Who was Aidan de Brune?
According to Australian Literature, by E. Morris Miller, Charles Francis Aidan de Brune was born at St. Mary’s, Montreal, Canada, in 1879. However, there seems to be no such suburb of Montreal, but only St. Mary’s Hospital. De Brune, himself, proffered this information about his birth, but as with most autobiographical information supplied by him, it is not true.
In fact, Aidan de Brune was born Herbert Charles Cull, in London, on 17 July 1874. When he arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 23 May 1910, aboard the Seydlitz, he was described on the passenger list as “Herbert C. Cull, printer.” From that point, his name evolved, until he settled on Aidan de Brune as a pen name and an alias. He died in Sydney on 15 February 1946, as Charles Francis Aidan de Brune and is buried at the Catholic Cemetery, Botany, New South Wales.
Cull had married Ethel Elizabeth Crofts in London on 29 June 1907. A son, Lionel Charles Cull, was born on 3 October, 1909. In 1938, nearly thirty years later, an article appeared in a Sydney newspaper stating that “his wife, of Earlsthorpe Road, Sydenham, England, who last saw him in 1913, is inquiring for him.” The inquiry, it seems, was brought to the attention of de Brune, but nothing more is known about the matter.
De Brune often represented himself as a French-Canadian and when, in 1933, he published, what he held out to be, his biography, he repeated this claim. Most of the events in the article cannot be substantiated and are probably, for the most part, fabulatory.
Herbert Charles Cull’s name appeared on the Australian Electoral Roll for Perth in 1914, 1916, 1917 and 1919. Then, on 13 April 1920 de Brune’s name appeared for the first time in an Australian newspaper, as the reporter in an article in the Bunbury Herald, concerning a Mr. Mahony withdrawing from contesting an election. The name “H. F. C. de B. Culle” appears, within brackets, at the end of the article. Quite an appellation. Perhaps, at the time, he didn’t know who he wanted to be.
During 1920 de Brune also wrote 2 serial stories. The Pursuits of Mr. Peter Pell appeared in The Bunbury Herald & Blackwood Express, commencing 24 Jan 1920, under the name of Frank de Broune. "The Mystery of the Nine Stars", also by Frank de Broune, commenced on 28 May 1920, and ended abruptly, unfinished, in the 5 November issue. Terry Walker, who has gathered together all of de Brune’s fiction writing, estimates that there were at least five or six instalments required to finish the story. It seems that something had prompted de Brune to move on, because, on 24 November 1920, he began his first long walk—from Fremantle, Western Australia to Sydney, New South Wales, a distance of 2792 miles.
Beyond these few facts, little else is known about de Brune’s life before he arrived in Australia and after he arrived in Australia, but before he began his first walk. Still, one cannot help but think that he must have picked up some bushcraft along the way, after he stepped ashore at Fremantle in 1910, because he would have been called upon to use bushcraft while on his walks.
In a newspaper article written during his walk round Australia, in which he cautioned inexperienced people not to attempt the walk, he wrote:
People may say, 'You have walked around Australia--why not others?' Let me try to put on paper some of the reasons why I succeeded in this endeavour and also the very peculiar qualifications necessary for this journey. First let me say there is not money enough in Australia to tempt me to walk around again. When I look back on my footsteps I am full of awe at my colossal luck, indeed it is nothing else. By the law of averages I should have laid my bones in the Northlands again and again. Luck has been with me throughout, and only luck pulled me through. But luck alone is not sufficient. The traveller must be a natural bushman. That is to say, he must not only be a trained bushman, but he must have the bush instinct. He must know the signs of the bush, and invariably interpret them correctly. And the bush of Australia is not one but many bushes, all opposite in character, all with a deadly menace, to the unfortunate traveller who relaxes his watchfulness for one moment.
Fifty years of progress in Australia, 1878-1928 / edited by Aidan de Brune
can be found as an ebook
and also a list of publications by Aidan De brune aka (Herbert Charles Cull)
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