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Meanwhile Merv married an Aboriginal woman named Myrtle MacDonald. She had two children Jean and
Ray. For a while Merv worked at Hatches Creek then returned to Eurca with his family in 1942–43.
Merv Andrew originally took up the grazing license himself. A little later, the Andaloo property was abandoned
and the Andrew family moved over to the new block. The Andrews, being of an old time socialistic inclination,
intended to name the property in honour of Stalin, the Soviet leader of this period. However, Stalin was not an
acceptable name, so the property was named Curtin Springs, to honour the then well respected Australian Prime
Minister, John Curtin. I estimate this as being 1944.
After developing the Eurca Springs to a suitable watering point the family found and opened up another
native well 11 kilometres to the southwest. This is where they built their first homestead and where the present
Wayside Inn is situated.
In 1947, Oswald Clarence Andrew (known as Ossie) drove his 1938 V8 truck up from Port Lincoln, and this
now brought the whole of the Andrew family together. Brothers Ossie and Merv drove the now two station trucks
up to Darwin where they purchased a great mass of Army disposal building materials and other equipment.
In May 1948 a problem occurred among the large family group resident at Curtin Springs. Merv, with wife
Myrtle and family, left the station in one of the trucks. Gladys and Ray Arbon went with them, leaving the elderly
Bertha Andrew with Ossie, Gladys Ware and her four children. At this time, Abraham was more or less living
at Port Pirie, South Australia, where he died of a heart attack in 1951, aged 74 years. An agreement with a firm
of solicitors was drawn up on 23 January 1949, between Oswald Clarence Andrew and Gladys Rose Ware who
were to retain Curtin Springs and buy out the retiring partners, namely Gladys and Ray Arbon and Mervyn James
Andrew.
The original copy of Pastoral lease No 439, quotes the leaseholders as ‘Gladys Rose Ware and Oswald Clarence
Andrew’. It is dated 24 July 1952 and ran from 1 July 1951. It was about this time that the station leases had been
progressively squared up by the Lands Department. Paddy De Conlay lost most of his Mount Conner station to
Curtin Springs, with some being added to Erldunda. Paddy was given a lease on the Palmer River, which adjoined
Alf Butler’s Titra Well to the south. Both these properties were not developed to any degree and were soon sold to
later become the Palmer River station. The old Andaloo grazing licence became part of Angas Downs. Ossie and
Gladys (Ware) battled on Curtin Springs for some years but did no good financially. With the road to Ayers Rock
at the front door they saw the tourist industry of the early days grow. By 1953/54 the road to Ayers Rock was
somewhat upgraded and an airstrip was established at Curtin Springs and Ayers Rock. Curtin Springs was a very
hospitable place and of great assistance to those in trouble.
In 1950 Curtin Springs borrowed money from the Stock and Station Agents, Bennett and Fisher. Unfortunately,
the station did not prosper and the property was taken over by the agents and sold to brothers Rollo and
Peter Severin. This was registered on 13 February 1958. A short time later, Peter Severin bought his brother Rollo
out. With much hard work and attention to the opportunity of increased tourism to Ayers Rock, the loan was soon
paid off. Peter Severin took over Curtin Springs at the start of the great Central Australian drought, which lasted
for seven years. Curtin Springs prospered and is still owned by the Severin family.
In later years Bertha Martha Andrew lived with her daughter Gladys Rose Baker in Alice Springs. Early in
1963 Bertha relocated to the ‘Old Timers Home’, which was run by the Australian Inland Mission. On 8 November
1963 she died at the Old Timers and was buried in the old Memorial Drive cemetery, Alice Springs.
Personal information and documents from Mrs BM Andrew and other family members, B Bowman, H Harvey (Cook family researcher), and
K Mooney Smith.
MAX CARTWRIGHT, Vol 3.ANDREWS, MARY JANE nee FOELSCHE (1863–1932), Territory pioneer, was born on 22 December 1863
in Strathalbyn, South Australia, to Paul Heinrich Matthias Foelsche and his wife Charlotte Georgina nee Smith.
In 1871, with her mother and sister, Rosie, she came to the Northern Territory where her father was inspector of
police. Foelsche, who was on the first ship carrying settlers to the Palmerston (Darwin) township in January 1870,
had written to the authorities requesting that his wife and family be allowed to join him. When the Government
Resident, Bloomfield Douglas, wrote a letter supporting his request he pointed out that ‘the residence of educated
women here has been a very great advantage to the settlement, their presence contains the men from irregular and
rude habits’.
Mary Jane and her sister spent much of their youth in the Territory where their home in Palmerston’s
Mitchell Street was described as ‘one of the most cheerful and comfortable in the town’. Mary Jane and Rosie were
fine sportswomen, particularly excelling in archery. Mary Jane was also an accomplished pianist and performed
at many community and church functions. The Foelsche sisters seem to have attended school in Adelaide during
their teenage years. Mary Jane arrived back in Palmerston on 12 June 1887 and immediately became active
in fancy dress balls, musical performances, archery and church activities. In April 1888 her future husband,
William Wallace Andrews, arrived to take charge of the construction of the Palmerston to Pine Creek railway.
When Mary Jane went to Adelaide in August 1892, friends gave her a purse of sovereigns in appreciation of her
services to the choir of the Wesleyan Church. Two months later, on 25 October 1892, at the age of 28, she married
Andrews, who was in Adelaide on holidays from his Northern Territory job with the railway as a civil engineer.
They arrived back in Palmerston on 24 February 1893 and a year later they had a stillborn son who is buried in
the Goyder Road cemetery. In 1895 her first daughter, Dorothy Charlotte, was born. A second daughter, Rita
Campbell, was born in 1900.