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ANTS OF THE KIMBERLEY RAINFORESTS AND OTHER ECOSYSTEMS
On 5 February 2003, Jonathan Majer, Professor of Invertebrate Conservation at Curtin University, spoke to the Kimberley Society.
Jonathan began by stressing the importance of terrestrial invertebrates to us. In one of his many overheads, Jonathan showed us the Species Scape showing diagrammatically by size the numbers of individuals in each animal group and the arthropods (including insects) was by far the largest, especially the insects themselves which are so very varied. “They are the little things that run the world,” said one famous biologist.
When we look at invertebrates, they are the drivers of the world:
(a) Leafcutter ants consume the bulk of solar energy captured by plants in the Amazon, and,
(b) They consume more per unit area than the average cow!
We need invertebrates, but they don’t need us!
(a) If humans disappeared, the world would go on with little change, but,
(b) If invertebrates disappeared, human species would not last more than a few months.
Why is this so?
· Most fish, amphibians, birds and mammals would die of starvation,
· Flowering plants would die out due to lack of pollination, and,
· The world would become covered in detritus.
The case of detritus:
· In the USA, humans produce 130 million tons of excreta per year,
· livestock produce 12 billion tons of manure per year,
· 99% of this is decomposed through the actions of invertebrates, and,
· without them, we would be up to our eyeballs in it.
Jonathan then described exactly what an ant is—by going through its classification and characteristics, again illustrated with very clear overhead diagrams and a key, which I will not reproduce here.
The sub-phylum Insecta is divided into orders and the ants, bees and wasps belong to ymenoptreaHHHhthe Hymenoptera which have two pairs of transparent wings hooked together during flight, a waist between the thorax and abdomen, and a complete metamorphosis, i.e. go through stages of development comprising egg, larva, pupa and imago or adult. The ants, Formicidae have a petiole between thorax and gaster (abdomen) and geniculate antennae, having an elbow.
They are divided into castes, workers, soldiers, drones, females and minors. The workers are wingless, (some wasps also) and are sterile females. The soldiers and minors have different nutrition. The sexual females are winged initially for the nuptial flight then lose their wings before laying their eggs.
We identify them by first dividing them into sub-families, of which there are seven, using a dichotomous key. Has it a sting or not? Has it two nodes or one? Is the waist one or two segments? And so on.
There are two books on Australian ants at present: Ants in Australia by Steve Shattick, and Ants of the Top End by Alan Andersen, and one being written by Brian Heterick on Ants in the South West (about 350 species and 700 from all WA).
Having dealt with ants in general, Jonathan then described the Survey of Rainforest Patches in the Kimberley in 1987 and 1988. This section he illustrated with 22 colour slides showing typical sites and activities involved. The scientists were divided up into three groups, transported by helicopter for three days to each site to sample plants by collecting, animals by trapping, soils, spiders, ants, birds and snails. Thus it was a very comprehensive survey of 83 marked rainforest patches, though ants were only sampled from 8 representative patches, ranging in size from 5 hectares to 100 hectares. These small remnant patches are surrounded by savannah (dry woodlands) but need moisture themselves, so are usually in the shadow of a cliff, or riverine patches along wet rivers, or on islands above the mangrove belt.
Sampling was focused on two 50 metre transects in a “T” configuration. They trapped ants using a plastic cup buried in the ground and filled with alcohol so ants would fall in as they passed by. They also hand collected with forceps, using knives for removing bark and opening nests. They used a beating tray, like an umbrella, at the base, hit the tree or bush hard and then collected the dropouts. Leaf litter was collected later in the Wet, sent back to Perth and placed in Tullygren funnels to be separated out. They were identified at Curtin University or in Darwin from the reference collections held there.
The results are set out in a table showing the 8 patches, their area, shape, size, distinctiveness of edge, perennial plant species richness, % canopy cover, presence of gaps in the canopy, litter depth in cms, litter moisture, soil moisture, % ground covered by trunks or roots, by soil, by rocks.
The number of ants collected in each of the 8 sites formed another table telling us:
1. Total individuals in pitfall traps, ranging from 336 to 69.
2. Total species in pitfall traps = 24 to 12.
3. Total species overall = 41 to 19, average = 33.
4. Total tropical species = 13 to 6.
They also noted the two wettest sites and that one had been burnt and one trampled by cattle. The total number of species of ants in Kimberley Rainforest was 150. This was not as great as in NE Queensland or Kakadu. There was less biodiversity due to distance, isolation and size of patches. As yet, only 15% are named to species level from this survey.
Jonathan also spoke of his background in West Africa, working on “Ants in cocoa Plantations”. There, ants are used as a biological control for pests of tree crops, e.g. aphids in citrus trees.
There followed a very popular question time after which we thanked Jonathan in the usual manner for a most interesting talk.
Daphne Choules Edinger
EXPEDITION TO A FORGOTTEN WORLD
On 5 March 2003, Dr Ric How, a WA Museum zoologist who specialises in mammals and reptiles in his survey work, spoke to the Society on the topic “Expedition to a forgotten world: faunal examination of remote Kimberley islands”.
First, Ric acknowledged the audience’s experience and familiar faces from Landscope Expeditions, and he mentioned important colleagues such as Linc Schmitt. He stated that the Kimberley Islands are one of the State’s icons: they excite interest. There are 2500 of them. However, there is still the charisma of the Kimberley mainland such as Mitchell Plateau and Purnululu. The islands have been in glorious isolation for 6000 to 10,000 years, with changing sea levels causing isolation and speciation.
Ric then showed slides to illustrate the various islands visited by his recent expedition and their special faunas.
Slide 1. Cassini Island, about 300–400 hectares, named by Baudin in 1803. This was the most distant from the mainland of the 10 visited, being 30 km off Cape Voltaire in the Timor Sea.
Slide 2. Middle Osborn Island was visited in the ‘Golden Age’ of Kimberley Island faunal exploration in 1971–1973 by Fisheries and Wildlife scientists. Twenty islands in Bonaparte Gulf were visited from 1 to 11 days and 14 islands in the Buccaneers also. They found 5 frogs of 26 species on the mainland (= 19%); 34 out of 72 mainland mammals (= 47%); and 58 of 109 mainland reptiles (=53%).
Slide 3. Carlia Island had not been examined in detail before. It is in Port Warrender and off Admiralty Gulf north of Mitchell Plateau.
Slide 4. Cattle in Livistona and Eucalyptus miniata woodland on the mainland at Mitchell Plateau. A lot is known about the fauna there due to the extensive surveys in 1976 and 1977 and also in 1981–1982 when the Museum investigated mammals and reptiles and had the use of helicopters to get around. In the pristine Kimberley there are few ferals, but cattle are one of the major threats, both feral and grazing.
Slide 5: Fire on the Kalumburu Road. The Kimberley is changing due to extensive and repeated fires. Recolonisation after vast burns is not immediate.
Slide 6: Dingo at Mitchell Plateau brings us to mining being significant in the exploration of the Mitchell Plateau. The WA Museum led a survey here in 1976–1977 and further research in 1981–1982. There are no feral mice, rabbits or foxes, just CATS!
Slide 7. Wyulda at Mitchell Plateau. The Kimberley is very seasonal and the animals have great habitat specificity. Looking at Northern Territory data shows a decline of the larger small mammals due to changed wet season regimes. Fire and grazing had been blamed.
Slide 8. South-west Osborn Island to Steep Head. This project will
• Determine the morphology and genetic variation in island and mainland populations of selected Kimberley species;
• Evaluate the systematic and conservation status of fauna, particularly vertebrate species on selected Kimberley islands;
• Interpret this variation in relation to island biogeography;
• Determine islands of high biodiversity and conservation value;
• Identify biodiversity nodes for nature-based tourism activities;
• Communicate research outcomes through community education, museum exhibitions and publications.
Why?
