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throughout the 1880s. However, the stations were a long way from markets in populated areas, prices low and
pastoralism a financial risk. In 1890 Buchanan even travelled with 300 bullocks from Derby to Singapore where they
brought eight Pounds per head at a cost of five Pounds. However further trade was barred. It proved uneconomic
to ship cattle to Fremantle, so in 1892 Buchanan pioneered the Buchanan Track through desert country with cattle
for the Murchison River goldfields. This succeeded due to Buchanan’s usual ingenuity, but the Western Australian
government refused to allow further movements. In 1894 Buchanan was forced to surrender Wave Hill Station.
Subsequently Buchanan worked at the Mount Bradley mine in the Kimberleys, managed Wave Hill Station for
a year and spent time at the Flora Valley Station taken up by his only son, Gordon, in 1887. In 1896 at the age of
70 he explored more unknown areas with camels and horses and one Aboriginal companion, but no suitable stock
routes for southern markets were found.
In 1899, acting on medical advice, he bought ‘Kenmuir’ a small farm near Tamworth, ‘retired’ there with his
wife and died in 1901.
Buchanan did not profit financially from his pioneering efforts in the pastoral industry, since it appeared that
‘fortune was always farther out’. He is remembered for his bushcraft, resourcefulness, ingenuity, self-discipline,
geniality and judgement of men. His reputation stands as the greatest of all cattle overlanders. He is a legend in the
areas that he opened up and his reputation deserves to be better known nationally.
He was thin, about 173 centimetres in height. In later years he carried a coloured umbrella to shield his sensitive
skin from the heat. He was a much-valued neighbour of the Duracks and was referred to as ‘Old Bluey’ because
of his grey hair and beard. To the Flora Valley Aborigines he became known as ‘Paraway’ because of his habit
of pointing the umbrella and explaining that he was going ‘far away, far away’. This name spread throughout the
cattle country. The stories about him are legend. In the words of the second verse of the song King Paraway by
Ted Egan:
The bush blacks all called him Old Paraway,
You see him tomorrow, he left yesterday.
With thousands of cattle he keeps riding on
To nowhere, from somewhere, he comes, now he’s gone,
With a bright green umbrella to shade the fierce sun.
On the Murranji, on the Murchison, on another new run
Old Paraway’s the man of whom desert tribes sing
And everyone knows Nat Buchanan was King.
ADB, vol 3 1851–1890 ANC; G Buchanan, Packhorse and Waterhole, 1934; M Durack, Kings in Grass Castles, 1976; Overlander’s Songbook,
compiled by Ted Egan [with] text by Peter Forrest, 1984.
M A CLINCH, Vol 1.BUCK, ROBERT HENRY (BOB) (1880–1960), bushman, cattleman, raconteur and the man who found the body
of Harold Lasseter in 1931, was born on 2 July 1880 at Alberton, South Australia, son of Robert Buck, who was
a labourer, and his wife Sarah Ann, nee Breaden.
Little is known of Bob’s early life, but after minimal schooling, he made a trip to the Northern Territory about- For a while he worked at Wallaroo, before accompanying his uncle, Joseph Breaden, north in 1905. Uncle
Joe Breaden owned Todmorden Station, approximately 100 kilometres north of Oodnadatta and Henbury Station,
120 kilometres south of Alice Springs. It is believed that Bob Buck did some carting with a donkey team for a short
time before droving 800 head of mixed cattle from Brunette Downs to Henbury in 1907. Both of Bob’s uncles,
Joe and Allan Breaden, had been resident of the Northern Territory since approximately 1875, and were able to
pass on their bush skills to him. Joe had been with the Carr–Boyd prospecting expedition in Western Australia
in 1896 and the Carnegie self-financed exploring expedition of 1896–1897, also in Western Australia. Allan had
been second in command of the ‘Central Australian Exploration Syndicate’ expedition of 1898–1899 under Allan
A Davidson.
During Bob’s early years on Henbury he quickly adapted to all facets of station life; stock work, saddling, and
general station management. He also formed a life long affinity with the Aborigines of the area, whom he referred
to as ‘my tribe’. Bob had a daughter Ettie through a lasting relationship with an Aranda woman named Molly.
He was very proud of his daughter and later, when on Middleton Ponds, he stated that she was the best ‘Stock
Boy’ on the place.
In October 1922, the desperately ill Pastor Carl Strehlow was borne through Henbury in the old Hermannsburg
Mission cart pulled by a horse. He was assisted by his wife, son Theo (Ted) and some devoted Aboriginal
helpers. Bob Buck was able to assist them; likewise Allan Breaden, who was at this time Manager of Idracowra.
After 28 years of dedicated service to Hermannsburg, Pastor Strehlow died at Horseshoe Bend. He was buried
there in a coffin made of old whisky cases. As a last mark of his friendship and esteem to his old bush mates, he
willed that they were to receive a bottle of whisky each; Bob Buck was one of these ‘bush mate’ recipients.
When Joe Breaden sold Henbury to Stan Young, Bob continued to manage the property until about 1928.
On leaving Henbury Bob and his mate Alf Butler took up the lease of Middleton Ponds, a small cattle property
on the Palmer River, between the boundaries of Henbury and Tempe Downs. With only a small herd of cattle,
crippling drought conditions existing and the start of the great worldwide economic depression years, times were
tough.
Bob then accepted a series of western desert contracts. The first was with the MacKay Aerial Survey Expedition
of Central Australia, in May–June 1930 to establish an aircraft landing ground of 650 square metres as near as
possible to the Ehrenberg Range. Bob left Alice Springs on 26 April 1930 with five Aborigines and eight camels to