Love, Sweat and Tears

by Zelie Bullen

  I was excited when Brenton pointed out their silhouettes to me early the following morning at ‘crew call’, the time the crew are called to location. I saw the elephant truck and thought it probably needed cleaning out. I was about to jump in and start cleaning when I heard someone already in the truck; I hesitated for a moment but then I thought, ‘No, I’m sure they’d appreciate some help.’

  It was early morning and still dark inside the truck. When I climbed in a male voice asked, ‘Who are you?’

  I said, ‘I’m Zelie, and I work with Brenton,’ then started cleaning up poo.

  He said something like, ‘Bloody hell, where do I get one of you from?’ and I laughed.

  It was Craig, but at the time we couldn’t actually see each other clearly in the dark.

  The first time I saw Craig properly was a little later that morning. I was at the big cat enclosures talking to Brenton; when I looked down the lot, I saw a man step out of a caravan and walk briskly over towards where the elephants were housed. He didn’t look anything like Brenton, and I wondered who he was.

  I asked Brenton if that was his brother and he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said lightheartedly that he was cute, and Brenton scoffed and replied, ‘Yeah, everyone says that.’

  I enjoyed working with Craig, he was friendly, easygoing and I was fascinated and impressed with his obvious rapport with each elephant. We had a great week together with Sasha and the elephants; but then I didn’t see Craig again until the second series of BeastMaster, when the elephants were written into the script again.

  CHAPTER 20

  The Olympics

  While I was working on BeastMaster, whenever stunt or other animal work came up on another TV show or on a film, Brenton was very good about replacing me for a day or two. When Tony approached me about some troop drill work at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Brenton was excited for me and happily gave me some time off work.

  A few of the people I’d worked with at Movie World were involved too. I didn’t know what to expect from the experience. I thought it would be fun—we would take our horses down to Sydney, mess around, perform in front of a crowd and go home, just like other live performances. But it ended up being an even better experience than I’d hoped. What blew me away was working with a hundred and thirty-nine other people and their horses, most of whom had never done anything like this before. So many of them were genuine horse people from the country who had never before experienced the high of performing in front of a live crowd and feeling ‘famous’. They were buzzing and I was thrilled to be there to witness and be a part of that on such a scale.

  These volunteer horsemen and -women felt truly proud to be representing Australia. The details of the opening ceremony were a huge secret. First, we had two week-long boot-camps at Scone in northern New South Wales. Then, for ten days before the opening we rehearsed every afternoon at the Castle Hill showground, where we camped, and would then transport our horses to the stadium twenty-three kilometres away each night. We trained the horses in the stadium at two in the morning so no one could see us. We would then load them back onto our floats and trucks and transport them back to the showground just before dawn and try to get some sleep before getting up and starting the day again at about lunchtime.

  The atmosphere at the rehearsals was electric, but it couldn’t prepare us for the actual night itself when the roar of tens of thousands of people filled the air above and around us and the cold air hit our faces as we galloped out from underneath the warm stadium and performed an intricate troop drill choreographed and taught to us by the then head of the New South Wales Mounted Police, Senior Sergeant Don Eyb.

  It began with waves of horses and riders galloping into the stadium, all carrying the Olympic flag, to the theme music from The Man from Snowy River. Each row of horses and riders would peel off single file and canter around the ring before lining up four abreast to trot down the length of the stadium. Horses with their riders dressed in Driza-Bone coats and Akubra hats, Australian flags flying, broke away and cantered around their designated circle, to form the five Olympic rings. Horses and riders then made their way to the edge of the stadium for the national anthem which we sang as loudly as we could with all of the audience. We left the arena at a gallop in the same formations we entered, but this time holding Australian flags, which had been swapped around for us by volunteers while the anthem was being sung. The entire experience made me feel far more patriotic than I ever imagined I would be.

  One of the most valuable aspects of that experience for me was meeting Lydia Emery. We met at the first boot camp. Freda had auditioned as a rider in Goulburn, two hours south of Sydney, several weeks before the first camp, and at the audition she had met Lydia and her lovely supportive mum, Penny. Because they lived only forty kilometres away from each other, after the audition Lydia and Fred used to get together and train regularly with their horses.

