The born and raised Gum Flat cattleman, fish farmer, pilot and tourism operator died in Bathurst on Sunday after a year-long battle with brain cancer and leukaemia.

He is survived by his loving partner Jennifer, sisters Lucinda and Victoria and brother Nicholas.

Bruce was born at Inverell on September 2, 1956, the eldest child of the late Gordon Rhoades, a prominent Angus grazier who owned and managed the historic Gowrie property on Copeton Dam Road.

Working from a young age to help with his father's prized herds, Bruce took over "Koorani" to the east of Gowrie in 1980.

After walking into three years of drought, he set his sights on building a massive dam on "Koorani", using 180,000 litres of diesel fuel and moving 140,000 square metres of earth to build the wall.

Bruce loved the land but his ultimate passion would become flying, eventually using his skills as a seasoned pilot to set-up the 1770 Castaway and Survivor holiday camps just north of Agnes Waters in Queensland.

The destination was immensely popular with international backpackers seeking a genuine Australian adventure, and they could hardly have discovered a more colourful character in their enigmatic host.

The tourism venture proved to be an instant success.

Bruce was soon flying up to 300 people a month into Middle Island for a short two hour trip of beach swimming, cracking oysters and bush walks in the national parkland which would later become the permanent site for overnight and extended camping holidays.

In January 2017 one of Bruce's planes suffered a sudden engine failure, and tragically one young backpacker died when the Cessna flown by another pilot crash landed on the beach where more than 30,000 tourists had flown unharmed for the previous decade.

Last year the award-winning ABC and Melbourne Age Journalist Adele Ferguson revealed how Bruce's company Wyndham Aviation had been unfairly targeted by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, and forced to close within ten days of the crash in pre-empting findings, which to this day, are yet to be made by the Queensland Coroner.

Bruce was interviewed for the story just weeks after he was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Glioblastoma brain tumour.

In August 2018 they gave him two weeks to two months - and as the first anniversary of that dire prognosis passed last month he was still mustering his remaining strength to defy seemingly impossible odds.

As his memoir reveals: "it wouldn't be the first time that death came knocking before I slammed the door right in its face."

But sadly it would be the last.

He retained his wicked sense of humour until the very end, introducing his memoir by saying: "I hope you will be left with sharing my belief that bloody minded determination may not defy death but will guarantee you won't die wondering!"