KIMBERLEY CAMEOS: BROOME, BIRDS AND ABORIGINAL ART

At the Society's meeting on 7 February 1996, the audience heard cameo presentations on three individual topics. The first speaker was an old Broome identity, Thomas Dampier Chapple, whose parents arrived in the pearling port in 1901. Tom was born there and recalled some of his childhood in a talk entitled "Snippets from the Early Days of Broome". A story about growing up on goat's milk, which was so rich that he ended up being 14 stone when he went away to school, at the age of 14, drew some laughs, as did a few of his other stories.

Tom's tales gave us insight into an unusual childhood spent with a multi-racial background of Aborigines, Malays, Koepangers, Chinese and Japanese, the latter being the leading pearl shell divers, and the odd English remittance man. This racial mixture caused much tension, and fighting was common, but there was also entertainment through such venues as the Sun Picture Gardens. Ted Hunter opened this silent movie venue in 1916, and we heard how the tram delivered patrons to the front door under the watchful eye of the owner. The Sun Picture Gardens still function today, and the place is recognised as an important heritage site.

It was clear that Tom has many more yarns to tell—perhaps none as comical as the one we heard about the Asian cook and the one-legged "chooks"—and that he is very much a living part of the history of the town of Broome. We look forward to more reminiscences in the future.

Our second speaker was the well-known photographer of natural history and author of many books, Michael Morcombe, who spoke about "Wildlife Photography in the Kimberley". We heard about his first Kimberley trip, which was done in 1967, driving a Holden panel van with a faulty radiator in late October. Michael was with Malcolm Lewis (a fellow Kimberley Society member) concentrating on the south west part of the area, and they got no further north than the King Leopold Ranges.

His next trip was to Drysdale River and Mitchell Plateau, which they had all to themselves. Here he told a story about having an olive python in one hand and a giant s
Birds are Michael's favourite subject and he delighted us with slides of the Kimberley's best, too beautiful and numerous to mention. But the lengths the photographers go for a good shot of birds in nests was astounding. The height of the scaffolding necessary to construct a flimsy hide beside a giant gum tree was amazing and they really deserve every good picture they get.

Pat Vinnicombe was our final speaker. An anthropologist and archaeologist currently working with the Aboriginal Affairs Department, she spoke on "Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings from Turkey Creek". The community at Turkey Creek, which is located between Halls Creek and Kununurra, is known as Warmun, and artists from the area include Queenie McKenzie and the internationally known Rover Thomas.

We were privileged to see not only Pat's excellent slides of the artists and their work but also some of the actual artefacts which have been used in dances and were loaned by Subiaco art dealer Mary Macha, who was a guest at the talk. Pat spoke of the role of the eagle hawk and kangaroos in the mythology of the area, and she also explained the ways in which some paintings represent the country of the artist. Of great interest was her description of how the dot painting techniques of the Warmun people differ from those of many other Aboriginal people and, in this regard, we heard how the people have adapted their art forms to reflect the introduction of new mediums into their society. Put very simply, the light coloured dots in the Warmun paintings have evolved from the earlier practice of using small tufts of fibres from the coats of animals to decorate ceremonial boards that were carried during dances. Pat also mentioned that the colours used by the artists are still made from the traditional materials and illustrated this point with slides of women out collecting these materials.

As with the other two speakers, we felt that we had had no more than a glimpse into an area about which there was so much more to learn. We look forward to an opportunity to see and hear more at future meetings.

Daphne Choules Edinger

FOSSIL VERTEBRATE TREASURES FROM THE KIMBERLEY

At the March 1996 meeting, Dr John Long, Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum, introduced Society members and guests to recent fossil discoveries, particularly of fishes, in the Kimberley region

John has had eight field seasons in the Kimberley since 1986 amassing an enormous amount of material that takes painstaking work to prepare before the skulls are revealed in three dimensional perfection. This work enables the reconstruction of musculature and nerve and blood circulatory pathways, and even phosphatised muscle and collagen in cell spaces is preserved. The Kimberley's Devonian fish fossils are thus of great international importance.

John showed, by means of beautiful slides, how the Devonian limestone reefs which encircle the Kimberley, such as the Emanuel Range, enclosed quiet embayments (now valley floors) where continual weathering has exposed limestone nodules. About one in two thousand of these nodules contains a fossil fish. Forty new species of fossil fishes have been described from the Kimberley, and one of the nodules contained a late Devonian placoderm fish from Gogo station (Mcnamaraspis), which has been selected as Western Australia's fossil emblem.

The Kimberley has examples of fossils from the oldest life on earth, 3.5 billion year old stromatolites, to fossil marsupials, represented by a Diprotodon jaw found near Kununurra.

Armoured fishes (placoderms) and cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyans) developed together through the Devonian period but the Placoderms became extinct by the end of the Devonian 355 million years ago while the cartilaginous fishes continued as the still very successful sharks, almost unchanged from their ancestors of 400 million years ago. Bony fishes appeared in the late Silurian (410 million years ago) and they too can be found in Kimberley deposits along with the other groups.

One of the most interesting placoderms was Bothriolepis with the pectoral fins forming long segmented arms. he genus has been found in every continent, suggesting it lived in the sea, but all the fossils are from fresh water deposits. It had lung-like organs and may have used its arms to crawl out of pools to escape predators and invade new pools.

