EARLY PASTORAL LEASES IN THE KIMBERLEY

At the meeting of 4 February 1998, Dr Cathie Clement, a public historian, presented an illustrated talk that provided insight into how land in the Kimberley was first allocated to pastoralists. The following precis covers the main points of the talk.

When people think about pastoral leases, they tend to focus on land. While logical, and in line with official policy for dealing with Crown land, this is a focus that can blind people to the reality of what really occurred when land was allocated to, and occupied by, pastoralists. The key to understanding the early acquisition of land is to split the focus equally between acquisition of land and control over access to water.

Europeans obtained water from the Kimberley long before they acquired land there, as is evident in one of the earliest known depictions of European presence — a sketch showing barrels of water being handled by a group of Aboriginal people and crew from the Cygnet. The role of water is also evident in maps that show early land alienation in localities other than the Kimberley. Most towns and settlements are situated on rivers, and land grants tend to be clustered along the rivers. If pastoral leases appear on such maps, they tend to be more remote but linked to sources of water nonetheless.

In Western Australia, John Septimus Roe oversaw the alienation and other allocation of land for 41 years from the establishment of the colony in 1829 until his retirement in 1870. This period covered the 1838 introduction of pastoral leasing legislation and the 1850 ruling that the 'aboriginal natives' of the colony were entitled to enter lands held under pastoral lease and seek 'subsistence therefrom in their accustomed manner'. Roe's service as Surveyor General also covered Frank Gregory's exploration around the De Grey, Yule, Sherlock, Fortescue and Ashburton Rivers. Gregory visualised cotton growing on the banks of the De Grey and the lower Sherlock River, and on the flanks of the Hamersley Range, and he thought that land in the vicinity was sufficiently elevated for wool growing. His report also suggested that settlers might augment their incomes by harvesting pearl oysters and sandalwood trees.

Prosperous colonists in Western Australia and Victoria were enthusiastic about Gregory's report and, at the close of 1861, it looked as though the locality he explored would be occupied by Victorians. The Western Australian Government was not in a position to manage northern settlement but, because some people were pushing for Australia's internal boundaries to be rearranged, the officials feared losing land to another colony. They therefore decided that the territory explored by Gregory should have 'temptingly liberal' land regulations created for it. Then, because people were also showing interest in land in the far north and the south-east of the colony, they made the new regulations cover those areas too. In their haste, the officials ignored key lands' management lessons of the past.

In the new districts, land more than two miles (3.2 kilometres) from the seacoast was available under the most generous terms in the colony. There was no application fee, no charge for a permit to land stock, and no requirement to pay rent in the first four years. Within one year of landing livestock, a permit holder was entitled to select a run of up to 100,000 acres (40,468 hectares) and, whilst holding that land under a non-transferable licence over the next three years, was allowed to select pastoral leases of up to 20,000 acres (8,094 hectares) apiece from within it. To then become a lessee, with non-renewable tenure extending over eight years, the licensee had to pay a fee of five pounds, plus annual rental of five shillings per 1,000 acres (405 hectares) for four years and double that thereafter. These inducements reflected the fact that the new settlers were going to remote localities with no guarantee of services or protection.

Within weeks of the new regulations being proclaimed on 23 December 1862, entrepreneurs in Melbourne were promoting ambitious settlement schemes based on the availability of the free runs. The settlers who went into the new areas in the 1860s found that they needed all the bonuses offered by the government and more. Many realised that the potential of these areas had been overstated and, when faced with disillusionment, strong Aboriginal resistance and prohibitively high costs, they withdrew. Neither a depot established on the Glenelg River nor the settlement at Camden Harbour led to the allocation of runs. The runs allocated to the Roebuck Bay Pastoral and Agricultural Association (Limited) were abandoned when the last of the Association's workers pulled out of the Lagrange Bay area before the end of the decade. Some of the former settlers from the far north joined those who had gone into the area examined by Frank Gregory but, even there, people were facing similar problems and some abandoned their runs when the rent-free tenure ended.

The offer of free tenure ended in the 1870s and the length of tenure available to lessees whose land carried livestock increased to fourteen years. Fresh land regulations were proclaimed in 1878, revoking all earlier regulations governing the colony's 'waste lands' and dividing the colony into the Central, Northern, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Districts. The district now known as the Kimberley was part of the Northern District. Pastoral land was described as First or Second Class, with the latter comprising all land north of the Murchison River and east of a line that connected a bend on the Murchison River with the mouth of the Fitzgerald River on the south coast. The provision for Aboriginal access remained in place and, while lessees had no right of renewal, they were entitled to unconditional pre-emptive rights to purchase land within their leases and could thus protect themselves against loss.

The 1878 regulations did not make the granting of leases subject to stocking and applicants had to pay only two shillings and sixpence to lodge an application. Both of these factors invited speculation, and it also happened that a £5000 reward, posted in 1872, was still on offer for discovery of a workable goldfield in WA. Indeed, even as the 1878 regulations were awaiting proclamation, men interested in pastoral leasing were planning exploration in the far north—Australia's last extensive area of untried grasslands and river frontages—and the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Malcolm Fraser, was thinking about introducing more liberal land regulations for that district.

An expedition led by Alex Forrest traversed the north-west of the continent in 1879 and reported the discovery of some twenty to twenty-five million acres (8,093,712 to 10,117,140 hectares) of pastoral land. Allegations of improper acquisition of leasehold land were being made around this time and the government felt obliged to place a moratorium on the selection of pastoral leases north of the 19th Parallel. More than a year passed before the Imperial and colonial governments agreed on the regulations that would allow land to be allocated in a way that would prevent improper acquisition and speculation and thus encourage rapid settlement of the district now known as the Kimberley. Meanwhile, two firms associated with Julius Brockman and Alexander Richardson ignored The Waste Lands Unlawful Occupation Act and took sheep there.

In October 1880, the government invited people to lodge applications for Kimberley pastoral leases. All the sealed envelopes were to be opened on 1 February 1881 and, if two or more were for the same land, the decision was to be by ballot. In the final analysis, however, neither the new land regulations nor the ballot provided an adequate defence against the chicanery that marked the early years of leasing in the far north. There was no limit on the number of applications an individual could lodge for the first release of land, no limit on the acreage sought either in total or within each lease, and no guarantee that applicants would pay rent on approved leases. The non-refundable application fee of 2/6 thus allowed would-be pastoralists or speculators to apply for whatever land they wished as long they ensured that blocks with frontage to water had a depth at least three times their width.

When hundreds of applications arrived, Fraser approached the Governor and, implying that a problem existed because some envelopes contained two or more applications, secured approval for new allocation procedures. The so-called problem could have been handled by the arrangements already in place but Fraser proposed that all applications compete for priority of entitlement to lands and, more importantly, that the Land Office should allot adjacent vacant lands to applicants if someone else had already taken part of the lands they wanted. Had the government limited the number of applications per person or firm, Fraser's approach might have allowed equitable allocation. As it was, more than one third of the applications belonged to a cartel, and Fraser's intervention, knowingly or otherwise, dramatically improved the cartel's chances of securing land. In fact, his displacement principle resulted in George Shenton winning three leases (from 24 applications) with each one separated from the other by land allotted to the cartel.

The cartel comprised William Edward Marmion (a Fremantle politician), his brother-in-law Richard Gibbons, Dr Charles Henry Elliott and the three Pearse brothers: William Silas, George and Samuel. Between them, these men lodged 160 of the 448 applications in the ballot. Other applicants and the public seem to have remained unaware of the existence of the cartel, its bid to circumvent the ballot, and Fraser's new arrangement for allocating the first Kimberley leases. Yet the cartel's applications, by duplicating and overlapping one another to blanket the richest segments of the Fitzroy and Meda River valleys, secured one third of the first 102 Kimberley pastoral leases. It had lodged at least eleven applications in four different names to win six adjoining blocks totalling 300,000 acres (121,406 hectares) on the north bank of the Fitzroy River and had won other blocks on the Meda River. The stations known as Liveringa and Meda thus came into being, and research has shown that, in thus favouring the cartel, the Lands Office ignored or reduced the entitlements of other would-be lessees.

Of the 102 leases approved as a result of the ballot in February 1881, 61 lapsed when the first instalment of rent was left unpaid. Of the 41 on which rent was paid, twenty belonged to members of the cartel and most had frontage to the Fitzroy or Meda River. Several other lessees established stations, but those like George Shenton had to admit that their leases did not, and would not, constitute viable pastoral stations. He paid a total of £300 in rent before letting his lands revert to the Crown. New lessees were never in short supply and, in this case, Alex Forrest secured fresh leases over the land.

