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Image from page 44 of “John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” (1894)

Image from page 44 of “John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” (1894) Image by Internet Archive Book Images Identifier: johnbullcogreatc00orel Title: John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa Year: 1894 (1890s) Authors: …

Image from page 44 of “John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa” (1894)
Valley of Desolation
Image by Internet Archive Book Images
Identifier: johnbullcogreatc00orel
Title: John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: O’Rell, Max, 1848-1903
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. L. Webster & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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Text Appearing Before Image:
.Then you descend toward the fertile valley of the SaltLake in Utah. The Mormons have been described adnauseam, and there is nothing new to be looked for intheir midst; they are ancient history. By a new law ofthe United States, polygamy is no longer tolerated, and JOHN BULL & CO. 35 if Artemus Ward were now alive, and about to giveone of his delightfully humorous talks there, he couldno longer put on the complimentary ticket given tosome Mormon to whom he wished to show a politeness, Admit bearerand one wife.In Salt LakeCity you arestruck by thecleanliness, thequietness, andthe general airof prosperity ofthe place. TheMormons aremeek-voicedand mild-man-nered, as onewould expect inthe descendantsof an oppressedsect. Attend-ants are politeand altogethera great contrastto the same classo f persons o nthe other side ofthe Rockies. The Mormons continue to believe andcall themselves Saints. This is a harmless mania thathurts nobody. Before eettins; into California there remains but the

Text Appearing After Image:
TEMPLE SQUARE, SALT LAKE CTrY. 36 JOHN BULL & CO. State of Nevada to cross, a sandy, arid land, which formsa curious contrast with the fertile Salt Lake valley andthe luxuriant plains of California between which it lies.Some Indians, majestically draped in blankets and withfeathers in their hair, a few cowboys with sombrerosstuck on the back of the head give a touch of the pic-turesque to this scene of desolation, a scene almostgrandiose in its dreariness. After the sandy desert istraversed, the ground begins to rise once more, natureshows signs of life again, and presently you are in theSierras, which to my thinking are still more picturesqueand much grander than the Rockies. The RockyMountains are certainly mountainous and undeniablyrocky, but the landscape has not the majesty of theSierras. The Rocky Mountains are wild and arid ; theSierras are luxuriant with verdure. You are nearingthe home of perpetual spring. All is gay and smiling:the blue sky, the slopes of the mountains c

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Charles Sturt Memorial cairn at Raukkan, South Australia. – The Great Fish River Museum

Charles Sturt Memorial cairn at Raukkan, South Australia. Image by denisbin Memorial to Charles Sturt built in 1931 by Aboriginal epople at Point McLeay Aborginal Mission which is now Raukkan Aboriginal Community. George Taplin, Point McLeay Mission and Raukkan Aboriginal Community. The origin of the Ngarrindjeri Mission of the AFA goes back to the drive …

Charles Sturt Memorial cairn at Raukkan, South Australia.
The Great Fish River museum
Image by denisbin
Memorial to Charles Sturt built in 1931 by Aboriginal epople at Point McLeay Aborginal Mission which is now Raukkan Aboriginal Community.

George Taplin, Point McLeay Mission and Raukkan Aboriginal Community.
The origin of the Ngarrindjeri Mission of the AFA goes back to the drive of George Taplin, the founding missionary, and the need for the mission because of destruction of the traditional fishing and hunting grounds of the Ngarrindjeri people. The Ngarrindjeri occupied the lands along the Coorong from Kingston, around the two lakes and up the Murray to where Murray Bridge now stands, and across the bottom of Fleurieu Peninsula to Cape Jervis. These lands were all areas of Special Surveys in 1839 and early white settlement. The close access to fresh water attracted pastoralists and where there were not Special Surveys the lands were granted to white pastoralists by annual and later 14 year leases. As one writer, Graham Jenkins, has claimed in his history of the lower lakes, the Ngarrindjeri were conquered by whites and then dispossessed of their lands and food sources. The Aboriginal Friends’ Association was formed in 1857 from various Protestant denominations but with a strong Anglican backing. They wanted to assist with the physical living conditions of Aboriginal people as well as introducing them to Christianity. Welfare was their primary aim. The believed Aboriginal people deserved more than blankets and meagre government food rations. The AFA called for reports and were told that 30 to 40 Aboriginal children in Goolwa from the Ngarrindjeri were in desperate need of schooling. Parliament offered a grant of £500 for the establishment of a school in the vicinity of Goolwa. In 1859 the new AFA committee agreed to appoint an agent to find the best location for the school. George Taplin, a school teacher of Goolwa, was appointed to this role of finding a suitable location and then to set up a mission and school. Taplin had been concerned about Aboriginal welfare for some years. He relished his new position. Taplin selected a spot at Point McLeay (McLeay was second in charge of the Charles Sturt expedition of 1830 along the Murray). To the Ngarrindjeri this spot was called Raukkan hence the name of the Aboriginal Community here today.

