OUTBACK HERO WHOSE LIFE BOOMERANGED

The last crazed hours of the "real" Crocodile Dundee have destroyed the
myth he sent around the world. The infinitely resourceful but sweetly
innocent hero of the outback may have been a phoney from the start.

Embittered and prone to anger, Rodney Ansell, 44, spent his life failing to
live up to the legend. Last week he killed a policeman before being shot
himself. Police trying to find a motive for his final 12-hour spree of
violence thought drugs might have been a factor.

Even among the disparate communities and desperate characters that cling to
the red earth of Australia's inhospitable Northern Territory, the barefoot
bushman whose story inspired two bestselling movies starring Paul Hogan was
considered strange. He was always "pushing, always right on the edge".

Blond, blue-eyed, charming and charismatic when he wanted to be, Ansell was
a skilled bushman, a loner who preferred the company of the local
Aboriginals - "blackfellahs", as they are known around Darwin.

He became famous in 1977 after he survived two months marooned in the
outback. He was saved by a passing Aboriginal tribe and stayed alive by
shooting sharks and buffalo and drinking their blood. His story inspired
actor and writer Hogan to write a film. Crocodile Dundee was an instant hit
in 1986.

Now the rough-and-ready exploits on which it was based are being sullied.
Some question what Ansell was doing in the bush when his boat capsized,
muttering darkly about crocodile poaching.

Ansell's bitterness sprang from a failure to cash in on the success of the
movies. His mood worsened when he was forced to sell his ranch in the early
1990s.

Why matters came to a head a week ago is still a mystery. All the police
know is that, after he left his home on Sunday night, Ansell trekked 400km
and started shooting at a house in the tiny outpost of Livingstone.

Ansell disappeared into the bush on foot, sparking an intense man hunt and
a series of roadblocks. But instead of running he was stalking his hunters.
"The police at the road block never saw him coming," Assistant Commissioner
John Daulby said.

Ansell could have evaded the road block. Instead he chose to kill, and to
be killed.

The rumour-mill is working overdrive: that it's Hell's Angels country, that
Ansell had a hard drugs problem. For those left alive in that hot, barren
landscape, all that remains is a mood of shock, confusion and resentment.