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Day 4
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A soak refers to water located under the surface of the sand of a dry river or creekbed. In times of low rainfall, the water can be recovered by digging a hole. (271)
Reference: Dame Mary Durack, Hugh Swarey, R.M. Williams, Olaf Ruhen, Ron Iddon, Keith Willey, Marie Mahood, The Stockman, Lansdowne, Sydney, 1984
Dr Charles Chewings was renowned for his work as a cameleer, explorer, land agent and pastoralist. He obtained a PhD in geology from Heidelberg University and carried out geological surveying work throughout Australia. An avid explorer of the outback, Chewings prepared a report based on his experiences travelling through Central Australia (1909). The report gives an account of Central Australian Aboriginal customs, diet, relationship to land and Europeans, marriage and kinship relationships, and 'defining characteristics' (1). It is typical of its time, portraying Aboriginal people, in general, as a 'primitive' race who 'have no love for Europeans and were it not for his rifle they would wipe out every one who goes among them' (15). Despite this assessment, the Australian Dictionary of Biography maintains that Chewings was popular among Aboriginal people. Upon his retirement he prepared an Aranda dictionary based on words collected by other students and himself. The dictionary is now housed in the University of Adelaide along with Carl Strehlow's 'Aranda-und Loritja-Stämme in Zentral-Australien' (1915). He is fondly remembered by Doris Blackwood who met Chewings in the early part of the century. Blackwood recalls a 'colourful personality and we always enjoyed seeing him’ (Blackwood in Blackwood and Lockwood, 158)
Reference: Doris Blackwell and Douglas Lockwood, 'Alice on the Line', Rigby Ltd, Sydney 1965, Charles Chewings, ‘About the Blacks: Natives of Central Australia', "The Register", pp 1-16, 1909
As modern-day visitors to the Centre can attest, the flies in Central Australia can be close to unbearable during the warmer months. For the weary Hermannsburg travelling party the flies made the journey that much more difficult.
The impact of flies on outback travelling has been documented by a number of early explorers. In his published journal, F.J. Gillen presented an account of the fly plagues during his visit to Ulta-rok-itta on April 13, 1901:
‘Up just before daylight but not before the flies. I think of Job and wish that he lived on the banks of this Central Australian river in the month of April and in a good season in which case he would not have been held up to a long suffering posterity as the personification of patience; boil plagues any ordinary man might put up with but flies as they are here would drive a saint to profanity three of four hundred million of them camped on our buggies last night straining springs to their utmost capacity and when I awoke and shouted the usual morning greeting “how is your liver” to Spencer they charged upon me with a howl of joy that woke old Chance deaf as he is’ (Gillen, pp 29-30).
The plague didn't stop there. Two days later at Horseshoe Bend Gillen reported:
‘Up before daylight a miserable night flies were celebrating some festival all night and worried the very soul cases out of us. One can suffer them in the daytime but when they disport themselves at night as well it is almost more than flesh and blood can stand’ (Gillen, p 34).
Reference
F.J. Gillen, 'Gillen Diary: The Camp Jottings of F.J. Gillen: On the Spencer and Gillen Expedition Across Australia 1901-1902', Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide, 1968
Glen Helen Station is one of the few stations to have survived the early pastoral days. It is now a famous tourist venue. According to the historian and anthropologist Dick Kimber, the station was first established towards the end of 1878 by A.W Grant and F.W Stokes, two of the biggest pastoralists in South Australia (Kimber, 1991, 8). (Peter Forrest, however, puts the date at nearer to 1876.) In his 'Centralian Advocate' station series, published in 1984, Forrest writes that Grant and Stokes sought out land in Central Australia after losing a great deal of country in 1875 during ‘a resumption for agricultural purposes’ (Forrrest, 1984, 7). On the advice of Colonel Warburton the pair decided to venture into Central Australia to try and recoup their losses. Richard Warburton, the colonel’s son, was sent to explore the West Macs in search of suitable country. He found and named Glen Helen Gorge. Grant and Stokes soon set about establishing a station. One of the shareholders included Dr Charles Chewings. Allan Breaden was the first manager, residing on the first of four homesteads that would eventually be built on the property. Breaden was responsible for bringing the first cattle to the area. His stockmen included George Ballingall, George Tucker and Tommy Lee. By 1880 there were 400 cows on Glen Helen and Idracowra, the latter of which was also established by Grant and Stokes. While the station began well, it wasn’t long before the work and the property was abandoned following ongoing conflict with local Aboriginal tribes and climactic and market pressures (Bowman, 2). In around 1900 Gus Elliott (who would later move to Horseshoe Bend) and Robert Coulthard took up the area on a Grazing Licence in order to run their cattle. The two men