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After operating the Chalet at Ayers Rock for almost 20 years, Cawood sold it to the Northern Territory
government, which in turn acquired other lodgings at Ayers Rock and reorganised the whole accommodation
arrangement at Yulara.
In the late 1970s CATA was sold to Australian Associated Tours (AAT), which was jointly owned by TAA and
Mayne Nickless. In 1983 when Australian Pacific Tours acquired AAT, CATA became a subsidiary.
In 1976 Cawood retired to live with his wife at Palm Cove, near Cairns in Queensland.
A wing of the Yulara complex at Ayers Rock was named after him in recognition of his contribution to Northern
Territory transport and tourism. In 1989 he received a Brolga Award for ‘outstanding contribution to the tourist
industry in the Northern Territory’.
J Maddock, A History of Road Trains in the Northern Territory 1934–1988, 1988; taped interview; correspondence.
JOHN MADDOCK, Vol 2.
CECIL, Lady WILLIAM: see FREER, MAUD VIOLET
CHALMERS, CHARLES O (1874–1967), schoolteacher and pioneer pastoralist, was born on 23 January 1874,
at Mountain Station, Stanthorpe, in southern Queensland, a son of William Chalmers and Kate McLeod, who had
migrated from Scotland and met and married in Ipswich. His father, a contract worker on stations, was killed
while breaking-in horses. Chalmers was only seven. At this time they were living in Emmaville, a tiny town in the
northern tablelands of New South Wales. He took over the care of their horses, sheep and fifteen milking cows,
which he helped milk before and after school. He developed a love of stock and an inherent ability to handle
them.
With supervision from the headmaster of the local school, Chalmers completed his training as a pupil teacher
and was appointed to Tent Hill to which he walked the five kilometres each day from Emmaville. On graduation
he was appointed the first teacher of the new school on the station property Blair Hill, near Glen Innes. It was
owned by Andrew Coventry and his wife, Helena, formerly from a neighbouring station, Mount Mitchell. There
were seven Coventry children. When one daughter, Cora, fair skinned, blue eyed and golden haired, returned from
Queenswood, a private school in Glen Innes, the tall, dark and good-looking Chalmers courted her. Cora, younger
than he, was impressed, as was everyone, with his strength and compassion. He fitted into the family circle with
his easy friendliness and good manners, and was eager to learn stock work from Andrew Coventry.
Chalmers had several schools in the New England district before being sent to Sydney, then Coolah. At Easter
in 1910 Charles Chalmers and Cora Coventry were married at Saint Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Macquarie
Street, Sydney. The early years of their married life were years of constant anxiety due to financial stresses.
He became a proficient and dedicated teacher, but he felt it could not be his life’s work if he was to support a wife
and four children. He commenced balloting for land in Queensland. Appointed to Mungindi, New South Wales,
on the stock route from Queensland, he talked to drovers coming through from the Northern Territory and decided
to apply for a block near Elsey Station at Warlock Ponds.
Disregarding all warnings, Chalmers resigned from the Education Department to prepare to set out for the
Territory about the end of February 1921, when the worst heat was over. Three hundred sheep, 13 horses, a small
herd of goats, several dogs and five bantams in a cage slung under the wagon completed the livestock to make the
journey. Chalmers and the two eldest children, Jean, almost 11, and Mac, aged eight, rode and drove the sheep,
while Cora with Don, almost five, and Jessie, aged three, drove the covered wagon.
At Thallon they attended a race meeting where Chalmers won a horse in a raffle. Named Eulalie, he was to
win many races. Through Saint George, Barcaldine, Aramac to Winton, the going was easy. In Winton their first
mail was waiting with a letter from the Minister for Home and Territories informing them that the block of land
they had applied for was not available and to apply again. Chalmers now turned his attention to Central Australia
although he had no detailed maps. Once in the Centre he would be in a better position to make a decision. They
headed north to Boulia to see the summer out and do the shearing. Chalmers was to learn that he was dealing with
a hard country that dictated the terms. Drought set in for all of 1922 and until June 1923 the Chalmers were forced
to camp at Boulia.
Eventually they were able to resume their journey, but not along the usual stock route into the Territory.
Chalmers decided to take a straight line to Alice Springs through trackless country rarely, if ever, seen by white
men and certainly never by a white woman and children. It had never been mapped in detail and he had no way of
knowing the whereabouts of waterholes, if any. He had faith in the recent fall of rain. For him the unknown was a
situation to be faced and conquered, not to be avoided. From Boulia they turned west to the Georgina, which they
followed for 200 kilometres to Roxborough Downs without trouble with feed or water. At Walgra Station, next on
the Georgina, the manager, Basil Brett, tried desperately to talk Chalmers out of taking the cross-country route.
Camped on this station was Fred Davis, who offered to guide them over the worst stretches.
They entered the Territory on Lake Nash Station and the terrain began to toughen up. At Elditta Waterhole they
met Arthur Groom, who told of meeting the ‘brave insane family’. ‘Didn’t they know there was desert beyond the
Aghadaghada Waterhole where only camels had gone before? It was madness to drive sheep across, let alone risk
the lives of the family.’
Gordon’s Creek faded out and on the plains no trees and no water. They had come 40 kilometres and the sheep
were desperately thirsty and had to be forced along. It rained that night, but water was always scarce and often
they had to dig for it. Then they were in the spinifex country. Davis left when two Aborigines offered to guide
them to the Plenty River. The animals were already footsore and becoming weaker through not having sufficient