The leaseholder of land adjoining Raukkan was John Baker of Morialta. He objected to Taplin’s choice as an Aboriginal Mission there would be “prejudicial to his interests” as the government grant for the Mission was coming out of his leasehold of Narrung station. As a state politician he initiated the first Royal Commission by an SA government into the conditions and welfare of Aboriginal people. He had hoped to have Taplin and the AFA ousted from his land. But this was not the outcome of the Royal Commission which looked at issues across SA, not just around the lower lakes, and the Commission found no reason to relocate the Taplin Mission. In one sense Baker had one justifiable point- the Raukkan Mission had insufficient land to provide a satisfactory livelihood for the Aboriginal residents. They could fish the lakes and the Coorong, they could work on the pastoral properties of Poltalloch and Campbell Park, they could grow their own vegetables, but they had insufficient land to crop or to pasture sheep or cattle on in terms of income. The land at Raukkan might have provided for one family, not dozens. This lack of land and income was an ongoing problem with the Mission. But Baker’s other claims that Taplin only wanted the salary and was not interested in aboriginal welfare, that he was lazy, and that he bribed the Ngarrindjeri to attend church were all patently false.

Taplin set to work to establish a school at Raukkan, then some cottages for the Aboriginal people, as well as one for his own family, and the church, depicted our note which opened in 1869. Taplin learnt Ngarrindjeri language, recorded it, wrote many essays and published books on the Aborigines of South Australia. He died in 1879 when one of his sons took over as superintendent of the Mission. George Taplin was revered and respected by the Ngarrindjeri people. He tried to establish a commercial fishing operation for the Ngarrindjeri, he organised football and cricket matches with local white teams, he assisted with the employment of Aboriginal people on the nearby great stations, and the community ran a business washing wool for the Bowman brothers’ estates. The school was his first priority and the school room opened in 1860. Taplin is especially remembered for his Ngarrindjeri translations of books from the Bible which are unique in Australia. By the time Taplin died Raukkan had about 1,700 acres of land, the size of a normal farm. It began in 1860 with a lease from the government of just 750 acres. In 1878 the AFA got a leasehold block along the Coorong for sheep grazing, holidays and fishing. The Raukkan Mission under the guidance of the AFA and strong educationists like George Taplin produced three well known Aboriginal preachers and an outstanding writer, scientist and inventor, David Unaipon who is also depicted on our note. David (1872-1967) was born on the mission, died in Tailem Bend and was buried back in Raukkan. In 1909 he developed and patented a new form of shearing cutters. He was an internationally recognised expert in ballistics although he had no formal university education. He patented nine inventions including a centrifugal motor. He did research at the University of Adelaide although he was not employed there. He mainly got his income from preaching and writing.

The Raukkan Mission was taken over from the AFA in 1916 by the state government which then assumed full control. It was then known as Point McLeay Aboriginal Reserve and over the years it acquired some additional land but never sufficient for a good income for the Reserve. In 1974 the Raukkan lands were handed over to the Ngarrindjeri people and they changed the Reserve name to Raukkan Aboriginal Community in 1982. The town has memorial cairns to George Taplin, Captain Charles Sturt and David Unaipon. The old church has good stained glass windows and an interesting interior with no central church aisle which is most unusual. George Taplin’s cottage from the 1860s is now the Raukkan Gallery and museum.

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Aborginal cave art at Yourambulla Aboriginal Caves in the Flinders Ranges South Australia.

Aborginal cave art at Yourambulla Aboriginal Caves in the Flinders Ranges South Australia. Image by denisbin Hawker. Hawker was established in 1880 as a railway stop. By 1881 it had a population of 142. Today, as a tourist town it has a population of 250. Hawker has about 300 mm of rain a year, but …

Aborginal cave art at Yourambulla Aboriginal Caves in the Flinders Ranges South Australia.
Cradock Methodist Church
Image by denisbin
Hawker.
Hawker was established in 1880 as a railway stop. By 1881 it had a population of 142. Today, as a tourist town it has a population of 250. Hawker has about 300 mm of rain a year, but it can all fall in one week or one month of the year. Crops are still sown in good years. Hawker is 470 m or 1545 ft above sea level.

