BARROW CREEK TO TENNANT CREEK

We had not originally intended to spend very long at Barrow Creek, but when we settled down to work there among the Kaitish tribe and, more especially, when we came across old Ulpailiurkna, the Unmatjera man, we found that there was plenty for us to do and the time slipped by rapidly.

It was just four months after leaving Adelaide when we packed up and started off to the north to traverse the hundred and forty miles that lie between Barrow and Tennant Creek. Poor old Tungalla was very sorrowful when the time came for him to be retired from the staff. He was a fine old savage, and we were very sorry to leave him behind, but he would have been no use to us amongst the Warramunga, the next tribe that we should touch. He looked quite doleful while he was having, rather than enjoying, his last meal and smoke by the camp fire. However we rewarded him liberally, and when times are bad, the food supply small, and tobacco an absolutely unattainable luxury, his thoughts will often go back sorrowfully to the time he spent with us.