E22 - Off to the Rush - Life and Death along the Track

A flooded river, a stubborn pony, and a crooked border set the stage for a journey that refuses to fit neat lines on a map.  We follow our hardy party from Lake Bonney through sand and scrub toward Lake Victoria, rebuilding their path from terse diary entries and hard choices made under rain-heavy skies.  What some call Freeman’s Creek aligns with Ral Ral, and distances snap into focus: eighteen rough miles off the river flats, then a camp where a stockkeeper, local guides, and a “mungo” canoe become essential to keeping the trek alive.

The path knots around station histories that blur and split—Bookmark, Chowilla, Calperum—revealing how names shift as leases change hands and memories fade.  Ten days vanish as bullocks wander deep into the saltbush, and the camp becomes a crossroads of labour and knowledge. Flooded lowlands force a northern swing around Lake Victoria, past salt springs that earlier travellers noted for their bite and their perfume.  Flowing out of Lake Victoria is the Rufus River, a calm name that carries a darker legacy, where contact turned to conflict after waves of stock and squatters pressed hard on country that had sustained First Nations trade and life for generations.

Threaded through the map is another story: a boundary meant to be straight but surveyed askew.  The 141st meridian collides with timekeeping limits, courtrooms, and politics, leaving a permanent jog across the Murray and an obelisk to mark both precision and compromise.  And yet, in the midst of lost cattle and contested lines, something tender happens at dawn by the lake: Mary Emmett gives birth, and a new voice joins the caravan of history.  It’s a reminder that every route is walked by people whose days are made of small meals, shared words, and the will to carry on.

If this story moved you or taught you something new about the Murray, Chowilla, and the people who crossed and cared for this country, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a friend who loves Australian history.  Your notes help others find the journey.

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Transcript

Setting The Scene And Caution

SPEAKER_01 0:03

G'day, I'm Peter.

SPEAKER_05 0:04

And good day, I'm Greg.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to today's Stories from Our Past, a podcast about a history of Australia from about 1800 onwards. So, in the last episode, our hardy trekkers had made some good progress. They'd traveled from the northwest bend in the River Murray to Lake Bonnie.

SPEAKER_05 0:25

Yeah, they were certainly on their way to the goldfields.

From Lake Bonney To Railrail

SPEAKER_01 0:27

What's next? Well, firstly, as with the last episode, a warning here. Along this and the next sections of their journey, our party and other Europeans who travelled along the route before them encountered groups of First Nations people. As usual, we will use diary entries from those Europeans who are involved in their story. The language used in the diaries wouldn't be appropriate today and may be offensive to some listeners. However, we don't want to filter or alter the content of those diaries. So throughout, we are quoting from the diaries verbatim.

SPEAKER_05 1:06

Okay. So they were at Lake Bonnie. Where to from there?

SPEAKER_01 1:11

I'll let James O'Donohue tell us about their next day.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

James wrote Monday, 23rd, August, packed up and started about nine o'clock, the cold working very well. Very heavy, sandy, and hilly roads through 15 miles of scrub. Arrived at camping place, Freeman's Creek, at half past four, eighteen miles. Fanny O'Donohu prepared the kangaroo for steaming. The bullock drays did not arrive till six o'clock, nearly dark. Rained several times during the afternoon.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Now, for the next several days, it's difficult to know exactly what route they took. They have just said they stopped at Freeman's Creek, camping place. But no matter how much I search, I can't find it. I also can't find an accurate map of the old coach road for this section. Just old maps with roughly located dotted lines on them. And that's almost certainly because the route varied over time. Furthermore, as we have said, the Murray was in a major flood, which may have inundated some sections of the track. All these factors need to be taken into account when trying to work out their route.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Okay. I assume that you've come to some conclusion about which way they weren't, though.