Fossil fishes have also been found at Carlton Hill station and the Hargrave Range in the north Kimberley, while a bone bed in the Blina shale of the Erskine ranges, dated at 230 million years, has produced an early amphibian, Blinasaurus, about 60 cm long. Dinosaur footprints are well known from the Broome area where John and others have found evidence of at least seven species in the Cretaceous (about 130 million years old) Broome Sandstone. These include the three toed theropods (similar to Tyrannosaurus rex) whose gait, deduced from trackways, is mammalian rather than reptilian, some hand and foot prints of sauropods (like Apatosaurus), an ornithopod (like Iguanodon) from Prices Point, and the first Australian record of Stegosaurid from Australia.

Throughout his talk, John held the audience enthralled with his animated delivery and his slides of fossils, reconstructions and the remarkable rock formations in which they are found.

Loisette Marsh

On Easter Sunday 1996, Jim and Norma Anderson, the current caretakers of the homestead at Liveringa station, which is part of the holdings of the Anglo Australian Food Company and run by Bruce Gray out of Camballin, were delighted to be able to invite members of the Kimberley Society and their guests to join them for a day focussed on the construction and architecture of the buildings and their history.

Everyone enjoyed a sumptuous morning tea on arrival before Jim, a sprightly septuagenarian, guided the interested group through the many outbuildings surrounding the homestead, taking time to explain the many fascinating features and stories involved with each building.

First settled in 1881, Liveringa Station has survived periods of prosperity along with periods of downturn. Around 1886/1888 the first homestead, shearing shed, woolshed, store room and kitchen, took shape under John McLarty, first manager of the Kimberley Pastoral Company Limited. Situated on a high knoll overlooking a beautiful tree lined billabong, with the huge Fitzroy River flood plain to Mount Wynne in the far distance, this homestead sheltered many within its secure walls. It even played host as a polling station for the election of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives in 1901.

Made out of bush timbers and corrugated iron, the original homestead was demolished in 1908 as the present one took shape under the third manager, Percy Rose. The following notes, taken from his diaries, tell some of the story:

1902 Tuesday Feb 4 "Bates laying wool room floor"

Friday Feb 7 "Bates still laying wool room floor and Lethbridge and Kilpatrick raising and carting flooring stones - Smith making wool bins - Lovegrove camped here"

1904 Friday Jan 8 "Stewart Stone working on store building - Bullocky Ned Kangaroo Sambo and Willie getting out stone etc to start inner foundations. Speed squaring stone and Fahey cutting timber with boys"

Saturday Jan 9 "Stewart Stone working on store building - Bullocky Ned Kangaroo Sambo and Willie getting stone and starting oven and fireplace"

As Liveringa homestead began to take shape, the outer walls, which were eighteen inches thick, were built from Permian Age sandstone, quarried in the area, and termed by the geologists as being "young rock - only 320 million years old". In the 1940s at the end of an intensive water boring programme, the station possessed 52 bores servicing stock as well as a 96 km frontage to the Fitzroy River, 1290 kms of fencing, 480 kms of roads, and 57 paddocks. At this stage of the station's history, the land was still running sheep, and, in the year 1942, a total of 83,000 sheep produced a quality 1500 bales of wool. A 16 stand shearing shed still exists today and, in the same area, are the shearers quarters, kitchen and recreation room along with a number of other station requirements such as workshops, saddle room, store room, cool room, meat room, dairy room and power house. The tree-lined billabong located some 150 metres away is part of the Uralla Creek and has never been known to go dry.

Amongst those who visited Liveringa were Pam Masters, Peter O'Dwyer, Bruce Gray, Henry and June Gooch, Else Archer and daughter Susan from South Hedland, Margaret Heseltine, Brian and Carmel Moore, Chris, Jenny & Mrs Kloss and grandchildren, Janice Kent-McKenzie, Gwyneth White, Fiona Grierson, Janet Lankester and Perpetua Hobcroft from Broome, and Jenny Bryant from Perth. Old photos of mule-mounted stockmen, water boring plants, grinding cutters, and donkey power from the wool era (1930-1950s) enthralled the visitors, along with the startling photo of the giant salt water croc caught in the nearby Lulugui billabong after it had lunched on a local Aboriginal.

June Gooch, a daughter of Kim Rose, Manager of Liveringa from 1930 to 1961, had married husband Henry on the lawns of the homestead and was delighted to be able to revisit the old place. She had many wonderful tales to tell of growing up in such a delightful environment, and the footprints of young June and her siblings are imprinted forever in the concrete around a swimming pool was built in August 1950 specifically to keep everyone out of the dangerous waters of the billabong.

Carol-Ann Jones

On 3 April 1996, Kim Epton told members of Kimberley Society about his research into the naming of Kimberley rivers. He opened by acknowledging that these rivers were known to Aboriginal inhabitants of the area prior to their "discovery" and naming by European explorers and settlers. Of the 109 rivers in the Kimberley, 12 have names of Aboriginal derivation, and Kim pointed out that Aboriginal people applied names to sections rather than the whole river. Fourteen or more names exist for sections of the Fitzroy, for instance.

The impressive range of statistics that Kim presented included the following:

* the Kimberley rivers account for 75% of the State's total divertible water resources;

* fourteen of these watercourses are less than 20 kilometres in length;

* most flow only after the rains of the "wet" season, even the mighty Ord and the Fitzroy, which carry the largest volume of water of any rivers in Australia; and

* the district's annual rainfall varies from 1400 mm on the Mitchell Plateau to 400 mm on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert.

