabbits for example, he introduced me to a Lady near Pt Wakefield who paid us $7 per kilo for dressed wild rabbits, then at the pub he pointed out they sell vac sealed smoked boneless rabbit for $8 per 150grms, The lady we just sold rabbits to was the name on the label. 

I believe by the time he got home that day alone he had sold booze and  rabbits, caught 8 whiting, drank 3 beers and ate a full pub meal, purchased more fuel than he used and was still up $40.

Did I mention he was my hero.

Now for power he had an agreement with his neighbour who allowed him 24/7 access to a 280Ltr chest style deep freezer they kept in their shearing shed about 1.8 Kms from his house. It was his freezer and everything in it.

Other than that everything was car and truck batteries or generator, he had a charging unit in the boot of a Torana permanently parked by the house since 1984 he said, no rims, rear diff or tail-shaft propped up on bricks the engine still ran and charged the batteries, everything was then 12v including 5 lights in the house and a small radio set up.

His last power source was a generator which he only used to run a 28cm colour Palsonic <you read that right, TV and a TEAC VCR player, young folk look it up.

And believe it or not while I was privileged to call Wolfe friend his fave show on all 5 channels he could pick up in 2002 was The Simpsons.

I shit you not.

He would sometimes drop everything and start up the genset at 6pm for the simpsons and was disappointed if not a new episode, but liked when it was a repeat with new episode after, extra charge in the batteries while he watched.

I think/guess his wrist watch was worth more than the valiant, did I mention he was German?

The nearby Balaklava where he had posted his ferrets for sale had a shop that rented and due to the era was selling VHS tapes as cheap as $1 so he had a few, I added to his collection naturally, I remember he liked documentaries from other parts of the world like Canada or Africa etc, westerns and he really liked a pauly shore film (Son in law) and his favorite joke was about whether the chickens were 'extra crispy or original recipe'. 

Mostly he just listened to the radio to the point he could recite and sing opera type songs in foreign languages he didn't even understand, but then he would air guitar and bang his 70 year old head to a Metalica song.

Did I mention he was my hero.

Wolfe was an inspiring man, with ideas and dreams I could never fully explain or realise, He existed with seemingly little, yet was content, proud, and 100% independent.

He often quipped that quote "At least we aren't dodging bombs", or "Could be licking leather", or to sum up his outlook on life at that time, "I've been one bad season from the grave since 70 good seasons ago".

All 3 quotes I have never forgotten, from a man who was a force of nature the likes of which books should have been written about. 

My shallow attempts here fall well short.

Wolfe boasted frequently that his only expenses were council rates, licences car/gun, fuel and registration. 

He was very mad at the GST, for anyone old enough to remember 2000.

The one thing he just oozed was a strange kind of contentment. 

I guess no Aussie govt boot was as bad as 1940's Germany.

He slept on and under his own hand raised and tanned sheep skins by a fireplace he built fueled by trees he grew and chopped down after eating the sheep cooked on a stove he built from stones and steel with his own hands.

He traded fish for petrol and chips, pumpkins for boots, wood for iron, square chiseled stones for round gold coins and even manure for green polymer notes.

Yet not a person alive would ever say he was not fair.

The epitome of words like resilient, resourceful, independent, self sustainable, creative, adaptable, intrepid, Innovative, constructive, productive and efficient.

In Sept 2004 he passed away much as he had lived, not sadly, however alone and presumably content in the little kingdom he had built for himself to the last stone.

He was 73 although according to the paperwork they could find he was 75.

Cause unknown, no autopsy required, no will or next of kin, state seized assets to cover the funeral costs, 5 people attended. 

I did not attend the clearance sale after said funeral.

I wish I could say he will be remembered but the name on his paperwork is presumably as reliable as his age.

R.I.P.

Randolph Johan Wolfe.

1929 / 2004.

 

Regards. 

©J. W. Newell. 2024.