A soakage, or soak, is a source of water in Australian deserts. It is called thus because the water generally seeps into the sand, and is stored below, sometimes as part of an

ephemeral river A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long large streams ar ...

or creek.

Aboriginal water source

Soakages were traditionally important sources of water for

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

in the desert, being the most dependable source in times of

drought in Australia Drought in Australia is defined by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall over a three-month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a ...

. Aboriginal peoples would scoop out the sand or mud using a coolamon or woomera, often to a depth of several metres, until clean water gathered in the base of the hole. Knowing the precise location of each soakage was extremely valuable knowledge. It is also sometimes called a native well. Anthropologist

Donald Thomson Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson, OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the Caledon Bay crisis into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-Europea ...

wrote:

Cleaning and maintaining the well

Wells were covered to keep them free from fouling by animals. This involved blocking the well with dead branches and uprooted trees. When the wells fell into disrepair, people would bail the well, using the coolamon to throw

slush Slush, also called slush ice, is a slurry mixture of small ice crystals (e.g., snow) and liquid water. In the natural environment, slush forms when ice or snow melts or during mixed precipitation. This often mixes with dirt and other polluta ...

against the wall. This would set like a

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

wash and help to hold loose sand, preventing it from falling into the water. Wells could be up to fifteen feet deep, with small toe holds cut into the walls.

Recording well locations

Donald Thomson writes:

White explorers and the wells

In the nineteenth century, both Warburton and Carnegie recorded that they had run down Aboriginal residents with camels and captured and chained them to compel them to reveal their secret sources of water. This action left a lasting impression on Aboriginal residents of desert regions, who would have handed accounts of this down through successive generations. In the 1930s, when H. H. Finlayson made his journeys through the desert by camel, he noted that a gelded male camel, after a hard three-and-a-half-day journey in intense heat without water, drank by actual measure without stopping, and fifteen minutes later, another . This sheds light on the resentment built up among the Aboriginal population against explorers for the exploitation and, by enlarging well entrances and digging out springs, the devastation of their precious water supplies to satisfy camel teams.

Don McLeod Donald Martin "Smokey" McLeod (August 24, 1946 – March 11, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played briefly in the National Hockey League and six full seasons in the World Hockey Association between 1970 and 1978. Pl ...

(Aboriginal rights activist, see Pilbara#20th century) also tells a story of clashes over soak water at the time of the gold rushes in Western Australia: McLeod relates a story told to him by an old prospector by the name of Long, observing an Aboriginal man and woman:

References

External links

Us Mob - Finding water in the desert
{{Indigenous Australians Geography of Australia History of Indigenous Australians Australian Aboriginal bushcraft Australian English Water Hydrology Aquifers Water wells Exploration of Western Australia Agriculture in Australia Water supply and sanitation in Australia