A Beaut Australian Film

[Bobj]

We Of The Never Never...

 

If you want to watch it in Australia 1.15 PM (local times) today on Channel 9. It is the true story of Jeannie Gunn on Elsey Station in the Northern Territory in 1902.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[starlight7]

Love that book too. Another one is 'Kings in Grass Castles'- oldie but a goodie.

[Sustain]

We Of The Never Never...

 

If you want to watch it in Australia 1.15 PM (local times) today on Channel 9. It is the true story of Jeannie Gunn on Elsey Station in the Northern Territory in 1902.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

 

Yes it was a good watch

 

Shows how far we have come dealing with fevers

[Guest The Pom Queen]

We Of The Never Never...

 

If you want to watch it in Australia 1.15 PM (local times) today on Channel 9. It is the true story of Jeannie Gunn on Elsey Station in the Northern Territory in 1902.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

I had never watched it but @Bobj sent it to me and I have to say I absolutely loved it, what made it even more special was that last September myself, Cerberus1, Squarepants, BobJ, Jo and PJ all visited the area and the graveyard where they were buried.

[Guest Guest40285]

Love that book too. Another one is 'Kings in Grass Castles'- oldie but a goodie.

 

Same unreal book, read it twice

[Guest The Pom Queen]

 

 

 

[Guest The Pom Queen]

[Metoo]

Just purchased the book off eBay :wink: I like a good read

[ramot]

We Of The Never Never...

 

If you want to watch it in Australia 1.15 PM (local times) today on Channel 9. It is the true story of Jeannie Gunn on Elsey Station in the Northern Territory in 1902.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

 

Bob I recorded it but haven't watched it yet, sounds interesting.

I will be in Katherine for 2 nights in August, how far away is Elsey station from there, as It sounds well worth a visit. Traveling from Darwin and back to Darwin. Thanks M

[ramot]

Looks to be about 100k south, will have to hope it's realistic in our time scale, as looks a fascinating place.

[Bobj]

Looks to be about 100k south, will have to hope it's realistic in our time scale, as looks a fascinating place.

 

It's 112 km from The Katherine to Mataranka and 12 km from Mataranka to the t/o (L) and another 7 to the cemetery. A replica of the homestead is in Mataranka, but its original site is 1 km further on from the cemetery. A small cairn marks the actual site.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[Bobj]

Always get a lump in my throat when I see the cemetery and I well remember The Pom Queen touching my shoulder as I tried to explain a couple of the graves.

 

Always indebted to you, TPQ.:yes:

 

Cheers, Bobj.

 

PS. David Suttie, the head stockman, died on the way to Wyndham and was buried on the side of the road about 5 km from Ivanhoe Station, which is on the opposite bank of the Ord River at Ivanhoe Crossing, Kununurra.

[Bobj]

Love that book too. Another one is 'Kings in Grass Castles'- oldie but a goodie.

 

Goodoh, star...I lived in that area in the Kimberlies.

 

As one of my jobs was to locate gravel deposits and waterholes for the Main Roads Dept. WA, I had many 'encounters' with pieces of history from that book. I found a boab tree that was blazed by the Duracks on that epic cattle drive. Sadly, it has been removed to make way for a bridge over Wheelbarrow Ck. l also found the original site of the Dunham River Station and a couple of gravestones; one for a child who died from fever and the other for the owner of the station (forget his name, maybe 'Black Michael'). He was speared by an Aboriginal person while standing on his verandah. That place is some 5-8 km downstream from the Dunham River Bridge, NOT the one at Kununurra.

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[jimmy1986]

Thats my surname, perhaps a distant relative? Theres not too many around with the Elsey surname

[Bobj]

Thats my surname, perhaps a distant relative? Theres not too many around with the Elsey surname

 

An extract from Wiki...

Elsey Station is a pastoral lease that once operated as a cattle station in the Northern Territory.

It is situated about 14 kilometres (9 mi) east of Mataranka and 68 kilometres (42 mi) north of Larrimah. The Roper River and many of its tributary creeks run through the property. The land is about 10% flood plain, 15% black soil country, 60% red sandy country and 15% ridge country.

