Charlotte Waters, Northern Territory

Last updated

Charlotte Waters
Australia Northern Territory relief location map.png
Red pog.svg
Charlotte Waters
Location in Northern Territory
Coordinates: 25°55′S134°55′E / 25.917°S 134.917°E / -25.917; 134.917
Country Australia
Territory Northern Territory
LGA MacDonnell Region [1]
Locality Ghan [1]
Electoral division (territory) Namatjira
Electoral division (federal) Lingiari
Population
 • Total0 (not listed)
Postcode
0872
Abandoned c.1939 – only ruins still exist.

Charlotte Waters was a tiny settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia located close to the South Australian border, not far from Aputula. It was known for its telegraph station, the Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, which became a hub for scientists travelling in central Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century. Aboriginal artist Erlikilyika, known to Europeans as Jim Kite, lived there. Only a ruin remains today.

Contents

History

Traditional names

Norman Tindale, in his Cockatoo Creek expedition (1931) journal, recorded Alkngulura as the name of Charlotte Waters, and translated this as "Alknga – eye – ulura – ?hill", and Strehlow was told by Tom Bagot Injola in 1968 that the waterholes close to the telegraph station were known as Alkiljauwurera, Alkngolulura and Untupera. [2] Jason Gibson, of Museum Victoria, noted that two other Lower Arrernte place names have been recorded for the area: Adnyultultera and Arleywernpe. [3]

Settlement

Telegraph Station, c.1880, Paddy Byrne on right (photograph by Henry Yorke Lyell Brown, government geologist). Charlotte Waters Telegraph Station, c.1880.jpeg
Telegraph Station, c.1880, Paddy Byrne on right (photograph by Henry Yorke Lyell Brown, government geologist).

Charlotte Waters was located in 1871 by surveyors Gilbert McMinn and Richard Knuckey during construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line between Adelaide and Darwin. According to explorer Ernest Giles, it was named after Lady Charlotte Bacon [4] by Knuckey, after the surveyors had read Byron's long narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), which had been dedicated to the young woman (then Lady Harley, aged 11) as Ianthe. [5] [6] Lady Bacon had stayed with relatives in South Australia between 1869 and 1874. [7]

Christopher Giles (no relation of Ernest), a surveyor in Goyder's 1868 expedition and with Charles Todd in 1870, was involved with the surveying of the telegraph line with younger brother Alfred. [8] [9] In 1872, a telegraph repeater, post office and general store were built at Charlotte Waters, [10] and Christopher Giles served at the repeater station until 1876. [9] The station was nicknamed Bleak House by the telegraph operators, as the area was a desolate gibber plain, with no bushes or trees. [11]

Charlotte Waters became an important stopover for those travelling into the interior, and also an important hub for a number of collectors, scientists and anthropologists, including Baldwin Spencer and Francis (Frank) Gillen. [12] Gillen was stationed there from 1875 to 1892. [3] Camel trains driven by "Afghan" cameleers often accompanied the expeditions or passed through Charlotte Waters. [13]

Patrick Byrne worked at the telegraph station for 50 years, [11] after commencing as a teenager (c.1873). [14] Also known as Paddy or Pado, Byrne corresponded with Spencer and collected specimens for biological analysis for many years. Spencer named a small marsupial known locally as the kowari in recognition of Byrne's contribution as Dasyuroides byrnei, and Byrne's work continues to contribute to scientists' understanding of central Australian mammals. [15] He was also reportedly a blacksmith, and buried his dog at the back of the building in a small grave surrounded by ironwork railings, which still exists. [11] Byrne is mentioned in Erlikilyika's biographical entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography as appreciating his skills and talent. [16] He was step-brother to Amelia Gillen, wife of Frank. [17] Byrne has been identified as the man on the right in the photograph above. [18]

After Byrne's departure in 1909, telegraphist Harry O. Kearnan became the telegraph stationmaster. [19]

Erlikilyika (c.1865–c.1930), Arrernte sculptor, artist and anthropological interpreter, known to Europeans as Jim Kite and probably the first Aboriginal Australian artist to become known nationally, was born nearby and lived at Charlotte Waters for most of his life. [20] Kearnan accompanied Erlikilyika to Adelaide in 1913, where some of his artistic works were exhibited at the Selborne Hotel [12] in Pirie Street. [21]

End of the telegraph era

1982 photograph of ruins Charlotte Waters 1982 NTLib PH0147-0050.jpg
1982 photograph of ruins

As technology improved, the telegraph station at Charlotte Waters was by-passed. The building was then used as a police station, and vital equipment and postal services were maintained by the policeman and his wife. In February 1936, Constable Jack Kennett and his wife Isabel and their five children were living at the lonely Charlotte Waters Police Station when several of the children contracted diphtheria. After a series of misfortunes befell them and those trying to assist, two children died. A year later, Kennett was transferred to Alice Springs, where the memory of the family was honoured by the naming of a street called Kennett Court. [11]