• To contrast these data with those available on vertebrates from adjacent archipelagos in the Pilbara and west coast of WA that have evolved in isolation during fluctuating Pleistocene sea levels; e.g. Barrow Island has 5–12 unique mammal species and 1 unique bird.
• To examine problems of nomenclature on different island groupings for conservation status evaluation.
• To provide some appreciation of fauna in the absence of ferals, fire and European disturbance.
Slide 9. Photograph of Juneau, Alaska with hordes of visitors; 3000 from numerous cruise ships. The Kimberley coast in future could attract large numbers of tourists as our population rises.
Slide 10. Access to the islands was by means of the Barra B, a 17 m fishing vessel with an expert skipper, together with 3 runabouts, 1 for each of 3 teams, for landing.
Slide 11. Clay Bryce on SW Osborn Island. It was decided to make a documentary film of fieldwork for local TV. He took 15 hours of film involving 7 people, but he’s experiencing frustration postproduction.
Ric then went on to show photographs to illustrate the Project outcomes in regard to amphibians, birds, invertebrates and mammals.
Slide 12. Cormorants on White Rock. Seabirds, especially roseate and little terns are new colonists. There are island isolates such as wrens, tawny grassbirds, cisticola and sandstone shrike thrush. Rainforest birds encountered were the green winged pigeon, scrub fowl, varied triller and little shrike thrush. Mangrove birds recorded were the golden whistler (with geographical variation in the Kimberley), bar shouldered dove, mangrove heron and yellow white-eye.
Slide 13. A scrub fowl mound. This, at 10 x 12 x 5 m, was the biggest yet recorded. The mound is made of beach spoil and shell grit on Middle Osborn Island and is larger than the one at Lone Dingo Vine Thicket photographed by Kevin Coate.
Slide 14. Red-tailed Black Cockatoos on the Plateau. They overfly Fenelon Island to reach bloodwoods on Cassini Island, 30 km from Cape Voltaire on the mainland.
Slide 15. Salenocosmia — a big tarantula-like spider discovered on South-west Osborn.
Slide 16. Odontomaches — a sedentary ant genus collected on many islands.
Slide 17. Mark Harvey looking for pseudoscorpions on Pandanus. A new species of Metagoiochernes was found. Faella, of Gondwana origin, were recorded and also intertidal ones on Steep Head.
Slide 18. Camaenids (land snails) in a tree hollow. One species is endemic to Cassini Island and is threatened. The expedition recorded two species on Cassini. Camaenids are known to exist on 60+ of the islands.
Slide 19. Crocodiles on the mainland. The salt water species do not occur frequently in Indonesia. They are the icons of the North.
Slide 20. Crocodiles on Cassini Island. They often travel large distances in the open sea. Genetic studies were not attempted.
Slide 21. Turtle tracks on Cassini Island. Two species occur; green and flatbacks.
Slide 22. Trapping on Cassini Island and the bloodwoods on the island.
Slides 23 and 24. Ctenotus inornatus (a skink). These show variation in patterning, morphology and DNA.
Slide 25. Roy and Soak. Significance of seepages/soaks during the dry summer in Institut Group to the viability of faunal populations.
Slide 26. Liasis: Kimberley Olive Python. These were the highlight of the expedition, occurring near a soak where they apparently fed on the species drawn to water to drink.
Slide 27. King brown snakes occur on many islands. A new species was recorded. They were both trapped and identified from skin sloughs.
Slide 28. Pteropus bats on Cassini. They fly out 30 km from the mainland. No other bat species was heard.
Slide 29. Tracks of small mammals. Dasyurus hallucatus (Northern Quoll), Zyzomys woodwardi (Rock Rat) and Pseudechis australis were noted on SW Osborn Island.
Slide 30. Zyzomys woodwardi. There has been a decline in mammal species on the mainland and there are fewer species on the islands than on the mainland. There is no hard data collected but such data as there is gives useful information of relative abundance.
Slide 31. Cyclodomorphus maximus (a large skink). This is a new discovery for the islands.
Slide 32. The team. Discussions are proceeding with UWA in regard to invertebrate projects; a PhD student is studying the morphology and genetics of Ctenotus. DNA from brains is being replicated and the WA Museum collection is useful in this regard. However continuation is dependent on winning grants.
Ric was thanked for his interesting talk and presented with a small token of appreciation.
Daphne Choules Edinger
MOOLA BULLA
On 2 April 2003, Professor Geoffrey Bolton was to have presented a talk about Moola Bulla but some confusion arose regarding the scheduled date. That situation led to an impromptu session in which Cathie Clement and others spoke about the history of the station. It is hoped that the August newsletter will carry a summary of the talk that was to have been given.
Cathie told how the place was established as a cattle station cum Aboriginal reserve in 1910 because Aboriginal people were killing cattle on East Kimberley stations and running the condition off them in the hunt. The cattle fetched £5 or more per head at market but only fat cattle sold. Small pastoralists therefore found it hard to make a living when people chased, speared and ate their stock. The stock had displaced native game but the pastoralists argued that the Aboriginal people should either hunt somewhere further out or go onto reserves away from the cattle stations.
Charles Annear, the first telegraph master on the Fitzroy, had suggested the concept of establishing a station for Aboriginal people in 1901 but it was James Isdell, a travelling inspector and Aboriginal Protector, who turned it into a reality. He oversaw the purchase of three small stations, which were merged and given the name Moola Bulla. Some people maintain that the name is of Aboriginal origin while others say that it was selected because it sounds good. The original stations were Mary Downs (Mt Barrett), Nicholson Plains and Greenvale, which were owned by Frans Meinsen and James Shepherd. They first ran cattle in the locality in 1902.
James Isdell had been a pastoralist, a prospector during the 1880s and 1890s, and a politician. A river was also named for him. As a travelling inspector, he advised the government how the Aboriginal people were faring on stations. In the area that became Moola Bulla, he reported that those who killed cattle not only felt they were entitled to do so but also took pride in surviving gaol terms when caught. Often only the ringleaders were gaoled but, throughout the Kimberley, that approach resulted in hundreds of men being walked to the coast in chains to serve sentences of up to three years.
All the country was leasehold, and the Land Act allowed Aboriginal people to hunt for food on unfenced parts of a pastoral lease. In the East Kimberley, that provision gave them access to most of the leasehold land and, in many instances, it was impossible for owners or stockmen to keep a close watch on the open range grazing. Some of the pastoralists expected the police to act as defacto boundary riders, and Moola Bulla was meant to answer their demands for government action that would minimise their cattle losses.
Arthur Haly was the first manager, and the other Europeans who worked at Moola Bulla included Sir Alexander Cockburn Campbell who received £3 per week as head stockman. Some Aboriginal people came in of their own accord but others, who included people perceived as trouble-makers, were taken there by force. Many children of mixed descent went there to be educated while others went to missions at Beagle Bay, Mogumber and elsewhere. Some went with their parents’ wishes and financial contributions; others were forcibly separated from their parents. At Moola Bulla, they had a school, shops for learning leatherwork and other skills, training in domestic work for girls, and training in stock work for boys. After World War I, ex-soldiers also received pastoral industry training there.
Moola Bulla functioned as an Aboriginal cattle station until the government disposed of it to Mr Goldman in the 1950s. The Aboriginal people stayed but were later put off suddenly and transported to Halls Creek. When that town’s resources proved inadequate for the influx, some went to Fitzroy Crossing.
At the conclusion of the above potted history, Cathie invited members of the audience to contribute some of their knowledge of Moola Bulla. Barbara Jones took the floor and spoke about the background to the previously displayed book titled Moola Bulla: In the Shadow of the Mountain. Barbara worked as coordinator and later as a linguist at the Kimberley Language Resource Centre, an Aboriginal organisation set up to promote and maintain the Indigenous languages of the Kimberley. Moola Bulla was a major influence on the lives of many of the people who were working at and visiting the Language Centre. In 1987 the Language Centre received a substantial grant from the Commonwealth Employment Program to employ Indigenous language workers to record indigenous histories in the speakers’ first language. This meant that Indigenous people could tell their own histories in their own way in their own languages. The book was an outcome of this project. The number of languages used in the stories serves as an illustration of the various groups of Indigenous people that had at some time been resident at Moola Bulla and also of the wide area of the Kimberley from which the residents had been drawn. Residents came from as far north as Oombulgurri and as far south as the Canning Stock Route. The production of the book was a lengthy process because of the transcribing and translating involved. Its eventual completion was celebrated by a grand picnic, with many ex-residents in attendance, on Moola Bulla hill.