Alex Forrest played a central role in the acquisition and turnover of pastoral leases in the Kimberley. He gave up his contract surveying work in 1881 and opened a land agency that specialised in Kimberley leases. He had clients in the eastern colonies, some who were quite blatantly speculating in leases and others, like the Duracks and the Emanuels, who subsequently rationalised their holdings and established pastoral stations. Forrest also lent money to the cartel's Kimberley Pastoral Company, purchased a share in both the company and one of the vessels that it used to ship sheep to the Kimberley, and acted as the Western Australian agent for Englishman James Game who commenced his long term acquisition of Kimberley land by purchasing Yeeda station from Alexander Richardson and his associates.

It was only in October 1882, after the Land Office had accepted at least 930 applications for Kimberley pastoral leases, that the government curbed the lodgement of speculative or otherwise spurious applications. New land regulations applicable to the whole colony were proclaimed at this time. The Kimberley lands were not unlocked until 1884 and, until then, politicians who included William Marmion (Fremantle) and McKenzie Grant (North District) ensured that the legislation remained favourable while they and their associates pursued Kimberley pastoral ventures. Indeed, their blatant quest for still further gains—pre-emptive rights to renewals on all pastoral leases and a relaxation of the stocking requirements on Kimberley leases—caused British officials as well as their fellow colonists to denounce them as land sharks and land jobbers. There were also bids for pre-emptive rights to purchase homestead blocks and for the establishment of a mission station where they could 'have the natives congregated together at some spot, instead of rambling about the country, endangering the lives and property of pioneers, and making raids upon their flocks'. The bids for the mission station and the pre-emptive rights to purchase failed while those for pre-emptive rights to lease renewals and relaxation of the stocking requirements succeeded.

By the end of 1884 all but the most rugged or remote parts of the Kimberley had been subject to at least one approval for a pastoral lease. Subsequent research has shown that comparatively few of these approvals actually led to occupation of land by pastoralists. What they did lead to was a jumbled history of pastoral lease tenure that has made the Kimberley one of the most complex parts of Australia for determination of native title.

DERBY TIDAL POWER STATION

At the meeting of 4 March 1998, Peter Wood began by giving a general background and discussing the Derby Tidal Power Station proposal. Ian McCardle then followed, speaking on environmental issues.

Peter is from the UK, now settled in Australia. He is a geographer/town planner and was the Director of Planning for the Liverpool region. He became involved in tidal energy by accident because commercial shipping had almost ceased using the Mersey estuary, the source of Liverpool's early prosperity. Planning for the area showed that a barrage built across the mouth of the estuary would reduce the tidal range and make it suitable for recreation while putting turbines in the barrage would create income and help pay for the recreational 'lake'.

Tidal energy creates electricity from the energy of large tidal movements. These huge tides are largely caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and accentuated by the shape of the oceans, the coastline and the seabed. The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada has the largest range of 14 metres; Derby has 10 metres, largest in the tropics; Brittany, France 10 metres, and West UK 10 metres.

The four characteristics of tidal power are: 

1. It is a clean source of energy, creating no pollution, thereby helping
2. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
3. It is renewable energy, regular and inexhaustible.
4. It is predictable, unlike wind or solar power.
5. It has stability of price and is cheap.

The French in the early 1960s were moving from coal to nuclear power and 40 years ago they built La Rance with a dam across the mouth of the inlet so that the head of water in the dam drives the turbines. It generates 240 megawatts, similar to Collie, is cheap energy and has a life of 120 years. Its method of construction 40 years ago cut off the inlet from the ocean and was an environmental disaster. The University of Dinard has since studied the state of the inlet, which fortunately has now completely recovered. Studies of the Severne and Mersey were very intense - they looked, for example, at the patterns of wading birds in great detail. The conclusions, though the schemes have not yet been built, were that there were potential benefits to the local ecology.

The Kimberley, with its sunken inlets and high tidal range, is the second or third best locality in the world for tidal power generation. John Lewis, a local engineer, presented a paper here in 1963 when Walcott Inlet was one of the areas under consideration. He said there was enough energy in the tides of the Kimberley to provide electricity for the whole of Australia! This fact is still valid 35- 40 years later although nothing has been done due to the remoteness of the area. In 1990 the WA Parliament set up a select committee to visit Canada, France and the UK. The committee's thorough report assessed the potential of the Kimberley and even suggested converting electricity to hydrogen gas and piping it as far as Sydney.

Doctors Creek has been chosen as the ideal place to build the Derby tidal power station and generate continuous electrical power from the rise and fall of the tides. The creek has two arms, east and west, and they extend about 15 km from the mouth to Derby. Each arm is about ½ km wide. A barrage or dam will be built across the mouth, with sluice gates to allow water in to the high basin (west arm) on the rising tide and water out of the low basin on the falling tide. A channel dug between the two arms will contain turbines to generate electricity that will be carried via transmission lines to Broome, Fitzroy Crossing and Western Metal's new mine at Pillara, just east of Fitzroy Crossing. The dam will also open up other opportunities such as fish farming, prawn farming, recreational fishing, including boat ramps, and tourism. It could become a regional park with a tour-boat linking Derby and the power station. It would be the second largest tidal power plant in the world and the only one able to give continuous power output.

Peter finished his presentation by saying that, while there are native title and heritage issues yet to be solved, construction could be started by about August 1998. This phase would last for 2- 2½ years and, although there will be few jobs associated with the project once it is complete, others will follow on, especially for Aboriginal people.

Ian McCardle is the Manager of Environmental Sciences at Halpern Glick Maunsell, an engineering firm. Like Peter, he has previously spoken to the Derby residents, and his talk covered the overall effect of the construction on the ecology of Doctors Creek.

Macrotidal estuaries are tidally dominated, the water column is completely mixed and there is a high suspended sediment load. Construction of the barrage will change the patterns of water flow. The physical implications are:

1. Current velocities will generally be reduced.
2. Water exchange with King Sound will be reduced by 30% in the high basin.
3. There will be reduced sediment loads.
4. There will be increased light penetration.
5. There will be good water exchange.
6. There will be minimal chance of salinity increases.
7. Flooding of tidal flats will generally be less than at present.

Birds of Doctors Creek were surveyed in July 1997 when 41 species were counted; 15 were found to be mangrove restricted, i.e. require mangroves for survival. Broome Observatory counted a further 12 species. Overall, birds make up 89% of the total terrestrial species of Doctors Creek.

An increase in fish numbers is predicted and this will benefit ground feeders and raptors, resulting in change in species composition. Will the main basin act as a fish trap? Fish will be able to exit by the sluice gates, and mesh will exclude larger ones from entering the turbines, so an overall increase in fish numbers is expected. Mud crabs will be unaffected.

An Environmental Management Plan will be developed. The program of research and monitoring will include the establishment of mangroves, mangrove biology research, water quality monitoring, sediment characteristics, presence and quantity of phytoplankton and zooplankton, in-fauna, fish and bird populations.

In the question time that followed, it was admitted that, cost-wise, tidal power could not compete with gas if gas was available in the region. What would be the effect of cyclonic tidal surges? It is very rarely that a cyclone travels down into King Sound, and designs have been based on the probability of such an occurrence in 500 years. Will Derby's fresh ground water become saline? This is highly unlikely but they will establish monitoring bores on the mud flats to check this. Will sandflies and mosquitoes increase? It is unlikely that mosquitoes will increase but the conditions for sandflies will improve. They are expected to be too far away to reach Derby in large numbers. There will be a sedimentation problem, so they will use a small river dredger, electrically driven, working quietly to keep pace with siltation. The dredged material will be put into deeper holes in the creeks or into King Sound to provide growth banks for mangroves.

On native title and Aboriginal heritage issues the Kimberley Land Council were consulted, also the Aboriginal Affairs Department and the Commission of Elders. Most of the area has been given a clearance following an Aboriginal heritage survey.

The two speakers were thanked in the customary manner for their time and effort and for the clarity of their delivery at the meeting.

Daphne Choules Edinger

CAMDEN HARBOUR: SOME DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

At the meeting of 1 April 1998, Dr Ian Crawford, formerly of the WA Museum, spoke about differences between the current written historical account of the ill-fated Camden Harbour settlement and the Aboriginal oral narratives, which were also examined in the light of archaeological evidence. His aim was to integrate the evidence to form a more complete historical narrative.

The written history, set out in Christopher Richard's book There were three ships: The story of the Camden Harbour expedition 1864-65 (UWA Press, 1990), tells of very favourable pre-settlement reports; first by Lt George Grey, of fine grasslands, followed by an enthusiastic report by Dr Martin, after visiting the area in 1863- 4, about well grassed and watered country, large timber and large areas suitable for sheep, rice and similar grain, and the growth of spices, sugar, tea and coffee.

