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My Memories
In 1989 less than a year
after paddling, cycling and running 3500kms around the remote
Kimberley I decided to paddle, cycle, run and walk 24,000kms
around the remote parts of Australia.
I will will never forget
when I was walking 1600kms of the Canning Stock route, through
the Great Sandy Desert, Little Sandy and Gibson deserts for
31 days that something extraordinary happened. I had covered
50 odd kms for the day when I noticed a dingo following behind.
I stopped and looked and the dingo stopped. I walked on and
the dingo followed. It moved from one side of the sandy track
to the other and then trotted off into the spinifex for a
few minutes before coming back on track. I stopped again and
it stood still. This went on for some time. When it walked
off into the spinifex and I couldn't see it for a while I
whistled and it came back again. As hours passed I just didn't
want it to leave as I had started to feel attached to it and
was astonished that it had become so friendly. At one stage
it came within 2 metres of me. I wondered, was it expecting
me to curl over and die on the track? The dingo continued
to follow and I continued to enjoy its shy company.
I pushed on walking up the highest sand
ridges on route between Well 41 and 42. One of the ridges
had been measured at 16.8m high. That might not seem high
but because they were sandy and after climbing one after the
other all day in the hot sun, it was like climbing a mini
Everest each time.
At last the day was over but I felt
somewhat downhearted at the thought saying goodbye to the
dingo as I didn't expect it to hang around. However much to
my surprise and delight later that evening, its head appeared
above the sand dune. We put out a bowl of water a few metres
from our camp and it soon crept closer, its body low and often
crawling. It was so shy, cautious and a little frightened
but eventually it reached the bowl and started to drink. The
dingo reached out, stretching its neck so severely, that its
body was some distance away from the water bowl. It was very
thin. That night, the timid dog became a part of our camp.
The following morning it was gone. I
was pretty sad as you don't get a wild dingo following you
every day. I couldn't be any further away from civilisation
than where I was so it really was a wild dingo.
I walked on alone that morning for over 5kms thinking about
the dingo and then out of the blue it appeared again. You
can't believe how happy I was. I felt so lucky. For the next
few hours it followed me and once again, I enjoyed its shy
company. But then as the harsh afternoon sun bare down I spotted
another dingo ahead and suddenly my dingo disappeared and
was never to be seen again. I was left once more with a sense
of sadness.
I think the dingo thought
I was looking thin and I would collapse. It was ready for
a feed...but fortunately not on me.
The Canning
Stock Route
The Canning Stock Route
is a track that runs from near Halls Creek in the Kimberley
region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region.
With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is
the longest historic stock route in the world. I walked 1700kms
of the route.
Canning survey
The stock route was proposed as a way
of breaking a monopoly that west Kimberley cattlemen had on
the beef trade at the beginning of the 20th century. After
it was determined that ticks could not survive a desert crossing,
the government endorsed James Isdell's scheme and funded a
survey to find a stock route that would cross the Great Sandy
Desert, the Little Sandy Desert and the Gibson Desert. Alfred
Canning, a surveyor with the Western Australian Department
of Lands and Surveys, was appointed to survey the stock route.
Canning’s task was to find a route
through 1850 kilometres of desert, from Wiluna in the mid
west to the Kimberley in the north. He needed to find significant
water sources – enough for up to 800 head of cattle,
a day’s walk apart – where wells could be dug, and
enough good grazing land to sustain this number of cattle
during the journey south.
In 1906, with a team of 23 camels, two
horses, and eight men, Canning surveyed the route completing
the difficult journey from Wiluna to Halls Creek in less than
six months. On 1 November 1906, shortly after arriving in
Halls Creek, Canning sent a telegram to Perth stating that
the finished route would "be about the best watered stock
route in the Colony". Canning was forced to delay his
return journey because of an early wet season in the Kimberley
that year. The survey party left Halls Creek in late January
1907 and arrived back in Wiluna in early July 1907. During
the 14-month expedition, they had trekked about 4,000 km (2,500
mi), relying on Aboriginal guides to help them find water.
When the survey party returned to Perth,
Canning's treatment of Aboriginal guides came under scrutiny
leading to a Royal Commission. Despite condemning Canning’s
methods, the Royal Commission exonerated Canning and his men
of all charges.
Construction
Canning left Perth in March 1908, along
with 30 men, 70 camels, four wagons, 100 tonnes of food and
equipment and 267 goats (for milk and meat), and travelled
the route again to commence the construction of well heads
and water troughs at the 54 water sources identified by his
earlier expedition. He arrived back in Wiluna in April 1910
having completed the last of 48 wells and bringing the total
cost of the route to £22000 (2010: A$2.6 million).
Thirty-seven of the wells were built
on or near existing Aboriginal waters and were constructed
in the European tradition, which made many of them inaccessible
to Aboriginal people. Pulling the heavy buckets up from the
bottom of the wells required the strength of three men or
use of a camel. Consequentially, many Aboriginal people were
injured or died while trying to access the water, either falling
in and drowning or breaking bones on the windlass handle.
In reprisal, buckets were cut off or timber set on fire, and
by 1917 Aboriginal people had vandalised or dismantled approximately
half of the wells in a bid to reclaim access to the water
or to prevent drovers from using the wells. Canning's party
had constructed the wells with the forced help of one of the
Aboriginal peoples whose land the route traversed, the Martu.
Canning produced a detailed map of the
stock route, Plan of Wiluna–Kimberley stock route exploration
(showing positions of wells constructed 1908–9 and 10)
on which he also recorded his observations of the land and
water sources along the route. The map has become a symbol
of Australia’s pioneering history.
Commercial droving began in 1910, but
the stock route did not prove popular and was rarely used
for the next twenty years.
A 1928 Royal Commission into the price
of beef in Western Australia led to the repair of the wells
and the re-opening of the stock route. Around 20 droves took
place between 1931 and 1959 when the final droving run was
completed.
The Canning Stock Route is now a popular
challenging four-wheel drive adventure.
One of the smaller sand
dunes
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