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In 1883 Croker and Hugh and Wattie Gordon took the first mobs of cattle into the Victoria River district to
stock leases held by Bluey Buchanan. Sam started from Katherine with 400 heifers on 29 March 1883, but dry
conditions held him up for several months. Upon arrival on the upper Victoria River a homestead site was chosen,
timber huts were built and a horse paddock erected. The terraced slopes of the limestone range opposite the
homestead reminded Sam of waves and this led to the name ‘Wave Hill’ which was adopted as the name for the
new station. When the homestead and yard were finished the Gordons returned to Katherine, leaving Sam as first
manager of the station.
Several months after Wave Hill was established, Lindsay Crawford arrived with the first cattle to stock the
new Victoria River Downs run. Sam met Crawford and helped him choose a site for a homestead. As they were
riding along the Wickham River the Aborigines threw a shower of spears at them, but both men escaped injury.
It is not known whether the blacks were so lucky.
Although in many ways Croker was undoubtedly a good station manager, when it came to dealing with ‘bush’
blacks he was wanting in judgment. Gordon Buchanan referred to the ‘ruthless and often insensate methods’ Sam
used ‘to awe the blacks’, and he speculated that these stemmed from the attitudes prevailing on the Queensland
frontier and the methods of the Queensland Native Police. Shortly after Wave Hill was established, Aborigines
made a raid on the homestead, stealing a bucket and a couple of billies. The station hands gave chase and Sam shot
an Aboriginal man dead as he swam the river to escape. Upon examination it was discovered that the victim was a
‘half caste’ more than 30 years of age, which put his birth date well before European settlement.
This led Sam and others to speculate that the dead man’s father might have been a member of either
Ludwig Leichhardt’s lost 1848 expedition or A C Gregory’s 1855–56 expedition, but no further evidence came
to light. The violence of this first encounter and Sam’s generally harsh treatment of the Aborigines resulted in open
hostilities that persisted for many years.
In 1885 he rescued two survivors from Stockdale’s land seeking and prospecting expedition, which had explored
the Kimberleys and the Ord River country between September 1884 and January 1885. Early in 1885, while
heading eastwards and still 96 kilometres west of the Ord, two of his men decided to remain behind prospecting.
Some time later Stockdale and another man travelled ahead of the remainder of the party and on New Year’s Day
they chanced upon the recently established Victoria River Station. Stockdale met Croker there and asked him if he
would look for the men following behind, and also the two who had elected to stay west of the Ord. Sam found two
expedition members – Carr, and Pitt, who was insane and suffering from dysentery. Carr reported that M’Illree,
the expedition surveyor, had died of exhaustion. Sam tried to locate the other two men, but he was stopped by
floodwaters in the Ord River and no trace of these men was ever found.
In June 1886, Sam followed a large mob of straying cattle southeast from Wave Hill, across unknown desert
country. He struck the Overland Telegraph somewhere between Powells Creek and Tennant Creek, located the
cattle and gathered together other Wave Hill strays from as far as Anthony’s Lagoon. Then he started back for
Wave Hill by the conventional route along the telegraph line. Near Powells Creek Sam fell in with his boss, Bluey
Buchanan, who had just arrived from Queensland with a mob of 160 horses. Both men were headed for Wave Hill,
so they decided to join forces and attempt to find a shortcut by heading westwards from the telegraph line, north
of Newcastle Waters. Starting out in late July or early August with local Aboriginal guides, they travelled first to
Murranji Waterhole, then another 80 kilometres to the Yellow Waterholes. From there it was a relatively short
distance to the headwaters of the Victoria River. The route taken by Buchanan and Croker was followed by others,
and eventually became famous as the Murranji Track.
As soon as they arrived at Wave Hill after the Murranji crossing, preparations were made to stock some leases
held by Nat Buchanan and his brother on Sturt Creek. In mid-October Sam and Hugh Gordon left Wave Hill
with 1800 head. After many weeks exploring the new country Sam established a camp on Sturt Creek, about
25 kilometres above Wallamunga Waterhole. For a period he was left in charge of Sturt Creek, the first manager
of the station.
During 1887 and 1888, Sam supplied the miners at Halls Creek with cattle from Sturt Creek and Wave Hill.
He was still in Wave Hill in 1889, but in the 1891 Northern Territory census he was listed as residing at Stockyard
Creek on Victoria River Downs.
By September 1892 he was acting manager of Auvergne while the permanent manager, John Watson, was
away. Shortly after Sam took over Auvergne, a Queensland ‘half caste’ named Charlie Flannigan (alias McManus)
arrived looking for work. Sam had known Flannigan for some time and had previously worked with him on
Wave Hill. He gave Flannigan a weeks’ work building a yard and in the evenings the two men played cards
with Jack McPhee and the Chinese cook, Joe Ah Wah. On the evening of the 19th Flannigan left the card game
and returned a few minutes later with a Snider rifle. Accounts vary as to whether there had been an argument
between Croker and Flannigan, or whether there was an old enmity between them, but in any case, Flannigan
shot Sam dead. The following morning he helped bury Croker in the station cemetery and then fled to Ord River
Station where he was talked into giving himself up. Tried in Darwin, Flannigan was convicted of Sam Croker’s
murder and sentenced to death. His hanging at Fannie Bay Gaol on 15 July 1893 was the first official execution
in the Northern Territory.
Croker wrote articles for The Queenslander, and possibly for the North Queensland Herald, under the pen
name of ‘Green Hide’ or ‘Green Hide Sam’ a nickname reflecting his skill at working that material. His name
is commemorated at Croker’s Rockhole and Croker’s Yard on Wave Hill, and Croker’s Hill (Mt Croker) near
Kathleen Falls on the Flora River. A lagoon on the Barkly Tableland discovered on the 1877 trip was named for
Croker, but the name does not appear to have survived. A location on Delamere Station called ‘Sam’s Lookout’ may
also have been named after him. After his death, the Northern Territory Times described Croker as ‘a reliable man