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spasmodically for BHP and other electrical firms, and at one stage was self-employed hawking household goods
around the Sydney suburbs.
He applied for an advertised vacancy for the Northern Territory Police, as did many others, and was
appointed as a Mounted Constable in Darwin, at the age of 24 years, on 7 November 1932. After serving in
Darwin, Groote Eylandt, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, he opened the Police Station at Hatches Creek about
300 kilometres north east of Alice Springs. He took his new bride (Jane Hayes from Undoolya Station) to their new
home at Hatches Creek, in July 1938. It was a canvas and bough mansion!
Mounted Constable Graham went to Groote Eylandt with Mounted Constables Ted Morey, Jack Mahony and
Vic Hall and Trackers following the spearing of Mounted Constable Albert McColl in August 1933. This group of
dedicated police stayed until April 1934, and returned McColl’s remains to Darwin. An Aborigine, Tuckiar, was
arrested and tried for the murder but was acquitted.
Later in 1938 the Grahams transferred to Barrow Creek; in 1939 to Finke near the South Australian border,
Rankine River, near the Queensland border in 1940, and then north to Anthony’s Lagoon, two years later. Whilst he
was a Sergeant at Anthony’s Lagoon, he led a horse patrol of well over a thousand miles in the Nicholson River
area, near the Queensland border, investigating cattle stealing offences and other matters. He was accompanied
by Constable Syd Bowie of the Northern Territory Police and Constable Chapman from the Queensland Police.
They caught one cattle-duffer red handed, and he became quite talkative about his thieving exploits, as he knew
he was on the Queensland side of the border and knew that the Territory Police could not touch him. He was
introduced to Constable Chapman and duly arrested.
After the Second World War and following a short stint in Alice Springs, Graham and his wife and two daughters
remained stationed in Darwin. Margaret Ann Graham had been born while her father was serving at Rankine River
in February 1941, Eleanor Jean whilst he was in Darwin in October 1944. Pamela Jane was born in Darwin in
March 1949.
Ten years after joining the Northern Territory Police, in 1942, Clive Graham was promoted to Sergeant, and
in 1949 he became a Senior Sergeant. He was promoted Inspector in 1952, Superintendent in 1956, Deputy
Commissioner in 1960 and then finally in 1964, the top job, Commissioner of Police. Prior to 1964, the rank of
Commissioner was held by the Administrator or his predecessor, the Government Resident, except between the years
1924–1927, when the Territory was under the control of the North Australia Commission, Major G C V Dudley
was appointed Commissioner. On his departure the old system resumed.
On 1 July 1964 Clive Graham became the first serving member from the ranks to become Commissioner
in the 94-year history of the Northern Territory Police Force. He served at this rank until his retirement on
7 September 1966. During his police service he was awarded the Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in
December 1959 and the Imperial Service Order (ISO) in the 1967 New Years Honours list.
The month of July seemed to be very significant for Clive Graham; most of his promotions were effected
in this month, his transfers the same. He was also married in July and met his untimely death in Adelaide on
11 July 1983.
Northern Territory Police records.
GLENYS SIMPSON, Vol 3.GRAHAM, DONALD JUPURRULA (c1920–1989), stockman, elder, community leader, teacher of and
collaborator with researchers on language and culture, was born ‘in the bush’, possibly in the Powell Creek area.
He was the son of ‘Pencil’ or ‘Spencer’ Jakamarra (from Newcastle Waters, born c1880, of Ngarrka (‘Man’)
Dreaming) and Beanie Napurrula (born c1900, of Kanturrpa country and Milwayi ‘Quiet Snake’ Dreaming).
Donald lived most of his life around cattle stations north of Tennant Creek. He grew up on Helen Springs, as
a contemporary of Bill Bohning, a son of the lessees (before Vesteys). He was made a man possibly in 1936 at
Nyiwarlurlu, in the bush west of Banka Banka, not far south of where there is now an outstation, at Kalumpurlpa,
where he spent his last years. Donald had no schooling, and said he had tried to accept some fellow stockmen’s
literacy training, from which he mastered just the alphabet, which he related to stock brands. He gained ample
evidence for his view that literate people wrote something down and forgot it, whereas he did not forget. At Helen
Springs he later occupied the head-stockman’s hut on the north-west of the homestead area overlooking the massive
rock engravings site Nyanya, for which he became senior kurtungurlu.
During the Second World War he and his wife Norah Napanangka worked for Ron Lobelly and family at
Jangkarti (Old Burke) on the west of Helen Springs Pastoral Lease, where in a drought they were put to rolling
200 litre drums of water up from the rock hole (work even Donald bailed up at). He guided Lobelly on a trip
out west of the station country, when they ‘did a perish’ and lost several horses. Also during the war Donald
told of helping Gerry Whitlock find the route in the Attack Creek area for the new Stuart Highway, and recalled
when Whitlock made a fire-plough track west from Three Ways (‘used to be Four Ways’) and another west from
Muckaty.
Like many of his contemporaries Donald worked as stockman and butcher at various stations: for Fred Ulyatt
and then the Hagans at Muckaty, and for many years at Banka Banka under the benign regime of Mary Ward and
after. He was also at McLaren Creek, Rockhampton Downs and Tennant Creek stations in the late 1960s. Around
this time he was a labourer for Fred Kittle, handling drums at a Tennant Creek fuel depot.
Donald assisted Prith Chakravarti on a few days in his 1966 study of Warumungu, and from 1979 Jane Simpson
with the same language. Kenneth Hale recorded two packed hours with Donald on an afternoon in December
1966 at the back of Tennant Creek Police Station where Donald was then employed as a Tracker. Hale spoke in