built a second homestead, this time on the Crawford Creek, approximately six miles west from Red Bank Gorge and five miles south of Mt Razorback. Little is known about this period but according to Bryan Bowman the pair did well (Bowman, 4). After a few years, however, the partnership dissolved and the two men split the cattle between them. Elliot went to Idracowra and then to Horseshoe Bend, while Coulthard went to Tempe Downs. Glen Helen was once again abandoned. The year was approximately 1904 or 1905. In 1905 Fred Raggett took up the lease. Raggett built the third homestead, which is on the same site as the current chalet. According to Forrest, Raggett lived frugally and managed to keep the station going until around 1928-1930 when he suffered huge stock losses. He eventually sold the station to Bryan Bowman in 1938. Bowman went onto build the fourth homestead which now serves as a tourist venue, general store and cafe (Bowman, pp 2-11). REFERENCE Bryan Bowman, Glen Helen Story, pamphlet. Pub details?? Peter Forrest, 'Glen Helen', in "Centralian Advocate", 25 May, 1984, p 7 Dick Kimber, 'The end of the bad old days: European Settlement in Central Australia, 1871-1894', Occasional Papers No 25, The Fifth Eric Johnston Lecture delivered at the State Library of the Northern Territory, 9 November, 1990 (Darwin: State Library of the Northern Territory: Darwin, 1991), p 4 Jose Petrick, The History of Alice Springs Through Landmarks and Street Names, 4th edition, 2005, published? Self?
Todmorden Station is located approximately 100 kilometres north of Oodnadatta and Henbury Station and 120 kilometres south of Alice Springs.
Writing about Todmorden Skipper Partridge,the patrol padre of Central Australia for much of the first half of the twentieth century, called it:
‘One of the happiest and most hospitable places it has been my lot to stay in. On conditions at that Station homestead he says: ‘Sixty miles from town one would expect anything but what he finds, for the station is self sustaining from scent sprays in the drawing room to meat in the meat house. The place was a centre of activity. It was taken for granted that I would remain for Christmas, and there were nineteen of us seated around at Christmas dinner…there was Kemp, manager of Macumba Station, Arthur Giles and his sister Lorna from Oodna, the three Breaden girls, and some girl companions from school, and Miss Renwick. It was, I believe, the liveliest Christmas I ever spent – and there in the heart of the Never-Never…There was a super-abundance of life that spent itself eating and drinking, sleeping and skylarking, bathing and getting dirty, motoring and picnicking in the sandy creeks by moonlight, listening to good singing and excellent playing.
‘Christmas Eve 11.30pm saw us all on the front lawn formed up in a circle. And there from the heart of the Bush there swelled forth upon the stillness of the night the strains of immortal National Anthem telling us that out there on the frontier of the nation the hearts were loyal and unforgetful' (Partridge in Giles, 73)
• R. Bruce Plowman also wrote about Todmorden:
‘There are a number of homes throughout the Inland whose names deserve to be recorded in letters of gold because of the fine and encouraging things they stand for. Among these was Todmorden.’ He calls it a ‘place of comfort and luxury’. ‘The big rambling homestead, built for comfort, consisted of three groups of detached rooms in the form of the two arms and body of a cross. These groups were brought into one compact whole by a series of verandas, which not only joined them together but surrounded each group as well. At the head of the cross, but quite detached, was a fine big bathroom. For a hot climate it was an excellent arrangement, allowing air to circulate round all the rooms, and providing an abundance of airy and shady places at all hours of the day. ‘An abundant water-service provided for the kitchen, the bathroom, the garden, and the huge Coolgardie safe capable of holding a whole bullock, and guaranteeing that there would never be a shortage of fresh meat. ‘The sitting room was spacious, furnished with a great variety of old-fashioned and comfortable chairs and sofas. In one corner stood a piano, and dainty curtains adorned the windows. In the owner’s office (167) was a quarter-sized billiard table, round which every Saturday night all who were at the homestead gathered for a friendly game. The members of the family, the governess, the cook, the chauffeur (the first of his kind in Central Australia), the stockmen, and any visitors – and there were nearly always visitors – divided into teams for the weekly event […] For that one night every week all hands met on terms of equality as the owner’s guests, and neither child nor visitor was permitted to make distinctions’ (plowman 168)
References:
Arch Grant, Camel, Train and Aeroplane: The Story of Skipper Partridge, Rigby, Adelaide, 1981
R. B. Plowman, Camel Pads, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1933
According to Jose Petrick, Joe Breaden recorded the names of 18 Finke River pioneers, covering the period 1875-90, on the plaque at Henbury. Those listed include: A.D Breaden, 1875; H. Breaden, 1877; J.A. Breaden, 1887. The plaque also records the arrival of the first motor car driven up the Finke. The car was owned by Joe Breaden and driven by Mr. C. Woodward on April 10, 1917 (Petrick, 34).