The audience heard that the Fitzroy, at 622 kilometres, is the longest river in the Kimberley and the fifth longest in Western Australia. The average annual flow of 8,225,000,000 cubic metres, measured at Fitzroy Crossing, was described as "enough to cover the whole of Australia to a depth of one metre" whilst the flow during the month of March alone is as great as the total annual useable water resources of the State's south-west. Indeed, according to Kim, the instantaneous flow rate of 20,000 cubic metres per second, recorded during a very heavy "wet" in February 1993, would fill Canning Reservoir in 75 minutes if it could be maintained.

The Ord's average annual flow is 4,300,000,000 cubic metres and greater than any other river in Australia. During one particularly wet year it discharged 121,500,000,000 cubic metres into the ocean. This enormous quantity of water is equivalent to all the divertible surface and groundwater resources in the whole State in an average year. And, in another comparison, Kim described a flow of 33,000 cubic metres per second, recorded before the construction of the Ord Dam, as enough to fill Mundaring Weir in 38 minutes. The Ord River drains 44,000 square kilometres of country (a slightly larger area than Holland).

Kim divided the European discovery and naming of rivers in the Kimberley into five broad phases of exploration:

1. Water and land borne exploration of the coastline in 1819-20 and 1838;

2. Land and water based exploration around Camden Harbour 1864-1865;

3 . Alexander Forrest's 1879 major expedition, which opened up the Kimberley and the exploration which resulted over the next ten years including searches for pastoral land, the Kimberley Survey Expeditions and gold prospecting;

4. Frank Hann's penetration of the King Leopold Ranges in 1898, which was followed by Fred Brockman's 1901 expedition; and

5. Later exploration, mainly as a result of government activities.

In moving on to factors that influenced the naming of the Kimberley rivers, Kim observed that "few areas are more subject to egotism, undue influence, toadyism, sycophancy and sometimes outright admiration than the efforts people make to have a name applied to a natural feature or enduring object". Five of the 11 persons who have held the position of Surveyor General of Western Australia from 1829 to 1987 (when it was abolished) had rivers in the Kimberley named after them. These men are: Malcolm Fraser, John Forrest, H.F. Johnston, F.S. Brockman and John Morgan. By comparison, only three of the State's Governors - W.C.F. Robinson, Sir Henry Ord and Sir Arthur Lawley - have been accorded this honour. Kim attributed this situation to explorers being more likely to honour their immediate superiors, and he pointed out that two rivers in the Kimberley - the Barker and the Townshend - were named after Governors' wives.

The Mitchell River was named in 1921, by government surveyor William Easton, probably after Sir James Mitchell who was Premier and Minister for Lands at the time. Another three Kimberley rivers have been named after Australian politicians: Edmund Barton (Australia's first PM), Charles Moran (one of WA's youngest politicians), and George Throssell (member for Northam for 20 years and Commissioner of Crown Lands when the river was named).

Of the remaining 95 Kimberley rivers, 19 were named for fellow explorers or expeditioners, i.e., Calder, De Lancourt, Durack, Fitzroy, Fletcher, Gibb, Hann, Helby, Hunter, King, Lyne, McRae, O'Donnell, Pentecost, Salmond, Thompson, Turner, Ullinger, and Woodhouse. Thirteen rivers were named after local identities, notably by Frank Hann, and the people so honoured were: Adcock, Barnett, Charnley, Chapman, Cunninghame, Fox, Gliddon, Isdell, James, Keep, Logue, Pearson, and Traine. Twelve rivers were given Aboriginal names of various meanings: Irgulba, Jinunga, Kammargoorh, Kyulgam, Lillybooroora, Lydarrba, Mundurrul, Parderoora, Tarraji, Warada, Yeeda, and Yuraddagi. Another twelve rivers were named after family members, friends, etc. called Berckelman, Berkeley, Dunham, Elvire, Lennard, Louisa, Margaret, Mary, May, Richenda, Roe, and Sprigg. Eleven more were given descriptive names, i.e. Black Elvire, Fish, Fraser South, Hann North, Little Fitzroy, Little Gold, Little Logue, Little Panton, Little Tarraji, Upper Panton, and the Watery River.

Alexander Forrest's enthusiasm for naming features after foreign supporters of geographic research accounted for the nomenclature of some of the six rivers named after monarchs or overseas notables, i.e., Negri, Behn, King Edward, King George, Leopold, and Prince Regent. Five rivers were named for colonial officials resident in England or Western Australia, i.e. Chamberlain, Gairdner, Glenelg, Middleton, and Sale, whilst five were named after company directors, shareholders or landholders, i.e., Carson, Drysdale, Panton, Patrick, and Wilson. The Bow was named after an overseas river, the Meda after a ship, and, at the end of Kim's exhaustive list, we are left with ten rivers that have names of unknown derivation. These are the Armanda, Ernest, Frank, Keightly, Laura, Minnie, Nicholson, Stewart, Trent, and Wood.

Among Kim's many accounts of the discovery and naming of the Kimberley rivers was the story of the 1963 discovery that the course of the De Lancourt River was shown in an impossible position on the then current public plan. The course had been derived from a sketch drawn by J.C. De Lancourt in 1926; but to enter the Timor Sea near Buckle Head, as shown on the plan, the river would have had to flow uphill! As a result, the course of the river was deleted from the public plan. To retain the name De Lancourt, however, it was applied to the largest, unnamed stream joining the Berkeley River south of Campbell Range.

Despite this decision, the course of the river is still shown incorrectly on the current 1:250,000 and 1:100,000 topographical maps. In the upper reaches, the name De Lancourt River has been applied to a tributary and the main river is shown as an unnamed tributary. Kim has initiated action to have this error corrected and, whilst his accounts of other rivers are far too numerous to be covered here, more information is available in his book Rivers of the Kimberley: Their Discovery and Naming, private publication, Perth, 1996, 135 pp, ISBN 0 9586539 1 7.

