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Cecil Freer was the best-known member of the Freer family. He is said to have trained as a mining engineer
and to have worked as a mine manager. He later became known as ‘the Buffalo King’. At a very early age he won
at the races on his pony Creamie. After 1893, when he was about 15, he began to develop a reputation as a jockey,
riding race meetings at Katherine, on the goldfields and in Darwin, the latter under the auspices of the Northern
Territory Racing Club. He also trained horses and became a successful owner.
He left the Northern Territory in October 1897, but returned the following May. The 1901 census shows him as
a 26-year-old miner at Brocks Creek where there was a small active European community. He worked on various
mining leases in the general area but travelled to Palmerston for racing and social events. In July 1903 Cecil Freer
demonstrated his confidence and sense of public responsibility by capturing and restraining an Aboriginal man
wanted by the police for attempted murder. He had initiative and displayed leadership in crisis situations. He was
also a great supporter of sport and charity fundraising.
For a while he mixed mining and buffalo pursuits. Late in 1903 Freer and a partner named Orchard commenced
a contract for a 320 metre main shaft at the New Zapopan Gold mine, recently financed by local interests. In October
1904 it was reported that the pair had been buffalo shooting for two months and that Orchard had suffered a riding
accident.
In 1907, whilst still resident at Brocks Creek, he took out a pastoral permit over part of the East Alligator
River plains for the purpose of shooting buffalo for their hides. He took a ‘general tour’ on SS Eastern in 1907
and during 1908 managed the Great Northern Mine whilst a colleague was away. He then returned to the Adelaide
River Plains to shoot buffalo. In 1910 he still had a wet season camp at Brocks Creek as access to the plains from
Port Darwin could be gained by travelling south along the railway line. Eventually in 1911 Cecil Freer secured
a permit for a large area around Point Stuart, which meant that he could use a lugger to carry his provisions and
hides. This area became the centre of his buffalo shooting and hide export enterprise.
In the years that followed, up to about 1932, with the co-operation of Aboriginal families who worked with
him, Cecil Freer made a good living. They shot approximately 3 000 buffaloes per year and in the camp cleaned
and salted the hides, which were later tanned to make very strong leather. During each wet season, when no
hunting could be done, he travelled by sea to southern capitals where he relaxed in like-minded company.
In 1930 when over 50 years of age, but still fit and active, Cecil Freer married Noreen Garry, who was much
younger, in Sydney. She enjoyed one dry season visit to Darwin and to Point Stuart, where she observed and
wrote about the smooth operation of Freer’s buffalo enterprise, in apparent harmony with the Aboriginal people.
However, as she neither wanted to live in the Territory, nor spend the dry seasons alone in Sydney, they were
divorced.
About 1936 he married Dorothy Yeo of Elong Elong Station near Dubbo, New South Wales, and settled in
Macleay Street, Potts Point, Sydney. There were no children of this marriage. Cecil Freer, although of a retiring
nature, was well known in social circles for his stories of the Northern Territory, and as an advocate for its
development. When he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1939 for his services
to the Northern Territory, and for his relations with Aboriginal people who were said to refer to him as ‘Yarriupi’,
some commentators stated that he deserved a knighthood. He died on 6 June 1957.
Cecil Freer boosted the Northern Territory economy through the export of buffalo hides at a time when pastoral
incomes were depressed. In 1929, the value of the buffalo industry peaked at 12 618 Pounds per year. However,
this industry was destined to disappear as the Northern Territory developed. He also improved horse racing by
introducing better quality horses. He was an intelligent, capable man, with the gentlemanly disposition of his
parental family. He won his income from the Northern Territory, but ultimately he was forced to move away in
order to enjoy a social lifestyle that was comfortable for him in his retirement. The family name is remembered in
Freer Street which is close the Fannie Bay racecourse in Darwin.
Adelaide Observer, February 1872; MA Clinch, ‘On the Edge of the Paperbark Swamp’, Northern Perspective, vol 13, No 1, 1990; E N Garry,
Her Life, 1990; D E Kelsey, The Shackle: A Story of the Far North Australian Bush, 1975; Land Titles Office records; Northern Standard,
3 January 1939; Northern Territory Times and Gazette 1873–1932; Pastoral Review, 16 July 1957; personal correspondence ANZ Archives,
Melbourne, H Cecil, UK.
M A CLINCH, Vol 3.FRITH, SARAH (SALLY): see FEENEY, SARAH (SALLY)FULLER, CHARLES (1904–1991), bushman, drover and worker in various occupations, was born on 25 January
1904 in Burketown, Queensland. His father, James Fuller, was a drover in the Gulf District. When he was still a
child, Charles, his older brother, Ted, and a younger sister, left the district with their parents and began the long
journey back to the Fuller family holdings near Scone, New South Wales. Charles’ mother unfortunately died at
Cairns during that journey and her bereaved husband had to rely on his family to care for their young children. The
youngest, a daughter, was taken to family at Dry Creek, near Scone, and Charles went to stay with other relatives
at Wingen, New South Wales. Ted appears to have remained with his father.
After two years James Fuller reunited his family and took his children to live with him on a dairy farm he had
established in the district between Scone and Gundy. Further misfortunes followed, and in the late 1910s during
a period of severe drought the family faced financial failure. Charles and Ted’s education at St Josephs College in
Sydney was terminated. James, accompanied by Ted, returned to droving in northern Australia in the early 1920s.
Charles joined them in 1926.