| Ooldea
soak and its sandhills has long been a place of significance for Aboriginal
people. Ooldea lies on the edge of the scrub country and at the beginning
of the Nullarbor plain. To the north and northwest is 'spinifex country'.
The permanent water of Ooldea was vital to life itself. It was also important
in ceremonial and social life, and a focal point for trade and travelling
routes. |
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| A non-Aboriginal
view of the region. |
|
Map
of The Trans-Australian Wonderland
A G Bolam 1930
'The Trans-Australian Wonderland',
Melbourne, Baker & Co
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Items
from distant regions - flints, weapons, native tobacco and pearl shell -
were traded for local ochre and wombat fur. People travelled to and from
Ooldea from the far off mountain ranges in Central Australia, and from the
west and east. They followed routes which relied on detailed knowledge of
the country, walking from named rockhole to rockhole, and from soak to soak.
This knowledge was shared with Europeans, and in 1875 Ernest Giles was led
to 'Youldeh' by a Wirangu man; one of the earliest non-Aboriginal people
to use, and rely on, its water. |
|
| At Ooldea siding
in the 1920s, photograph and caption by A G Bolam. |
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Ooldea,
South Australia
Photo: A G Bolam 1920s
South Australian Museum Bolam Collection
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The
Trans-Australian Railway was completed in 1917. A grand post-Federation
project, it united with twin ribbons of steel the two sides of the new country,
Australia. It also had an enormous impact on the lives of local Aboriginal
people. |
| The railway
relied on Ooldea's water. The water which replenished the soak was pumped
away to supply the steam trains which stopped to take on water and the houses
of the rail workers along the line. By 1926, Ooldea's water source had been
exhausted and the railway pumping station closed. |
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| This mulga carving
was collected at Ooldea by missionary Annie Lock, who arrived there
in 1933. |
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Carved Kangaroo
Ooldea, South Australia
Maker unknown
South Australian Museum
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"It
is likewise dangerous (and expensive) for an interested passenger to experiment
in boomerang-throwing close to the train. Many a window has been broken
in this way; and, whilst the blacks at Ooldea are very careful to avoid
any occurrence of this nature, it has been found necessary to request that
the throwing of boomerangs be conducted a little distance from the train
whilst it is standing at Ooldea. When you are buying a boomerang from a
black at Ooldea, remember that you are not necessarily getting a man-killing
instrument, but rather a 'blackfellow's plaything.' You will, however, be
buying a genuine boomerang, made by the blacks with infinite labour, and
well worth the 'bob' or two that the native asks for it."
| A
G Bolam, 1930, The Trans-Australian Wonderland, Melbourne, Baker &
Co, p.82. |
|
|
| These objects
were collected from Aboriginal people along the railway line between
Tarcoola and Ooldea by R W Filsell in the 1920s. |
|
Boomerangs
East-West Line
Makers unknown
South Australian Museum
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Aboriginal
people came in from the spinifex country to the north, drawn by curiosity
about the railway, by the availability of new goods, and by sheep stations
and towns further south. For their part, the passengers on the Trans-Australian
were equally curious about the Aborigines they met and their culture. |
|
| A G Bolam, who
took this photograph, captioned it "Wild Blacks just in from the Musgrave
Ranges, and clothed by Mrs Daisy Bates". |
|
Ooldea, South Australia
Photo: A G Bolam 1920s
South Australian Museum Bolam Collection
|
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With
the railway came disease, the destruction of traditional bush foods, and
the introduction of alcohol and prostitution. For many Aboriginal people,
the line was their first contact with the non-Aboriginal world. |
| Daisy Bates
set up camp at Ooldea in 1919. She provided food, clothes and simple medical
care to people coming in from the spinifex country, and recorded their language
and culture. She stayed until 1934. |
|
| Couper Black
took this photo of Mr Matthews and Mrs Finlayson with children from
the UAM Mission at a meal in 1939. |
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Ooldea, South Australia
Photo: E Couper Black 1939
South Australian Museum Couper Black Collection
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In
1933 the United Aborigines Mission established a mission at Ooldea. The
mission issued government rations, and provided medical care and some employment.
The Mission worked to replace Aboriginal culture with Christianity, particularly
through the separation of children into dormitories. Missionaries also collected
wooden artefacts for sale in Adelaide and on the line. |
| Aboriginal
people continued to come in to Ooldea from the north and north-west, and
to travel for ceremonial and other reasons. The line itself opened up new
possibilities for long-distance travel. At any one time during the 1930s
and 1940s, there could be as few as 'a handful' or as many as five hundred
people camped at Ooldea. |
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| Ooldea is returned
to Aboriginal people, 1988. |
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Ooldea, South Australia
Photo: Tom Gara 1988
Private Collection
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Ooldea
Mission closed in 1952, and most people living there were moved to Yalata
Station, which had been purchased by the Government in 1951. During the
following decade visits to the soak and north were actively discouraged
due to the Maralinga nuclear tests. |
| Yalata
Reserve was administered by the Lutheran Church until 1975, when the community
gained control of the land. Many people have returned to country around
Ooldea and to the north with the return of their land under the Maralinga
Tjarutja Land Rights Act of 1984, and the handback of Ooldea to Aboriginal
people in 1988. |
|
| 'Professors
Johnson & Cleaned getting names of native plants' at Ooldea on
the 1939 Board of Anthropological Research expedition. |
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Ooldea, South Australia
Photo: E Couper Black 1939
South Australian Museum Couper Black Collection
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Those
who lived at Ooldea regularly became the objects of anthropological research.
Researchers were particularly interested in documenting the culture of those
people from the spinifex country. |
| Apart from
the Board for Anthropological Research expeditions of 1926 and 1929 and
Daisy Bates' fifteen-year stay, other researchers who visited Ooldea include
A P Elkin (1930), Norman Tindale (1934 and 1951) and Catherine and Ronald
Berndt (1941). |
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