Sandy Miles And The Stubborn Colt

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Yeah. I've come to the conclusion that what they call Freeman's Creek was called Railrail Creek at the time. Today, Calparom Station Homestead and outbuildings are located on this creek. Calparom Homestead is located near a site formerly known as Railrail. Railrail was apparently named after the First Nations king of the area. After Horden's trek in 1838, subsequent drivers used Railrail as a campsite and a place to water their livestock. In 1849, there was a proposal to establish a police station at Railrail. However, the work was delayed because of flooding, and in 1850, the whole project was abandoned. Eventually, as we mentioned in the last episode, a police station was established back along the track at Overland Corner. Nevertheless, a pub was built at Railrail. The old railrail hotel fell into disrepair, and by 1923, the building was used as an outhouse on Calperham Station.

SPEAKER_05 3:37

Okay, so you think that Freeman's Creek is Railrail Creek? James O'Donohue said that they travelled 18 miles that day. Is railrail 18 miles from Lake Bonney?

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Well, by road today, you would go from the northern end of Lake Bonney, southeast towards Berry, and then along the Murray to Renmark before going north to Calperham Station. This up and down route is about 55 kilometers, that's 35 miles, which is much further than they can travel in a single day. But if the overland coach route went in a fairly straight line from the northern end of Lake Bonnie to rail route, the distance is only 30 kilometers, which is 18 miles. Now James said they travelled 18 miles that day and that they went through very heavy sandy and hilly country. This doesn't sound like they're travelling along river flats. This is a long-winded way of saying that they travelled in a straight line from Lake Bonnie to what is now Calprom Station Homestead.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

Okay. And what happens the next day?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I'll let James O'Donohue tell us about the next couple of days. He wrote.

Chowilla Or Not Chowilla

SPEAKER_04 5:13

The colt, very obstinate, broke his trace, stopped to mend it and got into the road, which was as bad as the day before, obliged to beat the colt very much. Arrived at Chowley about four o'clock, cooked ducks and pigeons, and enjoyed them very much. The natives brought us some duck eggs.

SPEAKER_05 5:30

Right, so the rain continues and the Timor pony continues to play up. It's business as usual for El Group.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Yeah. And I wondered why they haven't substituted one of the many other horses they've got for the Timor pony so as to avoid those problems.

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Yeah, but that wouldn't have been a straightforward exercise. The harness for the pony would have to be tailored to its body, so you minimise pressure points, etc. And there's a Timor pony is smaller than the other horses, that would have taken some time and they would need it to be redone if they used the Timor pony again. There were four horses pulling the horse tray, but their gear would have been different. The horse tray would have had a long pole and chains whilst the spring cart would have had two sharps out of the side of the pony. All in all it would have been a fair hassle to have changed from the Timor pony.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Yeah, I get that. Yeah, you're right. Now, when they say they've reached Charlie, I think they mean Charwilla Station. But I'm not really sure. Yeah, but why is that? Well, the first point I would make is that the version of the diaries that I have is a typewriter written version, not the original handwritten diaries. In doing this type of research, I've seen several instances where a handwritten document has been transcribed incorrectly due to either poor handwriting or smudged ink. The word chowli only appears once in the diaries. It's very possible that this one word was smudged, and the person doing the transcription made a good faith attempt to transcribe that one word. Along this section of the trick, there is no other place with a name like Chowley other than Chowilla.

SPEAKER_05 7:15

Yeah, well that sounds portable.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, but there is another issue.

SPEAKER_06 7:20

If you Google Chowwilla Station, the history section of the Chowwilla Station website says In 1864, Richard Holland obtained the Bookmark Station Lease for his stepsons, John William and Robert Robertson. Bookmark extended from Spring Car Gully near Berry and extended through to the New South Wales border. This was before any white settlement in the area, and it was from that, the Bookmark Lease, that the South Australian government granted the Chaffee brothers 30,000 acres to begin Renmark, the first irrigation colony in Australia in 1887. In 1896, Bookmark was divided up into the Calparum and Chewilla stations, with Robert taking Chewilla and John Calparum.