Yourambulla Aboriginal Caves Historic Reserve.
The name Yourambulla is derived from the Adnyamathanha phrase "yura pilla" meaning two men, and the name is related to the two peaks to the east of the painting sites. The caves here are the largest in the district. The paintings are done in ochre and charcoal. Some are paintings and some are stencils, of a small hand, for example. The symbols depicted were used in initiation and other ceremonies. Symbols include emu tracks, waterholes, camp sites, grave sites, ceremonial food sites etc. Some of the paintings are believed to be 600 or more years old, but others were retouched during Adnyamathanha ceremonies in the 1940s. This is a protected Aboriginal Heritage site.

Wilson.
This was the most northerly town of the Quorn district; it was established in 1881 as the railway came through to Hawker. It is a classic example of a northern farming town established in marginal lands, far beyond Goyder’s Line but set up following the bumper rain years of the late 1870s. It quickly had a store and a hotel. The publican had a well dug to 100 feet in depth to provide water for the town. The Wilson School opened in 1882 but classes had been held prior to this in the Methodist church. In 1900 the town of Wilson had a school, a hotel, a Methodist church, a general store, a butcher, a greengrocer, a blacksmith, a saddler and a carpenter. It had cricket and tennis teams. The population was 73 people, plus another 20 people resided on farms nearby. A war memorial hall was erected in 1921 but just a few years later the 1928 drought killed the town. In 1942 the school and hotel closed and the church was dismantled and moved. Gradually the other town structures crumbled or were vandalised or removed. Most dwellings were left unoccupied not long after 1928. Today it is a “ghost town. “ Its history should not be forgotten- these pioneers came and struggled and tried hard to survive, but the harsh South Australian environment determined their fate.

Kanyaka Homestead.
As explained in relation to the Pekina Run this run was established in 1851 by Hugh Proby who disappeared shortly afterwards whilst returning from a visit to Pekina Run. The next leaseholder John Phillips (with Alexander Grant) had the many fine stone buildings erected. It was a large and prosperous run except during drought years. The drought in the 1860s saw the sheep numbers drop from 41,000 to 10,000. When the government resumed large parts of Kanyaka Run for agricultural settlement, especially for towns like Wilson, the run became unviable. Phillips just walked out of the leasehold in 1881 and the buildings were left to crumble. The station cemetery which is not accessible is across Kanyaka Creek. Dozens were employed on the run in its heyday and many died there too. The large woolshed catered for 24 shearers at once. The property buildings included: station homestead; overseers house; men’s kitchen and dining room; carpenter shop; stables; shearers’ quarters; various huts and sheds; blacksmith shop; cellars etc.

Carrieton.
The Carrieton district has a highly unreliable but average rainfall of around 300mm per annum and the elevation at 395 metres (or 1,300 feet) made it an attractive area for early pastoralists. The first leasehold in the district, the Coonatto Run near Hammond was taken out in 1851 by Alexander Grant and Hugh Proby of Kanyaka Run. Then in 1853 James Grant, one of Alexander’s brother also bought into the leasehold. The town of Carrieton stands on what was part of the Yanyarrie Run. In 1853 the Grants sank a well and built a large stone tank around- the Yanyarrie Whim which is located on the northern outskirts of Carrieton. Yanyarrie Run and Coonatto Run made up the main runs of the Grant brothers. By 1859 the combined runs exceeded 900 square miles. In 1866 the Grants bought property near Millicent for pasturage during times of drought. This was needed in that year as in 1864 they had shorn 87,000 sheep but in 1866 they only had 18,000 to shear. Their wool was carted by bullock dray down to Port Augusta. Another run in the district was Yalpara Run east of Carrieton run by John and Richard Ragless. They had their own desalination water plant in the 1870s to make the well water potable. They faced tough years and during the drought of 1866 half of their 250,000 sheep died. Their run was resumed in 1875.

Despite being many miles beyond Goyder’s Line (even Orroroo was beyond Goyder’s Line) the government resumed the Grant family runs in 1877 to survey the Hundred of Yanyarrie and establish the government towns of Carrieton and Eurelia. Both towns had settlement begin around 1878 just a couple of years before the railway to Quorn was pushed through the area in 1881. With the land sales the Grants bought some freehold land and maintained a small station on Coonatto finally selling up in 1903. As one local newspaper reported in 1880 before the droughts set in “farmers will reach the banks of the Finke River and the McDonnell Ranges”! Beyond Carrieton the town of Johnburg was established in 1882 in the Hundred of Oladdie in the Hills of the same name. But 1882 proved Surveyor General Goyder correct. The grain and the top soil blew away in a terrible drought throughout this region. It was a terrible start to the little towns of Johnburg, Carrieton and Eurelia. Yet they survived.