The first group of settlers, Victorians, arrived in mid December 1864, "conned" into investing by promoter named William Harvey. By the time the second group arrived in February 1865, principally the WA Government representatives Robert Sholl and his son Trevarton, the settlers had already decided to leave. Several settlers were dead from heat stroke. The lush grass had withered and lacked nutrition, the land was extremely rocky and water was scarce. Stock had died as a result, and from blow fly strike. Sholl saw the failure not only due to the nature of the country, but also due to a lack of a rounded social structure amongst the settlers, or as he put it "All were masters - there were no servants".

Generally, little was said in the written accounts about the role of the Aborigines. In 1914, however, the Australian Pilot did attribute the failure of the Camden Harbour settlement mainly to the hostility of the 'natives'.

The Aboriginal accounts tell a somewhat different story. In 1965 Sam told Ian of an attempt to steal a dinghy at night from a white settlement on New Island (at the mouth of Brecknock Harbour in which Camden Harbour is situated). The response was to search out and massacre the Aborigines on the island. Andy Malum's father, though shot in the eye, escaped and swam to the mainland where he went around telling what had happened and that the white fellows were bad and had to be driven out. There was a settlement there at the time and the Aborigines harassed the white people by setting fire to the grass feed and spearing anyone wandering away from the settlement. In the end the white people had had enough and they left. "We won a victory," said Sam. There were other Aboriginal accounts of a massacre, including one that referred to white people becoming wrecked on Champagny Island and subsequently going to New Island and becoming wrecked again, but they did not appear to be linked to Aboriginal actions at Camden Harbour. The Camden Harbour literature makes no reference to such an event, so what was the truth?

Here the archaeological evidence sheds some light. The remains of a vessel substantially larger than a lugger were scattered around the shore line on New Island and, in 1989, Ian, Graeme Henderson and Geoff Kimpton found substantial evidence of a settlement. Graeme said remains of the vessel had to be those of the Australian Fishing Company's Enchantress which sailed from Britain in 1874. She fished the waters around the Kimberley coast for pearl shell and, after hitting a reef off Champagny Island, made Brecknock Harbour before becoming a complete wreck. A 'rather sanguine battle with the natives' is said to have taken place and the account in Graeme and Kandy-Jane Henderson's Unfinished Voyages: Western Australian Shipwrecks 1851- 1880 (UWA Press, 1988) refers to people being killed and wounded on both sides. Thus the New Island massacre was later than the troubles at Camden Harbour. Ian thought the hardening of white people's attitudes towards the Aborigines was due to the troubles at Camden Harbour and stories about killings elsewhere in the colony.

It is well documented that Aborigines, on first meeting white people, commonly mistook them for spirit beings - Wandjinas associated with rain and lightning, Malan of the impenetrable hide, Kaiara associated with cyclones, Djadan the lightning man and many more. The early Aboriginal reaction to the Camden Harbour settlers points to this view. The steps they took, like lighting fires and throwing stones, were consistent with trying to drive spirits away. These actions were in contrast to their reactions to Indonesians. They knew how to deal with these human intruders; they speared them.

Trevarton Sholl recorded an account of a local Aborigine meeting a party of whites and being amused by another Aborigine, Billy, who was with the party. The local shook hands with him, felt him all over, had him open his mouth to examine his teeth. The local was laughing heartily during the whole examination. The actions mystified Sholl but Ian thought that this was one occasion where it became apparent that the whites were not spirit beings, for the Wandjinas—which the whites probably most closely resembled—had no mouth.

Aboriginal actions became more hostile as they became aware that the settlers were human after all. Up until June 1865 no real damage had been inflicted by either side, but after that the situation deteriorated rapidly with the Aborigines determined to drive the settlers away, lots of fires were lit and menacing confrontations taking place. Elsewhere in WA confrontations took place with people being killed. Sholl expressed increasing frustration, writing 'if some of the natives are not shot and an example made there will be mischief done, they throw spears at people, steal boats, and if they could get the chance would be only too delighted to murder.'

The last confrontation occurred in September when a party including Trevarton Sholl visited Hanover Bay. The Aborigines attacked and two men were wounded one of whom died later. In their efforts to reach the settlement quickly they wrecked their boat resulting in the drowning of another man. A month later Sholl refers to the purchase of 'enough gunpowder etc to blow all the niggers in Camden harbour to glory' if he could get another chance at them. Fortunately he didn't and the settlers left soon after.

Gilbert Marsh

RE-VISITING PHYLLIS KABERRY'S KIMBERLEY ETHNOGRAPHY

At the meeting of 6 May 1998, Dr Sandy Toussaint, Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, provided an insight into the life and work of anthropologist Phyllis Kaberry, who was the first female anthropologist to work in Aboriginal Australia. Dr Toussaint, who has worked closely with Aboriginal women and men in the Kimberley since 1981 (and before that time with Aboriginal people in southern Australia), has a long-standing interest in Phyllis Kaberry's life and work.

Phyllis Kaberry was born in 1910 of English parents and migrated to Australia when quite young. She attended Sydney University, gaining Bachelor and Masters Degrees, with a Distinction in anthropology. Kaberry was encouraged by A. P. Elkin—an early figure in Australian anthropology and history—to work in the Kimberley. Elkin had noted that there was very little understood by outsiders about Aboriginal women and that only half the Aboriginal story was being told. Kaberry received a research grant from Sydney University and first undertook field work in the Kimberley in 1934, having gained the necessary permits from the Native Welfare Department (as it was then known). She also received support from several Kimberley pastoralists, particularly the Durack family, and became lifelong friends with Mary and Elizabeth Durack. Kaberry spent almost two years in the Kimberley travelling from the west to east. She spent most of her time around Moola Bulla near Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Forrest River, Turkey Creek, and some of the Dampier Land communities. She travelled extensively with Aboriginal people, walking or riding a mule, was allocated the sub-section or skin group of 'Nadjeri', and took her social incorporation and obligations very seriously. Kaberry was interested in languages and seemed to quickly learn the different languages encountered on her travels. When talking with Aboriginal people who knew Kaberry, Dr Toussaint found that she is remembered with respect and affection. She has recorded a number of stories about Kaberry's travels with Aboriginal people.

In 1936 Kaberry returned to London and completed her PhD in anthropology at the University of London. Her book Aboriginal Women Sacred and Profane was published by Routledge and Son in 1939. She returned briefly to Australia in the 1940s but then worked in Papua New Guinea, where study with women had also been neglected, for just over a year. In 1945 she commenced field research among the Nsaw in the Bamenda, Cameroons, West Africa. She is best known for her work amongst the Nsaw which continued for 18 years until 1963. She then became a lecturer and reader of anthropology at University College London, where she spent the rest of her days, apart from the occasional field trip to West Africa. Although she did not return to the Kimberley, Kaberry sometimes wrote to friends about her time there. Kaberry did not marry or have any children, and at one stage wrote to the Durack sisters saying that she was not looking forward to retirement. She died suddenly in 1977 aged 67. At her memorial service Kaberry's death was "cried" by the Nsaw people and a research centre in the Cameroons has been named after her.

Many things have changed markedly in anthropology since Kaberry’s time. Information about women was often superficial in the 1930s. Previously a great deal of work had been interpreted by the misguided belief that women were much less important than men. Kaberry's work was from the vantage point of Aboriginal women but she did not exclude Aboriginal men. Kaberry was particularly interested in Aboriginal women’s religious life, and contested the generally held view at that time that sacredness belonged to men only. Kaberry concluded that Aboriginal women were both sacred and profane. Women, just like men, had certain social, psychological, emotional, and physical needs that religion met. She examined the male initiation rites, which were often treated as being very central to Aboriginal life and the pivot on which Aboriginal culture revolved, and from which it was thought that women were excluded. Kaberry demonstrated that women were involved in certain aspects of male initiation, performing rituals and song cycles to ensure that the initiation was effective. Kaberry also demonstrated that women had many rituals, some of which excluded men. There were fertility practices, not only with respect to having children but also for food resources, to ensure that survival was maintained. Land-based rituals were performed to ensure that the land was sustained, and also in connection with land tenure, and Kaberry found that women could inherit land in their own right. There were food taboos, such as during lactation, or after a person's death. Women also participated in the trading of material (eg food) and non-material (eg song cycles, knowledge) resources. They were also vital actors in solving disputes in the community. Religion was involved in the everyday activities of both men and women. The cyclical nature of Aboriginal religion also involved a complementary cyclical relationship between men and women. Kaberry argued that there was both shared and gender-specific activity for both men and women. It is evident that Kaberry brought a very human dimension to her work, for example when examining kinship relationships.