Cathie Clement

Peter Bindon, who spoke to Kimberley Society in May 1996, was at that time Head of the Anthropology Department at the Western Australian Museum. His research activities embrace Aboriginal topics and Mangroves, and Peter spoke of working in beautiful Cone Bay on Oobagooma Station where the mangals are flooded twice daily. He called it a vision of Paradise where the creeks are fringed with weeping Ficus leucotricha and the nearby granite outcrops are succeeded by distant dry spinifex plains. Excellent slides transported the audience to Cone Bay and to such places as Pea Hill (Umpampurra) on Noonkanbah Station, Arnhem Land with its low mud flats, mangals, eroded limestone and riverine thickets, gorge areas and boabs in savanna woodlands with the dense grass understorey. Peter also told how plants spread into the Kimberley from Asia, e.g. the grasses, and how Australia's marsupials didn't escape and are therefore unique, while placental mammals were excluded.

The reason the Top End interests anthropologists so deeply is that this is where, in one of the times when the sea level was low enough for people to walk to Australia, the first colonisers would have landed. Australia was the first continent to be colonised from the sea, but were the rafts made by Kimberley Aborigines suitable water craft for the colonists to come to Australia? Now, even though the Kimberley has many drowned river valleys, the ancient coastlines have been lost through numerous changes in the sea floor.

Peter cited N.W.G. McIntosh, Professor of Anatomy, who says the stamp of Homo erectus is on our Aboriginal people, which strengthens the view that they arrived 55,000 years ago. There's a good case to show that they arrived in the Kimberley first, spread around the coast, and then inland. All speculation of course. Nonetheless, these people did have edge ground stone axes flaked out of pieces of metamorphic rock 23,000 years ago and the use of this technology has only been dated 9,000 years ago elsewhere in the world.

For the age of Aboriginal art, there are no answers, but Peter argued that some of this art is very close to African art and features extinct animals such as Sthenurus, a kangaroo and a giant moa, a huge python as thick as a human, large komodo dragons and huge wombats. The Wandjina figures have nebula like saints, raindrops for their gowns and no mouths as they are spirits that don't talk. Older figures known as Bradshaws are often underneath these paintings while others depict bees and sugarbag with honey shown in holes in the rock. Peter commented that beeswax was used as a cement and, in showing us many different slides of art forms in different areas, pointed out perspective that often resulted in a creature having unseen body parts portrayed on the visible side, e.g. two eyes on the same side of the head.

In discussing artefacts, Peter mentioned fish traps and stone arrangements in mud flats. The latter relate to birth and death cycles and occur across the continent. Heaps of stones also mark increase sites, which tie the people close to their religion and their land. The Carr Boyd Ranges are rich in art, grinding stones and brushes, and we heard about glass flaked spear heads, which take 20 minutes to make, found in Hermits Cave. The owners would have carried these spearheads tied up in topknots on top of their heads. In another limestone cave, someone had left a cache of glass, horseshoe nails, and string made from human hair. He offered many more snippets and, after his most interesting talk on an intriguing subject, Peter fielded many questions from the audience and said that plenty more questions remain unanswered.

Daphne Choules Edinger

The design requirement varies with the importance of the road, but in the Kimberley, bridges and associated floodways are required to allow cars through during a flood which has a recurrence interval of 50 years, or put in another way, for a flood which has a probability of 0.02 of occurring in any one year.

It is particularly difficult to determine what is the 50 year flood in a river such as the Fitzroy. Above Fitzroy Crossing the catchment is steep and rocky, whereas below it passes through flat absorbent country. In smaller streams where storms affect the whole of the catchment, flood frequency can usually be related to the frequency of rainfall. In the Fitzroy, storms usually affect only part of the catchment at any one time, and even if the storm travels along the descending river it leads to a much greater run off than one travelling up river. Jerome showed the isohyets for a number of events that had led to major flooding and although similar rainfalls up to about 300 mm occurred in some of them, the size of the resulting floods were quite different. Reasonable design flood frequency predictions can be made if records of actual flows are available over a long period; e.g. 50 years, but this information is not available for the Fitzroy.

The magnitude of flood peaks is greater at Fitzroy Crossing than at the Willare crossing on the road between Broome and Derby. This is because the flood peak spreads out during the passage of the flood through the flat country below Fitzroy Crossing. The flood peak becomes attenuated, though the total amount of water remains much the same.

Jerome spoke about the upgrading of the Willare crossing on the road between Broome and Derby. In 1985/86, the road, including several flood crossings, was raised above flood plain level and two further bridges were added to the two that had been built about 1968. The cost of the upgrading was about $18million. Within a few weeks, however, the road and flood crossings were badly damaged by a major flood. Repair works cost $1.8million. Paucity of records were the problem. In 1983 the largest officially recorded flood occurred, amounting to 10,200 cubic metres per seconds at Willare. A large flood was known to have occurred in 1914, and a level (which later proved to be erroneous) existed for Liveringa. Analysis of the available data indicated the 1983 flood was probably a 100 year event and the 1914 event, estimated to be 13,000 cubic metres per second, was quite rare. When the Fitzroy then came down in 1986, a flow of 17,500 cubic m/sec battered the upgrade that had been designed for 10,200 cubic metres per second.

Another major flow of 15,400 cubic m/sec occurred in 1991, and two amounting to 14,000 and 18,500 cubic m/sec occurred in 1993. The repaired Willare crossing withstood these floods, and further research, including reference to a diary kept by a boundary rider in a hut on the Erskine Sandhill, showed the January 1914 flood would have been 18,800 cubic m/sec.