In July 1938, T.G.H. (Ted) Strehlow and his wife Bertha visited Charlotte Waters. Bertha thought it the most isolated and desolate place she had ever encountered. At that time, the homestead also still served as the police station, but it had been abandoned by the following year. [11]

Only the ruins of the foundation remained by the late 20th century, after the station building had been dismantled in order to re-use the stone in constructing the buildings on a nearby cattle station. [19]

Plants and animals

The following plants and animals are linked to Charlotte Waters and indigenous to the area:
Plants: [9]

Animals:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Giles</span> Australian explorer

William Ernest Powell Giles, best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led five major expeditions to parts of South Australia and Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kowari</span> Species of marsupial

The kowari, also known by its Diyari name kariri, is a small carnivorous marsupial native to the gibber deserts of central Australia. It is the sole member of the genus Dasyuroides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finke River</span> River in the Northern Territory, Australia

The Finke River, or Larapinta in the Indigenous Arrernte language, is a river in central Australia, whose bed courses through the Northern Territory and the state of South Australia. It is one of four main rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin and thought to be the oldest riverbed in the world. It flows for only a few days a year. When this happens, its water usually disappears into the sands of the Simpson Desert, rarely if ever reaching Lake Eyre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Baldwin Spencer</span> British-Australian biologist (1860–1929)

Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, commonly referred to as Sir Baldwin Spencer, was a British-Australian evolutionary biologist, anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his fieldwork with Aboriginal peoples in Central Australia, contributions to the study of ethnography, and academic collaborations with Frank Gillen. Spencer introduced the study of zoology at the University of Melbourne and held the title of Emeritus Professor until his death in 1929. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900 and knighted in 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Overland Telegraph Line</span> Major Darwin-Port Augusta telecom link

The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was an electrical telegraph system for sending messages the 3200 kilometres between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. Completed in 1872, it allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. When it was linked to the Java-to-Darwin submarine telegraph cable several months later, the communication time with Europe dropped from months to hours; Australia was no longer so isolated from the rest of the world. The line was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and probably the most significant milestone in the history of telegraphy in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis James Gillen</span> Australian anthropologist (1855–1912)

Francis James Gillen, also known as Frank Gillen and F. J. Gillen, was an early Australian anthropologist and ethnologist. He is known for his work with W. Baldwin Spencer, including their seminal work The Native Tribes of Central Australia (1899). They both worked in central Australia, where Gillen was employed as a telegraph station master, with the Arrernte people and other Indigenous Australians.

The Murchison Medal is an academic award established by Roderick Murchison, who died in 1871. First awarded in 1873, it is normally given to people who have made a significant contribution to geology by means of a substantial body of research and for contributions to 'hard' rock studies. One of the closing public acts of Murchison's life was the founding of a chair of geology and mineralogy in the University of Edinburgh. Under his will there was established the Murchison Medal and geological fund to be awarded annually by the council of the Geological Society of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdaitcha</span> Type of Australian Aboriginal sorcerer

A kurdaitcha, or kurdaitcha man, also spelt gadaidja, cadiche, kadaitcha, karadji, or kaditcha, is a type of shaman and traditional executioner amongst the Arrernte people, an Aboriginal group in Central Australia. The name featherfoot is used to denote the same figure by other Aboriginal peoples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horn expedition</span> Expedition to Central Australia

The Horn Scientific Expedition was the first primarily scientific expedition to study the natural history of Central Australia, sponsored by three Australian universities. It took place from May to August 1894, with expedition members first traveling by train from Adelaide to the railhead at Oodnadatta in South Australia, then using camels for transport to traverse over 3000 km of largely uncharted country from Oodnadatta through the Finke River basin to Alice Springs and the Macdonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory.

The Anmatyerr, also spelt Anmatyerre, Anmatjera, Anmatjirra, Amatjere and other variations) are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory, who speak one of the Upper Arrernte languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Giles (explorer)</span>

Alfred Giles, born in Datchet, England, was a South Australian bushman, drover and explorer who crossed Australia from south to north seven times, mostly in connection with the building of the Overland Telegraph Line 1870–1872.

Illamurta Springs Conservation Reserve is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Ghan about 42 kilometres (26 mi) south of Hermannsburg and 140 kilometres (87 mi) west of Alice Springs. The southern foothills of the James Range and the permanent spring from which the reserve takes its name are found within the reserve.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Winnecke</span> Australian explorer and botanist

Charles George Alexander Winnecke was an Australian explorer and botanist best known for leading the Horn Expedition to Central Australia in 1894.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arabana people</span> Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia

The Arabana, also known as the Ngarabana, are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia.

The Jingili or Jingulu are an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erlikilyika</span> Australian Aboriginal sculptor

Erlikilyika, known to Europeans by the name Jim Kite or Jim Kyte or Jim Kite Penangke, was an Aboriginal Australian sculptor, artist and anthropological interpreter. He was an Arrernte man, born into the Southern Arrernte or Pertame language group in Central Australia. He was the first Central Australian artist to be nationally recognised for his artistic talent, in particular his carvings of animals in soft stone, illustrations and sculptures, after an exhibition of his work was held in Adelaide, South Australia in 1913.

