Rodney William Ansell (1953 – 4 August 1999) was an Australian from "the bush" who became the inspiration for Paul Hogan's character in the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee. He was killed in a shootout with police.[1]
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Ansell became famous in 1977 after he became stranded in extremely remote country in the Northern Territory, and the story of his survival for two months with limited resources became headlines.
Ansell was on a fishing trip near the Victoria River mouth with only his two cattle dogs when his boat was capsized and sunk, possibly by a whale (more likely a crocodile). He managed to board his boat's tender, a small dinghy with only a single oar, and retrieve his dogs and a small amount of equipment (including his rifle, knives and bedding) but had no fresh water. Ansell travelled up the Fitzmaurice River on tidal flows over the next 72 hours, becoming severely dehydrated before finding fresh water above the saltwater tidal range. He survived alone for two months by hunting and shooting wild cattle for food, and planned to walk overland to a pastoral station homestead when the wet season began. Ansell was eventually rescued by a small cattle droving party.
His exploits were celebrated in his books and documentary both called To Fight the Wild. He wrote that the ordeal didn't bother him, just the lack of female companionship. The story sparked Paul Hogan's interest and inspired writers Hogan, Ken Shadie, and John Cornell to base the character Crocodile Dundee on Ansell.[1]
He was killed in 1999 in a shootout with police, just south of Darwin. Ansell was fired upon after ambushing Sgt. Glen Huitson and his partner Jamie O'Brian. Ansell shot and killed Sgt. Glen Huitson, but was soon taken down after Sgt. Glen Huitson's partner picked up his gun and killed Ansell. [2] He was found barefoot, with two high-powered rifles.[3] Authorities had been searching for 12 hours to find an attacker of a nearby house. [4]
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