Sidharta Books & Print

Steve Bakarich was born in Broken Hill on 12th May 1931 during the grip of the Great Depression. A restless brumby of a boy that wouldn't take a backward step in an era where work was scarce and a foreign name was enough to ignite a daily fistic encounter that raised the head of racism. By the time he was eight he knew every yard of the derelict and abandoned mine leases from which he scavenged pieces of wood which he sold for a shilling for a billy-cart load, and could never recall a time without money in his pocket.
In 1939 the family moved to Liverpool NSW farm in growing fruit and tomatoes. At nine he was a paper-boy commencing work at 4am and seldom going to school before lunch time or not at all when he shoe-shined Yankee Boots at Warwick Farm. But his extraordinary memory for history, geography and especially mathematics attributed greatly to his success at school. At twenty-one in 1952, he married and returned to Broken Hill to find employment as a miner underground where he encountered a unique form of working brotherhood which was common when working in the Devil's Domain of the deep where one silly step could cost a life. This originated the experiences pencilled in 'Butterflies in Sandstorms'. While working in the mines, Steve built his first home on the 'Hard and Cheap', by making his own cement blocks and laying them.
In 1980 Steve became part owner and Manager of an alluvial mining operation on the Northern Tablelands where he designed and constructed a mill to extract microscopic minerals. The bush-telegraph mining operators came from near and overseas to take notes and seek advice. Such included a former Russian bank robber serving twenty years in a Siberian Prison Camp who was given an amnesty to fight against the invading Germans. Steve pencilled 'The Tough and the Tender', a murder mystery bank robbing epic set in the USA and 'Them that never was, but indeed they were', a tribute to those who fought in WWII and were never recognised. A keen interest in people and attitudes gave Steve reason to pencil 'The Kid', 'Underfoot' and 'Try a little Kindness'.
At present his main dissatisfaction is with the political and economic policies that a once prosperous and fascinating Australia had under control but has lost as a result of gross interwoven white-collar corruption. 'To Save Australia for the Australians' has become his greatest challenge with supporting media clippings that go back to 1949, commencing with slogans of 'One for all and all for One in retaining Australia for the Australians' and 'One continent, one nation with a One People, under the One Law and Loyal to the One Flag'.