Original outback adventurer Malcolm Douglas killed in Broome car crash

LEGENDARY Australian bushman and documentary maker Malcolm Douglas has been killed in a car crash on his Broome property.

WA Police have confirmed Douglas's vehicle crashed into a tree at the Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Wildlife Park in Broome.

Police were called to the scene about 6:20am but have not yet confirmed when the crash happened.

Douglas, 69, was the original outback adventurer and made more than 50 documentaries, bringing Australia’s unique flora and fauna into the lounge rooms of Australia’s big cities.

For the past 25 years Douglas has been running the Broome Crocodile Park, the frontier town’s biggest tourist attraction, and was in the headlines earlier this year when a mentally ill man jumped the high fences and tried to ride one of Douglas’s biggest crocodiles. Miraculously, the man received only minor injuries.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, speaking in Broome this afternoon, said Douglas "was known by all Australians; his death will be a loss for all Australians".

Douglas began filming outback documentaries in the late 1960s and, along with the Leyland Brothers, was considered the pioneer of Australian adventure films, decades before the popular Steve Irwin arrived on the scene.

Later in life, Douglas was often overshadowed by the popularity of The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who garnered global popularity with his exuberant demeanour and fearless behaviour.

However Douglas was always seen as the man who set the mould for adventurers to come.

"What you see is what you get,'' he said in 2009.

"I'm not fake and I don't pre-plan takes, it's all real. There's no helicopter on standby if something goes wrong. In places like the Kimberley one mistake and you're dead.''

He was virtually an overnight success after his first wildlife show, Across The Top, was screened in 1976.

"I was filming Aboriginal people killing kangaroos and drinking the blood because there wasn't any water,'' he said.

"No one had seen anything like it and they loved it.''

Douglas was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004 and told he had 18 months to live.

But just as he overcame the merciless terrain of the Australian outback and its venomous snakes and volatile crocs, Douglas beat his predatory disease.

"It changes your attitude too,'' he told the ABC while battling his illness.

"You try and remain calmer. You try and appreciate life. You appreciate every day, you know? Because, from now on, I could have been dead, and I'm, you know ... I'm still kickin'.''

Douglas is survived by his wife Valerie and two adult children, Amanda and Lachlan.

With AAP and Lanai Vasek

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