Sandy Toussaint, who took the floor next, was employed by the KLRC, Halls Creek, in 1987 to work for several months on developing the early stages on the Moola Bulla Oral History project. She and Hilary Rumley also did substantial archival work on Moola Bulla. Some of that work was published in an article in Aboriginal History in 1990. It gives good insight into the government’s attitude to the establishment of Moola Bulla and, in one very interesting piece drawn from a 1910 report by the Chief Protector of Aborigines, it quotes C F Gale writing:
I feel confident that under careful management, the settlement will become self supporting almost at once. It would tend to make the aborigines more contented with their lot, as they would then have a home where the young and old might be cared for, and where the adults could find employment and provisions when they required them.
History, I suppose will repeat itself, and in the course of time the native race will be a thing of the past. When this happens the Government, by purchasing the above properties, will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have done their best for the amelioration of a decadent race, and future Governments will have a valuable asset to dispose of, when this state of things comes to pass.
Sandy made the point that the state government decided to sell Moola Bulla in 1955 because it was not economically viable as what was known as a ‘Native Welfare Settlement’. There was no question that it would be economically viable as a cattle station. It was simply not paying its way as a combined welfare institution and cattle station. After it was sold, as has been noted above, most of the Aboriginal people from the station were relocated.
Other contributions followed, with David Thom, who lived on Moola Bulla from 1959 to 1969, commenting on the size, cattle numbers and viability of the station. Athol Farrant mentioned having heard that the place had proved a good buy for Goldman, and David confirmed that information. It thus seems that the government had been correct in assuming that, while Moola Bulla was proving too expensive for a training facility, it was a good cattle property. Ian Crawford volunteered the information that Commissioner Middleton had taken responsibility for Aboriginal affairs after World War II, and was still in that position when Moola Bulla was sold. He also mentioned that Munja Ration Depot on Walcott Inlet, and Kunmunya Mission further north on the coast, were also closed and that the Aboriginal people moved from there to more accessible places. Such issues are complex but it seems that the government was moving away from the support of far-flung reserves.
The Thom family bought Moola Bulla from Goldman’s successor, Karl Stein. It is a huge station, even by Kimberley standards, and, with the Margaret River running through the ranges and hills, it is good cattle country. David recalled hearing about Shepherd’s place and the old Greenvale, and he mentioned that Dawson Downs and Corella Valley had also become part of Moola Bulla. Cathie Clement was able to add that Dawson Downs was a tiny station that belonged to P B Watts, a one-time Derby mailman, before being sold to Frans Meinsen, and that Corella Valley had belonged to Tom Cole, a drover and cattle man who married Mabel Bridge. The Bridge family arrived in 1896 and took up Cartridge Springs (later known as Mabel Downs) near the present day Warmun. The Bridges later owned other Kimberley stations that included Springvale.
When David Thom lived on Moola Bulla, between 120 and 150 Aboriginal people also lived on the station. Some of them worked in the two stock camps that were required for the management of 60,000 head of cattle. The station was branding 10,000 calves per year. The staff had a tannery and a saddler’s shop, and they made all their own ropes. Many of the Aboriginal stockmen in the Kimberley had trained there and, in David’s time, a lot made their way back to Moola Bulla. David’s high opinion of the place is borne out by its sale, less than three years ago, for $15 million. At that time, when it was put on the market with the adjacent Mount Amhurst, the places were described as two of the top cattle stations in the Kimberley. The owners were the Quilty, Northcott and Allsop families.
The mix of contributors made for an interesting evening and it was fortunate that the topic had brought together people knowledgeable about quite diverse aspects of the history and operation of Moola Bulla. The opportunity to hear about the place being formed and used as an Aboriginal cattle station, and then run as a cattle station in its own right, was unexpected but enjoyable.
Daphne Choules Edinger
Further reading:
Kimberley Language Resource Centre, Moola Bulla: In the Shadow of the Mountain, Magabala Books, Broome, 1997.
Rumley, H and Toussaint, S, ‘For their own benefit’? A critical overview of Aboriginal policy and practice at Moola Bulla, East Kimberley, 1910-1955’, Aboriginal History, 1990, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 80–103.
LIGHTHOUSE HERITAGE IN NORTHERN WA
On 7 May 2003, Phil Griffiths introduced his subject by outlining the progressive need for, and the building of, lighthouses around the western Australian coast. He also spoke about the reason for his involvement with them. The Commonwealth is currently transferring ownership of WA lighthouses to the state and, as a heritage architect, Phil was part of a team of consultants surveying the built environment, archaeology and natural heritage values of 13 lighthouse sites in the state in 1999.
Prior to Federation, Australian navigational aids, like trade and defence, were controlled by the British Government but operated by the colonies. Rottnest Island was the site of the first WA lighthouse, completed in 1849, but the oldest remains of a lighthouse are on Breaksea Island, off Albany, where a prefabricated octagonal tower of cast iron, integrated with the keepers’ quarters, was erected in 1858. A taller stone lighthouse on the site was completed in 1902 with separate quarters.
Between 1900 and 1911 seven new coastal lights came into operation in WA: Bathurst Point (1900), Cape Naturaliste (1904), Gantheaume Point (1905), Bedout Island (1909), Cape Inscription and Point Cloates (1910), and Cape Leveque (1911). The last four of those came into being after shipping companies alerted the government to the need for additional navigation aids along the North West coast.
In 1911 the Commonwealth Navigation Act was proclaimed, allowing the Commonwealth to take responsibility for coastal lights. Harbour lights remained the responsibility of the state. Before control of all WA coastal lights passed to the Commonwealth in 1915, three more were added: Vlamingh Head (1912) and Cape Bossut and Airlie Island (1913). At this time WA had one light to every 170 nautical miles of coast compared to every 33.8 miles in NSW. The Commonwealth built no more lights in WA until one was erected on Eclipse Island off Albany in 1926.
Until the early 1900s the lights were powered by kerosene lamps and all were manned. This was followed by acetylene, and Bedout Island was the first automatic light station. This light had a cast steel legged tower with clamped crossbars, which withstood a cyclone in 1910. It was followed by several unmanned lights using acetylene, which was finally superseded by solar power in 1985. Manned lights were converted to electricity from the mains where possible or from diesel generators.
The Gantheaume Point light first came into operation in 1905. It was built as a skeleton steel tower, 41 feet (12.4 m) high with a kerosene-operated light. The lone keeper also had to operate a light at Entrance Point 4.8 km to the south. A 1912 report recommended that the Entrance Point light be automated and remain under State control. The original Gantheaume Point light tower was demolished and replaced with a new lattice steel tower in 1917, and the light was automated in 1922/23. The tower was again replaced in 1991 when a new open lattice stainless steel tower was erected.
Point Cloates (1908) was built of the local limestone on a hill near Ningaloo Station homestead. It was not well placed and is now in ruins having been replaced by a steel lattice tower in a better position.
Point Moore lighthouse at Geraldton (1878) was one of several prefabricated cast iron towers imported from England in kit form but the Cape Leveque light (1911) has the first cast iron tower designed by the Public Works Department and manufactured in Perth by Bela Makutz. As it was a kerosene-fuelled light, living quarters were provided for two keepers. Construction of the 43-foot (13.1 m) tower and the quarters commenced in 1909 and the light was commissioned on 9 August 1911. The lighthouse was modernised in the 1960s and new steel-framed quarters were built in 1964. In 1965 the facility was converted to electrical power driven by a diesel engine and it was fitted with a halogen tungsten light. It was converted to an automatic solar-powered light in 1985. The original light went to the WA Museum.