Kaberry's ethnography did not receive the attention that it deserved when it was first published, which could perhaps be explained by the gender blindness of that time, rather than the quality of her work, which was very detailed. In the book she also criticises a number of people for assuming that religion was not all-embracing, and this provoked a degree of debate following the book's publication. However it has become an increasingly important book and has been used, for example, by archaeologists examining how resources were used, and in Kimberley Native Title claims. Kaberry's work, not just in the Kimberley, contributed to intellectual and practical shifts in anthropology, especially in understandings about women and gender.

Kaberry was also very interested in literature and poetry and was an aspiring poet. She wrote a number of poems dedicated to her work in the Kimberley, and in concluding her talk Dr Toussaint quoted an extract from one titled "North Kimberley" which was written in 1936.

Dr Sandy Toussaint's book, Different Voices: Re-Visioning Phyllis Kaberry's Australian Anthropology, is to be published by Melbourne University Press in December.

Bev Phillips

ABORIGINAL DANCE TOTEMS

The speaker at the meeting of 3 June 1998 was Dr Pat Vinnicombe, a well-known member who is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of WA. As Pat was being introduced by our president Kevin Kenneally, the scene was set by a tape of background music from One Arm Point recorded by Gary Ridge. This was most effective.

Pat used many overhead projections and slides to illustrate and explain the totems, which are basically derived from a string or thread cross with many different modifications. She also brought a circular Bardi totem lent by Mary Macha to show us - it was very colourful with little tufts of down or cotton wool around the edge.

In providing background information on her work on Aboriginal Dance Totems, Pat related that a professor of anthropology from the USA, D. Davidson, published an overview paper on Australian string crosses in 1951, based on field work carried out in the late 1920s and early '30s. This pioneering work included a distribution map which showed that the Nyoongars of the South West of WA did not use string crosses, nor did they extend into the Northern Territory and the Eastern States. They are, however, prevalent in the Kimberley region. String crosses are made in many parts of the world, but it is not known how or when they were introduced to Australia. The Aboriginal people believe that they come from spirits, quite literally, and new dances with associated totems are still being "dreamt" today.

In the Western Desert and adjacent areas where the influence of Desert Law is strong, women and children are restricted from seeing string crosses which are believed to be imbued with great power. Paddy Roe, a respected elder from Broome, advised Pat, for her safety as well as his, to keep away from investigating such totems as they are too dangerous to be tampered with. However, in other areas, the dance totems are openly used in public ceremonies, and Pat showed slides taken in Kununurra picturing young girls carrying small string crosses in their hands. Some totems, on the other hand, are very large, more than twice the height of a human, and are carried on the shoulder by men.

Many of the dances portray journeys made by spirits or have their origin in historical events. For instance, a dance composed at Kalumburu told the story of Cyclone Tracy, and included totems of a very tall rain serpent with a Wanjina like head and a painted board showing a large stone falling from a mountain side. The Rainbow serpent is believed to have caused the catastrophe that demolished Darwin. These totems are now in the Darwin museum.

In Kunmunya, there was a dance telling of the coming of the white man, while the late Wattie Nerdu, a Wororra man from Mowanjum (Derby), dreamed a dance which originated from the Wanalirri painted rock shelter. This dance, with its associated painted totems embellished with a surround of twined coloured wool, is now proudly performed by the pupils of the Wanalirri School at Gibb River. The visual images used in the dances all originate in dreams, as does the accompanying music and the dance.

Music and dance used to play a very important role in Aboriginal life, and people travelled considerable distances to perform their dances for other groups, where they taught to a wider audience and indeed traded. Bardi totems from Sunday Island were traded as far as Port Hedland during the heyday of pearling.

Bardi totems are complex in design, and are distinctively different from the more basic string cross designs in other areas of the Kimberley. The Bardi and neighbouring Jawi were a truly seafaring people who built flimsy rafts from light mangrove poles fastened together with wooden skewers. The people lived largely off marine products and had an unparalleled understanding of the intricacies of the treacherous tides, rips, whirlpools and overfalls for which the Buccaneer Archipelago is infamous.

Roy Wiggan, an elder of the Bardi tribe who lived many years on Sunday Island, is disappointed that his people are now prepared to dance only for tourists when a transaction of money is involved. He has therefore decided to make totems for sale, and hopes to promote a greater appreciation and understanding of his culture through this means. Lord McAlpine initially commissioned Roy Wiggan to make totems, known to the Bardi as ilma, for special occasion dances in Broome and Kooljiman at Cape Leveque. Roy turned out hundreds of ilma which were stored in a warehouse in Broome, and through the auspices of Mary Macha, these eventually went to the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Most of Roy’s ilma designs come to him through the spirit of his deceased father, Henry Wiggan, who skippered the Sunday Island Mission lugger. Indeed, there is whole series of dances based on the life and adventures of Henry Wiggan.

During the war, the mission on Sunday Island closed down and the Bardi and Jawi people who had lived there were transferred to the Derby Reserve. Here they subsisted in abject conditions surrounded by mudflats, continually dreaming of a return to their beloved blue-water islands. Anthropologist Michael Robinson worked with these people during this crucial period, and presented a Masters Thesis to UWA.

Billy Ah Choo, one of the refugees from Sunday Island, was working on Camballin Station chasing birds off the rice fields when a series of songs came to him centred around the life of his close friend Henry Wiggan who had died. Billy's son Sammy is continuing with these songs and traditions, and Roy Wiggan, the eldest son of Henry, regularly has spiritual visits from his father who brings designs for the ilma Roy now creates. Many of these designs revolve around an epic saga when his father was washed out into the Indian Ocean on his raft which broke in half. He survived for three days before miraculously being carried back to Sunday Island by freak tides - and helping spirits. One of the ilma represents the flashing lighthouse at Cape Leveque. Others feature fish, birds, jellyfish, a seaweed that gives protection to pearlshells, a smoke signal, a waterspout, whirlpools and many more.

Another misadventure with a happy ending occurred while Henry Wiggan was skipper of the Mission lugger. The vessel, which was under sail and had no engine, was becalmed and swept away in a fierce tidal rip. After being trapped in a whirlpool, the lugger was dashed against Mid Rock, a jagged outcrop located between East and West Roe Islands. The mast was broken and Henry’s shoulder injured, but they nevertheless survived due to his singular power as a medicine man. He was able to conjure up a huge turtle which swam under the lugger and carried it back to the safety of Sunday Island!

This concluded Pat’s very interesting talk and we thanked her in the usual way with a round of applause after question time.

Daphne Choules Edinger

LIVERINGA STATION

At a regional meeting held in Derby on 24 June 1998, Jim Anderson spoke about Liveringa station and outlined its agricultural and pastoral history within the context of today's interest in irrigation enterprises along the Fitzroy River. At the time of the talk, Jim and his wife Norma were due to leave the Kimberley after working for about 12 years as caretakers of the Liveringa Homestead. Jim's varied activities prior to going to Liveringa include active Navy service in World War II, twenty years with the Customs Department and completion of a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Australia. He describes one of his greatest achievements at Liveringa as succeeding in having the homestead and woolshed listed on the State Register of Heritage Places.

Jim's talk centred on a recent visit to the Camballin area by his nephew Mark and brother Glen. It was Mark's first visit and Jim described his reactions as they visited sites at Inkata (formerly Willumbah), Camballin, Liveringa and Nerrima. The sites, Jim noted, forcibly remind us 'of how often reality makes mockery of human—in this instance non-Aboriginal—expectations and aspirations'.

Jim spoke of Mark's reaction to the enormous waste of human effort and financial resources, both private and public, at Inkata. Left are buildings fallen into disrepair, abattoir, rodeo yards and a tank transported from Talgarno. This was the site of Agricon Bore No. 1. There was infrastructure to water 9000 head of stock, irrigate crops, feedlot thousands of head of cattle and produce export sorghum and maize. Even as late as 1987 they were experimenting with growing vegetables. There were irrigation drains, barrages, levee banks and a $2,000,000 storage shed built near the jetty at Broome. Two cattle sales were held at the Inkata yards mid 1986. The shed at Broome remains empty, and now only the Inkata stockyards are used (during the annual mustering season). This was the 1980s response and result.

Next Jim spoke of the 1960s when Camballin saw the Northern Development Co., with the involvement of Kim Durack, commence the rice growing venture that utilised the best Liveringa lambing paddock. The history of that project is well documented elsewhere. It did not succeed for a variety of reasons including physical constraints.

Going further back in time Jim outlined the early history of Liveringa station as a pastoral enterprise. The carrying capacity of the station was such that, by the turn of the century, Percy Rose was having over 100,000 sheep shorn. The substantial stone homestead was constructed in five months in 1908; the store room prior to that; and the shearers quarter just prior to World War I. During the 1920s and '30s it became evident that the land was fragile and that overstocking was causing degradation.

