Tommy Windich ( – ) was an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

member of a number of

exploring Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

expeditions in

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 ...

in the 1860s and 1870s. Tommy Windich (or Windiitj) was born around 1840 near

Mount Stirling Mount Stirling is a mountain in the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, located in the Hume region of Victoria, Australia. The mountain has an elevation of above sea level. Mount Stirling is also an abbreviation of the Mount Stirling ...

in Western Australia. Little is known of his youth, but his skills in tracking and knowledge of a number of

Aboriginal languages Aboriginal language may refer to: * Indigenous language * Australian Aboriginal languages * Taiwanese aboriginal languages * Indigenous languages of the Americas * Aboriginal Malay languages The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-P ...

suggest a traditional upbringing, whereas his skills in horseriding and marksmanship indicate extensive contact with colonial culture. By the early 1860s, Windich was working as a "native assistant" in the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

force at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

, where his main tasks were to assist in the

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...

of escaped

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as " prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former conv ...

s, Aborigines who were wanted by the authorities, and escaped horses. In 1863, he joined the first aboriginal assistant policeman Cowits to accompany Henry Maxwell Lefroy on his expedition east of York to the interior. In 1865 he tracked and helped to recapture a prison escapee named Joseph Johns, who would later become the notorious bushranger

Moondyne Joe Joseph Johns ( February 1826 – 13 August 1900), better known as Moondyne Joe, was an English convict and Western Australia's best-known bushranger. Born into poor and relatively difficult circumstances, he became something of a petty criminal ...

. Early in 1866 he helped to capture three Aborigines who had murdered a pastoralist, one of whom fought against his arrest, spearing Windich in the arm. This expedition appears to have made Windich's name as a superb tracker and a reliable and useful member of any travelling party, for he was afterwards in constant demand. Windich and Cowits joined Constable Edwards in the police expedition east in May 1866 which discovered petroleum. Kevin Moran: Sand and Stone, The social history of Western Australia as recorded by the Pioneer Police of the Eastern Frontiers, Optima Press, 2000. Sometime in 1866 Windich was stationed to

Beverley Beverley is a market and minster town and a civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre and north-west of City of Hull. The town is known fo ...

, where he continued his usual work as a native assistant, but was also sent on a number of exploring expeditions. Windich's next exploratory expedition (also with Cowits) was the third expedition of the explorer Charles Hunt. The objective was to explore the area east of the Hampton Plains but an unseasonal drought caused a great shortage of water and feed for the horses, and they were forced to abandon their plans and return to York. In 1869, Windich was a member of John Forrest's first expedition, which searched without success for clues to the fate of the long-lost explorer

Ludwig Leichhardt Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, (23 October 1813 – c. 1848) was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's dis ...

in the desert west of the site of the present-day town of Leonora. The following year, he was a member of Forrest's second expedition, which surveyed

Edward John Eyre Edward John Eyre (5 August 181530 November 1901) was an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and Governor of Jamaica. Early life Eyre was born in Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, shortly before his family moved t ...

's route between the colonies of Western Australia and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

along the coast of the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...

. In 1871, Windich was part of another attempt to explore the land beyond the Hampton Plains, this time under the guidance of

Alexander Forrest Alexander Forrest CMG (22 September 1849 – 20 June 1901) was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, and later also a member of parliament. As a government surveyor, Forrest explored many areas of remote Western Australia, particu ...

. This expedition discovered about of pastoral land, half of which was of fine quality, but also found water to be extremely scarce. In 1874, Windich was a member of John Forrest's third and most ambitious expedition. This expedition explored the watershed of the Murchison River, discovering much new pastoral land, then headed east through the uncharted centre of Western Australia, to the overland telegraph line from Darwin to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. Early in 1876, Windich was working as a guide with the party constructing the overland

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

line from

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 i ...

to Adelaide, when he caught a chill that became a serious illness. On about 20 February, he died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. He was buried at Dempster Head near Esperance. John Forrest said at the time :"his name is almost a household word in this colony.... I feel that I have lost an old and well tried companion and friend."

Cultural references

In September 1988, a cultivar of

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, bred by the Western Australian Department of Agriculture for performance in medium to high rainfall areas, was released under the name "''Hordeum vulgare'' (Barley) c.v. Windich". Commonly referred to simply as "Windich", the cultivar is named for Tommy Windich, continuing a tradition of naming Western Australian grain cultivars after historic people of Western Australia.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Windich, Tommy 1840s births 1876 deaths Australian explorers Explorers of Australia Explorers of Western Australia Indigenous Australians from Western Australia People from the Wheatbelt (Western Australia) Deaths from pneumonia in Western Australia