Adele Island (218 ha) is known as an important nesting site for seabirds and is currently wholly owned by the Commonwealth. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority proposes to surrender the island to the state, leasing back a small area immediately surrounding the lighthouse. The light tower (1951) is a six stage steel angle and plate construction with three small intermediate landings and a top landing connected by ladders. In 1967 the light was changed from acetylene gas to propane gas and in 1984 it was changed to solar powered operation. The Kimberley coast is still poorly served by navigational lights.
Phil left a copy of his reports on several of the lighthouses, with overhead projection sheets that illustrate the different types, with the Kimberley Society. The reports, based on field surveys done in 1999, were used by the Heritage Council to select appropriate sites for heritage listing.
An interesting addition to the evening’s presentation occurred when the artist Laura Cole, who specialises in painting lighthouses, showed us an album of photographs of her paintings, which complemented the black and white photos of Phil’s talk. Laura was soon to exhibit her work, and it is noted that an exhibition on lighthouses and the lives of keepers and their family (Beacons by the Sea) was to be on show at the new Maritime Museum in Fremantle until 13 July.
Loisette Marsh
COAST WATCH IN THE 1980s
On 4 June 2003, John Rogers spoke to Kimberley Society about his involvement in Coastwatch in the 1980s. John was a Royal Navy officer and pilot of anti-submarine fixed wing aircraft and Commando helicopters until 1969. He then took voluntary early retirement to emigrate to Australia. In 1983, his training and experience led to appointment to a Coastwatch position in the Federal Department of Transport. He was the Senior Surveillance Resource Officer in Broome, 1983–1988, and then moved to Darwin when Coastwatch came under the control of the Australian Customs Service. He remained with Coastwatch until 1992 when he became an Inspector of Diesel Fuel Rebate for the Northern Territory and Kimberley.
Before the 1970s, coastal surveillance was largely land-based, carried out by Customs, lighthouse keepers, stock inspectors, Aboriginal communities and the Navy. During the 1970s, refugee boats from Vietnam posed a quarantine risk so local aircraft were chartered to observe and photograph with Polaroid cameras anything suspicious. As they flew regular schedules and patrolled a limited length of coast they were easily avoided so they were replaced—first by Navy planes, then by company contracts.
The programme was known as “FOOTSTEPS IN THE SAND”, and indeed the steps were to prove the first sign of an illegal landing. A photograph of footprints was shown to the audience, but John forgot to say that they were later proved to be from a crocodile, thus providing evidence of the early mistakes in a rapid learning curve!
In 1983 Skywest won the Western Australian contract. They used Aero Commander A500 Shrike aircraft, which have twin engines and high wings, giving good visibility to the observers, and added safety when flying over the sea.
These planes had radar and a long-range navigation system based on triangulation from three points in Victoria, South Africa and Europe. This was periodically calibrated by flying over a known position point. They were also equipped with a hatch through which rescue equipment could be dropped. This came into its own during the rescue of a girl, and a man who had gone to her aid, when both were swept away from their yacht by the strong tide. They clung to a life ring all night and half the next day before a Coastwatch plane found them and dropped life jackets, spot on, and a life raft that enabled them to be rescued.
Another task undertaken by the aircraft from this remote area was, and even in these days of satellite imaging still is, to assist the Weather Bureau by sending regular weather reports. The first warnings of the 1987 cyclone that devastated the new Fitzroy Plain road works came from a Coastwatch aircraft.
John trained and monitored the crews who flew out of Broome. They had an extensive surveillance checklist of reportable instances, particularly unexplained aircraft activity, remote campsites, foreign fishing vessels, vessels in unusual locations, environmental damage and pollution, destruction of wildlife and so on. At the end of each flight they had to prepare a report and submit it during office hours. As they could not start searching until first light, their flying time was somewhat restricted. When Customs took over, Coastwatch became more efficient by starting in the morning darkness and flying to an agreed starting point before commencing surveillance at first light, or later in the day as ordered, to make search times less predictable.
As well as coastal surveillance, they checked offshore islands and reefs—the Montebellos, Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef, Ashmore and Cartier Reefs. Australia has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Indonesia allowing fishermen to fish near Scott, Ashmore and Cartier Reefs in traditional boats without engines. The 1980s targets were mainly clams and trepang (sea cucumbers), which were dried on racks above the cabin.
These boats are labelled as Type 1 (with a single triangular sail), Type 2 (with a mainsail and jib) and Type 3 (various types of motorised vessel). The latter are not allowed in the MOU region or in the Australian fishing zone where the main target is shark fin. John told how the fins were cut cruelly from the living sharks, which were then returned helpless to the sea.
Fresh seabird eggs were collected from the islets of Ashmore Reef after all the eggs in the nest were broken so that the birds would lay again. Prohibition of landing on the sandy islets eventually stopped this. On the sand flats at Ashmore Reef there were also mysterious circles, of which John showed photographs. The mystery was eventually solved by the Fisheries Department who found they were made by turtles tethered to a stake in the centre of each circle. Taking turtles was also illegal.
Much of the coastal surveillance was directed at finding illegal trochus fishing boats on the coast among the mangroves. One was so well hidden that the only clue was a patch of unusually coloured mangroves. Close inspection found the boat had been covered with cut branches of mangroves, but the paler underside of the leaves gave them away. Trochus at this time was worth $5000 per tonne, and the Indonesian boats were capable of carrying three tonnes on board.
The Navy and Customs sent all illegal fishing boats to Willie Creek near Broome where the skipper was arrested, the crew sent home, and the catch and boat confiscated. Because of quarantine concerns the boats were later burned.
Illegal migrants came first from Vietnam and later from China and Cambodia. The first of the larger numbers of Chinese were caught at sea near Montgomery Reef and, in about 1992, 57 Chinese immigrants landed on the Kimberley coast and were rounded up after a massive search organised from Customs Darwin. A series of small parties of Indians carrying suitcases landed all over Australia. Those people included a 1989 party that came in near Brunswick Bay after recording their voyage with holiday photos. The photos became an archive file and are now held for posterity as public records.
John enlivened his talk with many anecdotes of his time in the best job in the country. His aerial photographs were by courtesy of Skywest.
Loisette Marsh and Gilbert Marsh
THE BROCKMAN EXPEDITION 1901
On 2 July 2003, Mike Donaldson presented an illustrated talk to the Kimberley Society on the topic of Chief Inspecting Surveyor Frederick Slade Brockman’s expedition of 1901. Brockman led an exploration trip through the Kimberley to fill in a vast gap in the geographical knowledge of north-west Australia. Although the coastal outline was well known from marine surveys by about 1820, apart from a minor inland excursion along the Glenelg River by George Grey in 1838, little was known of the interior until Brockman’s expedition. Alexander Forrest had travelled along (and named) the King Leopold Ranges in 1879, but these barrier ranges were not crossed by Europeans until a prospecting party found a way through them in 1886. Others followed, and Frank Hann found a way over them in 1898. Hann recognised the pastoral potential of the rolling basaltic hills around Mount House and Mount Elizabeth, and he discovered and named the Adcock, Charnley and Isdell Rivers. But he did not penetrate the north-western areas of the Kimberley.
Brockman left Wyndham on 2 April 1901 with surveyor Chas. Crossland as second in command, and Dr F M House as Naturalist and Botanist. Also in the party were Thos. Hickey, Thos. Wade, J F Connelly, J H Brooking, and two Aboriginal prisoners from Rottnest. The expedition had 70 horses and provisions for at least six months. Government Geologist Andrew Gibb Maitland and Assistant Geologist C G Gibson also accompanied the party for most of the trip.
