Described as 'a bushman born and bred', C. D. (Dud) Mills spent time in south-west Queensland, the central west of New South Wales and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 1942 Mills joined the Australian Army and in the course of four years duty during World War II he served a period in New Guinea.
Inspired by his life experience working as a stockman and drover, Mills published poetry and autobiographical recollections which are based on the people, the animals and the places he encountered during several decades in the Australian bush. Written in the tradition of the Australian bush ballad, Mills's poetry provides a nostalgic record of 'a vanishing era' of the 'farm and station lands' that have become a part of outback culture.
(Source: Mills, The Stockwhip and The Spur, 1975)