Jerome also spoke about the flooding at Fitzroy crossing. The road crosses the flood plain mostly at ground level, and all the observed floods have been lower on the east side than the west side. The east side comes from the Margaret River whereas the west side carries the combined water from the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers and Brooking Creek. Predicting flood frequency and flood levels here is obviously difficult.

Another topic in Jerome's coverage was the legendary flood when the Lennard and Fitzroy Rivers were reputed to have combined. This was clearly impossible as the divide between was 27 m high. The land is flat and takes time to drain, however, so it is more than possible that, in a major cyclone, the land would have been covered by slow moving sheet flooding that could have been continuous between the rivers.

Jerome had to spend a considerable amount of time researching the Fitzroy floods. He had to seek out people who may have had some knowledge of flooding, and then check and double check on any anecdotal evidence collected. In this regard, he recounted an amusing tale about when he thought he was on to some original information from an ancient Halls Creek resident. When asked how he knew, the old bloke told him he had heard it on the radio that morning!

Gilbert Marsh

FRANK HANN'S EXPLORATION IN THE KIMBERLEY, 1896–98

At our 3 July 1996 meeting, using slides and Hann's diary for illustration, Mike Donaldson and Ian Elliot told the story of Frank Hann—incurable wanderer and marker of boabs; a man who covered more of Western Australia than any other explorer, and whose journeys brought him considerable physical and mental pain.

The Hann family left England in 1845 and, in their first years in Australia, Hann senior pioneered sheep country in Westernport, Victoria. Later, he headed north to go droving with his sons around Charters Towers, only to drown in the Burdekin River. By age 20, Frank Hann was managing Lolworth station, and later Lawn Hill station, where he stayed until age 50 in 1895, when his troubles really started. Not only had he been shot in the chest (though not seriously wounded), but he was overdrawn at the bank and his cattle were plagued by ticks and red-water fever. The bank foreclosed and his cattle were killed.

Hann headed west to prospect for gold and look for pastoral country, but luck was still against him, and he sustained a badly broken leg during a horse-fall. A local doctor set his leg at the accident scene, then departed, leaving Frank to spend the next 5 months under a dray waiting for the bone to set, (and probably cursing Fate)! Eventually, he was able to set off further west, travelling with 6 Aborigines from Lawn Hill. Taking up the story at Halls Creek in 1896, Ian Elliot recounted various episodes along the journey of exploration directly from Hann's diary. It was obvious that Hann and Lady Luck were mortal enemies from Day One, as things steadily went from worse to disastrous!

1897 found Hann in Nullagine, prospecting and—naturally—to no avail, looking for pastoral country! His diary records such calamities as horses drowned and him receiving a severe blow to his head (from his own tent ridge-pole!), which caused him to bleed from the ears for many days. His mental attitude deteriorated through 'disappointment'—no gold, or suitable pastoral land—to 'downhearted'—no money, no letters—and spiralled downward through despondency to black despair, even to the point of considering returning to Queensland.

Around mid-May 1898, with Queensland in mind, Hann headed out of Derby toward Halls Creek but detoured to look at some diggings where gold had been found at Mt Broome. Tempted by what might exist beyond Mt Broome, he pushed on and found good, well-watered country to the north. Now his attitude took a miraculous about-face, and in his diary he became quite lyrical about 'splendid cattle country' and 'much fish' in the rivers. On 8 June 1898 he marked a boab on the Isdell River with the letters "FH". Then began the return journey to Derby to report the new country. On his return, he applied for 793,000 acres (rental of £197.10.0), only to have his cheque dishonoured. In July, Hann set out on a more extensive examination of the region—a 7 week trip that took him to the upper reaches of the Fitzroy River and traced the course of the Charnley River. He marked another tree at Mount Brennan, and his now very lyrical diary records his sightings of the Fitzroy River and gorge : "I never saw such a gorge before!" and, at the Phillips River (later renamed Hann River), "I never saw such a river before!"

In truth, Hann's voyages of exploration are simply the story of a constant search, punctuated with many disasters, during which he left his mark indelibly on the North West—not just by the boabs which bear his name, but in the many places to which he gave a name : Mt House, Mt Barnett, Mt Elizabeth; the Adcock, Barnett, Charnley and Isdell Rivers; Manning Creek, Caroline Range etc.

Hann went to the eastern states but could not raise money to stock the Kimberley country. He returned to WA. 1901 found him prospecting around Ravensthorpe; 1902–03 around Wiluna and Laverton. While it seems that gold eluded him, he had mined silver and lead near Lawn Hill, and he was the first to find copper in the Warburton Ranges. His extraordinary travels still not complete, he twice journeyed from Laverton to Oodnadatta and back and, in the absence of trees, marked rocks instead!

In 1921, at the age of 76, and after a lifetime spent wandering, Frank Hann died. He is buried in Karrakatta cemetery, WA, and his headstone reads "Pastoralist, Prospector, Bushman, Explorer" .... an almost adequate epitaph!

Helen Mell

SLIPS OF THE PEN IN KIMBERLEY HISTORY

On 7 August 1996, a scheduling problem resulted in the advertised speaker being unavailable. Dr Cathie Clement, a public historian, filled the gap by presenting a talk about the multitude of errors that have affected the writing of Kimberley history. She drew on a range of published works to show how writers can distort history – often quite unconsciously – by making assumptions, doing too little research, or using other people’s work without checking its accuracy. Cathie stressed that much of the distortion is evident only to people who are familiar with a topic. That factor accounts for a lot of errors being perpetuated. Her essential message was that, whilst each person who writes about history benefits from his/her predecessors’ work, each one also needs to think about the credibility of that work before making use of it. People also need to think about whether the things that are “known” about history are true, as opposed to simply having been repeated often enough to appear to be true.