SPEAKER_05 8:12

Okay. Well that sounds straightforward, except to say that Chowilla started in 1864 and that this was before any white settlement in the area. Now our hardy trekkers appear to be referring to it in 1852, and there must have been other Europeans travelling along this route. I'm as confused as you are now.

Lost Bullocks And Station Help

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah. Let's see if we can get any clues about what's going on here from our trekkers diaries. We'll let Bill Emmett tell us what happens next.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Thursday, 26th of August. All prepared to start, but the bullocks could not be found. Two men out all day. Saw the stockkeeper at the station, who said he saw eight bullocks, branded M, about sixteen miles in the scrub. Two natives, shortly after, brought eleven bullocks, which they found about ten miles off. Very cold towards evening with thunder and lightning.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

Near the bookmark country there are bands of red flintstone in the cliffs. Then, in the same source, the entry under the name Chowilla says The Chowilla Run was established by William Fink in 1859, on land originally held by A. B. Cater from July 1851.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Well, that makes sense. In 1864, Richard Holland obtained an existing lease called either Bookmark or Chowilla. After all, there would have been some European settlement there to provide some facilities for travellers, however rudimentary. So when Bill Emmett refers to the station manager, he's probably referring to the manager employed by Mr. A. E. B. Cato.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah, you'd think so. But then I found another piece of information. In September 1853, so that's just ten months after our trekkers are moving along, Captain Cadell undertook a voyage up the Murray on a steamer called the Lady Augusta. He kept a daily diary, and on the second of September 1853 he wrote In the afternoon we anchored off Mr.

SPEAKER_07 11:04

Chambers' station, Chewilla, on the left bank of the river, and the crew with a number of blacks were engaged till nightfall in cutting and taking in wood. Some of us joined them in the work, others strolled about with the ladies, or crossed a large lagoon in a mungo or native canoe.

SPEAKER_05 11:23

Okay, so the station manager that Bill Emmett refers to could have been John Chambers. Either way, there was European settlement on Chawilla Station well before eighteen sixty four.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah. And there's another point to mention here. The distance from Freeman's Creek, assuming that it is railroad, to the Chowilla homestead, is about the distance that our hardy trekkers could cover in those two days of tedious rain.

SPEAKER_05 11:50

I know that makes some sense. So they're at Chawilla Station. They need to keep moving, and James O'Donohue writes Friday, 27th, August.

Salt Lakes And First Contacts

SPEAKER_04 12:00

William Emmett took a native in search of the bullocks, but met the stockkeeper with whom he returned, he having promised to go with him the next day. James O'Donohue and William Henry Neal went in the mongo to shoot some ducks. They returned about four o'clock with two ducks and one pigeon, and during the night there was exceedingly heavy rain, and the water in the billibong rose several feet. The natives say they do not remember seeing so much water here in cold weather. The usual time for big water is in the hot weather when the snow on the mountains is melted and runs into the Murray River. Saturday, 28th August, William Emmett and the stockkeeper went out early but returned in the evening not having found the bullocks. Sunday, 29th August, William Emmett waited at home expecting the black boy and stockkeeper, but they did not return that day. Monday, 30th of August, William Emmett, Joe and Abe, also natives, went in search of the bullocks, but did not return that night. Tuesday, 31st of August, William Emmett and natives this day, not finding the bullocks in the afternoon. The stockkeeper, Jack, and Blackboy went out. Wednesday, 1st of September, they did not return that day. Thursday, 2nd of September, Stockkeeper returned with 22 bullocks and remained at the camp. Friday, 3rd September, Stockkeeper and Abe went in search of the remaining bullocks. Saturday, 4th September, they returned this day with five more bullocks.

SPEAKER_05 13:29

Okay. We've heard this story before. Their bullocks go wandering in the night and the trekkers have to go and find them. But this is a bit extreme. Ten days looking for bullocks and no forward progress.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Yeah, that does sound like a familiar story. And Captain Candell mentioned that a mongo is the name the First Nations people use for a canoe. It's now time for James O'Donohue to tell us what happened after they eventually moved on from Cowwilla.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

He writes Sunday, 5th of September. All agreed to start, being quite tired of camping, packed up and reached Salt Lake, 12 miles. Monday, 6th of September. Started about half past eleven and arrived at the Salt Lake about three o'clock. Very cold and raining. A great many natives here.