In 1930, 21-year-old Kim Rose took over as manager. At the beginning of the 1935 shearing season an overnight downpour of 12" (300mls) of rain disrupted the shearing program to such an extent that the outstation of Paradise with an additional shearing shed was built. Wool production continued at Liveringa until the 1950s.

In concluding his talk Jim said that the examples provided by the pastoral and agricultural history of Liveringa station make it imperative that comprehensive in-depth research should precede any major development along the Fitzroy River. He also argued for adoption of the "Precautionary Principle" outlined by Peter M Davies and Stuart E Bunn in a paper presented to the Australian Society for Limnology Inc. workshop on the Limnology of the Fitzroy River, Western Australia, in February 1998. On page 27 of the Proceedings of that workshop they state that:

Due to this [the extremely limited data on the basic ecological processes of the Fitzroy River] . . . the "Precautionary Principle" should be invoked where, in the absence of adequate information, the river should be left in its currently unregulated regime.

Pam Masters

Further reading

Anderson, Jim. 'Liveringa: Fable, Fact, Farce and Failure'. Early Days: Royal WA Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, vol. 10, part 1, 1989, pp. 25–38.

Camballin Farms Project: Abridged History. Author/publisher unknown, 1989, held by WA Dept of Agriculture Library.

THE KINGS PARK EXPEDITION TO THE KIMBERLEY

At the meeting of 1 July 1998, Dr Steve Hopper, Chief Executive Officer of Kings Park & Botanic Garden, told us about the May 1997 "Kings Park Expedition" in which the primary purpose was to collect seeds to grow in the Park. Steve has written a book on the Kangaroo Paws and has studied the genus Conostylis. They belong to two subfamilies which predate the separation of Gondwana. South Africa has weird ones with unusual pollination systems. They are an intriguing family. There are none in Chile or Argentina – those that were there are extinct. The family might be more than 100 million years old and use of DNA is needed to work out their relationships. Steve is currently writing a book about the genus Haemodorums and its relatives. There’s one Haemodorum in Papua New Guinea and one in Tasmania; the south-west has 10 species and there seem to be five or six species in the Kimberley. One, H. parviflorum, with yellow flowers, equals H. flaviflorum of Fitzgerald, of which there is an outlier in Arnhemland and Darwin. Steve is describing them for his book and needs roots and leaves as well as flowers and photographs.

The Kimberley expedition was the first foray into the region by Kings Park and a first for Steve too. There were 12 paying passengers, many of them Park volunteers, plus four staff, including 80-year-old Pauline Fairall. The trip began in Kununurra, using a 4WD OKA bus, and was plagued by rain. Mirima National Park—like a miniature Purnululu (Bungle Bungle Range)—was the first stop and yielded an undescribed Trachymene (Lace Flower) endemic to the Park. Steve showed excellent slides of this specimen and of the interesting plants from the other areas visited by the expedition. He also explained his rapid survey technique - using sticky tape in a note book to attach small pieces of plants and make relevant notes, with accurate locations. He collects few herbarium specimens, except in his specialty areas of orchids, eucalypts and the family Haemodoraceae (Kangaroo Paws, etc.).

From Mirima, the group travelled through grasslands and crocodile country (with accompanying signs) to Point Spring Nature Reserve. In a pocket of vine thicket they saw many honeyeaters and were able to observe that they were pollinating eucalypts. Here Steve saw and photographed his first of the 5 or 6 Kimberley species of Haemodorums. He was fascinated by Eucalyptus pruinosa at sunset and later found it in flower, with a small black Trigonid bee pollinating these creamy, showy flowers. The Kununurra boabs also made fascinating pictures but growing them in the Park has met with no success, unfortunately.

The next visit was to the Argyle Diamond Mine where Rebecca Knowle, the Environmental Officer, showed the rehabilitation program. Its aim is to restore the original vegetation, and it seems to be doing well. Of interest is that they were finding Spinifex grass hard to grow from seed and eventually found it would grow easily from cuttings.

Melaleuca minutifolia was noted on the flood plains and Grevillea agrifolia with cream flowers was quite common. Gomphrena canescens (deep pink Batchelors Buttons) seeds were collected to plant in the Park where they will give year-round colour when our local everlastings have finished. Polycarpaea is very similar, a deep pink papery flower, only in a different family.

Two days in Purnululu (Bungle Bungle Range) followed and here they found the largest showy Ptilotus exaltatus whose seeds they also collected. Calotropis procera, Caltrop, caught their eye before they realised it was a noxious weed from Arabia and a pest in the Kimberley. It had originally been imported as a source of latex, but ran riot. All members had a helicopter ride over the range and later walked into Cathedral Gorge which had been badly burnt. The newly described endemic Grevillea psilantha, by Don McGilivray, was found and photographed.

Heading north, on the way to Wyndham, they encountered the strange 'elephant's ear' wattle, Acacia dunnii with large seed pods. They then ventured onto the famous Gibb River Road and the first camp left much to be desired. Here they came upon more Haemodorums, or blood roots, which Aboriginal people use to dye clothes. They were not flowering but were probably the yellow-flowered H. ensifolium = longifolium of Fitzgerald.

Being May, the Eucalyptus phoenicea was striking with its bunches of bright orange flowers, well attended by masses of honeyeaters and lorikeets. Seven species of birds were counted feeding on the fragrant flowers. Next came paperbark flats and ephemeral swamps, with the worldwide yellow-flowered Xyris and the carnivorous Byblis well in evidence, plus Stylidiums or Trigger plants. At the King Edward River Crossing, they saw their first Aboriginal rock paintings, well photographed.

They ventured onto the palm-bedecked Mitchell Plateau (Livistona eastonii) with Eucalyptus miniata, the Darwin Woolly Butt and E. tetrodonta, the Darwin Stringybark. Vine thickets and mangroves, including the deciduous Xylocarpus (in Meliaceae), were seen from a helicopter, also Xanthostemon paradoxus, with fluffy yellow flowers pollinated by birds, by the Mitchell Falls. Here a misfortune befell them when one of the older members collapsed from heatstroke and dehydration and had to be airlifted to hospital for emergency treatment. Luckily she soon recovered.

The Gibb River Road was closed from here on but Steve was lucky to score a helicopter ride to both Mt Bomford and Mt Agnes, both visited by C A Gardner in 1928 where he had collected a new Borya (resurrection plant), B. subulata, also collected now by Steve himself. They then flew south-east across the Prince Regent River to Mt Hann. Grevillea latifolia, also named by Charles Gardner, was found near Drysdale River Station.

Because of the Gibb River Road closure, due to heavy and late rains, the group travelled back to Wyndham. The many ponds or pools were covered with mauve flowering waterlilies, Nymphaea. Caladrinias with bright pink flowers grew on the banks and Melaleuca nervosa with two-colour forms, red and green flowers, seemed of great horticultural potential. If one indulges in a little "belly botany", many tiny, fascinating plants can be seen, such as the hairy Centrolepis exserta, a grass-like oddity. Barringtonia acutangula, the so-called freshwater mangrove, occurs all across the top end to Queensland. Terminalia canescens is a common 'nut tree' growing on rocky slopes.

From Halls Creek, after camping at the picturesque Caroline Pool, they travelled to Derby and saw Acacia suberea, with the very corky bark, growing on the black soil plains, also the native Bauhinia, Lysiphyllum cunninghamii, in red flower. The large but very slow growing boabs were in flower near Derby. Those around Broome have been planted – they don’t grow there naturally - and, outside of Australia, they occur only in Africa and Madagascar.

An interesting two-week trip ended when the party members all flew home from Broome.

Daphne Choules Edinger

DAWDLING DOWN THE DRYSDALE

At the meeting of 5 August 1998, apologies were received from Peter Knight, the scheduled speaker, who was interstate and had arranged for Dr Mike Donaldson to take his place and speak on the topic of bushwalking in the Kimberley. Mike, a foundation member and treasurer of the Society, is a mineral exploration geologist who is very interested in rock art and plants. He has recently, in collaboration with Ian Elliot, enjoyed seeing a long labour of love result in the publication by Hesperian Press of Do Not Yield to Despair: Frank Hugh Hann's Exploration Diaries in the Arid Interior of Australia, 1895- 1908.

Mike's topic was a walk, from which he had returned two weeks earlier, down the Drysdale River. Four of the participants were geologists and one a lawyer, and, though they aimed to average six kilometres per day, they actually managed ten and travelled a total of 120. The party flew to Kununurra, then took a light plane to Theda Station. From there Mark Timms, the owner, drove them to the edge of the Carson Escarpment where hardly anyone ever goes. Mike had already done one walk in this region and was so fascinated he wanted to get back. The others were mainly interested in birds and rocks.