  At Scone, Freda introduced me to this quiet, reserved girl. What a beautiful beginning to a long friendship. I liked Lydia immediately; she seemed to be a nice country girl. I knew that my older sister got along well with both her and her mum, and I guess my heart opened up a little bit faster because of that.

  After the opening ceremony, Freda had an idea. She told me that Lydia was sick of the sports medicine degree she was studying; all she wanted to do was to be around horses, but she didn’t know where to go or how to start. Lydia had trained and competed in dressage, but she didn’t know if it was her thing or not; Fred suggested she stay with me for a couple of weeks to help out with my horses and observe my work. I thought that would be OK—I was busy, and she could come and help me out if she wanted to.

  At first I would just ask her to take the horses’ rugs off each morning and put them back on at night and maybe give them some hay and wash them. After a couple of days, I asked Brenton if I could bring her with me to the BeastMaster set. I thought she might enjoy it and it would be a good experience for her.

  She started coming down to the studios, and soon she was spending far more time at work with me than at home working the horses. I liked having her around, and she was helpful, cleaning cages and chopping meat for the animals. She was in among it all and wasn’t any trouble. When the monkeys arrived from Sydney, we found she was very good with them and put her in charge of their care.

  Lydia and I also had many wonderful horse rides together, which reminded me of my pony club days. She came for three weeks and stayed for two years, and we had a great time in that house on Maudsland Road.

  CHAPTER 21

  Arjuna and Aura

  Brenton told me that a litter of lion cubs had been born on his family’s property in Sydney. He asked how I would feel about bottle-raising one of the cubs. I almost wet my pants with excitement at the thought! He said he would bring it up to the Gold Coast and we would raise it together, taking turns with its care.

  When that little cub arrived, I did all of the bottle feeds and just loved him. I called him Arjuna and I used to take him to work every day in the little Nissan ute that Brenton had supplied me with; then I’d take him home and bottle-feed him through the night. His family were me, Snoopy, our cat Cougar, Alex and Lydia.

  When he was very young, he lived in my bedroom ensuite. As he got a bit bigger, he lived in the laundry; and when he got bigger still, he spent the nights in a large cage that was bolted onto the back of the ute and had a roll-up canvas canopy cover. Wherever he was, he was always very good at going to sleep whenever it was dark.

  I continued to take him back and forth with me to work. One morning I was driving Alex’s sedan instead of my ute. Arjuna’s favourite place in that car was on the parcel shelf behind the back seats. I was stopped at a set of traffic lights when the people in the car behind us went crazy—I could hear them yelling, ‘The toy in the back of that car just moved!’ They were trying to signal to me; but the lights changed and I drove on, thinking, ‘Lion cub? What lion cub?’

  Arjuna had been written into
the first series of BeastMaster but when the second series began, Arjuna started acting strangely. He seemed slightly uncoordinated and he’d look at you as though he couldn’t quite see you properly. Lions are often a bit vague and lethargic, but now with Arjuna it was particularly noticeable. He was still very affectionate and beautiful, but it was like he was trying very hard to focus on you. He’d sometimes ‘talk’ in yowls and then he’d lie down on his side.

  Brenton and I didn’t know what was wrong with him, and we couldn’t tell if he was sick or in pain. We took him to the university, to different vets, and other animal people, who all gave their two cents’ worth; we researched on the internet, but we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The best the vets could come up with was that it was an unknown neurological disorder. The BeastMaster production team started to write Arjuna out of the script.

  Wayne had started working in the animal department on BeastMaster. One day he was giving me a lift home from work and we called in to the vet to collect some medication for Arjuna. Wayne waited in the car while I went inside. When I walked into the waiting room, it was full of people and no one was at reception, so I took a seat.

  When I sat down, my eyes went straight towards a beautiful half-grown blue heeler pup. She was the prettiest bitch I had seen in a long time, and I thought, ‘Far out—that’s a nice dog.’

