There’s a word they have here for people like us, who arrive in Braidwood and set up shop to live the honest country life – and that’s ‘blow-ins’.  I quite like it – it implies that we’ve been carried here by the winds of fate, rather than finding ourselves here as the chance of birth or the requirements of work.

And not every blow-in is necessarily down on their luck and casting about for something to do. It’s probably not a hugely well-known fact that the Jumpin’ Jack Flash himself, Sir Michael Philip Jagger, one half of the Glimmer Twins songwriting consortium and frontman to popular beat combo the Rolling Stones, counts Braidwood among his many former performance locations. Yes, just over 50 years ago, Mick strode – or possibly strutted – our very own Wallace Street in the role of Ned Kelly, bushranger and Aussie folk hero.

History records that New Wave film director Tony Richardson came to the area for ten weeks in July 1969 to create a movie based on the legendary outlaw’s life and death. I had high hopes that Mick himself may have laid his weary head at Corner Cottage or maybe the Doncaster, but it turns out the party rented a homestead called Palerang quite far out of town, where their consumption of drugs and alcohol could be carried out in relative privacy.

The decision to film here was contentious – the state of Victoria, where the real Kelly carved out his nefarious career, objected to being left out (although we had some pretty decent bushrangers of our own). And Jagger was a controversial choice as the leading man, selected after Sean Connery, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Warren Beatty and even Ian McKellen were considered. He wasn’t seen as macho enough, Irish enough, and couldn’t ride a horse.

But Mick it was, and he left the UK during a turbulent time – a few days after Brian Jones’ death, with Marianne Faithfull coming along to play Kelly’s sister. Marianne didn’t make it to Braidwood, though – she OD’d on uppers or downers or some such in Sydney and had to go home, so a local actress was drafted in for the role.

Filming took place all over the region, including Bungendore and Majors Creek; there were ‘creative differences’ between Richardson and Aussie screenwriter Ian Jones, and the production was beset by misfortune: a fire destroyed some of the costumes, and Jagger’s pistol exploded during one sequence, injuring his right hand. Encouraged to recover by playing the guitar, he penned ‘Brown Sugar’ – apparently a tribute to Marsha Hunt, his clandestine girlfriend at the time (yup, Mick was apparently being unFaithfull).

Local legend has it that Mick showed few airs and graces, drinking in the pubs alongside the townsfolk – it’s difficult to imagine the fey, lissom art-school alumnus resting his lace cuffs on the bar in the Commercial Hotel pub, shouting everyone a schooner of Coopers Pale Ale and chatting about beef prices or the best ute for the money. I’d love to think he pitched in to help drag a ute out of a ditch or search the National Park for a lost dog, but history is silent on the matter.

The people of the town embraced the opportunities presented by the film, renting out their horses, dogs and wagons and appearing as extras in the movie. The bonanza was good for the town, but short-lived. The cavalcade moved on, Mick went on to record Sticky Fingers with the Stones in the UK – it’s tempting to think that ‘Wild Horses’ and maybe ‘Dead Flowers’ drew on his experiences in Braidwood and surrounds.

As for ‘Ned Kelly’, it proved to be a bit of a bum – Jagger didn’t attend the premiere and the critics were not kind. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a rating of 27% – two out of five stars. Jagger didn’t go back to acting for a few more decades.

You’d think that having monetised their horses and dogs, the people of Braidwood would continue to cash in on the Jagger association, but there’s very little sign of his presence these days. The Albion Café has a small version of the movie poster tacked up near the entrance, but that’s all I’ve seen so far – there’s no Jagger Bar, Sticky Fingers sweet shop or Brown Sugar bistro. Someone nicked the film’s facsimile of the Ned Kelly bulletproof helmet and the rest of his armour is in the Queanbeyan Library.

People are more content to recall that Jagger seemed like quite an ordinary bloke who enjoyed not being the centre of attention in and around the place. He was treated just like anyone else – that great Aussie tradition of egalitarianism.

It’s said that the Stones didn’t play Woodstock because of Jagger’s injured hand: thus the influence of Braidwood radiates out into the world, subtly impacting global cultural events and era-defining happenings. The town is comfortable with its role on the world stage – and alert to the next opportunity too: there’s plenty of cottages, dogs, horses, utes and the like to be rented out should the occasion arise. Just don’t expect the rockstar treatment.