The expedition initially followed the Chamberlain River, then cut across to the west, approaching Hann’s Mount Elizabeth, before following the Charnley and Calder Rivers to the vicinity of Walcott Inlet. Brockman set up a base camp (FB32) on Synott Creek in July, and split the expedition to cover more ground quickly. Brockman took some of the party to the north west, reaching Mount Methuen near George Water before returning to the base camp via the Calder River (named after the prospector he met at that locality). Crossland took another group to the south to the Isdell River, which he followed down to Walcott Inlet (apart from being thwarted by the Isdell Gorge near the river’s mouth).
The combined party then proceeded up the Calder onto a tributary of the Prince Regent River. Brockman took a small party to the north west to Grey’s Glenelg River, and as far as Mount Trevor, from where they could see Mount Trafalgar across the mouth of the Prince Regent River. The party split again soon after, with Brockman continuing to the north to the Roe and Moran Rivers, then on to the King Edward and Carson Rivers and Napier Broome Bay, near present day Kalumburu. He then went on to the mouth of the Drysdale River before following that river up and cutting south east across country to arrive back in Wyndham on 26 November. Crossland during this time travelled east from the area near Mount Hann, followed up the Gibb River (which he named after the Government Geologist), then travelled along the Drysdale River before arriving in Wyndham on 18 November 1901.
The expedition travelled some 2,300 km in 6 months and 18 days, and named the Chamberlain, Calder, King Edward, Barton, Moran, and Gibb Rivers, and Gibson and Bachsten Creeks (Bachsten was a member of the Calder prospecting party). They also named Mounts Methuen, Trevor, Beatrice, Dorothy, and Hickey, and the Maitland Range. The geologists identified about 75% of the country as sandstone, the remaining 25% as basalt, and some 5 million acres were considered to be good grassland. However Brockman stated that “in no part of the country did I find timber or any indigenous product of any commercial value”.
Of the Aboriginal inhabitants, he was surprised at the low numbers encountered, and noted that “every party … even in the most remote localities, had axes and chisels made of iron (principally cart tire iron and shovel blades)”. Dr House documented numerous remarkable Aboriginal paintings on almost every available smooth, vertical face in the sandstone ranges, and the report of the expedition contains many exceptional photographs of some of the larger sites.
Dr House also collected for scientific purpose 2 mammals (1 headless due to an accident!) and 43 birds representing 29 species. The Director of the WA Museum at the time, B H Woodward, commented that “the Natural History specimens were all in excellent condition, and reflect the greatest credit on Dr. House, as it is not an easy matter to preserve the skins of small birds in a tropical environment”. The Museum’s Hon. Consulting Ornithologist, A W Milligan reported: “The collection includes . . . one bird absolutely new to science. With a due and proper appreciation of Dr. House’s labours and travail, I have taken the liberty of naming it after him, and it will, therefore, bear the scientific name of Amytis Housei, and the vernacular name of the ‘Black Grass Wren’”. It was not reported again for some 60 years.
The expedition was successful in mapping this large remaining blank area on the map of Australia, and left a legacy of valuable observations and photographs from 1901. There does not appear to be any record of the geological observations made by the two Government geologists on the expedition.
A PERSONAL VIEW OF REMOTE POLICING IN NORTHERN WA
On 6 August 2003, Inspector Martin Cope spoke to the Kimberley Society in place of Commander Lampard, who sent apologies for not being able to attend. Martin said he had been a Police Officer for 21 years but had not been stationed in the Kimberley. However he had served in a number of stations in the Pilbara and Goldfields where the circumstances were very similar. He cherished his time in the bush but, at present, he is in the NE Region Office in Perth where he is Project Manager of the Remote Service Delivery Project. The NE Region stretches from Esperance to Kalumburu and is the largest police jurisdiction in the world.
Many police find a northern lifestyle very attractive for themselves and family and never seek to return to offices in the metropolitan area. Those that avoid returning over many moves are considered to be members of the Norwest Club, which includes the Kimberley Club. Remote postings require police wives to be independent, sometimes acting as pseudo police, helping those who come to the door seeking assistance, providing meals for prisoners, etc. Martin has four children, two of whom were born in Port Hedland, one in Meekatharra (as was Martin's father) and finally one in Kalgoorlie. He was able to be present for every birth. All told, he has spent 15 years in the bush rather than the requisite two-year stint.
Martin recounted some anecdotes and mentioned that, in addition to policing, he had worked in Timor with the UN in connection with war crimes and general police duty. In one Australian incident, he and another officer were on Gary Highway in the Western Desert on their way to Kiwirrkurra when they camped at Elephant Junction. In the morning they found their battery was flat, all cells having collapsed, and they couldn't even get a message through. So they sat there for two days until headquarters sent a search plane beyond the place of their previous report and then arranged for a new battery to be sent out. To Martin's annoyance, when they got back he read an article in the newspaper headed "Two policemen lost in the bush". This was the first of various examples of misreporting he encountered in his career. He soon learned that, once printed, an article is seldom corrected.
On another occasion he took some German journalists with him on patrol to mine sites, stations, Aboriginal communities, desert, gorges, rivers etc. They were highly impressed and promised to send him a copy of their article when published. After many months a parcel finally arrived which Martin avidly opened only to find it was a copy of the German Playboy. He was somewhat relieved to find that he appeared in his uniform and that the article, once translated, was not sensational. At Marble Bar there was a feisty old man, a bit of a legend, who was always in some trouble or other—mainly fights—and spent a lot of his time in the lockup. When the warrants on him built up, he would call on Martin's wife Sandra, before giving himself up, to see what was on the menu for the lock up.
Police work can be dangerous. When flying into remote communities, aircraft can't always carry enough fuel to proceed to an alternative landing strip if something prevents a landing. It is essential for pilots to receive sufficient notice of poor landing conditions so that the trip can be aborted. In 2001, four police officers died coming into Newman when their plane crashed and, when talking about servicing remote locations, we should always remember the sacrifice they made. There are peer support mechanisms in the Police Force to help officers cope with trauma. For police in remote stations, help is 6–8 hours away. There is no tactical response group, and no detectives, so officers have to learn to deal with problems as best they can.
The Gordon Inquiry recently looked into problems faced by Aboriginal people and recommended that permanent police be put into the larger communities such as Balgo, Kalumburu, Bidyadanga, Warmun etc. The aim is to have most communities within a 200km radius of a police centre, enabling a faster response to problems and, through that, scope for improvements in health, education and the control of abuse of all kinds. Martin and another officer and administrative officer are working full time on this matter and will be placing 21 officers in the new positions. A total of 82 police volunteered for them—a response way beyond Martin's wildest dreams. This says a lot about the dedication of the police.
Most communities will have two officers but Warburton and the Dampier Peninsula will have four. Kintore will have three, with two of them being supplied by the NT. A whole range of logistical aspects has yet to be sorted out. These include dealing with the wet season, which is a challenge for remote communities such as Kalumburu.
In answering questions, Martin said that there would be no bar to female officers in the new positions. One female officer from Halls Creek is at Balgo at present dealing with an incident. He also mentioned that, although Aboriginal Police Liaison Officers have acted as mainstream police officers in the more remote areas in the past, the present police administration is changing that practise. The Scheme is being reviewed although the exact changes are not yet fully decided. In general, Aboriginal people in remote areas take police officers at face value. In one of the Kimberley towns, an Elder once said that the Police Sergeant makes the town.
Daphne Choules Edinger and Gilbert Marsh
SAVING THE WILDLIFE OF THE CENTRAL KIMBERLEY: THE PRIVATE SECTOR ROLE
On 3 September 2003, Martin Copley, founder of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, spoke to a Kimberley Society meeting about the work of the Conservancy and, in particular, about Mornington Station in the heart of the Kimberley. The purpose of the AWC is to save wildlife and ecosystems. Mammals have been the main focus of the work as a high proportion is threatened and they are a proxy for the health of the ecosystem.