  The owner was sitting reading a magazine. When the vet nurse came out and called his name, he went up to the counter. The dog was looking insecure and hanging close to him, and the nurse said to the owner, ‘Are you sure you want to put her down? Are you absolutely sure?’

  I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. He was going to have this beautiful dog put down?

  The vet nurse said, ‘She looks like a really nice dog.’

  ‘She’s friggin’ useless,’ said the bloke. ‘She was nice as a puppy, but now she has to live on the chain. She does everything wrong—she bites everyone.

  I was looking at this dog, who by now had sat down and wrapped both front paws around the man’s leg. He tried to shake her off and yelled, ‘Get off!’ but the rougher and more annoyed he got, the more she hung on.

  The vet nurse said, ‘Alright, we just wanted to make sure it’s what you wanted.’ She left and he sat down again.

  I went over and sat beside him and said, ‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing. Do you mind if I ask you: are you really putting that dog down?’

  He said, ‘Yeah.’

  I asked him if he would be open to the idea of giving her away instead, and he said, ‘Oh, you don’t want this dog, love. If it’s not biting, it’s pulling your washing off the line. If it’s not doing that, it’s eating your plants or digging up your footpath. It’s a real pain in the arse.’

  I said, ‘I’ve got an old blue heeler dog, and I’d really like a pup from him.’ This man’s bitch was still young and, if Snoopy could hang in there long enough, maybe it might work out.

  ‘Oh no—I wouldn’t give her away, love. She’ll bite someone and I’ll get sued.’

  ‘I’m happy to sign anything you want to say that you have no responsibility.’

  ‘I’ll have to call my wife and check,’ he said.

  ‘I’m happy to wait,’ I assured him and then I left him alone to call his wife on his mobile. I was thinking, ‘Please don’t put that dog down; please don’t put that dog down.’ I felt instantly attached to her. I could see she wasn’t a foul dog, she was just a terrified little half-grown pup.

  I went outside and told Wayne I was trying to get this blue heeler bitch, and he laughed. Then I said, ‘But apparently it bites. Can you come and get it?’

  ‘I’m not going to get it!’ he replied, laughing some more. But when I persisted he came in with me and said quietly, ‘Shit, bloody good-looking dog.’

  The guy returned and said, ‘You sure you want it? I just need to get something clear—you’re not getting her papers.’

  ‘That’s OK.’ I’d never had a dog with papers.

  ‘I’m not having anyone make money out of breeding her.’

  ‘Oh no, you misunderstood me. I don’t want to breed from her for that reason. I have an old geriatric blue heeler-cross-mongrel that I would really love a puppy from.’

  ‘All I can tell ya is you’re on your own, if she bites you . . .’

  ‘That’s OK. I do biting dogs.’ Secretly I was starting to wonder if this was a good idea, but I couldn’t let her be put down.

  I wasn’t even sure how to take her from him, because by now she was retracting her lips and baring her teeth; she was terrified. ‘If you put her in my car, I’ll deal with her from there,’ I told him, and he agreed. So I climbed into the passenger seat and he placed her in the foot well between my legs. He shut the door and she looked at him very forlornly—she no longer looked like biting anyone.

  He said, ‘Alright then, good luck.’

  When we drove off, Wayne was still laughing at me. I said, ‘I’m not moving, for fear of her taking a nip at me,’ and he said, ‘Yeah I can see that!’ She was sitting there looking at me, looking at Wayne, looking up at the window. Then she lay down and stayed like that for the twenty minutes it took to get back to my place.

  I looked at Wayne and said, ‘How are we going to get her out of the car?’

  ‘I don’t know. That’s your problem—it’s your dog.’

  I stepped out of the car very carefully, because I still didn’t know if she was going to bite me. ‘You alright, girl?’ I asked her. She was looking at me totally expressionlessly—that real blue heeler stare. I had no idea what that dog was thinking and I decided I was going to let her do her own thing. All she had on was a choker chain, and I thought she might get out and run away—still, I wasn’t going to risk touching her to put a lead on her.

