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the Barrow Creek hotel and Charlotte and the family spent some time there when the races were on. They also went
to Alice Springs, staying at the hotel owned by Ly Underdown, when the races were held there. In the early 1940s,
Jim built a billiard room and a barbershop and continued to work as a starting price (SP) bookmaker. During the
war years he worked at Hatches Creek making hop beer. After the war, Jim purchased lot 166 in Paterson Street
from William Weaber’s estate. It has sometimes been claimed that Maloney had engaged the well known architect
B C G Burnett to design the Goldfields Hotel but Maloney appears to have only had dealings with Burnett about
1947 (according to an account in his probate papers). Perhaps he intended to build a new family home on lot 166.
During the war years, James Maloney was the local chairman of the Air Raid Precautions (ARP). After the
bombing of Darwin it was official policy that all non-essential civilians from Alice Springs north should be
evacuated but so far as Tennant Creek was concerned that was observed largely in the breach. Jim was a clever man
and served as a Justice of the Peace, and sometimes coroner. He had a detailed knowledge of the various Mining
Acts and often successfully represented miners in court cases against qualified solicitors. He was a cheerful,
optimistic man with a great sense of humour. He did not smoke and was very protective of his family. He would not
allow swearing. Although he never drank at home, he was said to have been a heavy drinker when young, without
showing any ill effects. In his later years, he would drink one bottle of beer a day. His pet hate was the crooner
Bing Crosby whose songs were played by his granddaughter, Pat, on an old fashioned record player.
Jim had long had heart trouble and died suddenly on 13 December 1948 aged 73. He is buried in the Tennant
Creek cemetery. Charlotte was devastated and lived with Shirley and Betty for long periods until her own death in
Darwin hospital from cancer of the pancreas on 10 May 1959.
Australian Archives, Darwin CRS F1 1942/350; Family information; E Hill, The Great Australian Loneliness, 1940; Northern Territory Archives
Service, probate records; H J Wilson, ‘The Heritage of Tennant Creek’, Report to the National Trust of Australia (Northern Territory), 1995.
ANN RICHARDS, Vol 3.
MAMITPA or MAMIDPA also known as FINNIGAN, TIM, PANNICAN, TIM and ‘OLD TIM’ (late 1860s–
1931), Aboriginal trepanger and boatman of north western Arnhem Land, was born on or near the Cobourg
Peninsula in about the late 1860s. His main language was Yiwaidja but he also spoke some other Arnhem Land
languages. He learnt to speak English very well, as well as some Macassan. He was particularly associated with
the Port Essington area of the Cobourg Peninsula and belonged to the Murran clan. His land was Marraya and
his skin group was Yarriyarnin. His parents’ names are not known but they probably had contact with the British
settlements at Port Essington and Raffles Bay.
From a very early age, Mamitpa came in contact with Macassans who visited the northern coast each year
to collect trepang and trade with the Aborigines; various sources say that when young he made several trips
to Macassar on the praus. During the 1870s, Mamitpa also came into contact with white men who came to the
Cobourg Peninsula, such as John Lewis, E O Robinson and Charles Levi. In the early 1880s Mamitpa and other
Port Essington Aborigines were recruited to work on a sugar plantation—this was probably Delissa’s plantation at
Delissaville, managed by Charles Levi.
For over 20 years Mamitpa worked for E O Robinson, pearler, buffalo shooter, trepanger, Manager of the
Cobourg Cattle Company and Customs Officer at Port Essington and Bowen Strait. In 1879, Wandi Wandi
murdered Robinson’s associate T G Wingfield at Croker Island. Aborigines at Croker Island still many years later
told the story that Mamitpa, being able to read and write English, wrote a note saying that Wandi Wandi was the
murderer and left the note on a stick on the beach. Wandi Wandi was eventually captured and tried for the murder.
Mamitpa helped to sail Robinson’s boats Bertie and Essington and assisted with his work in collecting duties
from the visiting Macassans and trepanging. Robinson left the Cobourg Peninsula in 1899 and is said to have sent
Mamitpa five Pounds worth of tobacco, tea and sugar every Christmas until he died in 1917—a clear sign of his
friendship and high regard for Mamitpa.
Sub Collector of Customs Alfred Searcy got to know Mamitpa well when he visited the Cobourg Peninsula in
the 1880s and wrote about him in his three books. He said Mamitpa spoke Macassar dialect fluently, was an expert
boatman, knew the coast thoroughly, spoke excellent English, did not drink alcohol and was living at various times
at Port Essington, Bowen Strait, Goulburn Island and Wark. Searcy said: ‘I was tremendously taken with him.’
From about 1887 to 1890, Mamitpa worked for trepanger Rodney Claude Spencer on the Cobourg Peninsula and
in April 1890 was working at Spencer’s Bowen Strait camp when he witnessed Spencer’s murder of Mamialucum.
Mamitpa was a witness at Spencer’s trial, the first time in the Northern Territory that a white man stood trial for
murdering an Aborigine. At the trial, Spencer accused Mamitpa of being involved in the murder but the court did
not agree and found Spencer guilty. Another court case at which Mamitpa gave evidence was in November 1892—
the Palmerston Police Court hearing of Wandi Wandi and five other Aborigines for the murder of six Malays at
Cape Brogden near Bowen Strait earlier that year. When the case was heard by the Circuit Court, in February 1893
Mamitpa acted as interpreter for several of the accused Aborigines and other Aboriginal witnesses—this is further
evidence of his language skills.
In 1899, A J V ‘Alf’ Brown was appointed Customs Officer at Bowen Strait, taking over from Robinson.
Mamitpa worked for Brown for nearly 30 years, helping to sail his various boats, including Essington, Pat and
Beryl, and assisting with trepang work especially at Bowen Strait and after 1925 at Araru in Blue Mud Bay
near Cape Don. In 1908 Dr Strangman, Medical Officer and Protector of Aborigines, visited Arnhem Land and
at Malay Bay found some Aborigines trepanging for Mamitpa, whose wife had died a few months previously.
H W Christie, Lighthouse Keeper at Cape Don from 1917 to 1925, knew Mamitpa well, as did the people at
Goulburn Island Mission. In about 1928, George Sunter met Mamitpa at Blue Mud Bay near Cape Don, still