The AWC started ten years ago with Karakamia Sanctuary near Mt Helena. This is a small property (250 hectares) which is securely fenced against feral animals and has been spectacularly successful in increasing populations of Woylies, Quenda and other small mammals. The excess population is translocated to Paruna, a nearby Avon Valley AWC sanctuary from where they spread naturally into adjacent National Parks.
The Conservancy now owns twelve sanctuaries around Australia, three in Queensland, one in NSW, three in South Australia and five in Western Australia. One of these is Faure Island in Shark Bay, a pastoral lease that had a big population of goats and feral cats. These have now been removed, making the island a safe sanctuary for rare species such as the Shark Bay Mouse and Burrowing Bettong, which were translocated to the island and are now breeding.
Mornington Station, of 312,000 hectares, is by far the largest property managed by AWC. It consists of tropical savannah with black soil plains, open eucalypt woodlands and rocky spinifex covered ranges including part of the King Leopold Range, and part of the upper Fitzroy River with Dimond and Sir John Gorges.
Until recently, the biodiversity of northern Australian was thought to be intact, and Mornington was to have displayed an intact ecosystem. But, prior to its purchase, wildlife populations had declined through subtle environmental changes and particularly a change in the fire regime with severe wild fires. There are believed to be a number of threatened species of mammals on Mornington.
Part of the strategy for restoring the ecosystem is to remove cattle, at least from the southern half of the property, and change the fire regime to a mosaic of burns leaving areas of different fire ages, which is not at all easy in practice. The fauna is incompletely known and there may be 40 species of mammals on the property; bird and fish lists are also incomplete. The Adcock and Hann rivers and numerous creeks run through the property providing over 100 km of riparian habitat with huge Focus and Terminalia trees on the banks of some and Pandanus thickets in the creeks. Annie Creek runs parallel to the access road to Mornington Wilderness Camp and borders the general camping area. It provides habitat for Purple-crowned Fairy Wrens and Crimson Finches among other birds. Livistona palms and rainforest remnants are features of some sheltered gullies.
Gladstone Lake, which is on the stock route rather than Mornington Station, is a wetland with a rich bird fauna sorely in need of conservation as it is badly degraded by cattle trampling. AWC hopes to be able to add Lake Gladstone to its conservation program.
Martin told us he had seen 63 species of birds, including the rare and spectacular Gouldian Finch, on one early morning walk of several hours. These birds are the subject of intense study to determine the cause of their decline. For most of the year Sorghum grass seed is the finches’ staple food but fires kill other grasses that seed during the wet season, when food is needed for their young. A change of fire regime to favour these grasses is one of the management tools proposed to assist recovery of the Gouldian Finch population.
Management is planned to be research driven so that the effects of cattle removal and changed fire regime are properly documented. AWC hopes to work with educational institutions and museums to document the fauna and carry out ecological research.
Mornington Station encourages visitors, providing a safari-style wilderness camp as well as a general camping area. They inherited a liquor licence and now have a restaurant in the same open-sided building among huge shade trees. Despite its remoteness (95 km south of the Gibb River Road), it is popular with visitors during the dry season. Several walk trails have been developed and more are planned.
Martin gave us an exciting insight into what can be achieved by the private sector in conservation to complement the work being undertaken by government agencies.
Loisette Marsh
WA'S PEARL HARBOUR: THE SUBMERGED AIRCRAFT WRECKS OF BROOME
On 1 October 2003, Dr. Mike McCarthy gave a polished talk on an investigation he directed into the flying boats that were destroyed by a Japanese aerial attack at Broome during World War II. Mike is the Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the W.A. Maritime Museum.
The investigation was carried out to support a successful nomination to the Heritage Council of W.A. to have the flying boat wreckage site at Broome entered in the Register of Heritage Places. The aim of the nomination was to provide for control of entry to the site and legal protection from looters or from interested organisations wishing to salvage relics. The site is rare as there are no other sites of such visible damage as a reminder of wartime attacks on Australia.
The 15 aircraft destroyed were participating in an effort to evacuate 8000 civilians from Java in 1942 in the face of the Japanese invasion of Indonesia. They had landed at Broome to refuel. The refuelling time and low tide delayed their departure for Perth and left them exposed to the attack by Japanese warplanes on the morning of 3 March 1942.
Most of the pilots, many of whom had gone without rest for days, were ashore overnight resting and preparing for the flight south. Unfortunately there was no accommodation for the passengers, who remained on board the aircraft. The numbers are not known, but it has been estimated that there were up to 50 on each aircraft. In the carnage that followed between 70 to 100 were killed in the raid including those on land. Only 30 bodies from the aircraft were ever recovered.
The 6 aircraft wrecks appearing on the mudflats at low tide have long been a source of fascination as a reminder of the horrors of war. By 1980 the appearance of the wrecks had been substantially altered due to removal of parts of the aircraft, much of which had taken place during the war. Few known attempts had been made to excavate within the mud filled hulls due to the difficulties imposed by the ingress of water and mud during tidal movements. An excavation in a Dornier wreck by aviation historian Stan Gadja in the 1970s showed that the interior of the wrecks are a rich source of artefacts.
Nine of the wrecks sank in deep water in the shipping channel or they sank onto the sloping mud bank at the side of the channel where their actual locations were soon forgotten. At the time of Gadja’s excavation these wrecks had not been relocated, except perhaps by fishermen not keen to divulge the location to others.
In 1980 as a result of concerns by the Shire of Broome about the projected salvage of relics by Perth and Eastern States aviation history groups it was ascertained that the American and Australian aircraft wrecks were the property of the Australian Government whilst the Dutch aircraft remained under the ownership of that Government.
Then in 1990, divers located some of the wrecks and recovered a machine gun and a number of significant artefacts including a child’s doll. As The W.A. Heritage Act was not in force at the time, the Broome Historical Society contacted a number of official bodies including the WA Maritime Museum, as a result of which loose legislative protection was given under air navigation and customs regulations which prohibited removal of material from wrecked aircraft and prohibited importation of aircraft parts without a permit. These regulations were made known to the divers and the looting ceased.
A management strategy was put in place by the Broome Historical Society, the RAAF Aviation Museum and the WA Maritime Museum. This included long term plans to locate, survey, interpret and mark all sites in a wreck trail “milieu” to be managed by the Broome Historical Society. Sponsorship was sought for funding but until this occurred the Broome Historical Society monitored visits to the sites. However, with the advent of the GPS and increasing interest in the deep water sites, it was evident that the loose legislative protection in place, possibly largely consisting of bluff, could not be relied upon for long.
Then in 1991 Woodside Petroleum and Associated Survey International assisted the Museum in carrying out survey work using a large boat and side scan sonar. A number of sites were identified but gear failure and the need for further funds for the Museum to inspect the sites halted this work.
Various funding proposals, including a proposed film by noted aviation photographer Jon Davison, came to nought until, using Davison’s proposal, a “Shipwrecks Detective” series including the Broome Aircraft Wrecks was developed and accepted by Prospero Productions. This provided funds needed to complete the survey and inspection of the wrecks. So at last in 2001, assisted by Prospero, the Museum carried out further side scan sonar work resulting in the location of 15 sites including some very clear images. At the same time interviews resulted in the compilation of a comprehensive oral history. Jeremy Green led the remote sensing and Corioli Souter the oral history programs. Finally, a site inspection and test excavating regime was commenced under Mike’s leadership. Great assistance was provided by Broome residents, notably Jeff Parker and John Lashmar of the Broome Historical Society.
Some of the images projected by Mike showed the aircraft in configurations that indicated they had burnt close to the waterline before they sank, with the wings and tail planes collapsing around the hulls as they sank. Much of the wrecks and their contents were quickly covered with deep layers of mud providing an anaerobic environment allowing even quite fragile objects to remain preserved.