  I tried to call her out of the car, but she wouldn’t be in it; so we left her and I sat down on the blue metal on the driveway. Wayne said, ‘Bloody hell, how long are we going to have to wait here?’ because he couldn’t go home until she was out of his car. He went off and made a cup of coffee, and I just sat there.

  When all was quiet, I saw her begin to lower her barriers a little bit. She started to look around; she stood up, put her paws on the seat, and then carefully went back down again. I called again, but she wouldn’t come.

  Finally she tippy-toed out of the car and then tippy-toed over to me and sat on my lap and sighed, and my heart just melted for her. I still didn’t touch her, because I was still a bit wary. I put my hand where she could see it and she didn’t do anything; she was just sitting in my lap and I was talking to her, calling her ‘little girl’. From that evening on, I don’t think she ever did leave my side, unless she was prised off.

  I called her Aura. At the beginning she was very bitchy to Snoopy, but I said, ‘Oh no, we’re not having that—he’s the king around here. You mind your manners!’ She had a very strong character and she really wanted to be dominant, but I wouldn’t stand for it. If she snapped at him when food was around, she would have to wait for him to eat first—that sort of stuff. She learnt that he was the king and she eventually treated him like that.

  She was awesome with Arjuna. He was about labrador size when she came along, and Aura was still a pup—she wanted to play. Obviously she was scared when she first met him, like all dogs are with lions, but once they learnt to be friends, they were great together.

  Brenton and I really loved to see Arjuna playing with a fellow ‘cub’. When they played a little rough, one would yelp and the other would bark, and they’d go off and sulk until the next time they thought it would be fun to play. They were just young animals growing up together.

  Snoopy really loved her too, and I was happy for them. Ultimately they did have puppies, just as I’d hoped. I didn’t let them mate on her first season, but waited until her second and they had six puppies. Lydia kept one and called him Ankie. He bites like Aura and yet is loving like Snoopy.

  CHAPTER 22

  Raising big cats


  With the second series of BeastMaster now in production, Craig came back up to the studios with the elephants, and I became aware of two things—that Craig and his partner were not getting on, and that he was taking a lot of interest in me. But, although I thought he was very cute, I also thought, ‘That is not going to happen!’ I didn’t want to complicate my job by having a relationship with one of the Bullens. I reminded myself that Craig had children and I didn’t want any part in being the reason he left them. I needn’t have worried, he moved back in with his parents regardless.

  Arjuna was getting sicker and I was emotional. Craig went back to Sydney after they had finished filming with the elephants and started calling me. I would get butterflies when he called and I had to remind myself that this was a no-go. No way. He was seven years older than I was, and I wasn’t looking for a serious partner. At the time, I was trying to remove Alex from my life, as much as I loved him, and I still wasn’t planning on spending my life with anybody on a permanent basis. The fact that Craig and his partner had children was another issue for me. I had been raised in a broken home and I didn’t want to be responsible for causing his children any emotional discomfort. It was all just too complicated.

  Alex and I had had a fantastic time together over the last three years. I don’t regret the time I spent with him. He was fun—an amazing athlete, incredibly talented and creative—but ultimately he was looking for more than I was prepared to give. The thought of potentially losing another partner, or a child, was too much, so I fought against any instinct towards settling down. I was emotionally scarred, deep in my soul. In 2001, Alex moved out.

  Production for the second series of BeastMaster was about to end. My lovely housemate Lydia was heading to France to take up a job Wayne had organised for her as a polo groom. Meanwhile, the plan had been for me to go to the Bullens’ property to help with Arjuna and the other animals, who were taken back to Park Road for the eight-week break before the third series started up. But then, out of the blue, Brenton put a stop to that. I asked if it was about money—we had already discussed that I would be on a lower wage at his place than I got for my work on BeastMaster. I told him I didn’t care—I just wanted to keep a relationship going with Arjuna and to look after him. But Brenton wouldn’t budge.