Adventures of a true Aussie larrikin
by Rod Halsted
The laugh-out-loud story of Rod's rollercoaster life from penthouse to the slammer, and how he finally found his way back to sanity.
'I caught a bus to my first drug deal. At the time, I lived in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Newtown, where you could leave your front door open without fear of being burgled—but only because so many of Sydney's criminals lived in the area. It was the early seventies and I travelled by bus to the upmarket harbourside suburb of Abbotsford because I didn't own a car and didn't have enough money for a cab.
My last deal ended abruptly in 1981 in a country town with a police pistol to my head after I had collected five kilos of the best grass ever grown in Australia. Well, that's what the courts said, anyway.'
Rod Halsted is the classic irrepressible Aussie larrikin. As soon as he could leave school, he headed straight to Kalgoorlie for adventure. Not that he needed to cross the country: adventure always finds Rod, and he loves to take a risk.
Rod drank with Bob Hawke, did business with drug tsars, was rescued from the nick by Charles Waterstreet, hung with one of the Great Train Robbers, and wrote off endless cars. Then it all caught up with him. He has long since abandoned the drugs and conquered his alcohol addiction.
This is his laugh-out-loud story.
'Phew, I feel like I've been physically assaulted reading that book. But in a good way. It's a red hot read.' Barrie Cassidy
'A wild country kid who hit the road to find himself and found crime instead ... He took crazy risks with deadly crooks and lived to see the funny side of a reckless life.' Andrew Rule
'A wild, brawling and regularly hilarious tale.' Tony Wright
'A great story of a "lived in" life. Loved it.' Rick Grossman
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Rod Halsted’s life has been anything but ordinary—a wild, hilarious, and often dangerous ride from outback pubs to city backstreets, from sharing beers with prime ministers to dodging bullets from the law. Now older, wiser, and sober, Rod looks back on the chaos with sharp humour and hard-earned insight.
Below, he shares one of his trademark pieces of advice—straight from a man who has lived more lives than most of us dare to imagine.
These days, I’m taking my own advice—but I’m happy to share it, too:
• Try being honest and grateful instead of judgemental and resentful. Laugh a lot, especially at yourself, and be kind to everyone: family, friends and strangers alike. The world will be a better and happier place with you in it.
• Don’t break the law. Don’t sell drugs. Don’t ever use hallucinogens, hard drugs or needles. If you must experiment, stick to straight smoko. The stuff grown using chemicals to give it extra kick will fuck you up big time. There is no doubt in my mind that field-grown marijuana has enormous medicinal value and should be legalised. Cocaine, smack, acid, meth, ketamine, ice and all the other manufactured street drugs are poison, and anyone dealing in them needs bringing down. The ones financing the illegal drug trade, the so-called legit businessmen you never hear of, should be gaoled for life. If I hadn’t lived the life I have, I wouldn’t be such a powerful voice against drugs and crime. Choose that life and it will almost certainly cost you more than a finger.
• Don’t drive drunk.
• Don’t thieve.
• Treat others the way you’d like to be treated. A happy heart is preceded by a clear conscience.
• You have to give it away to keep it. That’s everything: love, money, time, attention and laughter. Especially love.
• Forgive rather than resent. Resentment and secrets kill. To that end, I contacted FiL and made my peace prior to his death.
• Know yourself.
• Be yourself.
• Love yourself.
A final note: my oldest daughter once told me, ‘Dad, you should take your own advice and not give advice.’ I guess you, the reader, may concur. I can only hope my mistakes will assist you on your road to a happy destiny.