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P F Donovan, At the Other End of Australia, 1983; P Hasluck, Pioneers of Postwar Recovery, 1992; F Walker, A Short History of the Legislative
Council of the Northern Territory, 1986; Star, Darwin, 4 January 1979; information from V O’Brien.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 2.
ARRARBI, also known as ARRABI, ARABI, ARABI BEY, COWLE BOB and POLICE BOB (c1870–c1945),
was a Matuntarre man of the Tempe Downs Station and George Gill Range country southwest of Alice Springs.
His detailed knowledge of the area from Reedy Rockhole to Kings Canyon indicates that he was conceived and
born in this western section of the George Gill Range.
It is probable that, shortly after the initial stocking of Tempe Downs as a pastoral property in 1884,
the shareholder-manager R J Thornton gave him the name of Arabi Bey. The latter name appeared regularly in
the overseas news of the major newspapers, so one can reasonably assume that the true name Arrarbi suggested
the word play Arabi, hence Arabi Bey. Similarly, his association with Mounted Constable C E Cowle provided
further word play on Arrarbi to give Robby then Bob; these names led to his others, Cowle Bob and Police Bob.
In 1894, at the time of the Horn Scientific Exploring Expedition, Thornton suggested Arabi Bey as the best
guide for the country at the western end of the George Gill Range. He could speak English well, in addition to
Matuntarre Yankuntjatjara, Aranda and Kukatja; as Charles Winnecke, an expedition member, observed he was
able to act as a go-between for the various language groups. There is every indication that he was an extremely
intelligent, quick learning, man. He and other Aboriginal companions guided the scientific party to the Middleton’s
Fish Ponds, which were later associated with Bob Buck.
This party subsequently went west to the Levi and Gill ranges, then north-west to Giles’ Tarn of Auber,
and finally via Haasts Bluff to Hermannsburg Mission. There is a possibility that Arrarbi also travelled to
Alice Springs and south to Oodnadatta, in the final stages of the expedition. In addition to his specialised guidance
in the George Gill Range, Arrarbi acted as contact with Aborigines near the Mereenie Range.
Ninety years later this was to be the location of the first oil field in Central Australia. Arrarbi also accompanied
the Aboriginal known as ‘Racehorse’ on an expedition with Winnecke to the hiding place of an extremely large
hoard of sacred tjurunga boards and stones. Winnecke plundered 48 of the 75 sacred objects, which other expeditions
had been unable to find, ‘as nothing would induce the local natives to betray its whereabouts’. ‘Racehorse’ had
been very reluctant to reveal its location but was executed under Aboriginal law for his betrayal of the sacred
cave’s location. Winnecke clearly indicated that ‘Racehorse’, not Arrarbi, was the person who led him to the
cave. Although Arrarbi helped in the interpretation of the meanings of the tjurungas’ totemic designs, the council
of elders judged him not guilty. The experience was, however, the first of his ‘nine lives’ in his often-dangerous
adventures.
As with the other people of the Tempe Downs area, Arrarbi was a close observer of, and associated with,
pastoralists, station hands, scientists, police and other white people with whom he came into contact. Mounted
Constable Cowle, who was stationed at Illamurta, was obviously impressed by him and, in an attempt to prevent
him from joining cattle killers on Tempe Downs, organised employment for him with the police at Barrow Creek,
300 kilometres north of Alice, early in 1895. By mid-1895 he was back at Illamurta police station. Cowle commented:
‘We have been examining him and he reports being discharged but from my previous knowledge of the gentleman
I feel certain he has shirtoccoed [sic], however he will go to Tempe till further particulars come to hand but sooner
or later I fear certain parts of his anatomy will adorn some-one’s shelves (saving presence of missionaries).’
Cowle’s fears were realised. Cattle killing increased on Tempe Downs, and Arrarbi’s name became more and
more prominent. By February 1898 he was ‘one of the worst’ but, despite Cowle’s determination to capture him
(along with others of his band) ‘by hook or crook’, he continued with impunity for another year. The ranges were
Arrarbi’s sanctuary and, although Cowle was willing to travel hard and fast on foot and managed to capture most
of the cattle-killers, Arrarbi remained at large. There is little doubt that, by now, Arrarbi had considerable authority
among his people. In that year, 1898, he and an older man—almost certainly on the order of the council of elders—
speared two Yankuntjatjara men of the Ayers Rock (Uluru) area who were visiting the Tempe Downs country.
The Yankuntjatjara men must have severely transgressed Aboriginal law for the death penalty to be carried out.
Now Arrarbi the executioner was wanted by both Aboriginal and ‘whitefellow’ law.
Early in 1899 Arrarbi and two other men visited Hermannsburg Mission, with the intention of running off
with Aboriginal women who had been left there by Cowle. It was a brazenly daring plan, calculated to upset both
Cowle and the missionaries. However the missionaries captured all three men and sent word to the policeman,
who instantly rode to the Mission but, to his chagrin, arrived to find only two of the three cattle-killers remained.
Arrarbi had ‘once more escaped although the Mission boys had hold of him’.
In April 1899, Cowle’s luck changed as evidenced in a letter to Baldwin Spencer: ‘I have our mutual friend
Arabi chained up outside at last, he cunningly saved his bacon when he found he was cornered—he would not get
a shot while we were galloping in the scrub at foot of the range as both hands were occupied in steering our horses
and I reckoned he had once more escaped but we headed him off the gorge and he dare not tackle the range which
would have exposed him too much so he walked back to us.’
Cowle was happy to at last have Arrarbi under arrest, but the laws of the land did not allow the policeman
much peace of mind. Arrarbi was sent to gaol at Port Augusta, some 1200 kilometres south of his home country,
but returned to Illamurta and Tempe Downs within the year. He then saved one of his few remaining ‘nine lives’ by
travelling west to the George Gill Range at the crucial moment. While away, an avenging party of Yankuntjatjara
men travelled north from Ayers Rock to Tempe Downs. There, in the dead of night, they crept upon a camp of three
men. They attacked, leaving Arrarbi’s executioner–companion of 1898 ‘rather bristly with 8 spears in him’ but not
touching the other two men. As Cowle observed, ‘They also wanted ‘Arabi’ but the devil looked after his own.’