The Finke is 250 million years old and is Central Australia’s main river. It was named by John McDougall Stuart in 1860 to honour his friend and financier the South Australian pastoralist William Finke. The Aboriginal name for the river is usually given as Lhira peninsula, from the Western Arrernte Lhere pirnte, which means salty river. Like other parts of Central Australia, the river is textured with Dreamtime legends. A photographic essay in 'Australian Geographic' tells the story of the hailstone ridge near Hermannsburg, a sacred site 'about 1 km long, 30 m wide and 3 m high, composed of rubble that resembles hailstones' (69). According to legend, the site cannot be disturbed without invoking the anger of the ancestors. In 1975 the NT Daepartemnt of Transport bulldozed part of this site for aggregate. The work was stopped by Arrernte elders. One month later, the worst hailstorm in living memory devastated th Hermannsburg precinct. 'It unroofed houses on stations, uprooted trees and littered the ground with dead birds' (69) Reference: Paul Mann, ‘The Finke’ in Australian Geographic, no 21, Jan-March 1991, pp 58-83
The Finke River is usually a broad sandy river bed comprised of a string of waterholes. In the event of extreme flooding, however, the river tuns into a raging, foamy torrent. In 1918 and 1921 the floods had a monumental impact on the Mission, evidenced by the archival letters and reports, as well as photographs taken primarily by Bob Buck and Otto Tschirn.
