You are currently viewing Portraits of Aboriginal drovers enshrined in outback Queensland town

Portraits of Aboriginal drovers enshrined in outback Queensland town

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Daily News

The “unsung heroes” and “backbone” of the cattle industry, Aboriginal Australians have a long history as stockmen and drovers across the country’s north.

While their stories have often been untold, a permanent photography exhibition featuring portraits of Indigenous drovers is drawing a relatively unknown part of bush history out of the shadows.

Injalandji-Dhidhanu man Ian Saltmere is one of the people featured in the exhibition in outback Queensland.

He was born and bred on Rocklands Station, a cattle property just over two hours’ drive north of Camooweal, a North West Queensland town close to the Northern Territory border.

an indigenous man and women smile into the camera, with the man behind wrapping his arms around the woman against a black backgr
A portrait of Ian Saltmere and Josie Rowlands. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Now retired, Mr Saltmere followed in his father’s footsteps to become a full-time drover at just 13 years old.

He said his childhood on the station was spent listening to droving stories from the older Indigenous stockmen who were integral to the success of the cattle industry during early European settlement.

“The Aboriginals took them [the Europeans] to the water,” he said.

an indigenous man sits on a stool against a black backdrop earing orange button up shirt and white hat with a white beard
Indigenous drover John Percy. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Before large trucks could carry the animals, people walked thousands of head of cattle long distances to where they needed to be.

Stock routes, referred to as the long paddock, still exist across Australia and they’re used to feed livestock in times of drought.

Mr Saltmere said Aboriginal people helped Europeans navigate the harsh landscape.

3 generations of indigenous woman, two stand one sits in the middle
Ginger Ah-One (left), Mavis Andrews (centre) and Margaret Major. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

“When they would go past another boundary, they’ll pick up another couple of Aboriginals there, and they’d do the same,” he said.

“They had to know where the land was, where the water was to bring them down and after the wet.”

two indigenous people stand against black backdrop smiling with arms around each other
Allen Rankin and Shirley Demsey photographed in Camooweal. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Mr Saltmere said the exhibition showed the culture of Aboriginal people.

“There’s a lot of unsung heroes out there that have never been talked about … a lot of history there,” he said.

“Aboriginal people were more or less the backbone.”

Place in history

The exhibition, titled Unsung heroes of the outback and the cattle industry, has 15 portraits and holds a permanent space inside the Drovers Camp Museum at Camooweal, 200 kilometres north of Mount Isa.

Considered the heart of droving in the outback region, Camooweal became a central outpost for drovers to stop while moving cattle across the Northern Territory and Queensland during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Exhibition curator David Prichard, an award-winning Australian photographer, had the idea for the drover portraits last year while he was trekking through the bush photographing Indigenous rodeo riders.

photographer david prichard stands on top of roof of 4wd taking a photo with the outback in the background
David Prichard has created the exhibition highlighting the Indigenous drovers. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Mr Prichard said showcasing Aboriginal people from the outback and solidifying their place in history drove his passion to create the exhibition.

“It’s almost a race to photograph some of the older people because … a lot of them are gone,” he said.

“The older ones are really the ones who shaped the industry as it stands today.”

Mr Prichard said while snapping the portraits, he was amazed by the yarns the drovers shared.

an indigenous man in a brown cowboy hat and dark blue button up shirt looks to the left of the camera
Peter Parlow. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

“It can be pretty confronting sometimes,” he said.

“They’ve shown incredible resilience to come through to where they stand today and a lot of the treatment they received and dealt with was pretty harsh.”

an indigenous woman smiling against black backdrop wearing red button up shirt and straw hat
Shirley MacNamara photographed at the Drovers Camp in Camooweal. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Aboriginal stockman who helped build the cattle industry were typically unpaid for their labour and were instead offered rations as compensation.

This part of history, known as the “stolen wages”, has led to Federal Court cases where Indigenous people seek to receive retribution.

Sharing Aboriginal history

Mr Prichard also included the drovers’ family members in some of the shots to extend the exhibition’s reach.

“To broaden the interest and hopefully make it something that the younger generations will be interested in  … because their young uncles or young aunts are in it,” he said. 

“I really like the idea of taking the person out of their normal context, so there’s no bush around or anything like that — it’s a focus on the [subjects].”

an indigenous woman sits on stool wearing red checkered button up shirt looking into the camera with body turned to the left
Annie Ah-One’s portrait. (Supplied: David Prichard)normal

Before moving north to Camooweal from her country on the Simpson Desert, Wangkangurru Yarluyandi woman Josie Rowlands said she knew very little about Aboriginal history in the cattle industry.

“There’s a lot of Aboriginal history in there,” said Ms Rowlands, now a volunteer at the Drovers Camp Museum.

“By getting that portraits exhibition [it] highlights and starts to tell the story, acknowledges all our people did to open up this area for the Australian beef cattle industry.”

ABC North West Qld — local news in your inbox

Get our local newsletter, delivered free each Tuesday

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-02/portraits-aboriginal-drovers-in-exhibition-at-outback-queensland/104279952