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animals and had once worked in a circus. Also, he was a good cornet player and most of the Andrew family were
very musical.
Bertha Martha was 53 years old at the time of the trip to Central Australia in the donkey powered wagons.
She was very religious and became a Seventh Day Adventist, having originally been a member of the Salvation
Army. Bertha was of pioneering spirit and had the ability to give the roughest camp a homely atmosphere and to
present bush cooked meals with the barest ingredients.
They travelled up with a heavy wagon, pulled by 27 donkeys, and a lighter van pulled by about eight donkeys.
With this number of animals, a great amount of harness was required with most of the harness being made by
Abraham. It would have been a rugged trip in those days of infrequent settlement and the roughest of indirect bush
tracks. With only about 10 Pounds to start with, they accepted a few small jobs on the way. They carted firewood
at Coober Pedy and performed other work at Mabel Creek.
When they arrived at Henbury cattle station, Harold Hyde the manager gave them some work; firstly at
Idracowra, which was then an outstation of Henbury. A well was re-timbered, and then some work was done on
the homestead. Further work was offered at Henbury. One particular job was to construct a long bush timbered
‘corduroy’ on the northern bank of the dry, sandy Finke River crossing. This entailed cutting much bush timber
and locking it together, to make a motor track up the loose and steep sandhill. Motorists used this thankfully for at
least 15 years, before main road improvements were made.
On completion of the work, Bryan Bowman offered Abraham a well sinking contract on Tempe Downs.
In 1937 son Merv Andrew came up from Port Lincoln and joined the family on Tempe. A little later the well
sinking job proved difficult so Abraham returned south where he obtained a second hand model T Ford truck and
some equipment. Daughter Maisie, who had previously returned to Port Lincoln with her two children, travelled
back to Tempe with him in the truck. After a mammoth effort, the water supply at Langs Well proved inadequate.
An earth dam was then scraped out with very primitive equipment.
On completing the work at Tempe, the Andrew family then moved to a water soakage named Yowa. Abraham
had meanwhile obtained a small grazing license of 320 kilometres over the area that was situated between the
boundaries of Tempe and Angas Downs. The property was named Andaloo; the ‘And’ was short for Andrew
and the ‘aloo’ was the latter part of Beetaloo, which had an association for them. By this time Abraham had
accumulated some stock, including a few head of cattle, a big herd of goats, some horses and some of the original
donkeys. Having sunk a few wells for other local stations, Abraham had taken cattle in part or full payment, so
had by this time about 100 head. Apart from the well sinking on Tempe, he also sank one for George Frazer on his
property near Ernabella.
The Andrews had lived in a cave at Reedy Hole in the George Gill Range for a while before setting themselves
up at the Yowa water hole. In 1938 a terrible tragedy occurred here when Maisie Parker was found dead one
morning. Her children Gladys and Ray were at this time aged 12 and 10 respectfully.
From neighbouring stations, Bryan Bowman, Bob Buck and Ben Nicker came over to assist this battling family,
in their time of need and bereavement. Police Officer Bob Hamilton, Doctor Townsend and Ted Strehlow arrived
a little later. After some legal formalities were attended to, Maisie was laid to rest nearby. Her grave (later marked)
would have been one of the loneliest in Australia until recent years of closer settlement. Unfortunately no death
certificate was issued or is available these days. The date of death is generally accepted as being 13 March 1938.
After the burial on 17 March, took Mrs Andrew, Merv Andrew, Gladys and Ray Arbon over to his property
Middleton Ponds, to assist them in time of tragic circumstance. Bryan Bowman in his recollections of the bush
death of Maisie Parker expressed his feelings as ‘I have seen a lot of tragedies in the 50 odd years I have been in
the bush but I don’t think I have ever saw anything sadder than what I saw at the Yowa that day in early 1938’.
Bryan, who was present at the death scene, went on to describe the setting and events of this very remote bush
drama now over 56 years ago.
The Andrew family abandoned the Yowa camp after they moved back from Middleton Ponds and established
a more substantial camp at nearby Olunga on Andaloo.
In May 1940, Bryan Bowman, now the owner of Glen Helen station, contracted Abraham Andrew with son
Merv to build a lime concrete homestead at the Glen Helen Gorge. As the Second World War was in progress
cement and other building supplies were in very short supply. With good quality limestone available in the hills
close by, this was burned and the homestead erected in good time. A problem occurred over the roofing material,
so the Andrews accepted some breeding cows in payment for their services and Bryan completed the roof at a later
date. In later years, this became the nucleus of the present day Glen Helen tourist chalet, albeit much modified
since a disastrous fire and floods. The buildings have also been extended.
It was at about this time that daughter Gladys Rose Ware (nee Andrew) arrived with her four children,
Laurel Arizona (born 1928), Kevin Ronald (1929–1957), Merna (born 1933) and Raelene (born 1936). Gladys
Ware had recently parted from her husband and many years later in 1960 she married Reginald Baker in Alice
Springs.
The Andaloo property was an awkward block, being jammed in between Tempe Downs and Angas Downs
too small to develop and mostly poor grazing country. Also the Andrew family were still upset and unsettled over
Maisie’s death from a heart problem. Young Ray Arbon, who could speak the Aboriginal language fluently, heard
of a native water or spring some distance to the south.
Merv, Ray, Kevin Ware and a couple of Aborigines went off by horse to find this possible good water supply.
They found it about 100 kilometres to the south, in an area of limestone out-crops. It proved to be a reasonably
good supply and the spring was named Eurca.