Rodney Ansell - Later Life

Later Life

Following the unexpected blockbuster success of "Crocodile" Dundee, Ansell unsuccessfully took Hogan to court. His inability to profit from the films remained a source of bitterness his entire life. In the 1980s, he found himself in a protracted dispute with the Northern Territory government over the controversial Bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC). To comply with BTEC, Ansell was forced to kill 3,000 head of feral buffalo on his property. He had originally planned to capture and domesticate the animals, creating a pastoral herd that would have afforded his family a comfortable lifestyle. Arguing that money spent on the BTEC program "would be better spent on research on AIDS," Ansell considered the destruction of the animals an outrageous waste of good livestock.

Three neighboring graziers were eventually awarded $100,000 in government loans, but Ansell was never compensated for his losses. Mimosa pigra weeds also began taking over the floodplain, rendering it useless. With no money to fight the invasive weeds, the Ansells were forced to sell their cattle station in June 1991. The couple's 15-year marriage soon disintegrated and the Ansells divorced. Depressed, unemployed, and cash-strapped, Ansell began growing marijuana, later becoming a user of amphetamine.

In June 1996, he began dating Cherie Ann Hewson, a fellow drug user. The couple lived alone at Urapanga Station, an Aboriginal outstation on the Roper River about 483 kilometres (300 mi) south of Darwin. Over the next several years, the couple's drug addiction became more destructive, culminating in a psychotic episode that ultimately claimed Ansell's life in a maelstrom of police gunfire.