When the North West Star caught up with Kelly Dixon he was in Toowoomba on his way home from Tamworth where he had collected a long overdue golden guitar award.
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"It only took me 43 years to win one," Kelly joked.
The 93-year-old former Camooweal resident was one of a trio with Boulia songwriter Ryan Garland and singer Dean Perrett which won the prestigious award of Bush Ballad of the Year for the song Six Decks to Darwin.
"I wrote the lyrics for it originally with Dean Perrett because I knew about the Tableland stations," Kelly said.
"But he wanted the Kimberley stations because they send live cattle to Darwin too but I didn't know that many Kimberley places but Ryan contributed a few names of properties there and Dean was kind enough to give a credit in the song."
It is almost a lifetime achievement award for Kelly who has penned over 160 songs including 40 for Slim Dusty alone.
He also has a strong connection with North West Queensland despite now living in Mundubbera with wife Marian.
"I lived in Mount Isa for four and half years and worked in the mines," Kelly said.
"If I'd had my way we would have stayed in Mount Isa but my wife never liked the hot summers."
Kelly also spent two decades in Camooweal working in the grazing industry.
"I had a grazing licence on the Territory-Queensland border," he said.
Writing remains his major passion since he started composing bush poetry at the age of 12.
Kelly used to sing his own songs but "mining buggered my lungs," he said.
"I just write them now and others sing them - I've got 162 songs registered around the world."
That includes a long association with Slim Dusty who sang a quarter of his songs.
"I met him when he came through Mount Isa and chatting to him he found out I was a writer," he said.
Slim liked his work and their most famous collaboration was Leave Him in the Longyard.
"I write it with a fair deal of authority, because that's how I lived," he said.
"I only write about things I've seen or done."
While Kelly is rightly proud of his work for Dusty his personal favourite lies elsewhere
"It bewilders me and my wife we've got 160 songs and most of them are unknown apart from that one song and between you and I, I've written much better songs than that," he said.
His personal favourite is Dewdrops on the Bluegrass recorded by Viv and Chris Boys in Tasmania and later by Dave Kirk.
And the commissions from singers keep coming.
"I've already got two songs ready for next year's Tamworth," he said.
"I'm writing for John O'Dea in South Australia and Glen Albrecht and his partner Vanessa Sanger."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
