The skin got radiation burns 75 years ago, when as a soldier in the Australian Army's Japanese occupation forces he was sent into Hiroshima only a few weeks after the A-bomb was dropped.

Amazingly, his health is still good enough for him to be able to live quietly by himself in his house on a couple of acres along Morrison's Hill Road, Wallendbeen.

The former Cootamundra resident and successful greyhound owner rang the Herald last week with a story tip.

He had a complaint about the non-service he gets from Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council.

He pays rates, and once upon a time there was a garbage collection along the road just in front of his house.

These days, however, when his garbage bin is full, he's got to get it down to the Wallendbeen tip and pay the council a fee of $17.

Last year he was told he was too old to drive - despite having a blemish-free driving record of 40 years - so he generally likes to give $20 to a neighbour who takes them there for him - making it $37 a pop.

Born in Wagga, Mr Doss didn't have enough points to be discharged after Japan surrendered, and he was given the choice of serving out time in Australia or going to Japan with the occupation force.

"I said that'll do. We were supposed to go for six months but we were there for three years - I was with the 210^th AV team which was a transport show.

"No-one was supposed to go into Hiroshima for three years but we went in there just about a month over the bomb was dropped.

"As transport providers, we went to a lot of different parts of the country."

Back in Australia in the late 1940s there was no work around and nowhere to live.

"I was living in tents here in Coota for about three years.

"Then I got work with the railways as a brick arch builder, which I did for the next 30 years," he said.

"All the steam trains had brick arches around the fire pit to stop the fire from burning the boiler tubes off."

When steam trains finished, Mr Doss was retrenched, but soon found work by turning his part-time hobby - breeding, training and racing greyhounds - into a full-time career.

He turned out to be very successful, selling greyhounds in Ireland and the U.S. He has a collection of trophies and press clippings showing the many successes his dogs have had.

He was able to buy properties in Cootamundra but decided to move to the house in Wallendbeen after neighbours in Bradman Street had complained about his dogs barking.

He had a partnership running kennels at Wallendbeen "until I got too old to work the dogs".

He says Wallendbeen is "not a real bad community" but complains that without the former shop you can't get fuel, bread, milk or the paper the way it used to be.

"I went up to the new post office and asked for the paper but they told me you've got to get it online.

"The only line I've got is the old clothes line!".

The internet does help, however, with his daughter in Victoria ordering groceries online that are then delivered by courier.

A few years ago he was found lying on the floor - he'd been there for three and a half days and can't remember anything after parking his ute. He was hospitalised in Wagga, where he stayed for seven weeks, and had a lump on his head. It's likely he was hit on the head by people who followed him home after he had withdrawn some money from the bank.