Ruby Plains Station is a

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

and

cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...

located about south of

Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...

in the Kimberley region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is situated along the Tanami Track and is used as a stopping place along the Canning Stock Route. Ruby Plains and the Sturt Creek Outstation covers an area of . Sturt Creek alone covers .

History

The station was established some time prior to 1900. In 1900 the property was owned by Messrs Cahill and Button. Button found some small nuggets of gold by accident not far from the

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

while on his way home. The value of his find was about £100. By 1901 the station was carrying about 700 head of cattle. The area has a tropical climate and often receives high rainfall during the monsoon. In March 1904 the station recorded just under of rain in 45 minutes. Two men named Shellie and Hansen struck

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

while drilling for water at Ruby Plains in 1931. Gold was found at a depth of about and the two men lodged a claim shortly after at Halls Creek. An Aboriginal woman named Judy was murdered at Ruby Plains by another Aboriginal woman named Topsy in 1944. In 2008 it was placed on the market and passed in at auction for 38 million. S. Kidman & Co. were hoping to attract a price of 44 million.

James Darcy

James "Jimmy" Darcy was a stockman at Ruby Plains who fell from his horse while

mustering Muster may refer to: Military terminology * Muster (military), a process or event for the accounting for members in a military unit * Muster list, list of the functions for team members * A mustering, in military terminology, is a specialised for ...

cattle in 1917. The seriously injured Darcy was transported by buggy for 12 hours to Halls Creek for treatment, despite there being no hospital or doctor in town. The

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

, Mr Tuckett, telegraphed

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

using

morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

for advice and was told the stockman had a ruptured

bladder The urinary bladder, or simply bladder, is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters ...

and would need to be operated on immediately. With no medical instruments or

anaesthetic An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia ⁠— ⁠in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness. They may be divided into two ...

, Tuckett operated while being advised by Dr Holland; the operation took seven hours to complete. The following day complications set in, and it became essential that a doctor come to the town. By this stage Darcy's plight had caught the imagination of the Australian public who were avidly following the story. Holland made his way to

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

on a cattle boat and was driven the final to Halls Creek by T-Model Ford and a horse and silky, only to find that Darcy had died the day before he arrived. This event was what inspired John Flynn to establish the

Royal Flying Doctor Service The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), commonly known as the Flying Doctor, is an air medical service in Australia. It is a non-profit organisation that provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote an ...

References

External links

* {{Stations of Sidney Kidman Pastoral leases in Western Australia Stations (Australian agriculture) Kimberley (Western Australia)

History

James Darcy

See also

References

External links