Watching The Wire

Traveling through the Nullarbor at dusk, you'll often find a wedgetail eagle hunkering down on road kill for its final feed of the day before taking off, slow and steady, like a jumbo jet into the wind. Doug Pekin, 66, has something of the eagle's noble bearing as he goes about his business, looking for signs of strength and weakness in the landscape, keeping the wilder forces of nature at bay. "On the pay slips I'm a boundary rider," he says, when quizzed, "but the locals call me a dogger."

For this soft-spoken gentleman, the term doesn't do...