The investigation into the wrecks and their history was incorporated into the WA Maritime Museum Report No 170 to provide documentation for entry into the Register of Heritage Places. At the end of 2002, this resulted in Dr Judy Edwards, the Minister for the Environment and Heritage, publishing a Conservation Order for the protection of the wreck sites under the terms of the Heritage of Western Australia Act 1990.
Large portions of some of the wrecks were missing and the reason for this was not clear until Daphne Edinger contacted Mike with further information. At the conclusion of his address he asked Daphne to speak about this. Daphne knew that her father, Claude Choules, now aged 102 and the oldest Naval Veteran in Australia, had been involved with clearing some of these wrecks, so she asked him for details. He told her the wrecks in the navigation channel had to be removed because the site was needed for a Catalina base. At the time Claude was a Chief Petty Officer and the Navy’s demolition expert, stationed at HMAS Leeuwin in Fremantle. He was sent to Broome with a team of 4 divers to blow up the wrecks and clear the channel. A small vessel; HMAS King Bay, of some 50–60 feet was commandeered and, with a crew, Claude and the divers set sail for Broome. They were in Broome for three months from December 1942 to February, and working every day they blew the aircraft into segments they could handle with a derrick on the vessel. These were transported to deep water beyond the 100 m line where they would not be washed back in again. And so the mystery was solved after 50 years of doubt. This important information is presently being pursued by student Silvano Jung, who is completing the work started by the Museum as part of his Doctorate.
Daphne Choules Edinger and Gilbert Marsh
LEPROSY IN THE NORTH OF THE STATE – AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
On 5 November 2003, Dr Randolph Spargo gave the Kimberley Society meeting a comprehensive and interesting account of leprosy in the north of the state. Randy joined the Health Department in 1968 and was assigned to the Derby Leprosarium.
First, he spoke a little about the condition to explain its history in the north. Leprosy and tuberculosis are related diseases; both caused by a myobacterium that only reproduces within mammals. Elsewhere in the world, other than affecting humans, leprosy is known to infect only armadillos and certain mice.
Leprosy affects two facial bones, the destruction of which causes collapse of the nose and loss of the upper incisor teeth, giving rise to a characteristic appearance known as facies leprosae or Bergens Syndrome. This allows people to trace the history of leprosy through examination of skeletal remains or through reports of early explorers and settlers.
There is no evidence of leprosy in WA prior to European contact. The first cases occurred in the south of the State. Although there was considerable opportunity, it was not passed on to the southern Aboriginal population. This is believed to be due to cross protection afforded by tuberculosis, which ravaged these Aborigines.
The northern Aborigines escaped a tuberculosis epidemic due to a combination of factors. Firstly, some 100 years ago, unfounded concerns about the spread of syphilis from northern Aborigines to the European population helped to shape policies that effectively separated Aboriginal and white society. These policies tended to conceal the plight of Aborigines from public scrutiny for many years. Secondly, white settlement interrupted the Aboriginal nomadic lifestyle in the north and many people became aggregated into camps alongside settlements. Isolation of one settlement from another by long distances kept contact to a minimum. Later tests showed that Aboriginal contact with tuberculosis was related to the density of the white population which was very small in the Kimberley. The result was that leprosy introduced into the Kimberley some 100 years ago found an Aboriginal population with no resistance to the disease.
The first recorded leprosy case in WA was a Chinese migrant in Roebourne in 1889. By 1917, only 22 cases were on record, all close to Roebourne. The first in the Kimberley was reported in 1908 and only 5 more by 1924. However inaccessibility of the Kimberley Aboriginal communities concealed the beginnings of a leprosy epidemic amongst the Aborigines, the seriousness of which was not realised as it gained momentum. Occasional large ceremonial congregations, intertribal marriage customs and trade route activities, principally for pearl shell, guaranteed intergroup transmission. Also the policy of walking leprosy patients over long distances to Derby must have contributed to widespread transmission of the disease. Furthermore the Aboriginals naturally believed they were better served by their medicine men than by the white medical fraternity.
Once admitted to hospital, hardly anyone was ever discharged as there was still no effective treatment. So why should they present themselves for treatment? As one Aboriginal put it: "Black fellow get lump sick, boss send him hospital, can't come back, lose wife, piccaninny belong him, got nothing, finish up!" For many years infected persons were hidden away by their communities.
In 1930 an offer by the Sisters of St John of God of Beagle Bay to care for leprosy patients, if a hospital were to be built in the Kimberley, was declined as the Commonwealth was about to care for all leprosy patients at Darwin. This facility was soon overloaded. The seriousness of the situation in the Kimberley was realised and this, combined with reports about maltreatment of those sent to Darwin, caused a Royal Commission to be established in 1934. On visiting the Kimberley, the Commissioner became so concerned about the epidemic and maltreatment of patients that he sent a preliminary report to the Governor. The Government moved quickly and the present Leprosarium was built and occupied in 1936. The care was entrusted to the Beagle Bay nuns six years after their original offer was declined.
Thorough combing of the Kimberley for infected persons was begun. It was thought that removal of highly infectious persons from the population would put a brake on the epidemic. Later, Randy was dismayed to learn that, years before clinical signs of the disease were evident, an individual would be highly infectious.
The method of transmission remained a mystery even in 1968 when Randy went to the Kimberley. It was thought that transmission was by prolonged close contact with sweaty sufferers. It turned out that the spread of the disease was by droplet infection from the nose.
A cure for leprosy only became possible in 1941 when sulphones were found to be effective, but it was many years before one of these, Dapsone, became available to the Leprosarium. Efforts were then concentrated on controlling relapse. Outpatient care with supervision of daily medication by such non-medical people as station managers’ wives failed, as did a scheme whereby Public Health nurses did the rounds periodically to check the situation. Success was achieved when a 6-weekly injectable form of Dapsone became available and responsibility for treatment was placed with the health team. More effective drugs appeared and the numbers of patients in the Leprosarium soon dwindled. The Leprosarium was closed in 1986. Randy's efforts to keep it open for general use for Aboriginal Health fell on deaf ears, but he was surprised it was given away rather than burned to the ground as had happened earlier at Cossack.
Questions followed. Yes, medical staff did become infected. Lawson Holman—the doctor at Derby when Randy went up—got the disease but recovered. Were there epidemics elsewhere? Yes, in Nauru. There were no fences at the Derby Leprosarium. One of the problems was keeping people out. It had a wonderful ambience, like a resort.
Daphne Choules Edinger and Gilbert Marsh
UNDER A REGENT MOON: JOSEPH BRADSHAW AND AENEAS GUNN ON THE PRINCE REGENT RIVER
At the 3 December 2003 meeting of the Kimberley Society, Tim Willing and Kevin Kenneally talked about their research leading to the publication Under a Regent Moon - A historical account of pioneer pastoralists Joseph Bradshaw and Aeneas Gunn at Marigui Settlement, Prince Regent River, Kimberley, Western Australia, 1891-1892.
Tim and Kevin both work for the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) and have extensive experience of conducting fieldwork in the Kimberley. Tim is based in Broome and Kevin in Perth. They have an interest in the history of the region, especially when it involves people who have collected plant specimens or made natural history observations during their travels. Their talk was illustrated by numerous slides of the people and places involved in the Marigui saga.
In 1890 Joseph Bradshaw was drawn into the exploration and pastoral development of the Kimberley. He established Marigui Homestead on the remote Prince Regent River. In this endeavour his cousin Aeneas Gunn accompanied him. The pastoral venture failed but Gunn wrote a remarkable memoir ‘Pioneering in Northern Australia’ in twenty-four articles of graphic prose. It is these long forgotten items that form the basis of the history and background to the Marigui settlement. Gunn was later to be immortalised as "The Maluka" in his wife Jeannie Gunn's Australian classic, We of the Never-Never. Bradshaw's name continues to echo through the Kimberley to the present day, due to his discovery of the Aboriginal figurative rock art commonly referred to as "Bradshaw figures".
