FORMER Bournemouth resident Graham Mullins, who moved to Australia in 1966, recently came across a place in Australia that reminded him of where he grew up.

It’s a little bit of Bournemouth Down Under – Winton, Australia – named after one of the oldest suburbs of the Dorset town.

In 1875, the first settler, Robert Allen, arrived in this part of what’s now known as Queensland, and became the postmaster at Pelican Waterhole.

The following year there was a flood, and he was forced to move to higher ground.

Apparently, Robert Allen grew tired of writing “Pelican Waterhole” on letters, and renamed it after the place where he was born and raised.

It took him nearly four months to sail to Australia – then he set out for Outback Queensland by bullock train over rugged terrain.

The Australian Winton’s greatest claim to fame is its association with Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson, son of a Scottish immigrant, author, journalist, poet... and composer of Waltzing Matilda.

The song was performed in public for the first time in April 1895, at the Gregory Hotel and soon became Australia’s national tune. Many consider it to be the country’s unofficial national anthem, and there have been over 500 versions recorded over the years.

Wintonshire Council was the first local authority in the world to support an airline – Qantas.

The area supports a wide range of wildlife, from small skinks and geckos to goannas measuring over a metre long – plus kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas, dingos, camels, feral cats and pigs. The abundant birdlife includes black kites, wedge-tail eagles, emus, bustards and budgerigars.

“Wandering through the local cemetery brought tears to my eyes – the high number of infants in mainly unmarked graves,” said Graham. “Most babies died from typhoid, dengue fever and malaria. Few pioneers lived beyond 40 or 50 years.”

Winton is also home to the largest dinosaur found in Australia and the scene of the world’s only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede, 90 million years ago, with more than 3,000 footprints captured in rock formed from mud that bordered pre-historic waterways and lakes.

GRAHAM was born in London in 1935, and evacuated during the Second World War to Cornwall.

He came to live in Bournemouth when he was about six or seven, living in Pine Road, Winton, and attending Winton and Moordown School.

After school, he worked in the Bournemouth gardens department.

A keen footballer, he spent three years at Cherries under Freddie Cox and Don Welsh, but didn’t make the first team.

He played for Margate and worked as a postman for four or five years, before moving to Adelaide, Australia, to play football and take up a job as a social worker with young offenders.

Brother Alan still lives in Winton, at Grafton Road. He is three years younger and works for a car valeting company.

Graham has three children, all in their 40s.