By 1879 Carrieton had a post office, a general store, Davies blacksmiths and coach builders- the largest operations north of Gawler. (In 1890 this business employed 31 men in Carrieton.) The Carrieton Hotel opened in 1879 with Michael O’Grady being the first publican. The Eureka Hotel opened in 1880, but closed in 1946 and was then demolished. When the government conducted a census in 1881 Carrieton had a population of 120. (Today it has around 130 people.) By then it had a railway siding. Carrieton was an important stop as the carriage lamps were all taken out at Carrieton to have their wicks cleaned and trimmed and the lamps polished before being replaced in the next train. In the early 1880s during the drought Carrieton acquired a school (1882), a police station (1884), St Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church (the large presbytery was built in 1889), a small Methodist Church (1882), an Anglican Church (1888) and the railway station, built in 1885 at a cost of £1,500. The first agricultural show was held in Carrieton in 1882. These days the town has an annual night time rodeo which started in 1953.

After the droughts of the early 1880s came the rabbit plague, the dust storms, the grasshopper plagues, the mice plagues and outbreaks of typhoid. The story of one local farmer, Mr Evans, exemplifies the effects of the drought. It takes 4 bushels to fill one bag of wheat. Here is what he reaped:
1879 508 bushels of wheat
1880 76 bushels of wheat grasshoppers destroyed most of the crops.
1881 108 bushels of wheatdrought.
1882 0 bushels continuing drought.

Cradock.
The Hundred of Wirreanda was one of few hundreds in this area to have a town- Cradock. Local pastoralists asked the government in 1878 to survey a town on the Travelling Stock Route where it crossed Wirreanda Creek. Some town lots were sold in March 1879 with the town being named by Governor Jervois. He had already used his children’s names for other towns- Carrieton (Caroline), Amyton (Amy), Hammond and Johnburgh( John.) The town of Gordon on the Willochra Plain was named after Governor Jervois’ brother. Because Governor Jervois had worked in the military base at Cradock in South Africa, he named this new town near Hawker after that place. Cradock in South Africa had been named after Sir John Cradock a former Governor of the South Africa province.

Despite being 100 kms from Goyder’s Line and being on the edge of salt bush country the small town soon attracted 2 blacksmiths, a store keeper and a post master. When Hawker was established in 1880, the store keepers of Cradock, the Jackson brothers, opened a store in Hawker. In 1881 two hotels were built in Cradock. One was later demolished, but the Cradock Hotel still survives. But by 1881 the crops were failing; the country was dry; the good rain and seasons had gone. No good rains fell again from 1881 to 1889. Yet Cradock continued as there was optimism that good rains would eventually return. The Catholic Church opened in 1883. The government school in Cradock opened in 1881- the first government school in the northern areas. 27 pupils attended the school in its first year.

From D.W Meinig, “Margins of the Good Earth.”
In 1881 the grasshoppers arrived to eat what the drought had not wilted. As the drought continued the rabbits ate everything left. Yet the government was surveying and declaring new hundreds as the northern railway line worked its way up to Marree, beyond Leigh Creek. In 1883 crops still failed but the first (of only two) agricultural shows were held in Cradock. Thereafter the agricultural show went to Hawker. The weatherboard Cradock Wesleyan Methodist Church opened in 1884 until it closed in 1924 when it was replaced with a stone church in 1925. In 1885 there was a mouse plague. Later that year a plague of locusts came to Cradock and finished off the meagre crops. In 1888 terrible dust storms blanketed the town. Farmers petitioned the government for help with their mortgages. It was so dry, with so little herbage that teamsters could not make the journey to Blinman. In 1889 those that remained on the land welcomed the 517 mm of rain in Cradock, and the harvest was good. The average rainfall is 250mm. Then a big drought set in from 1896-1902. Cradock was back to 150mm of rainfall at best, year after year. In 1894 the Anglican Church opened in Cradock; it was demolished in 1958. Jackson’s store closed before 1897. Most families left the district in the mid 1890s. The Wirreanda Hotel closed in 1914. Foxes joined the list of district pests in 1907 soon being in plague numbers. In later years the rainfall got down to 58 mm in 1940! The Roman Catholic Church closed in 1970 and was deconsecrated in 1976 and sold as a private residence to Annette Frankel. Cradock School was held in the old police station from 1929-1949 when it closed.

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