WINDJANA GORGE: GEOLOGY, HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

At the meeting on 4 September 1996, Cathie Clement introduced Dr Phil Playford and gave a brief resume of his background. He then talked on Windjana Gorge, which is very dear to his heart. From his first visits during the 1950s he especially remembers the echoing sounds of mobs of cattle and donkeys bellowing and braying in the gorge each night. Now that the gorge is a National Park, these animals no longer water there, and all is quiet.

Phil divided his talk into three sections: the Geology, the History, and the Anthropology of the area, and he told how the 80 metre high gorge has been created by the erosion of the Lennard River through the Napier Range. This range is part of a Devonian reef complex that extends for some 350 km along the northern margin of the Canning Basin. The barrier reef is 350 million years old and is of world-wide renown. It once skirted all around the Kimberley to join with similar reefs in the Ningbing Range, near Kununurra. The Napier Range was appropriately called the Barrier Range by the early settlers. Associated with these ancient limestones, there are large masses of conglomerate that were brought down by torrential streams draining the mountainous landmass of the north Kimberley. Four oil fields (including Blina) and four lead-zinc mines (including Cadjebut and Blendevale) have been found in the Devonian limestones. Active mineral exploration is continuing, with good prospects for further discoveries.

Lloyd Hill is an old atoll and many fossilised fish, ammonoids, and other fossils, of major international importance, are found. The front of the range is the reef margin of Devonian times and it contains many fossilised cyanobacteria and stromatoporoids (coral-like organisms that are now extinct). Present-day stromatolites, such as those at Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay, are built by cyanobacteria (bluegreen algae). Behind the Devonian reef rim is Amphipora or spaghetti rock. There are also large fossilised clams and sponges found on the slopes in front of the reef. Microscopic conodont fossils are used to date the reef into 35 zones. A mass extinction occurred in the Late Devonian when a big asteroid may have hit the Earth, blotting out the sun and wiping out many animals and plants, so that cyanobacteria were able to flourish and to build many stromatolites. A regular cyclicity occurs in the backreef deposits due to regular variations in radiation received from the sun during the Devonian.

E.T. Hardman was the geologist who accompanied John Forrest on his 1883 expedition to this area, and he collected some large bones of Diprotodon from the Pleistocene deposits in Windjana Gorge. Fossil bones of huge crocodiles, up to 15 metres long, and giant turtles from the Tertiary have also been found in the gorge.

In discussing the anthropology, Phil outlined how he was also involved in a 1964 expedition to locate some of the last Aborigines who were still following traditional lifestyles in the Great Sandy Desert. The expedition encountered about 70 nomadic Aborigines, half of whom had never seen Europeans before. They all moved in to settlements over the next two years.

Phil published the first tribal distribution map of the West Kimberley. Each tribe has its own language, with three tribes covering the Devonian limestone ranges. There are many ancient cave paintings in Windjana Gorge (called Devil's Pass by John Forrest) and these were explained to Phil by Billie Munroe, the last 'full-blood' Aborigine of the Unggumi tribe. Windjana is not an aboriginal name, but a corruption of Wandjina, the name of the dominant figures in cave paintings of the Kimberley, one of whom is depicted in a cave near the gorge. Each Wandjina is a male figure with a rainbow or halo around his head, and no mouth. The Dreamtime stories tell how they now live in the clouds and bring the rain every wet season.

Phil showed a photo of the ruins of Lillimilura, which was set up in 1880s as a sheep station homestead. A large flood in 1890 and stock depredations by the Aboriginal people caused the pastoralists to abandon the station. The police then took it over and the Aborigine Jandamara (Pidgeon) shot Constable Richardson there before embarking on a campaign to drive the white settlers out of the area. There was a battle with the police in Windjana Gorge, where the Aborigines lay concealed in the many caves.

Phil also mentioned the Mimbi Caves and McWhae Ridge, which are in the Lawford Range, at the southern end of the Devonian limestones. They are very important from both scientific and scenic viewpoints. CALM wants to create a Conservation Reserve there but the area would first need to be excised from the Aboriginal owned station, Mt Pierre, and negotiations are proceeding. The caves are superb and the formations are still growing. In the pitch blackness there are seedlings of a plant sprouting in soil on the cave floor -- what is it? Maybe the two large cotyledons of a bloodwood eucalypt. No detailed work has been done on the fauna and flora of these caves yet, and vandalism is occurring, so moves must be made soon to protect this unique area. The stalactites are superb.

All these marvellous formations and geological features were beautifully illustrated by Phil's superb slides which gave us a wonderful feel for this place. No wonder it is so special to him. We thanked him for his most absorbing talk with a round of applause, and he then spent some time answering many questions. After the talk, Cathie Clement showed us a new publication from Magabala Books: Connie Nungulla McDonald's when you grow up, an autobiographical account of a life in which the years from 1933 to 1955 were spent at the Forest River Mission. Cathie also mentioned that a colony of bilbies has been located on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert by some CALM staff in Broome—a very exciting find.