SPEAKER_05 14:19

Hang on. James says that they reach the salt lake on consecutive days. Is this some sort of mistake in the dory?

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Oddly, no. There are two lakes that they pass along this section. The first is Cumbul Swamp, and then there's Lake Limbra. I don't know whether one or both of the lakes are salty, but it's quite likely. Horden also went past these lakes in 1838.

Borders, Surveys, And A Crooked Line

SPEAKER_03 14:45

He wrote March 8th, travelled fourteen miles over barren river flats. These flats appeared to be annually flooded, and although the soil is composed of the deposits of the river, yet no grass was seen growing upon them. We encamped in the evening on a creek near a running saltwater spring. The water was as salt as the waters of the sea, and there was on the ground near it a quantity of pure, well flavoured salt formed by solar evaporation. Four blacks who had followed us in the capacity of ambassadors from the last tribe brought a new tribe of about fifty to our encampment to look at us. They were very good looking men, and on the whole well behaved. Though I detected one of them stealing a knife and fork, it is astonishing how soon these savages become familiar with us, considering that only a few hours before they were not aware that such a race of animals as white men were in existence. March 9th, having travelled thirteen miles over barren flooded flats, we encamped between two water holes, in one of which the water was quite salt, while in the other it was perfectly fresh and good. Some repairs being required to one of the dray wheels, the tyre was obliged to be made red hot, and on its being suddenly plunged into the water for the purpose of cooling it, thirty of the blacks, who had been watching our operations very intently, became so alarmed at the hissing sound that they took to flight.

SPEAKER_05 16:16

So Hordon's men had to mend the tyres on one of their dryer's wheels.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yeah, you correctly told us about tires in episode 19. Horden says, only a few hours before they were not aware that such a race of animals as white men were in existence. I'm not so sure about that. The River Murray was a well-established trade route for the First Nations people. I find it difficult to believe that there was no discussion about the existence of the Europeans passed up and down those trade routes before Hordon arrived.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

Yeah, I agree with you there. Anyhow, shouldn't they be leaving South Australia and entering the colony of New South Wales soon?

SPEAKER_01 17:00

You're correct. So, Pop Quiz. What defines the eastern boundary of the colony of South Australia?

SPEAKER_05 17:08

Ah, I know. The border between South Australia and Victoria was established in 1836 by Imperial Letters Patent as the 141st degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich. And you told us that in episode one.

Lake Victoria And Rufus River

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Well done. But if the eastern boundary is the 141st degree meridian, it should be a continuous straight line. However, if you look closely at the border between the two states as it crosses the River Murray, you'll see that there is a distinct jink in the line there. Now, life's too short to explain in detail how this came about, but I'll try. The issue started with an inaccurate location of the 141st meridian on the southern coast. This is understandable, as surveying of longitude was dependent on knowing the time very accurately, and this was not easy at that time, namely 1839. Anyhow, they really only needed a boundary line from the southern coast up to the Murray, not much past that. However, when squatters started grabbing large tracts of land, the two colonies needed to know exactly where the boundary was so that they can charge fees from for the squatters who squatted in their colony. So in 1868, Charles Todd and George Smalley, being the technical representatives for each colony, undertook an accurate survey of the colonial boundary on the northern side of the Murray. Their starting point was well north of the Murray, not far from where our trekkers would have crossed between the two colonies. When their survey was continued down to the Murray, they found that the existing boundary south of the Murray was 3.6 kilometers west of where it should have been. The boundary line from the Murray to the southern coast needed to move as South Australia was missing out on over 500 square miles, that's almost 1,300 square kilometres of land. This represented lost revenue for South Australia, fees they should and could charge to squatters. Now, do you think the Victorians would agree to moving the boundary to where the imperial letter patent said it should be? To use a phrase that my mum used to use, not on your nelly. The dispute went to court and stayed there for almost half a century. In the end, Victoria won and the border didn't move. So, if you ever happen to be travelling along the old Wentworth Road on the northern side of the Murray, as you cross the border between South Australia and Victoria, your Across Todd's obelisk, a monument to great surveying work and petty politics.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

