By Ian Williams
Not too many people are listed online as one of their town’s visitor attractions. But then Talc Alf is a one-off – a quirky and engaging outback character who’s achieved near icon status.
Talc Alf‘s home outside of Lyndhurst in South Australia’s far north is a regular stop for backpackers and tour buses.
They are there to view some of Alf’s (pictured in headline image) unique talc carvings while he gives them his own left-field take on the origins of the alphabet and musings on how our nation came to be called Australia.
“I get people from all over the world,” says Alf. “I put them in front of my blackboard and run through my symbols and signs.”
One of Talc Alf’s unique talc carvings
Tourists may also get to listen to some of Alf’s poetry and see his Aboriginal-inspired design for the Australian flag complete with six stars but minus the Union Jack.
“That old colonial grovelling is still going on today and it’s not bloody good enough,” says Alf, who describes himself as a free-thinking bush philosopher.
Born Cornelis Johan Alferink in the Netherlands 72 years ago, he came to Australia with his parents “as a little kid”. “Only official people call me Cornelis and forget the Dutch bit, I’m Aussie, Aussie.”
Alf’s Aboriginal-inspired design for the Australian flag, complete with six stars minus the Union Jack
Alf found himself in Lyndhurst in 1974 after a three-year outback quest to find Australia’s best talc deposit.
“I was a geologist’s assistant and found a bit of talc in the bush one day and started whittling away with a pocket knife,” he says. “I thought if I could find a good talc deposit I could make a living out of my hobby.”
Alf now has an endless supply of the soft green mineral at nearby Mount Fitton and over the past 40 years has created an outside gallery which travellers can view for free.
When he’s not entertaining tourists Alf can be found doing the weekly mail run along the Strzelecki Track – a 430-kilometre round trip that takes him to local stations. It’s also an opportunity for him to drop off food supplies at homesteads and deliver newspapers to workers grading the highway.
Alf is also President of the Lyndhurst and Districts Progress Association – the town has a population of about 30 – and the guy who keeps its water supply running, fixes the community toilets and keeps them clean.
He says he earns a bit for his trouble and donates most of it back to the progress association “because we always need a little extra for things”.
“I’m always flat out,” says Alf. “I do it because I love the outback – two-thirds of Australia is like this, I just love it.”
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