Major Leslie James Hiddins (76) – Brisbane, Queensland
Most know him as Les Hiddins, while others call him “The Bush Tucker Man.” But the names Hiddins answers to are hardly as significant as his impact on the Australian entertainment industry. Hiddins is a retired war veteran who served in South Vietnam between 1966 and 1968.
In 1980, he received a Defence Fellowship to research survival in Northern Australia. That pursuit earned him his very own television series, aptly named “The Bush Tucker Man.” Though he retired from the Army in 1989, Hiddins remained with the Army Reserve until 2001. And in 2019, he started a website dedicated to the virtual exploration of the Australian outback.