There are no roads or tracks through the Drysdale River National Park where the walk took place. A GPS was needed to navigate so that they didn't get lost. They carried a satellite phone weighing only 2.2kg whereas a radio would weigh 5.5kg. They phoned in every couple of days to report their position. Their furthest point from habitation, six days walk from Theda, was Cracticus Falls, named after the Silver-backed Butcherbird and located in Petrogale Gorge of Johnson Creek. All the animal and plant names that now appear on maps covering the national park were bestowed in 1975, when CALM and the WA Museum did a survey of the Park, and subsequently approved by the Department of Land Administration. Our president, in his role as a botanist, was involved in the '75 survey.

Mike explained that balanced food is important when backpacking with each person needing 1kg per day dry weight, made up of 80% carbohydrate and 20% protein. The carbohydrate was mainly rice, pasta and Deb potato. Each person had two evening meals to carry—and had to cook them—and each provided his own food for breakfast and lunch. Because they stayed close to the river and its tributaries they did not need to carry water.

To illustrate his talk Mike had a selection of beautiful slides of the river, the scenery, some plants, but mainly the rock art, the fascinating Bradshaw figures (known as Goyon or Djennaggi paintings by some Aboriginal people). He found, to his disappointment, that he had to walk a considerable way before seeing any of the paintings as most of the gorges were of shale or finely banded sandstone, which are not suited to painting. The art is largely restricted to the Warton Sandstones. The party did, however, come across an Aboriginal burial site where the bones, painted in ochre, had been disturbed by animals.

In the Carson Escarpment they walked through Glider Gorge in dense vine thickets or closed forest. The gorge is named after the Sugar Glider found in the park. They came across huge sand banks left from the record flooding wet of last year, and flood debris was high above their heads as they went along the mighty Drysdale River, abounding in fish and cherabim. Sooty Grunters they caught to augment their protein diet, but the cherabim proved too elusive for Roger Passmore’s net.

They struggled up Petrogale Gorge (Petrogale is a short-eared rock wallaby) to reach Solea Falls. Solea is Latin for horseshoe which is the shape of the falls. Here there were Livistona loriphylla palms, a great contrast to the grasslands. They dunked in pools above Solea Falls, home to the freshwater crocodile, C. johnstoni, and were always on the lookout for the larger and dangerous estuarine croc, C. porosus in the larger bodies of water. Here they found many Bradshaw figures. At Forest Creek they found a riverine forest and also a forest of young Dunn’s Acacia, A. dunnii, the Elephant Ear Wattle.

Basalt in this area is 1,800 million years old. There are also fossilised stromatolites, of colonial blue-green algae, very ancient. Because the Bradshaws were painted in apparently inaccessible places, it appears that the country was different when they were executed. These figures, which some people liken to stick figures, are fine and elegant always, and have been dated to 17,000 years old using overlying wasps nests for carbon dating. They were done using a very fine brush showing musculature, delicate tassels and African-looking hairdos, some holding boomerangs or spears with barbs. There were also the so-called 'clothes-peg' figures and sometimes Wandjina figures superimposed over the Bradshaws, and many hand stencils and irregular infill animals, even a thylacine with the typical stripes and a knob on the end of the tail.

They eventually left the park and came out through Carson River Station by Bulldust Yard, picked up again by Mark Timms. This station is presently unattended, but they did muster last year. And so ended this arduous and adventurous walk, with all fit and well. Question time followed and, in addition to thanking Mike for his very interesting talk, the president mentioned that the Weekend Magazine in The Weekend Australian of 18 July 1998 had mentioned Grahame Walsh's rock art activities in an article headed 'Boats in the Outback'.

Daphne Choules Edinger

Further reading

Kabay, E D and Burbidge, A A (eds). A biological survey of the Drysdale River National Park, north Kimberley, Western Australia, in August 1975. Wildlife Reserves Bulletin Western Australia, no. 6, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Perth, 1977.

THE ORD RIVER SCHEME

At the meeting of 2 September 1998, the Society heard from Bob Humphries, a graduate of the University of W.A. who completed his Ph.D in Canberra. His career has involved management of water resources and catchments (Canberra), estuaries (EPA, Perth), water resource management (Water and Rivers Commission). He is now Environment Manager for the W.A. Water Corporation with responsibility for 150 water harvesting locations including the Ord River Irrigation Scheme.

Bob gave a fairly detailed account of the Ord project and highlighted the environmental limitations of the area and the effects of introduced nutrients and pesticides. The currently irrigated area (Stage One) includes 2500 hectares irrigated on the Packsaddle Plain and a larger area on Ivanhoe Plain. In Stage Two it is proposed to irrigate land at East Mantinea, West Mantinea and Mantinea Loop (approx. 850 ha, 1500 ha and 1000 ha respectively). The irrigation infrastructure (channels and pumps) is developed by the Water Corporation, then handed over to a farmers’ cooperative for management. From Lake Kununurra the main channel (M1) carries one million tonnes of water a day to irrigate sugar cane, cotton and horticultural crops. Because of the high water temperature (30°C) there is a huge growth of ribbon weed which is controlled in the channel by a very toxic herbicide. From the M1 water is pumped into supply channels then gravity fed into the cane fields.

Waste water from Kununurra has secondary sewage treatment before being fed into the M1 with high levels of nitrates and phosphates but is diluted 4000 to 1 by the irrigation water. Sugar cane is mechanically harvested with as much as 3% soil adherent which is separated during milling and the mud returned to the irrigation channel.

Residual water from irrigation is collected by drains and returned to the Ord River, along with 6- 7000 tonnes of silt per year. Silting of the channels is removed mechanically by excavators, one in the channel passing silt to another on the bank. Fish kills in the river from time to time have been caused by the insecticide Endosulphin draining from the cane fields, 0.2 pts/billion is toxic to fish. Endosulphin is banned from many irrigation areas but is still permitted in the Ord River Scheme.

As well as problems from nutrients and pesticides in the irrigation water the nature of the subsoil and consequent rise in the water table is a long term problem, worse in some areas than others. On the Ivanhoe Plain the water table is 30 metres below the surface and rises at 0.05 to 0.3 m/yr due to palaeo-channels of cobbles underlying the plain whereas drainage is poor on the edge of the Ivanhoe Plain where the water table rises 0.6 m/yr. As well as water soaking down from irrigated areas there is substantial leakage from channels and drains. It is estimated that by the year 2015 most areas will have the water table less than 2 metres below the surface whereas at present it is 5-10 m down.

In Stage Two it is proposed to irrigate the Weaber Plain next but this is less favourable for drainage with saline water at a fairly shallow depth. Pumps would have to be used to keep the water table down to a reasonable level. The Ord River Dam, contrary to early predictions, is expected to last for about 200 years before it silts up.

Overall Bob gave a fairly positive picture of the Ord River Scheme but there are some quite serious environmental problems which will need to be addressed. The Environmental Protection Authority will have the power to enforce regulations to improve practices which have an adverse impact on the environment.

Loisette Marsh

Editor's note: It has not been possible for the speaker to check the above summary of his talk and the summary is therefore presented without correction of possible recording errors. It is noted that, in The West Australian, 31 October 1998, p. 44 (Classified Liftout) the Department of Resources Development invited applications to develop for tropical horticulture part, all, or in stages, the farming land at East and West Mantinea.

KIMBERLEY WATTLES: THEIR NAMES AND USES

At the meeting 7 October 1998, the President Kevin Kenneally introduced Bruce Maslin, a Principal Research Scientist with CALM and one of the foremost experts on Acacias in Australia and overseas. Bruce has spent the last 30 years on Acacias, mostly on taxonomy. He explained that taxonomy is the science of classifying and naming organisms—names are not merely labels but rather the key to clusters of information concerning these organisms; information which can then be used in a range of social, scientific and applied ways. Bruce's primary research thrust today is to explore ways of applying his taxonomic knowledge and to provide computer-aided tools to enable people to name wattles and to access relevant information about them. Unfortunately, money to develop these aids has been short and most presently available aids, though useful, could be a lot better.

Bruce took time out to show some dramatic slides of the Kimberley with a background of didgeridoo music "to set the mood" for what was to follow. He explained where the Australian Acacias stood in the world scheme, which comprises 3 large Groups or subgenera; two pan tropical, characterised by bi-pinnate leaves, represented in Australia by a total of about 10 species. The third Group comprising most of the Australian Acacias have phyllodes which have a different structure from leaves. The Acacias are the largest group of vascular plants in Australia numbering about 1000 species, e.g. there are about 120 species in the general Wongan Hills area. The highlands along the East coast of Australia are also quite species rich. Rich pockets tend to occur throughout arid Australia on rocky uplands, whilst sandy desert areas are poor in species though quite often these species are the major plant species present. There are 120 species known in the Kimberley, some as yet undescribed. In showing slides of wattles and his collecting expeditions to the Kimberley, Bruce told us that the slender young man was in fact K.F.K. Who would have believed it if we hadn't been told?

