It's one of the most powerful conversations we've had to date. Clancy Mackay... a bush kid who grew up in the scrub of the Northern Territory. A teenager that 'played up a bit', however it's been his love of the land, of animals and of his family that have persevered.
In Part one of this chat, Host Oli Le Lievre sits down with Clancy Mackay a current student at Marcus Oldham. At the ripe old age of 27, Clancy Mackay has decades of wisdom on top of his shoulders and real life lessons that have led him down the path he is on.
He's adventures have included rodeoing in the USA, being an outback mustering helicopter pilot and collecting croc eggs among many other things!
At 27, Clancy has fit a lot into his life and therefore has a lot of stories to tell, so to make sure we don't miss anything. Welcome to Part OneL
- How Clancy’s parents bought a bare block in the territory and Clancy recalls his early years living in a caravan with no power, running water or telephone. He was a true bush kid, he did his schooling via School of the Air through the UHF radio, and once his school day was done (usually by mid morning) he'd spend the rest of the day running around outside and hunting and fishing in the river (He is unsure how they weren’t taken by a croc).
- Eventually, his parents moved him and his brothers down to Goondiwindi so they could see other people (as you can guess, they’d been pretty isolated as kids). Later on due to his parent’s separation, Clancy retaliated by playing up and being asked to leave the boarding school he was at.
- Clancy worked with cattle and started doing rodeos and riding broncs, eventually heading to the US where he rode 40 horses in 35 days. He did well and started learning Boiler-making while riding for a US college team, hoping to go pro. Unfortunately, 6 months into it, his dad was diagnosed with cancer and he made the decision to head home.
- Upon arriving home and with the motivation to make money to support his dad, Clancy flew through his chopper license exams in a record 4 months, which he then used to muster cattle right across Australia, eventually getting into catching feral buffalo and collecting crocodile eggs.
- Despite what seems to be an exciting adventure, Clancy also talks on the podcast about his dad’s struggle with illness and later death, which understandably has affected him greatly.
As we mentioned, there's a lot to Clancy's story and we couldn't cut parts out so we will have Part Two of Clancy’s incredible story available for you next Wednesday.
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