Patrick Michael Byrne (1856–1932), also known as Paddy or Pado, was an Australian telegraph operator, anthropologist and natural scientist who worked at the remote Charlotte Waters telegraph station in central Australia for 50 years. He was a keen self-taught scientist who collected specimens and corresponded extensively with biologist and anthropologist Walter Baldwin Spencer. He also worked with anthropologist Francis James Gillen at Charlotte Waters, and was a friend of and advocate for the local Arrernte people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Randall Knuckey</span> Surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line

Richard Randall Knuckey, often referred to as R.R. Knuckey and popularly known as Dick Knuckey, was a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line in central Australia from 1871 to 1872. He later became chief officer at the electric telegraph department in Adelaide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition</span>

The 1901-1902 Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition was a failed attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land. The expedition was led by meteorologist Evelyn Briggs Baldwin and financed by William Ziegler who had made a fortune with baking powder.

The Peake is an abandoned ruin on the banks of the Neales River in far north South Australia, near the mound springs complex known as Freeling Springs. The Peake was established initially as an outstation on the Mount Margaret Station, before becoming the main homestead in the late 1870s. It was a supply depot for the construction teams building the Overland Telegraph Line in 1870–1871, and also served as a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line from 1870 to 1891. It was a vital part of Australia's telecommunication network in the nineteenth century. Today it is part of the William Cattle Company holdings.

References

  1. 1 2 "Place Names Register Extract for "Charlotte Waters"". NT Place Names Register. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  2. ↑ "Charlotte Waters, Northern Territory". Spencer & Gillen: A journey through Aboriginal Australia. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  3. 1 2 Baldwin Spencer, Walter (1901–1902). Gibson, Jason (ed.). "Walter Baldwin Spencer's Diary from the Spencer and Gillen Expedition, 1901-1902". Edited and annotated by Jason Gibson; transcribed by Heather Milton. Museums Victoria. p. 11, footnote 26.
  4. ↑ Giles, Ernest (1889). Australia twice traversed: the romance of exploration, being a narrative compiled from the journals of five exploring expeditions into and through Central South Australia, and Western Australia, from 1872 to 1876, Volume 1. S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, Limited
  5. ↑ "Charlotte Waters". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/28633.
  6. ↑ Note: Lady Charlotte Harley (as she was then) was sexually molested by Byron when she was 11 years old.
  7. ↑ "Still waters remember Ianthe". The Canberra Times . Vol. 67, no. 21, 081. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 January 1993. p. 14. Retrieved 1 August 2016– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Late Mr. Christopher Giles". The Register . Adelaide. 3 December 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 30 January 2013– via National Library of Australia.
  9. 1 2 3 "Giles, Christopher (c. 1841-1917)". Australian National Botanic Gardens: Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR). Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  10. ↑ "Charlotte Waters". State Library of South Australia.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 "Flinders Ranges Research: Charlotte Waters (NT)". South Australian History. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  12. 1 2 "Jim Kite Alyelkelhayeka Penangke, Artist (circa 1860 – circa 1945)". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  13. ↑ "Camel train". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/8730.
  14. ↑ Williams, Robyn (3 December 2000). "From the frontier: Professor John Mulvaney talks about his book: "From The Frontier – Outback Letters to Baldwin Spencer" (transcript)". ABC Radio. Ockham's Razor. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  15. 1 2 Baldwin Spencer, Walter (1901–1902). Gibson, Jason (ed.). "Walter Baldwin Spencer's Diary from the Spencer and Gillen Expedition, 1901-1902". Edited and annotated by Jason Gibson; transcribed by Heather Milton. Museums Victoria. p. 13, note 31.
  16. ↑ Mulvaney, D.J. (2005). "Erlikilyika (1865–1930)". Australian Dictionary of Biography . first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, (MUP), 2005. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN   1833-7538.
  17. ↑ "Byrne, Patrick Michael". Spencer & Gillen. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  18. ↑ "Charlotte Waters Overland Telegraph Station". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/17598.
  19. 1 2 Baldwin Spencer, Walter (1901–1902). Gibson, Jason (ed.). "Walter Baldwin Spencer's Diary from the Spencer and Gillen Expedition, 1901-1902". Edited and annotated by Jason Gibson; transcribed by Heather Milton. Museums Victoria.
  20. ↑ Kelham, Megg (November 2010). "A Museum in Finke: An Aputula Heritage Project" (PDF). Territory Stories. pp. 1–97. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  21. ↑ Roberts, Mick (9 November 2017). "Selborne Hotel, Adelaide". Time Gents. Retrieved 17 May 2019.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Charlotte Waters, North Territory at Wikimedia Commons

Photographs

A number of photographs show the original building and then its deterioration over time:

25°55′S134°55′E / 25.917°S 134.917°E / -25.917; 134.917

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.