See Jose Petrick, 'The History of Alice Springs Through Landmarks and Street Names', 4th edition, 2005, published? Self?
Spinifex is one of the most commonly seen plants in the Central Australian outback. As Penny van Oosterzee writes, [i]If one plant characterises Central Australia it is Spinifex...this magnificent grass is uniquely Australian. But beware when you introduce yourself to a spinifex clump, since it has a very prickly personality. There are about 30 different species in the two genera. The most common are often characterised as either ‘hard’ or ‘soft’, depending literally, on whether you can grab a handful without puncturing yourself. Most spinifexes have localised distributions, with those in the desert ranges, such as the MacDonnells, having the greatest number of species’ (van Oosterzee, 92).
See Penny van Oosterzee, A Field Guide to Central Australia: A Natural History Companion for the Traveller, Reed Books, Chatswood, 1995, p 92
Rough... In his unpublished MS about the history of pastoralism in Central Australia, Peter Forrest writes that Sidney Kidman’s arrival signalled a new approach to station management. He bought drought stricken country, in partnership or outright, and exploited it for as long as he could. According to Forrest Kidman has been misrepresented in historical accounts. He was not the ‘courageous pioneer of new country that he has been portrayed as being – he never pioneered an acre of new land, nor did he ever improve country that he acquired. Rather, he took over where others had failed before. He was able to succeed because he had the capital to wait until it rained or until the market improved’ (Forrest, 23)
See Peter Forrest’s unpublished MS, ‘The Pastoral Industries of the Centre’, 33 pages, 1986, Alice Springs Public Library, ‘NT History – Exploration and Pastoral Activities’ Folder
ROUGH As JTHB suggests, Hermannsburg Mission was not only a cattle station, it also stocked sheep. Indeed, as Bryan Bowman suggests in his history of Central Australia, the station probably housed the first sheep in the Northern Territory. Certainly, he writes, they were the first pastoralists to stock sheep in Central Australia.
Yet as the pastoralists discovered, stocking sheep did not always generate strong profit returns as they were unsuited to desert life in many regards. In his report ‘Report and Plans of Explorations in Central Australia’, the surveyor T. E. Day maintained that while sheep were raised on several stations, it was not in the numbers ‘one would expect in good saltbush country.’ He went on to say that while the extension of sheep raising would create a closer settlement, there were difficulties that needed to be overcome:
‘Sheep can only feed half the distance from water that cattle and horses will travel, and until the construction of water is improved, large stock will continue to be more profitable for pastoralists; wild dogs are at present a menace to sheep in the Ranges, the climate and soil of the Macdonnells has proved to be perhaps the best in the Commonwealth for horse-breeding on a large scale, and while stock-owners can command top prices for their horses, they are loth (sic) to replace their herds by the smaller animals; the greatest hindrance to the extension of sheep-raising is, however, the cost of transport, both in regard to station supplies, including fencing material, and to the despatch of the wool. This difficulty affects sheep-farming very seriously…’ (Day, 1916, 20-21)
In the case of Hermannsburg, the original flock was disposed of in 1921. In 1930 the Mission procured another flock, however, by the end of the decade the second flock had also been relinquished (Bowman, 1989, p 40)
References:
Bryan Bowman, "A History of Central Australia 1930-1980", 1989, p 40
T.E. Day, 'Report and Plans of Explorations in Central Australia', in "Bulletin of the Northern Territory", Bulletin no 20, (Melbourne: Home and Territories Department, 1916)
n the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries horse-breeding was considered a profitable enterprise. However, as JTHB suggests, the industry began to experience a down-turn in profits at the end of the First World War. See reference to T.E. Day's 'Report and Plans of Explortions in Central Australia' in "Bulletin of the Northern Territory", Bulletin no 20, 1916.
Yet, even at that time, the future of the horse industry in Central Australia was grim as the JTHB goes on to illustrate.
References:
T.E. Day, 'Report and Plans of Explortions in Central Australia' in "Bulletin of the Northern Territory", Bulletin no 20, 1916. Copy held at Strehlow Research Centre.
Johnny cakes are scones made of flour, water and salt. They are cooked on coals.