Daphne Choules Edinger

THE MYSTERY SURROUNDING THE AFTERMATH OF THE BOMBING OF MV KOOLAMA IN FEBRUARY 1942 OFF THE KIMBERLEY COAST
On 2 October 1996, Bill Loane, author of The Koolama Incident, spoke to the Kimberley Society about his latest research. No summary of the talk is available but Rod Moran, the Books Editor at The West Australian, had earlier hailed the Japanese attack on the Koolama, which occurred on 20 February 1942, as one of WA's most intriguing wartime dramas. The story of the attack is contained in Bill's book, and his talk focussed on evidence that had recently come to light about a possible mutiny by the ship's officers after the attack. Was there, as Bill believes, an official cover-up during the war?

Postscript

Since the presentation of Bill’s talk, there has been a lot of interest in this topic. The following book note, published in the Kimberley Society’s Boab Bulletin, provides an update.

The Koolama Incident in the Timor Sea, 1942 by Bill Loane. Rosenberg Publishing, [Kenthurst, NSW], 2004. Soft cover, 215 pages, RRP $29.95.
A decade ago, Bill Loane published The Koolama Incident to reveal, for the first time, the events that surrounded the Japanese bombing of the Koolama off a remote part of the Kimberley coast. The book created such interest that he continued to collect information about those events. Some of that information went into a documentary titled “Malice or Mutiny: The Koolama Incident”, which screened late last year on the George Negus show. Another one-hour film commissioned by the ABC at that time has yet to go to air. It will be well worth watching and, in the meantime, Rosenberg has launched Bill’s revamped and partly rewritten book.
The new edition is stylishly presented and includes rare 1942 photographs. Drawing on Bill’s extensive research, it tells the story of the only ship bombed, and subsequently sunk, in Western Australian waters during World War II. It is a complex story and, in dealing with the conflict that complicated the escape of the 180 survivors, Bill takes great care to avoid discrediting any of those who participated in what, to some, appears to have been a mutiny. His weaving together of scraps from diaries, interviews and reports allows him to document events that, at the time of their occurrence, were shrouded in secrecy. The book is thus a welcome addition to both the military history and the social history of Australia’s north. Copies are available in bookshops and, with the addition of $5 for postage and packing, from the publisher at PO Box 6125, Dural Delivery Centre, NSW 2158.
Cathie Clement

ORCHID HUNTING IN THE KIMBERLEY

Mike Donaldson opened the November 1996 meeting and introduced the speaker, Pat Dundas, a botanical artist who is very interested in all orchids. Pat informed us that there are more than 300 orchids in Western Australia—12 of them in the Kimberley region. The two epiphytic (i.e. growing on trees, mostly eucalypts) orchids are already growing in Kings Park, collected by Kevin Kenneally and transported back alive. Many of these epiphytes are disappearing in the wild due to illegal over-collection by keen amateurs. The two epiphytes are Dendrobium and Cymbidium with 7 other genera being terrestrial.

Pat told us of accompanying Kings Park botanist, Kingsley Dixon, to the Kimberley during the wet season when the orchids flower. The trip, sponsored by B.H.P. and Argyle Diamonds, took place in early December 1991 when the group hired a car and set off for the Mitchell Plateau. They were joined by several helpers from Theda, Beverley Springs and King Edward River (now Doongan) stations. Apart from the joy of finding orchids, Pat mentioned taipans, tiny lizards, wild bulls and screaming curlews as highlights of the trip. Unfortunately, fires had wiped out several orchid localities. The group visited Emma Gorge in 40 degree heat and had 4 trips in a charter plan during a one week period, the only way to get around when the heavy rain causes flooding. Eventually, they found two new species for Western Australia and extended the known location for every orchid, so the trip was most successful.

We saw many interesting slides, both of the colourful orchids and of the activities associated with their location and collection. Dipodium, the Hyacinth Orchid is terrestrial and grows up to 6 feet tall in long grass and can have over 100 flowers on a single stalk. The rarest orchids are the Habenarias or butterfly orchids, with two species, both from the Mitchell Plateau. As for pollinators, the Beard Orchid, Calochilus holtzei, seems to attract moths and butterflies as it has long filaments. Pat is now in the process of producing detailed illustrations of every orchid in Western Australia. We hope to see these illustrations published in a book at the end of 1997 and wish her every success with this venture.

Daphne Choules Edinger

KIMBERLEY SOCIETY COASTAL EXCURSION 1996

Cathie Clement opened the meeting on 4 December by mentioning the CSIRO Medal won by Kevin Kenneally and Daphne Edinger and presented in Sydney last month for their authorship of the book Broome and Beyond. Cathie, whom we were glad to see looking so well after her recent major surgery, then introduced Kevin Coate as the evening's speaker.

Kevin began his talk by tracing on a large map the route sailed by the MV Sea Lion on the May 1996 trip which included the history, botany and Aboriginal culture of the areas visited. He stressed that it is a dangerous coast with extremely high tides dictating one's activities, and the ever present crocodiles, before showing excellent slides borrowed from many of the 16 members of the excursion.

The voyagers left after dawn from a Broome beach and were transported by zodiacs to the Sea Lion to meet her crew of four. There were 16 passengers, all members of the Society. First stop was the Lacepedes where they landed to view the bird breeding sites for which the Islands are famous. They saw Brown Boobies and Lesser Frigate birds sitting on nests and protecting young, and hundreds of birds wheeling overhead. Green turtles also breed here. The islands, which were an important guano mining site and a port of call for vessels working on the pearling ground in the early days, have an interesting history.

