Meet A Dinky-Di Outback Legend!

She’s a grandmother with one of the toughest jobs on earth in one of Australia’s most remote places

Every morning in the farthest north-western corner of NSW, solo boundary rider Phyllis Ainsworth checks her rifle is loaded and heads out for a hard day’s work.

For nine years fearless Phyllis, 53, has braved searing drought, isolation and deadly critters to patrol a 100km stretch of the world’s longest fence, the outback’s legendary dingo fence.

She lives an 840km round-trip from her nearest supermarket in Broken Hill and a dusty 40km drive from her closest neighbour, but Phyllis reckons she’s living the dream with her rescue bull terrier Milly, five cats and four goats for company.

MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

“I love open spaces and I like my own company,” says cheery Phyllis, whose home at Cameron Corner is where the borders of three states meet – Queensland, NSW and South Australia.

It’s back-of-beyond country, in the middle of the Sturt National Park where, unless a curious tourist veers off course, Phyllis can go long stretches without seeing another human being.

“I don’t know how I’d go living in the suburbs,” says Phyllis. “I wake up every morning to a sunrise most people can only dream of and the sunsets are just as good.