>> Go Back - page - >> List of Entriess
recently read the diary of Leichhardt who had travelled this country. Giles in his memoirs describes crossing the
many crocodile-infested rivers of that area—the Fletcher, Wearyan, Foelsche, Robinson and Calvert. The job of
using black trackers to find Aboriginal ‘murderers’ required great courage, tact and understanding. Giles had all
these attributes. Having captured his men, Giles walked them to Wollogorang, Borroloola and Pine Creek to meet
the head of the railway for transport to Darwin. That particular case was heard and dismissed for lack of evidence
and the party returned overland to Wollogorang.
During this year of 1912 Giles assisted the Administrator, Dr Gilruth, by transporting cases of benzine from
Borroloola to Dungaminnie Springs for his 15 horsepower Napier car. In the same year he had the duty of preparing
for the visit of the Governor-General, Lord Denham and Lady Denham, through the Anthony’s Lagoon and
Borroloola areas in their journey from Darwin to Camooweal. Harold Giles then served some years as policeman
at Borroloola, Anthony’s Lagoon, Newcastle Waters and Horse Shoe Creek (a tin mining town). Those years in
isolated places, travelling huge distances by horse and on rivers undertaking police duties, show Harold Giles as
a remarkable bushman.
In 1915 Giles resigned from the Police Force and accompanied his father down the Edith and Fergusson
Rivers mustering cleanskin and branded cattle. They butchered cattle and supplied meat to the men working on
the construction of the railway. Giles enlisted in the First World War and spent four months in the Light Horse
at Rifle Range Camp, Brisbane. He was discharged medically unfit—unable to stand the cold weather in France.
His two brothers were in France at the time. Giles rejoined the Northern Territory Police Force. He went by sea to
Borroloola and continued on horseback to Wollogorang to try and recapture ‘Murdering Tommy’. Many months
later this was accomplished as well as other investigations of cattle killings.
In 1922 Giles returned to Darwin and was posted to Maranboy, 40 miles from Katherine. At this time two
young nurses from Brisbane had been put in charge of the Maranboy Inland Mission Hospital. Giles was very shy
with women but some years later he married one of these nurses, Doris Dunlop, on 25 March 1924. Before his
marriage Giles was transferred to Pine Creek Police Station. He lived at his father’s property, Bonrook, mustering
cattle as well as his other duties. He acted as Clerk of Court at Pine Creek during sittings. After his marriage he was
transferred out of the Police Force to take charge of the Kahlin Native Compound in Darwin. At times there were
about 600 Aborigines in the Compound and about 70 girls of mixed descent living in a hostel.
In 1928, while on leave with his wife and two children, Giles was offered the position as manager of the Elsey
Station on the Roper River, 26 miles south of Springvale Station. The Thonemann family owned it and it had been
made famous by Mrs Aeneas Gunn’s books We of the Never Never and The Little Black Princess; the Gunns lived
in the first homestead. Giles took charge in March 1928 and several months later Doris Giles arrived with their
children Peter and Margaret to the second homestead. The Elsey with its outstation was an enormous property of
8 000 square kilometres in area with 20 000 head of cattle. Giles improved the property: permanent drafting yards
were built in several strategic parts to act as bases, fences were constructed and the third and present homestead
built. Giles was away from the homestead mustering cattle a great deal; new cattle were branded with the Elsey
‘HTT’ twice a year. The homestead was improved with running water from a pump installed to lift the Roper River
water high up into a 4 500-litre tank and a kerosene refrigerator and a two-way radio with rechargeable batteries
made life more pleasant. Giles introduced a baby bonus to stop the Aboriginal practice of smothering unwanted
babies. Mrs Giles had a sick parade at 9.00 am each day, young infants were given goats’ milk and the sick and
injured given medicines. Thus the group of about 100 Aborigines living on the property were basically a healthy
community.
When Darwin was bombed in February 1942, ‘The Elsey’ had many callers, one who stayed some years had
been the cook at Government House and the meals were well known for their excellence. There were large Royal
Australian Air Force and Australian Imperial Force workshops near Mataranka as well as a large army hospital.
The Giles’ had thousands of servicemen call at The Elsey until the war was over. A visitors’ book was commenced
and includes many famous names such as Howard Florey, co-discoverer of penicillin, Lady Gowrie, and the High
Commissioner for Canada. After the war the Governor General and his wife, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester,
visited the station.
The three Giles children—Peter (1925–1986), Margaret Dorothy (Voller) (born 1926) and Alan Bruce (born
1929)—went to boarding schools in Brisbane; the eldest, Peter, enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force during
the war. They all settled in Queensland. When the health of Harold Giles could no longer stand the strain of
managing the property, he and Mrs Giles moved to Brisbane to retirement in 1954. He died on 23 June 1960.
Family information; P Forrest, Springvale’s Story and the Early Years at The Katherine, 1985; H S Giles, memoirs, Northern Territory
Archives.
VALERIE ASCHE, Vol 3.GILES, (LILIAN) DORIS nee DUNLOP (1895–1979), nurse and homemaker, was born on 3 January 1895
in Brisbane, the eldest of six daughters and two sons born to George Lyon Dunlop and his wife, nee Brown.
Her father owned land at Corinda, a suburb of Brisbane and Dunlop Park was named for him. Doris did her
general nursing training at Brisbane General Hospital and made a friend of Jean Herd who was recruited with her
by Reverend John Flynn to work at Penola Home, the Australian Inland Mission Hospital at Maranboy from
1922 to 1924. Both these women were staunch churchgoers; Jean Herd was a member of the Ithaca Presbyterian
Church and Doris Dunlop attended St Paul’s Anglican Church, Brisbane. The Inland Mission Stations cared for
the health of people from Longreach to Marble Bar and from Wyndham to Oodnadatta. The Maranboy assignment
was particularly hard as the hospital was isolated, 64 kilometres from the railhead at Katherine. The women had to