What a ridiculous affair.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah. Anyhow, James Odonu can tell us what happened next.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

He wrote Tuesday, 7th of September, made an early start, 9 o'clock, and arrived at Lake Victoria at 3 o'clock, about 18 miles. Several natives came with us. The lake is about 40 miles in circumference.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

As far as I can determine, they must have travelled around the northern side of Lake Victoria rather than going under the southern side, which was the usual route taken in dry weather. Lake Victoria's southern side runs quite close to the bank of the Murray River, and as we said earlier, the river was in flood, so they probably couldn't have gone around the southern side of the lake. Unfortunately, their diaries don't uh give an explanation of where they went.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

Alright, so what do you know about Lake Victoria?

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Well, I'll let Hordon tell us about the lake.

Conflict, Disease, And Stock Routes

SPEAKER_03 21:04

He wrote March 5th, 1838. Following this creek, or rather branch of the river, for seven miles we came upon a river of discoloured water, running out of the lake discovered yesterday. It was deep and about thirty yards in width. This is the river Rufus, seen by Captain Sturt entering the Murray. It must take its rise from springs out of this lake, as I rode nearly all around to see if it had a tributary. I could not perceive one. Mr Bonnie, meanwhile, took the party into the lake, fording it round to the right bank of the Rufus, just where it leaves the lake. The scenery is very pleasing, and the air is perfumed by a sweet odour from the herbs and flowers growing on the margin of the lake.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

So Horden mentions the Rufus River. We'll talk more about that location soon. Horden then continues.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Each individual of my party testified his loyal respect for the August personage, whose name I had selected, by drinking Her Majesty's health in a glass of brandy, following the toast with loud and hearty huzzars. The first time I should suppose Her Majesty's health was ever drunk by any of her subjects, so many hundreds of miles from the haunts of civilized life. Taking a fresh horse, I rode to the north of the lake, and in the evening overtook my party encamped on the banks of the Murray, whose waters were now discoloured by those of the Rufus. We here found plenty of reeds for our livestock to feed upon. Whilst returning today along the high banks of the Murray in search of my party, I saw in the valley, immediately beneath me, a tribe of aborigines seated on a beautiful plot of moss by the riverside, eating roasted tortoises and broiled fish. They appeared a perfect group of content and happiness. I sat watching them for some time, and at length gave a loud tally ho. They all turned round with amazement, and taking either me or my horse for some supernatural being, the young women commenced to dance, waving their arms wildly in the air. An old, withered looking hag then came forward, making a noise without using any sort of language whatever, but only a senseless gibberish. I told her in broad English to hold her tongue, whereupon, thinking, no doubt, that I understood her, she raised a shout of delight, which she repeated again and again, pausing between each cry for my answer. As I kept silence, two of the men came up the bank, out of the valley, and soon acquired sufficient confidence to advance within twenty yards of my horse. I pointed out to them in the distance, beyond the plains, a cloud of dust arising from the ground, caused by the movements of our cattle and drays. Such an incident having no precedent in their traditions, they were dreadfully alarmed, not knowing what this novel spectacle could mean, and left me to meet the party on their arrival at the river.

SPEAKER_05 24:23

Well, the First Nations people there might not have seen a party of Europeans with horses and cattles before, but they would certainly see plenty more soon as the people followed the Hordon's route.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Yeah. And those First Nations people could not have known what this meant for them. Now, if they'd been able to take the southern route around Lake Victoria, our trekkers would also have had to cross the Rufus River. This river now has an ugly history. It is a scene of violence between First Nations people and Europeans, where about 30 First Nations people were killed.

