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Beulah hated snakes and there were plenty of them on the island. Once when she was playing the harmonium,
she stopped playing in the middle of a hymn and quietly moved to a nearby pew. The congregation continued
singing without an organ accompaniment and Sister Jess Smith quietly went to sit next to her wondering what
was wrong with Beulah. ‘There’s a snake in the organ!’, she whispered. The snake must have been there from the
beginning of the service. It said a lot for her quiet manner and self control that she had moved so quietly without
upsetting the service.
She also helped in the communication between the resident nursing sister and the Yolngu especially when
evacuation of a patient to Darwin hospital was vital and the patient was reluctant to leave the island. There were
many other areas too where the joint skills of the two women were necessary. She was an extremely humble
person as Doreen Lawton, a missionary at Yirrkala, was later to record. In the days of horse hair mattresses Doreen
Lawton, as a newcomer, thought she had been given the most lumpy mattress. She herself was ‘humbled’ to
discover that not only had Beulah given her the best room in the house they shared, but also the best mattress.
It has been recorded that Djawah, the Senior Leader of the Gupapuyngu, would call on Beulah to act as
interpreter when important meetings between Yolngu and Balanda (corruption of ‘Hollander’, now meaning any
Caucasian) were to take place. Without her availability, communications between government and Aborigines in
the area would have been considerably hampered.
She was interested in all aspects of the Arnhem Land culture and was of the opinion that the development of
cancers among the Aborigines has become more of a problem because of the change in diet from the native foods
of the land and the sea to the more European type of foods.
She was greatly loved by the people of Milingimbi as well as by the other staff members. She left Milingimbi
in 1977 and retired to Seaforth, a Sydney harbour suburb. She lived a quiet life, though in 1995 was not in
good health. She was organist at the Seaforth Uniting Church where her musical skills were greatly appreciated.
As Maisie McKenzie wrote ‘Beulah Lowe has made a significant contribution to the work in Arnhem Land, and
she must take her place among the most outstanding missionaries’.
M McKenzie, Mission to Arnhem Land, 1976; E Shepherdson, Half a Century in Arnhem Land, 1981; personal information from R and
M Beazley, K and F Cheater, A Grant, C and J Gullick, D Lawton, J Sharman, J Smith and D Tuffin.
JOHN VANDER-WAL, Vol 3.LUM LOY, MRS: see LEE TOY KIMLUXTON, EDWIN (c1857–1913), businessman, was born in London, England, and came to Australia in about
1878 with banking training. He arrived in the Northern Territory in 1881 as one of the staff of the Town and
Country Bank. In July 1882, he took a sublease over part of Lot 526 on the corner of Smith and Bennett Streets,
Palmerston, for 13.5 years from V L Solomon, who in turn had a head lease from an Adelaide absentee owner.
Luxton went into partnership with A E Jolly in 1883 having first built a residence and store on the block ‘well and
tastefully fitted up’. The store and his own residence, built of wood and iron, were valued at 400 Pounds in 1887.
The head lease was transferred to Luxton in 1889 though by then A E Jolly and Company solely ran the store. That
firm continued to trade on the site until 1942.
In 1887, on behalf of the partnership, Luxton moved to the Cambridge Gulf (Wyndham) in Western Australia to
take over the business interests of W K Griffiths and Company. The partnership was dissolved by mutual consent
in 1893 and Luxton moved to Sydney for a number of years, as one of the conditions was that he not conduct a
competing business within four years.
He returned to Palmerston in 1897 and purchased Lot 412 in Smith Street (adjacent to Brown’s Mart on the
Bennett Street side) on which he established a store as general merchant and importer. The following month he
requested the District Council to kerb his street frontage but was advised that it was not proposing to kerb that side
of Smith Street ‘at present’ but that he could do it if he wished.
On the evening of 31 March 1903 Luxton’s store was destroyed by fire, the apparent cause being the spontaneous
combustion of some matches held in stock. The business was insured for 1 700 Pounds, though actual losses were
estimated at some 3 000 Pounds. He was quick to inform his customers that he would fulfil all orders as soon as
new stocks were received. Only the retail store was damaged, the bond and bulk stores were not harmed. Within
the month, the insurance had been paid and Luxton announced the rebuilding of his premises.
Later in 1903, which was clearly not a good year for him, Luxton was involved in litigation, for breach of
contract, with his erstwhile partner, A E Jolly. Luxton claimed that Jolly had promised to sell him all his businesses
in the Northern Territory for about half what they were worth, as he (Jolly) was very worried about his financial
situation. These included the store and residences at the corner of Bennett and Smith Streets, the Victoria Hotel,
a store at Pine Creek, a fleet of 16 pearling luggers, certain mining leases and a battery at Pine Creek.
After an extremely costly hearing which involved evidence taken from many witnesses in Palmerston and
argument over more than 10 sitting days in Adelaide, the judge found that there was no contract, mostly on account
of Jolly’s ‘insanity’ at the time. Luxton’s lawyers had also made the mistake of suing Jolly’s partner, Clark, when
the latter was not a party to the negotiations. In order to protect Clark the law decreed that the damages to Luxton
be lessened though he did succeed in the claim for the mining leases and the battery, though not the land on which
it stood.
Although he renewed his storekeeper’s licence annually, he did not advertise his business from May 1905 until
a large display advertisement was inserted in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette only a month before he
died in 1913. By that time, his premises were on part of Lot 532 Smith Street (nearly opposite Christ Church),