The property is currently owned by the Mangarrayi Aboriginal Land Trust and managed by Max Gorringe and his family. Elsey occupies an area of 5,334 square kilometres (2,059 sq mi) of which an area of 2,200 square kilometres (849 sq mi) is fenced. In 2001 Elsey had a herd of about 7,000 cattle grazing on its pastures.^[1]

The station is named after Elsey Creek that runs through the property. Elsey creek was named after Dr. Elsey who served as the surgeon who travelled with the Augustus Charles Gregory expedition from Victoria River to Queensland via the Roper River.^[2]

The lease was taken up by Abraham Wallace in 1879 and he embarked on a trek from his other station, Sturts Meadow in outback New South Wales, on January 1880. Wallace headed north and arrived in Longreach, some 750 miles (1,207 km) from Sturts Meadow, where he bought 2,728 head of cattle and continued his journey eventually arriving in Elsey on July 1881 after covering a distance of about 2,000 miles (3,219 km). The property was later named Elsey Station and Wallace left the next day to return to Sturts Meadows.^[3]

Aeneas and Jeannie Gunn arrived at Elsey in 1902, Gunn owned a quarter share in the property but died there in 1903 from Blackwater fever.^[4] Jeannie returned to Melbourne and in 1908 wrote the book We of the Never Never based on her time at Elsey.^[5]

 

 

The Augustus Charles Dregory Expedition was in 1885.

 

Any help, mate?

 

Cheers, Bobj.

[jimmy1986]

Thanks Bob

 

I got as far as the Wiki pages, but haven't been able to find much on Dr Elsey, such as where he came from etc.

 

I think theres a few history buffs that lurk around PIO, lets see what they come up with.

 

Thanks

J

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Thanks Bob

 

I got as far as the Wiki pages, but haven't been able to find much on Dr Elsey, such as where he came from etc.

 

I think theres a few history buffs that lurk around PIO, lets see what they come up with.

 

Thanks

J

Now wouldn't that be wonderful if you could trace them back.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Thanks Bob

 

I got as far as the Wiki pages, but haven't been able to find much on Dr Elsey, such as where he came from etc.

 

I think theres a few history buffs that lurk around PIO, lets see what they come up with.

 

Thanks

J

Joseph Ravenscroft Elsey (1834-1857), surgeon, explorer and naturalist, was born on 14 March 1834 in London, the only son of Joseph Ravenscroft Elsey, a Bank of England official. He was educated at Mill Hill School, and trained in medicine at Guy's Hospital (M.B., 1853). In March 1855 he qualified at the Royal College of Surgeons and the College of Chemistry, and soon after was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the North Australian Exploring Expedition, led by (Sir) Augustus Gregory. Before leaving England in April Elsey sought advice on meteorology from Charles Sturt. In July he reached Melbourne in the Marco Polo and went on to join Gregory in Sydney. The expedition, in which Elsey ranked fifth and Ferdinand Mueller sixth, sailed from Port Jackson and reached the mouth of the Victoria River near the end of September. Elsey had made notes on coastal history and natural history, and while quartered at the Victoria was diligent in medical work and the study and collecting of birds and insects; he also bred caterpillars in boxes, gave attention to fish and crocodiles, made geological and meteorological observations, and cultivated vegetables. Some of his most interesting beetles, which frequented treetops, were obtained from the stomachs of high-flying birds. 'You cannot imagine', he wrote to his parents, 'what delight my work as a naturalist affords me. Not a day passes but some wonder or novelty shows itself'.

 

 

In June 1856 Elsey, with the two Gregory brothers, Mueller and three stockmen, trekked overland to Brisbane, a journey of more than 2000 miles (3,219 km) that took six months. Earlier Elsey had obtained two new species of birds, now known as the lilac-crowned wren and the buff-sided robin, and on the overland journey he discovered a third novelty, the golden-shouldered parrot. These species were named by John Gould, who acknowledged the informative nature of numerous field notes furnished by Elsey.

 

 

Elsey returned to Sydney and in March 1857 sailed in the Alnwick Castle for England. There he was assured that Gregory's tribute to his conduct had been officially noted with 'great satisfaction'. He was then offered appointment as government surgeon at the Seychelles Islands; but his health had become 'seriously and unexpectedly deranged' in London and he went instead to the West Indies, where he hoped to do natural history work in a better climate. He died at St Kitts on 31 December 1857.

 

 

The amount and nature of the work done by the youthful Elsey were impressive. He was accorded warm tributes by Gould, by Mueller who named a plant of the genus Ripogonum in his honour, and by the zoologist John Gray who gave a new tortoise the generic name Elseya. Gregory had given the name Elsey to a tributary of the Roper River, and the pastoral property, Elsey station, established there was the scene of Mrs Aeneas Gunn's We of the Never-Never.

[Bobj]

An apology is needed here...I wrote, "The Augustus Charles Gregory Expedition was in 1885." It was, of course, in 1855...

 

I had inadvertently put down the year of the first gold strike in Western Australia at Hall's Creek.

 

Sincere apologies to all concerned.

 

 

Cheers, Bobj.