Walter Smith also known as Walter Purula (Perrurle) or Wati Yuritja (2 July 1898 – 14 June 1990) was a legendary Australian bushman from the
Arltunga
Arltunga is a deserted gold rush town located in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Hart about east of Alice Springs. It is of major historical significance as the first major European settlement in Central Australia.
Earl ...
region in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Wati Yuritja translates as man of the Water Dreaming).
He was also a miner, dogger and perhaps the most widely travelled cameleer in Australia who could speak more than 30 languages.
Early life
![Arltunga Historical Reserve](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Arltunga_Historical_Reserve.jpg)
Smith was born at the Arltunga goldfield and was the eldest of eleven children to William Smith, a goldminer of Welsh descent and an Aboriginal woman Topsy White (
Topsy Smith
Topsy Smith (1875 – 15 April 1960) was an Arabunna woman born at Oodnadatta is a pioneer of Central Australia in the Northern Territory of Australia. She spent her life caring for Indigenous Australian, Indigenous children at an institution kno ...
). Although he had no formal education, his father taught him English and his mother and grandmother taught him eastern
Arrernte
Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia.
It may refer to:
* Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?)
* Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
and Arabana languages. Smith spent his childhood in the small mining community, primarily in the company of other Aboriginal children; it was here he learnt to gather bush foods and honed his tracking and direction-finding skills.
He recalled the first arrival of rabblits in the region which he, and the other Aboriginal children called 'Arintja' or 'Devil'; they were initially afraid of the unfamiliar creatures but soon started catching them to eat.
At the age of 12, in 1910, he accompanied Arrernte people on their last large ceremonial gathering in the
Simpson Desert
The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Deserts of Australia, Australian desert, with an area of .
The desert ...
. They travelled with camels to a large clay-pan, where traditional hunting and gathering took place. After severe drought in 1914-15 drought and the 1919 influenza ceremonial gatherings took place on the desert-fringe cattle stations or at the edges of outback towns instead.
Working life
Smith started work as a young man, between the ages of 12 and 14, and his first jobs involved working with horses with Ben Webb and then Joe Harding; while in the employ of Joe Harding he assisted in the move of a mob of cattle up to Pine Creek, a distance of 2000 kms.
After the death of his father in 1914, Smith's family moved to Alice Springs with the help of the
Hayes family
Hayes may refer to:
* Hayes (surname), including a list of people with the name
** Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States
* Hayes (given name)
Businesses
* Hayes Brake, an American designer and manufacturer of disc brakes
* Ha ...
of
Undoolya station
Undoolya Station is a pastoral lease east of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It has been managed by the Hayes Family since 1906. It is currently managed by Ben and Nicole Hayes.
Early history
Central Aranda people hav ...
and police sergeant
Robert Stott
Robert Stott (13 July 1858 – 21 April 1928) was a constable and later police commissioner in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Early life
Robert Stott was born in the blacksmith's croft at Nigg in Kincardineshire, Scotland, the son ...
. In Alice Walter lived with his mother at
The Bungalow
The Bungalow was an institution for Aboriginal children established in 1914 in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It existed at several locations in Alice Springs (then called Stuart), Jay Creek and the Alice Springs Telegr ...
, a ‘half-caste’ institution. Smith, devastated by the loss of his father, wanted to stay with his mother and family and attend school with his siblings, but Robert Stott said he was a young man and it was better for his to get a job and he began working as an off-sider to
Charlie Sadadeen. Together they would meet the train at the railhead at Oodnadatta in South Australia, and take a load to Alice Springs with a camel team under the employ of Wallis and Co.
ompany Smith spent many years with Sadadeen and remembers him growing opium flowers out the front of his house at 'Sadadeen Swamp' which they would boil up together; he recalls the local police thinking they were pretty flowers and having no idea of their use.
They would work together for around 15 years.
Smith married Millie Carnegie on 11 February 1929 at the
Oodnadatta
Oodnadatta is a small, remote outback town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia, located north-north-west of the state capital of Adelaide by road or direct, at an altitude of . The unsealed Oodnadatta Track, an outback road ...
police station. While he was away on a prospecting journey to the western deserts, government officials removed Millie to Nepabunna Mission in the
Flinders Ranges
The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna.
The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabi ...
. Smith never saw her again.
In 1931 Smith joined the Eclipse Gold Expedition which left from Oodnadatta after being asked by Harry Hartley. Smith originally thought this was a legitimate gold seeking expedition and was surprised to learn that, although gold would be welcome, it was actually a search for
Harold Bell Lasseter and his "lost reef". They would soon learn that this would be a, successful, search for his remains.
Smith claims, on this trip, to had buried Lasseter for the third time, he was first buried by the
Pitjantjatjara
The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...
people (in a shallow oval grave) and then by
Bob Buck who Smith said had not dug deep enough as; "''dingoes had dug down and dragged a leg off".''
He then worked as a prospector, gem fossicker, dogger (dingo trapper) and miner at
Tennant Creek
Tennant Creek ( wrm, Jurnkkurakurr) is town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with the western termin ...
during the 1930s.
He took out several mining leases in the
Harts Range
Harts Range is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia located on the Plenty Highway by road northeast of Alice Springs.
Most of its population are of Aboriginal descent, residing in the nearby community of Atitjere. Since 1947, each y ...
.
He also collected meteorites and fossils from the Simpson Desert for museums who would pay for them; in this role he was known as ‘Sandhill Bob’.
Later life
Smith married Mabel Williams in Alice Springs on 26 January 1961. He was the last of the Red Centre’s cameleers, working into the 1970s.
After living with his sister Ada Wade for many years, he then moved to the Old Timers’ Home in 1983.
He died on 14 June 1990 and is buried in the Alice Springs Cemetery.
Legacy
Smith's life story is recorded in
Dick Kimber's book "Man from Arltunga: Walter Smith, Australian bushman" (1986). This book is based on many hours of tape recording that Kimber and Smith made between 1981 and 1983.
Of him Kimber writes:
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Walter
1898 births
1990 deaths
Australian miners
Australian prospectors