SPEAKER_05 25:00

Our trekkers have had nearly constant contact with First Nations people for the last few weeks, and this contact has apparently been peaceful. What was the Rufus River violence all about?

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Well, nothing happens in a vacuum, and that certainly applies to the Rufus River event and the type of contact with First Nations people that our trekkers have had. The background of this violence and the Rufus River event is explained in several detailed research papers by staff at the School of Archaeology within the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide. The first Europeans to pass along this section of the river were groups led by Sturt in his whaleboat and then Hordon with his mob of cattle. These parties were the first contact that the First Nations people had along this section of the Murray with Europeans. The Flinders University group point out that both parties were well armed, but no violence occurred due to judicious behavior on the part of the European leaders and the fact that they kept moving through each nation's country, hence little disruption to the way of the life of the locals.

SPEAKER_05 26:15

Okay, then no violence. But what about disease? Wasn't this the biggest killer of First Nations people?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Yeah, you're right about disease. It was the biggest killer. But this had already happened. Hordon notes earlier in his diary that he saw the telltale signs of smallpox on the faces of First Nations people that he had encountered before he got to this location. We discussed smallpox in episode 17. An outbreak occurred in Sydney Harbour soon after the first fleet arrived, and the disease rushed like a bushfire down the trade routes of the First Nations people. Before Sturt went down the Murray, smallpox had gone down this trade route and infected the Ghana people around Adelaide before the first colonists arrived there.

SPEAKER_05 27:04

Yes, smallpox was a terrible, horrible disease for those communities that had no immunity.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah. The problems for the First Nations people along the Murray really occurred after Hordon and his group pioneered the overland stock route. The Flinders University group have meticulously scoured every record they could find of the Europeans that followed Hordon and brought with them livestock for sale in South Australia. They found that between April 1838 and April 1841, a minimum of 36 parties travelled along the route that our trekkers have just taken, bringing with them at least 480 Europeans, 90,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle, as well as horses, bullocks, trays, etc. Sturt and Horden might have been odd curiosities to the locals, but soon the First Nations people became aware that the Europeans were there to stay. Inevitably, this led to conflict. The First Nations people didn't want the interlopers there, and the Europeans had no understanding of or respect for First Nations culture.

SPEAKER_05 28:19

It just sounds like a conflict was inevitable.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Yeah. And this ranged from isolated murders on both sides to outright battles between different groups. This culminated in the Rufus River incident where over 30 First Nations people were killed. We don't have time to cover every event here. So I can only suggest that if people are interested, they should find and read the papers written by the Flinders University group.

SPEAKER_05 28:51

Yeah, this is a sad chapter in our history.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

So for our trekkers, they were having contact with First Nations people who knew then that the Europeans were there to stay. The locals' lifestyles had been completely disrupted, and they must have been trying to work out where they fitted into this new reality. In this episode and following episodes, our truckers have constant contact with the locals, and no conflict occurs. It all seems like a series of commercial interactions. But this had only come about as a result of a conflict in the previous decades.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

But do you have any good news?

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yes. Well, at least for our trekkers, something special happened at Lake Victoria. You may remember from episode 19 that Mary Emmett was pregnant at the start of the trek. Bill Emmett can tell us what happened at Lake Victoria.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Wednesday, 8th of September. Mrs. Neal called up about two o'clock in the morning, Mrs. William Emmett being ill, and about half past five o'clock was confined. Of course, we were obliged to remain here. Thursday, 9th of September. Mrs. William Emmett and baby doing very well.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

They don't give a gender or name for the baby in the diaries. As far as I can tell, they named the child Henry James Emmett. But the records are pretty sketchy.

SPEAKER_05 30:25

Well, after a long stop at Chewilla, our hardy trick has seemed to be making some progress, and there's now a new member of the party. What happens next?

SPEAKER_01 30:34

You'll have to wait until our next episode to see how they go. So it's goodbye from me.

SPEAKER_05 30:40

And it's goodbye from me.