The western winter sun began to fade through the trees of the creek line as I made my way back to the ute, signalling my final moments working away on a remote cattle property.

An hour earlier I had discovered a myriad of pig and wild dog prints in the sandy creek bed that caught my attention. I had reached the property boundary and although my sense of adventure was yanking on my shirt tails to continue in a different direction, I listened to the ‘little man’ sitting on my shoulder and returned to camp before being stranded in unfamiliar territory.

The smell of a rotting beast carcass killed by wild dogs in the creek bed hit my nose before it came into view. I had crossed paths with it earlier and I knew the vehicle