[1] After leaving school at 13 he undertook a range of jobs including fisherman, newsboy, factory worker, apprentice and builder's labourer.

[1] Outside of shearing he also worked as a fencer, timber cutter, coach driver, road worker, fossicker, rabbiter and a boxer – the latter provided his nickname, "Duke".

[1] During World War 2 he attempted to enlist and worked as a timber deliverer until he was accepted in April 1942 as a private in the Australian Army.

[1] In the 1950s Australian folklorist, John Meredith, was collecting and recording "old-timer singers born in the late 1800s, singing and playing old bush songs.

[1] According to Tribune's D. K., "[he] could talk about the big shearing strikes from close knowledge, could yarn as easily with the Governor-General as with a young folk song enthusiast – and his life spanned more than a half century of Australian experience and tradition.