Rodney William Ansell (1 October 1954 – 3 August 1999) was an Australian cattle grazier and a buffalo hunter. Described to be from "the bush", Ansell became famous in 1977 after he was stranded in extremely remote country in the Northern Territory, and the story of his survival for 56 days with limited supplies became news headlines around the world. Consequently, he served as the inspiration for Paul Hogan's character in the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. In 1999, he was killed in a shootout by policemen of the Northern Territory Police. Early life Ansell was born in Murgon, Queensland, to George William Ansell and Eva May Ansell, the third of four children. He then moved to the Northern Territory at the age of 15. As a young man, he made a living hunting feral water buffalo in the Top End, the meat being exported to foreign markets. Survival ordeal In May 1977, shortly after completing a buffalo catching job in Kununurra, Western Australia, Ansell decided to travel to the Victoria River on what he claimed was a fishing trip. He was not specific about his plans, only telling his then-girlfriend Lorraine he would be back in a few months. When Ansell's motorboat was capsized and sunk by "something big" (he later sensationally claimed it was a whale), no one knew where to find him. Ansell managed to board his tender, a small dinghy with only a single oar, and retrieve his two 8-week-old bull terriers and a small amount of equipment (a rifle, a knife, some canned food, and bedding). But with no fresh water, Ansell was in a perilous situation, stranded almost from the nearest permanent human settlement, and one of his dogs had a broken leg. During the night, Ansell's dinghy drifted out to sea, eventually washing up on a small island at the mouth of the Fitzmaurice River, north of the Victoria River. Over the next 48 hours, Ansell travelled up the Fitzmaurice on tidal flows, becoming severely dehydrated but eventually finding fresh water above the saltwater tidal range. Ansell subsisted on wild cattle and buffalo, hunting by day to feed himself and his dogs. He sometimes resorted to drinking cattle blood as a substitute for water, the fluids helping to maintain his body's electrolyte balance. He was also able to follow bees to their hive to retrieve honey. During the night, Ansell slept in a tree