Bruce spoke about other species of Acacia with a wide range of morphological characteristics e.g. occurring as large trees in Queensland (e.g. A. aulacocarpa) and smaller in the Kimberley. The most common Kimberley species Acacia tumida, the Pindan wattle, is very variable, being shrublike near Broome, prostrate in coastal regions, and inland growing into a tall shrub or tree 5 metres high. A group in Canberra is currently researching this species in order to better understand its variation. It is likely that in time A. tumida will be split into a number of separate entities which in turn will convey more accurate and appropriate information about them.

The variations within species pose problems for buyers of wattles given that the plants are ordered by name. Australian Acacias are grown in such places as North Africa for firewood and food and, in the Asian region, some of the Queensland species (e.g. A. auriculiformis, A. mangium) are extensively cultivated for timber and pulp. When seed is obtained from Australia the recipients naturally expect it to grow into the trees or shrubs they know.

In the early 19th century Alan Cunningham, the botanist on the Mermaid on Philip Parker King's voyage of exploration, made extensive collections in the Kimberley, and these have finished up in Herbaria all over the world. One collection in Kew somehow had two separate species on the one sheet named Acacia neurocarpa. One is what is now the well-known Elephants Ear Wattle, Acacia dunnii, and as this has nerved pods, the name neurocarpa was clearly intended for this species. Rather than change this well known name, Bruce chose to apply the name A. neurocarpa to the other specimen. A. neurocarpa was previously called Acacia holosericea, from which Bruce also split another entity called Acacia colei (very common in the Kimberley). This is a very important plant for providing seed used for human consumption in Africa (Niger) and elsewhere. Australian Aborigines are reported to have eaten the seeds and sometimes the pods of at least 50 Acacia species. They may eat them straight, grind them into a paste and eat it uncooked, or cook it in a sort of damper.

In illustration of his work, Bruce then demonstrated the CD he recently prepared entitled the "Wattles of the Kalannie Region". The Gordon Reid Foundation funded the project and the CD was produced to assist the people in the region to better manage their natural environment. It provides a very "user friendly" means of identifying 70 Acacia species and the conditions under which they grow for revegetation uses. When one of the 48 identification characteristics is selected, a picture comes up to show what is meant, e.g. for "tree" a couple of typical trees are shown with a person's image providing the scale. Selection of "tree" reduces the list of possible wattles from the original 70 to 30. Selection of a few more easily identified features will usually quickly reduce the possible identity of a plant to very few species. Then, using other facilities of the CD, one can show those characteristics needed to clearly identify the plant. The ease of use of such a computer key compared with the usually tortuous written keys is impressive.

The CD has similar easily-used features to select species suitable for growing in a required combination of environmental conditions. Further work is also under way with the Dalwallinu Shire funding Bruce to put the information contained in the CD into a book. The Kalannie project was seen by Bruce as a prototype scheme for the more ambitious job of doing the same for all the Australian Acacias. This project is called WATTLE and Phase I is currently in progress with funds provided by the Australian Biological Resources Study.

Kevin Kenneally, in thanking Bruce for his most informative talk, pointed out what an enormous job Bruce had done. The meeting ended at 9.15 p.m. and some of those present then socialised over supper.

Gilbert Marsh

Editor's note: The West Australian, 21 September 1998, p. 34, carried an article on the speaker's work and reported that the newly released book Edible Wattle Seeds of Southern Australia, co-authored by Bruce Maslin and Sheila Hamilton-Brown is available for $39.95 plus postage from CSIRO Publishing, PO Box 1139, Collingwood, Vic, 3036.

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE KIMBERLEY

The speaker on 4 November 1998 was Bill Preston, a graduate of Kings College London. He had been associated with resource developments that include the steel industry in the UK and copper in Zambia, and he has had 15 years association with resource development in WA. Bill, who has been Manager of Resource Development with the Department of Resources Development for the last two years, apologised for the absence of Dr Des Kelly who was to have given the talk, and he then introduced Melissa who ably presented computerised visual graphics as he proceeded.

Bill said the DRD's role was to promulgate the responsible development of the State's resources for the benefit of all people of WA. Whilst much of the region will remain as one of the last spectacular wilderness areas of the State, he saw that the full realisation of the region's value must include the development of the tourist potential, the agricultural and pastoral base, and, not least, the mineral and petroleum potential. At the same time, he recognised that the cultural and social needs of all interests in the region must be integrated into any development.

Although DRD's involvement included the Ord and West Kimberley irrigation schemes, Bill confined his talk to the oil and mineral resources as he knew we had already been addressed on the Ord Scheme. Time did not permit coverage of West Kimberley Irrigation.

Bill told us that the Kimberley contributed 1.8% of WA's GDP, including $515 million, or 3%, of WA's 1997 mineral production; and the Ord contributed a further $63 million to the GDP from horticultural and field crops. Apart from a few notable exceptions, e.g. Argyle diamonds, base metals (lead/zinc) east of Fitzroy Crossing and now petroleum in the Timor Sea, the tantalising promise of the region remains to be fulfilled. But he was optimistic that it would happen.

The geology of the region has a wide variety of geological formations formed over the last 2.2 billion years. Most of the Kimberley comprises the Kimberley Basin of sedimentary and volcanic rock, with base, ferrous metal and bauxite potential. The Basin is bounded on the east and south by the Halls Creek and King Leopold Orogens respectively, comprising metamorphosed igneous and sedimentary rocks with a potential for base and precious metals and bounded on the west by the young sedimentary Canning/Roebuck, Browse and Bonaparte basins with petroleum and base metal potential.

Although preliminary exploration has revealed many promising developments, these have to be exceptionally attractive to justify the high cost of detailed exploration in this area. Bill completed a review of the mineral prospects in the area some 2½ years ago and he was surprised by the limited follow up work on a number of relatively promising exploration projects, but he supposed it was understandable that high-cost projects were not approved considering the area has a record of low returns for the expenditure incurred.

The mineral history of the region includes the 1886 gold rush to Halls Creek, which became the State's first Goldfield. The rush was short lived and there were only minor mineral developments until the 1930s when Yampi iron ore was to be sold to Japan. This fell through when an embargo was placed on the export of iron ore in 1938 because of the perceived shortage of reserves in Australia. However production proceeded in 1951 and, to 1994, when major production ceased, 100 million tonnes had been extracted, half of it exported.

From 1950 to 1970 there was active mineral reconnaissance activity, mainly by major American mining companies and by the Geological Survey which carried out mapping. Copper occurrences were found to be widespread, and there were promising occurrences of many other mineral deposits, including Speewah flourite and nickel, lead, zinc, silver, rare earths and gold in the Halls Creek belt. One of the most significant discoveries was the Mitchell Plateau bauxite. However the potential of these discoveries is still to be realised. The current Land Management Plan for Mitchell Plateau includes consideration of economic feasibility for development, conservation, tourism and services to local communities.

About 1970 a number of uranium prospects were investigated, but only one north of Derby at Oobagooma was significant. It has in situ leaching potential and interest in it has been reactivated. Also a whole series of base metal deposits were discovered along the Devonian Reef including Cadjebut which was successfully developed. The deposit became depleted in 1997 and the plant capacity of 900,000 tonnes per year is being augmented from other nearby deposits with all production now being shipped out of Derby. This is a fly-in-fly-out operation, 50% of personnel coming from the North West; 10% of the work force is Aboriginal; and there is an ongoing training programme.

Then came the diamond boom of the 1970s and 1980s, the greatest mineral success story so far in the Kimberley. In the 1940s,Prof. Prider of UWA thought that some Potassium rich rocks (lamproites) in the Kimberley were of mantle origin, i.e. possibly diamond bearing. The search for diamonds began in earnest in 1967 and the first diamonds were discovered at Ellendale in 1976. Then the follow up of the discovery of the Argyle alluvial diamonds resulted in the discovery of the rich AK1 pipe in 1979 which came into production in 1983. Most workers commute from Perth on a fly-in-fly-out basis. The operators established one of the first local community consultation schemes which is considered to be very successful. The remaining life of Argyle is limited, with plans in place to extend it for 9 or 10 years. Active diamond exploration has continued with many promising indications, but none to date proving economically viable. Detailed evaluation is proceeding at two possible fields at Blina and in the north Kimberley.

