When Alice Springs livestock agent Doc Cunningham retired six years ago he roughly worked out he had driven the equivalent of to the moon and back at least five times, much of those kilometres on dusty outback roads.
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Doc's 45 years in Northern Territory's Red Centre also included time as a contract musterer, meat buyer and manager of the first irrigated fodder farm in the region.
The Strathalbyn local has this year been recognised with an Order of Australia in the King's Birthday honours for this service to the northern cattle industry and the central Australia community.
"When I look back in the past to the ones who have received this award I think of high profile people like lawyers, doctors and scientists so I was in shock when I was told I was getting one about a month ago," Doc said.
"I never expected it."
He has witnessed Alice Springs transform from a "small cattle town" of about 4500 people in the late 1960s to a thriving tourist mecca - albeit with its social problems- with a population closer to 25,000.
There have been even bigger changes on the surrounding stations from horses to bikes and cattle now trucked much quicker by road trains.
Doc grew up a long way from central Australia at Jung, near Horsham in the Vic Wimmera with his mother running the farm by herself until Doc was about 12 years of age when she sold it.
Doc, along with his sister, moved to Adelaide and Doc attended Urrbrae Agricultural High School for a couple of years. He always remembers having a desire to "head north".
That chance came working as a jackeroo on Mount Cavanagh Station on the SA-NT border.
It was just towards the end of a devastating 10 year drought and Doc still vividly recalls the road into Alice Springs.
"There was no bitumen highway and piles of drift sand on the sides of the road but then the big rains came in 1968 and 1969 and it was amazing how the country responded," he said.
After a few years there Doc gained his fixed wing wing pilot licence and began contract mustering with the brucellosis and TB eradication programs keeping him and others busy.
In the early 1980s he set up Orange Creek Station - with then owner Terry Kargher - as an oasis in the desert with travelling sprinklers.
Doc's five seconds of fame came co-starring in a Carlton Draught beer TV commercial which opened up an opportunity in the film industry.
Doc moved to Victoria's high country for a few years where Doc worked on the iconic Australia movie The Man from Snowy River II, filming some of the scenes on horseback. He also worked on popular TV miniseries The Anzacs.
From there he moved to Avenue Range where Doc managed Talbots for the Hayes family from Deep Well Station.
But the Territory lured Doc and his family back in the early 1990s- this time Dalgety's offered Doc an agent job under branch manager Neville Chalmers.
"I would love to have owned a station myself but being an agent was a way of staying involved in the industry," he said.
For the next seven years he grew his clientele until becoming a meat buyer for T&R Pastoral's Murray Bridge abattoir buying cattle as far afield as the WA Kimberley region.
In 2006 he realised a dream to start his own agency, Traillco Industries, but was invited by Elders to run it under their banner which he did until becoming independent in 2013.
A life member of the Centralian Beef Breeders Association, Doc was involved in the organisation for 30 years. He credits the CBBA for improving the quality of cattle in the area with many herds rivalling the quality of southern herds.
"Buyers at the Alice Springs Show sale would always pay well above what they were paying down south for cattle," he said.
One of the memorable CBBA projects, while Doc was president, was securing funding for a big fibreglass Hereford bull to celebrate the centenary of central Australia. It paid tribute to those employed in the industry from stockmen to station owners.
The bull unveiled by then National Party Leader Tim Fischer still stands pride of place at the showgrounds
Doc also served for 14 years on the board of directors of Blatherskie Park, which is home to the Alice Springs Show which he was also actively involved in.
One of the accomplishments Doc is most proud of is working with fellow agent 'Herbie' Neville to turn the Alice Springs Show Sale at Roe Creek into a blue ribbon auction of about 3000-4000 head, attracting buyers from across the country.
They limited vendors to six decks (or about 150 head) each but ensured the yarding was full of top milk and two tooth cattle.
Doc says it was the great people that kept him and his wife Ro in Alice Springs for so long.
They have now settled into life in Strathalbyn well where Doc enjoys inspecting properties for sale in the Adelaide Hills for northern friends and spending time with his family and friends, including eleven grandchildren.
Doc has no regrets about his decision to spend much of his life in the Territory.
"The Territory was and still is a great place for a young person to go and make a name for themselves, if you are prepared to work and do the hours it is a great place to get a start," he said.