Prior to his marriage and the Marigui fiasco, Bradshaw had led an overland expedition from Wyndham across the central Kimberley watershed to a point we now know was in Prince Frederick Harbour. Believing himself to be on the Prince Regent River, when he was actually well north on the Roe River, Bradshaw sketched striking tassel-adorned ochre figures observed in some caves. The sketches were later published in his expedition report, making him the first European to document this art style, unique to the north Kimberley region.
Incredibly, it was only in 1997 that Bradshaw's "cave of sketches" was successfully relocated by Kimberley Society members Michael and Wendy Cusack. The name Bradshaw has stuck in rock art literature, although some prefer to call the much-celebrated style by its Aboriginal name, Gwion-Gwion.
The Prince Regent River, in the far north-west Kimberley, remains today as one of Australia's most remote wilderness areas. No roads penetrate its rugged sandstone ranges, and a tide-race with formidable whirlpools restricts access from seaward. Upstream from the veritable inland sea of St. George Basin, the Prince Regent River runs straight as an arrow into the heart of the Kimberley Plateau, following an ancient fault line. The Prince Regent Nature Reserve, created in 1964, covers some 633,825 hectares, protecting almost the entire river catchment. The Reserve was nominated a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1978, in recognition of its outstanding intact wildlife and pristine values.
The first-known Europeans to gaze on this Regent scene were the botanist, Allan Cunningham, and ship's surgeon, James Hunter, in September 1820 on the survey vessel Mermaid, under the command of Lieutenant Phillip Parker King. While the ship was undergoing emergency hull repairs at Careening Bay, the pair had climbed a prominent hill, which they named Mount Knight. From this peak, their eyes were drawn to a glimmering inland tidal basin, as well as a skyline dominated by a spectacular tilted mesa.
In the oral traditions of the Wororra, the local Aboriginal people, this mighty mesa, Ngayangkarnanya, had been carried in the Dreamtime from the north by a vast shoal of fish, sharks and crabs. The colossal weight of the load not only exhausted them, it squashed many flat - creating in the process both rays and shovel-nosed sharks!
Unaware of these ancient legends Phillip Parker King and the crew of HMC Mermaid ventured in to explore the basins and navigable lower river, bestowing British names with patriotic zeal. The Prince Regent River was named for the Hanoverian prince, shortly to succeed his incapacitated father, George III, and reign in his own right as King George IV. The 391-metre mesa was named Mount Trafalgar by P P King, in honour of Nelson's great naval victory of 1805. An adjacent lesser peak was named Mount Waterloo, after the Belgian village that witnessed the decisive defeat of Napoleon by the Duke of Wellington's army.
Seventy years later, another sailing ship, gliding in on the flood tide, ghosted into St. George Basin in sweltering November heat. On the deck of the ketch, The Twins, three months out from Melbourne, stood hen-coops, dog-kennels, a pair of goats and a dozen expectant humans. Leading the party was Joseph Bradshaw, a Collins Street investor, who one year earlier had secured from the Western Australian Government a one million-acre pastoral lease over the entire Prince Regent basin. Also aboard were Mary Jane Bradshaw, Joseph's musically-gifted wife, her maid, a Chinese cook, a Scottish sea captain and several sailors, hailing from Mediterranean ports.
Bradshaw named their settlement 'Marigui', based on information contained in P P King's published journals. King had visited Kupang (Timor) in 1818 and was advised by one of the fishing fleet leaders that large numbers of Indonesian vessels made annual visits south to fish for the tropical Asian delicacy bêche-de-mer (also called trepang). King recorded that the name they used for the northern Australian coast was 'Marega'. However, it has now been established that the name Marega was more accurately applied to Arnhem Land and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The name given by the Indonesians to the Kimberley coast was 'Kaju Jawa' or 'Kai Jawa', a name apparently derived from a type of mangrove tree, the bark of which gives the bêche-de-mer a distinctive red colour.
A search for water by Bradshaw's party ensued, leading to the discovery of a spring trickling to the mangrove-fringed shore below Mount Waterloo. Tents were duly pitched under boab trees but Bradshaw's failure to include mosquito nets caused the party much discomfit. Bradshaw supervised the construction of a timber and iron homestead, and laid plans to stock the run with sheep. Observing the scene with a discerning eye for detail, a poet's soul and a larrikin wit was Aeneas Gunn, Joseph's 29-year-old cousin. When the Marigui venture failed, Bradshaw – undeterred as ever – commenced yet another pastoral empire on the Victoria River in the Northern Territory.
In Melbourne, some eight years later, Gunn converted into newspaper prose his vivid recollections of the party’s hair-raising northern voyages, philosophical musings and tragi-comic debacles in the service of his hero, Joseph Bradshaw. The modern voyager to the Kimberley coast, aboard a luxury charter vessel, can simply record highlights of the passing scenery on video. This contrasts strikingly with Gunn's era, when a deft literary touch was needed to convey such imagery. Gunn recalled from the deck of The Twins:
The run thence [from Cape Londonderry] to the Prince Regent River was along a coast, the scenery of which is to the voyager a long panorama of wild grandeur. Huge scowling cliffs and bluffs of sandstone frown with red-hot angry faces on intruding ship and encroaching sea. The faces are scarred, gashed and wrinkled by the eternal onslaught of the elements. Centuries of ceaseless change have contorted the mountain masses into wild fantastic shapes, or built them into semblances of ruined towered cities, battered fortresses or crumbling amphitheatres. The pushing tides have gnawed deep bays, long reaches, and wide harbours out of their stern adamantine walls or wrenched from them masses of rugged rocky islands.
Day by day we sped past towering islands, clad with rich folds of tropical vegetation from rocky base to flat-topped summit, past tall commanding promontories with rounded basalt bases, down narrow channels fretted through wild lines of ragged rocks, and through noble straits dotted with islands and indented by secret coves and broad bays. At night the schooner, like a tired bird, would fold its wings and rest in some quiet haven hewn out of rocky hills or lie rolling to her anchor...
Retrieved from obscurity and presented consecutively for the first time since publication in 1899, Gunn's 24 articles were originally headlined ‘Pioneering in Northern Australia’. Comprising the heart of the new book, Under A Regent Moon, they will be a revelation to all Australians, detailing a forgotten chapter in the history of the Kimberley frontier. Gunn's perspective is without parallel and, at times, frankly controversial in depicting the hostile relationship that soon developed between the would-be settlers and the Wororra warriors, who were defending their country.
Besides editing Gunn's erudite memoirs with extensive footnotes, and locating Gunn's sketches in Sydney's Mitchell Library, Tim and Kevin delved deeply into the State Archives. They uncovered Bradshaw's forgotten pastoral maps and original correspondence, as well as his pressed plant collections preserved in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.
In 1988, staff from the Department of Conservation and Land Management, investigating sites for a possible field research station in the Prince Regent Nature Reserve rediscovered the ruins of the Marigui settlement. Encouraged by Chris Done, who was then CALM's Kimberley Regional Manager, a LANDSCOPE Expedition subsequently returned to investigate the area in July 1997. Walking through the dry grassland at the base of Mount Trafalgar, expedition members found a boab tree with the inscription "A J GUNN" carved into the trunk. Kevin and Tim revisited the site again in 2003 on another LANDSCOPE Expedition and a more detailed survey was made of the settlement site. A number of artefacts recovered were presented to the Western Australian Museum.
The strange twist of fate that led to Aeneas Gunn becoming known to generations of Australians as "The Maluka" warrants a comment. After a stint as a librarian in Prahran, Victoria, Gunn had married a Melbourne teacher, Jeannie Taylor, in 1901. The couple swiftly relocated to the Northern Territory, after Aeneas accepted a position as manager of Elsey Station. Malarial dysentery sent him to an early grave in 1903, at the age of 41. Jeannie returned to Melbourne, never to re-marry. She achieved international acclaim as a writer of works that included We of the Never-Never, published in 1908.
It remains a poignant irony that Gunn's own fine writing has been allowed to languish in obscurity for over a century – until now.
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