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Charlotte Waters, Northern Territory

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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.

Charlotte Waters
Charlotte Waters is located in Northern Territory
Charlotte Waters
Charlotte Waters
Location in Northern Territory
Coordinates: 25°55′S 134°55′E / 25.917°S 134.917°E / -25.917; 134.917
CountryAustralia
TerritoryNorthern Territory
LGAMacDonnell Region[1]
LocalityGhan[1]
Electoral division (territory)Namatjira
Electoral division (federal)Lingiari
Population
 • Total
0 (not listed)
Postcode
0872
Abandoned c.1939 – only ruins still exist.

History

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Traditional names

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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

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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

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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

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

  • Christopher Giles is commemorated by the species name of dolomite fuchsia bush, Eremophila christopheri, whose habitat includes Charlotte Waters.
  • The genus Gilesia is named for both Christopher and Ernest Giles.
  • Cyperus gilesii and Panicum gilesii are usually listed as honouring Ernest Giles, but the type details for both species are given by George Bentham only as "Central Australia. Charlotte Waters, Giles".
  • The desert fuchsia, Eremophila gilesii, which honours Ernest, is widespread across the region.

Animals:

References

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  1. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b c d e "Flinders Ranges Research: Charlotte Waters (NT)". South Australian History. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  12. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
  17. ^ "Byrne, Patrick Michael". Spencer & Gillen. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  18. ^ "Charlotte Waters Overland Telegraph Station". Territory Stories. hdl:10070/17598.
  19. ^ a b 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.
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  Media related to Charlotte Waters, North Territory at Wikimedia Commons

Photographs

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


25°55′S 134°55′E / 25.917°S 134.917°E / -25.917; 134.917

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