Our drivers

“Dean”

Deano, as he is affectionately called, has been a Bat Boy since May and has forgotten what his own bed feels like, having spent over 100 nights in a swag since joining the team.

He is an avid lover of getting his kit off and exposing himself to the outback. No doubt one of his favourite parts of the trip.

Born in Melbourne, but having travelled alot of Oz, he found that he could combine his love for the outdoors and camping with a pay cheque.The ultimate career choice for this experienced and well loved gypsy.

“Dave”

Dave is a touring performing artist that loves to travel.

"Rolling tyres on the highway sound just like a choir" Australian singersongwriter Paul Kelly

Nothing beats the freedom of the open road, the wide open spaces, the beauty of the

Australian landscape and the sense of humour & knowlege of Aboriginal Australians.

Each BAT tour is unique as the passengers gather from all over the world and travel together for 10 days, camping around a fire, sleeping under the stars, swapping stories,

laughing & sharing as we make our way to the middle of the Oz continent. Bongo isn't scared to do a bit of dessert yoga, create a performance with the passengers for the Aboriginal community at Iga Warta, or just party late into the night. He takes a guitar, a drum and a few small percussion instruments with him on his BAT outback trips.

When Dave isn't tour guiding he manages a theatre company called Full-On Theatre where he works as an actor who plays guitar & drums. He has taken his solo show, Going My Way about hitch-hiking around Australia to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and performed at festivals overseas and within Australia.

He has a huge passsion for Aboriginal Australia and is working on a new theatrical production called Play On! which is an Australian Rules football play about Reconcilliation.

"To experience Aboriginal cultutre & their unique way of looking at the world is absolutely beautiful and it is a real privelege to be able to share that with pepole from overseas.

Give yourself the time & space to experience the outback and keep the Bongo rhymthm pumping."

“Andy”

I was attracted to the job because of the opportunity to learn more about aboriginal culture and have not been disapointed. The times I have spent so far at Iga Warta and lila have been amongst the greatest days of my life- so rich with wisdom and generousity of spirit, care, share and respect. sometimes in my

naivity I could almost image I'm in the company of a future race, not an ancient one. it fills me with hope for reconcilliation in our country.

And wow! how about that outback hey? a red kind of dusty beauty that simply defies any attempts I make at description.

I wrote this poem though whilst at iga warta one time

Iga Warta dreaming

the sun broke the night in half
and the birds rejoiced the song
of morning in the sweetest lament
for the moon
now whom
is running from the violence of light.
out here
the rocks are red raw ochre
which makes the vivid painting of spirit
black in wonder
like charcoal night
it's stories from the fire bright.
the dreamer is ever present
in a natural service to the dream.
"who am i?"
ask's the broken tree branch of the flame,
as if the answer has changed in fifty-five thousand
years,
"you are the dream,"
responds the flame,
"and so am i, and we are burning, dreaming together."
ajb

So many sunsets and dawns to be overwhelmed by.

So many stars fill the desert night sky. Lots of space to be. I love meeting new people and all the knowlege and culture they bring with them. Simply the best job in the world.

I'm currently at uni in northern nsw,(studying a

bacholor of music at southern cross uni, majoring in composition) just out of Byron Bay, a long way from the red ochre is the white sanded beaches and lush green rolling hills to the sea. it is the extreme difference that focus's both beauties in the camera that is my mind and whether here in Lismore or sleeping under a blanket of stars at lila, I feel very

much at home.

Before Battours I've been involved with entertainment

and tourism since leaving NIDA as an actor back in the

early nineties.

I was a tour guide at Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast & I was Paul Hogan's (Crocadile Dundee) Stand In double for his Lightening Jack film.

I was involved with arts access and kew cottages in a drama education program for the disabled. I started my own underground arts venue in Collingwood.

I had some success with my songwriting in a band called Iris, receiving national airplay on tripple j radio and rage- abc tv.

We toured around the country oppening the show for

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Then I fell madly in love with a beautiful Danish girl

and travelled to the other side of the world only to

return broken hearted and a real bore to my friends.

back in the drivers seat though now.