The promise of a rich gold strike continues to elude miners. Many small rich deposits of gold have been discovered, the largest being Palm Springs which produced 73,000 oz—small by large mine standards elsewhere in the State, yet producing twice as much as the entire cumulative previous gold production of the Kimberley. The Tanami region offers some hope for the future.

The petroleum potential of the area is enormous with large resources discovered in the offshore Browse and Bonaparte basins. The Browse Basin contains the largest known gas field in Australian waters and Woodside has considered conceptual plans for its development. To date only small shore-based operations have produced petroleum (oil) in the Canning Basin, though Jabiru, Challis and Skua oilfields close to WA waters in the Bonaparte Basin have been producing for some time. Dramatic developments are in train on the northern boundary of WA waters with the development of the Laminaria and Corallina oilfields in 385 m of water (at a cost of $1.35 billion) using the largest floating production, storage and off-loading vessel in the world. Production is due to commence next year, serviced from Darwin at present. Other significant oil and gas developments are taking place in the zone of cooperation with Indonesia. Broome and Wyndham are considered to have potential as support bases for offshore oil and gas activity.

Gilbert Marsh

CALM IN THE KIMBERLEY

On 2 December 1998, Kevin Kenneally, our President, opened the meeting with 60 people present. He welcomed members Norma and Jim Anderson, who have retired south from Liveringa, and extended a special welcome to Pat Barblett, the Chairperson of the Forum Advocating Cultural and Eco Tourism (FACET).

Kevin apologised for the absence of Dr Syd Shea, the Executive Director of the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) who was due to talk to the Society on the topic, "CALM in the Kimberley". He was ill and couldn’t attend, so Kevin had been asked to step in and give the address for him, with the able assistance of Genelle Pennington who had put the ‘Power-point’ presentation together for us. Kevin hopes that he can get Dr Shea to a later meeting with a view to hearing answers to some of the questions that arose after the talk.

Tourism has increased tremendously over the years and nature-based tourism is the more popular. "Certain products emerging today will dominate the market tomorrow, such as nature and ecotourism products, cruises, water sports and tourism in the polar regions, the deserts and the great tropical forests," says the Secretary General, Francesco Frangialli, World Tourism Organisation, 1998.

We need ecological, sustainable development using, conserving and enhancing the community’s resources so that ecological processes on which life depends are maintained and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased (Ecologically Sustainable Development Steering Committee, 1992).

We are perfectly poised to capitalise on our natural advantage. CALM manages a land area 51% the size of Japan, as shown on a diagram. We have the world’s oldest culture embedded in the world’s oldest landscape. Integration is the key word:

• Integrating the needs of all of the community now and in the future.
• Integrating different sustainable land uses with sustainable conservation.
• Integrating conservation with wealth generation and employment creation.
• Integrating management and scientific skills to achieve these objectives.

Why conservation needs nature-based tourism:

• Nature-based tourism educates the community about what is worthwhile conserving.
• Nature-based tourism causes our landscapes, plants and animals to have a tangible value.
• Nature-based tourism increases the number of constituencies who depend on, and hence support, conservation.
• Nature-based tourism generates funds for research and management.
• Nature-based tourism gives impetus to private conservation efforts.

Why nature-based tourism needs conservation:

• If we destroy the natural asset, there is no product.
• Conservation can create unique natural products.
• Conservation can add value to the nature-based tourism experience.
• Marketing.

Management is the answer. The management challenge – To manage and protect lands, waters and wildlife while at the same time ensuring that visitors have the opportunity to see, understand and appreciate those values.

The Ibis Aerial Highway links 14 beauty spots in the Kimberley, using light planes for tourists who have limited time and a desire for comfort. Thus CALM is enhancing the product by providing knowledge and the opportunity to participate, as with its Landscope Expeditions, Web and E-mail publications, and the publication of books such as Broome & Beyond, which used much community involvement, and the Bush Books Series, five of which relate to the Kimberley. The Flora of the Kimberley was the first flora for tropical Western Australia. It is a starting point. We need a flora of the whole northern region, including the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Western Everlasting has just been launched to promote and protect all threatened flora in the State. These are listed in regions, but more research is needed. The Edgar Range Pandanus was threatened by cattle and has been cultivated in Broome for people to see and to protect it from extinction.

We must recognise the nature-based products we have, such as the Mermaid Boab in Careening Bay, which is a permanent national monument to Phillip Parker King and Alan Cunningham, the botanist and explorer. (All these places mentioned were illustrated with superb photographic slides.)

Acacia tumida, a common Kimberley wattle, is used to make flour by grinding the seeds, and, in Africa, is used for stabilisation and firewood as well, so it has tremendous potential. Cycas pruinosa, a cycad, has potential as a medicine. Boabs are dominant in the landform and the boab is also the logo for this Society. Pat Lowe has just produced a fascinating book on this ancient and mysterious tree (reviewed in Boab Bulletin, December 1998, p. 5).

Cape Domett, north of Wyndham at the east entrance to Cambridge Gulf, is very scenic and has great potential as a stop-off point for boat cruises, the mighty King George Falls, the bottom of Cambridge Gulf are all in proposed Reserve Systems. Purnululu (the Bungle Bungle Range) of ancient Devonian sandstones formed into strange beehive shapes is part of a National Park. Wolfe Creek Crater, the second largest such in the world, 850 m diameter, is safe in a small National Park on the western edge of the Tanami Desert.

Nearby large freshwater Lake Willson and nearby flood plain in NW Tanami is home to thousands of water birds. The Gardner Range is home to a species of Pebblemound building mouse recently discovered, so needs protection. The Ningbing Range north of Wyndham, another part of the Devonian Reef system, is home to a host of endemic land snails which need protecting.

The Bougainville Peninsula, the northernmost part of the Kimberley Coast, has many large patches of rainforest and these were only discovered in the 1960s. A large survey in the 1980s identified and surveyed over 100 patches of rainforest.

And what is happening to Mitchell Plateau? The triple falls here are superb – you can walk or take a helicopter to view them. Only here do the endemic fan palms, Livistona eastonii grow and there are many rare epiphytic and terrestrial orchids to be found.

Naturalist Island in Prince Frederick Harbour near the mouth of the Hunter River is a popular stopping off spot for boat cruises. It has a patch of vine thicket rambling up the hill behind the protected beach. The Hunter River itself has extensive mangroves lining the banks and is home to the world’s largest numbers of bird species. The mangal also provides corridors along which overseas birds migrate into the Kimberley and southwards from south-east Asia.

The incredibly straight and scenic Prince Regent River is already part of a Nature Reserve which could be updated to a National Park. It includes the famous King Cascade emptying into an extensive salt water pool, home to resident estuarine crocodiles. Mounts Trafalgar and Waterloo, massive blocks of sandstone, dominate St George Basin. Crocodile Creek in Yampi Peninsula is an anchorage for visiting ketches and camping area for sea-weary sailors, but here quarantine is a problem which needs careful management.

All through the Kimberley, feral animals pose another management nightmare. Donkeys, cattle and cats are the main offenders—needing eradication because of the damage they cause to country and its indigenous inhabitants.

The Carson Escarpment forms the edge of a vast plateau in the Drysdale River National Park. This area is land-locked and has no road access. You either canoe or walk. It is home to the best examples of the famous delicate Bradshaw art figures (known as Goyon or Djennaggi paintings by some Aboriginal people).

There were slides of the Funnel into Secure Bay and whirlpools in Walcott Inlet, showing the force of tidal movements in a range of up to 11m. Montgomery Island and Reef is left high and dry when the tidal water rushes off in cascades to join the sea.

The Cockburn Range, with its extensive sandstone ramparts, needs to be incorporated within a National Park or Nature Reserve, as do the coastal vine thickets north of Broome. Windjana and Geikie Gorges are now in National Parks, as is Bell Creek and Falls, now that CALM administers Mt Hart Station.

The Edgar Ranges, on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, form an important interzone area which needs protecting, especially from feral donkeys and cattle. Fire control is also very important in all areas and we need to understand how and why this can be accomplished.

The final slides covered Aboriginal artefacts, rock art, fish traps, middens and didgeridoos, including appropriate background music for dancing. This stressed the untapped potential of indigenous cultural tourism and the need for preservation. Dialogue and input from both sides is required.

This concluded the presentation. Kevin then welcomed questions. Some he answered and those directed to Dr Shea should be written down and sent to him with a view to having the answers published in the Boab Bulletin subsequently.

The President wished all 300 members of the Society compliments of the Season and thanked the Council members for their efforts during the year. The meeting closed at 9.00 pm and the members and friends present partook of a special Christmas supper.

Daphne Choules Edinger