Next stop Midlagon (Middle Lagoon), run by an Aboriginal couple, and an examination of an ancient fish trap where rocks are built up to trap fish as the tide retreats; quite effective. It was then on to Crocodile Creek, built by BHP workers for their recreation from Cockatoo and Koolan Islands. They had a stainless steel ladder for disembarkation and beds cemented into the rock platforms. On a walk from here, the voyagers collected a rare Boronia, B. pauciflora,which has few flowers and entire leaves, and brought away seed for Kings Park to grow. They landed on Cockatoo Island and swam in the world famous pool perched atop a sheer cliff at what is now a famous tourist resort. Most of the houses have been retained, but none on Koolan which is being allowed to revert to nature. On leaving the Yampi Peninsula, they passed through a mighty tidal rip up to 60 ft high before calling into Raft Point where famous cave paintings were examined after a tough climb to the towering cliffs and a high overhang. There were Wandjinas and fish (rock cod) which everyone found fascinating.

The Sea Lion went up the Sale River to spectacular scenery of high red sandstone cliffs and deep gorges, up which the voyagers walked, always looking for plants and cave paintings. They saw Bradshaw figures (known as Goyon or Djennaggi paintings by some Aboriginal people) with some pieces missing. These were said to be the oldest of the world's rock art, being 50 to 100 thousand years old. They camped ashore up the Sale River, at BBQ Creek, on a freshwater stream tumbling down from a patch of closed riverine forest where black grass wrens and Rufous owls were seen, feeding on rock rats and other small marsupials. The next port of call was Llangi, an important Aboriginal site for which permission had to be obtained to land. It has rock art related to the Raft Point paintings and stone statue-like formations that represent fallen Wandjinas to the Aboriginal people. Our voyagers camped on the beach.

A trip past Kuri Bay, site of the first pearl farm in the area, led to Camden Harbour, which was settled in 1864 and only lasted 10 months, a tragedy from beginning to end. Those that succumbed and died were buried on Sheep Island, with the one remaining grave stone being that of Mary Jane Pascoe. There is also a landing platform blasted out of rock so that gear could be unloaded from the ships. The voyagers climbed Mt. Lookover to get a magnificent view of the whole area before sailing on to St. Patrick's Island, which they climbed through dense vine thickets to get a superb view including Mt. Trafalgar.

Next landing was at Camp Creek on the Prince Regent River, with a camp under Melaleuca leucadendra and Pandanus aquaticus and much admired reflections in the still limpid pools. Here they fished for their supper quite successfully amongst water lilies, Nymphoides indica. The artists on board were kept busy portraying the magnificent scenery. This was a very relaxing place with many camp fires to sit around while spinning many a tall yarn! The tides here reach as much as 33 metres and are diurnal and dictate the movements of the boat at all times. Further up this river is the King Cascades where King filled his empty barecas with sweet, fresh water in 1820. The Sea Lion crew did likewise, also allowing the voyagers to have a sluice down under the waterfall. Then it was on to Hanover Bay - where George Grey landed Timor ponies in 1838 to start his walk to the Glenelg River - Montgomery Reef and Careening Bay, where Phillip Parker King had careened his cutter Mermaid and inscribed a huge boab tree with the first graffiti of the Kimberley: "HMC Mermaid 1820". Alan Cunningham, the botanist on board, planted orange and lemon seeds wherever he landed; just as well the quarantine officers weren't in force at the time and that they didn't grow! This area hasn't changed at all since and it is possible to see the vegetation exactly as they saw it so long ago.

In Prince Frederick Harbour the voyagers landed on Naturalist Island and then ventured into the Hunter River. There were photographs of huge white jellyfish with brittle stars under the bell. This posed a mystery to them and they approached Society member Loisette Marsh to solve it for them on their return. She had seen similar occurrences in Shark Bay and reports of the same in Madagascar and India. She thinks they probably settle out as larvae, sharing its food or feeding it at night, a fascinating association.

The voyagers also boated up the Hunter River to look for a rare Pittosporum collected by Alan Cunningham but never seen since. No luck, but they saw some Chestnut Rails instead. Bigge Island was the next landing to look at the superb art sites here, of Wandjinas, ships and what may be Europeans smoking pipes. The latter possibly depicted Dutch or Portuguese mariners who visited long ago.

The trip ended at Port Warrender, the voyagers still looking for paintings, plants and bird life, and they found Cordia subcordata, a strand plant with large yellow flowers. From here, the helicopter lifted them off to land on the Mitchell Plateau airfield and pick up a fixed wing aircraft to take them back to Broome, flying over immense patches of mangroves - the richest in the world of 17 different species. They flew over Montgomery Reef and Island, the Buccaneer Archipelago, comprising over 800 islands, and Talbot Bay of the horizontal falls 12-15 feet high, a fitting end to an incredible trip.

Kevin answered some questions then Mike Donaldson took over to mention that Grahame Walsh, an expert on cave paintings and author of a recent book on same, will come over if we wish. His call for an expression of interest from members resulted in a good show of hands. Kevin Kenneally also mentioned that the Landscope brochures are now available, listing the trips arranged for next year, and members and guests adjourned for supper.

Daphne Choules Edinger

KIMBERLEY SOCIETY COASTAL EXCURSION DIARY EXTRACTS

Copies of the 20-page, glossy colour production that recorded the Society-organised coastal excursion from Broome to Port Warrender from 17 to 30 May 1996 are still available at the cost price of $11.00 per copy. The publication comprises detailed extracts from the daily diary kept by the voyagers on the good ship Sea Lion (a different author each day), as well as a map, 17 colour photos, biographical details, and notes on the geology, botany and birds encountered on the trip. Copies may be obtained from the Treasurer at the meetings (or, at a cost of $12.00, by post). Cheques with orders please, to satisfy our Auditors.