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the remoter areas holding services, taking stores, giving medical aid, trading in crocodile skins and shells and
encouraging art and craft work. Supplies were also received in this way. He could take fish to Mainoru Station
and return with beef. By the time he retired, he had flown about 5 000 hours in the service of all connected with
the Arnhem Land mission stations. Children, in particular, looked for him while singing a song familiar all over
Arnhem Land: ‘We’ll go flying, flying with Sheppy/ With Bapa over Arnhem Land/ Flying over green winding
rivers/ With crocodiles lying on the sand,/ Clear the strips, knock those antbeds/ Hear the plane, Sheppy’s coming
down/ Light the fire, everyone knows/ Bapa must know the way the wind blows.’
In 1954 at the request of his missionary colleagues, Harold was ordained a Methodist clergyman. The consecration
was held at Elcho Island in the presence of members of the District Synod. In 1958, he was made a Member of
the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for outstanding services and work among the Aborigines of the Northern
Territory.
Harold Shepherdson officially retired from active work in 1969 though for some years it made no difference
at all to the outstation work. In August 1970, a new school was opened on Elcho Island and named Shepherdson
College in their honour. Harold and Ella continued to live on Elcho Island until September 1977 when they
returned to South Australia. By that time, there had been significant changes in policy, not all in the best interests
of Aborigines as Ella was later to write, with the Australian government now taking on the earlier role of the church
missions. When the Shepherdsons left Elcho Island, the Missionary Aviation Service was providing the service for
so long in the capable hands of Harold.
Harold and Ella Shepherdson were an exceptional example of Christian workers so much a tradition of the
twentieth century Northern Territory. For 50 years, they served the people of Arnhem Land. So far as is known Ella
was the only white woman who stayed in the far north of the Territory during the war years. She had no children of
her own but became Mrs Sheppie to hundreds. As early as 1938 the General Secretary of the Methodist Church paid
tribute to the contribution that the Shepherdsons were making in Arnhem Land. He found it ‘difficult to imagine
how we could get along in North Australia without a man like Mr Shepherdson. He is a mechanic and engineer of
no mean ability. He installs engines, repairs and overhauls them, manages the sawmill, builds out mission houses,
keeps the three wireless sets in order, repairs the boats... Mrs Shepherdson does her part in a quiet way.’
A small memoir published by them about their lives in Arnhem Land is a practical narrative of lives given in
service for others, of hardships endured in a manner quite foreign to the average urban Australian. ‘Many problems
were encountered’, Ella wrote, ‘but we managed to overcome them.’ This bland statement precedes the information
that at the temporary wartime camp at the mouth of the Wulun River their fresh water spring was covered at high
tide! A more detailed study of their lives in the north is contained in Maisie McKenzie’s Mission to Arnhem Land
where their contribution to the welfare of all they encountered is testified.
Ella died at her home at One Tree Hill, South Australia, on 30 March 1989, having just turned 85.
Harold survived her.
M McKenzie, Mission to Arnhem Land, 1976; E Shepherdson, Half a Century in Arnhem Land, 1981; Northern Territory Archives Service,
TS 325, oral history interviews; H Dodd and C Gullick, personal communications.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.
SHEWRING, ROBERT VIVIAN (1912–1980), soldier, was born at South Melbourne, Victoria, on
21 October 1912, the son of Frederick Richard Shewring, printer, and his wife Victoria Elizabeth Caroline,
nee Cay. He came to Darwin in 1934 with the first contingent of the Australian Permanent Army to be stationed
there. The men were billeted in the old Vestey’s meat processing works on Bullocky Point, later the site of Darwin
High School, while they built the Larrakeyah Barracks. They also erected the big guns at East Point. The men of
the first contingent were mostly tradesmen. Shewring, who held the rank of Gunner, was a carpenter. He married
Jean Drysdale and between 1936 and 1946, they had one son and three daughters.
Shewring served in Darwin until going overseas in the Australian Imperial Force during the Second World War.
He received five service and campaign medals and served in the Pacific theatre of operations.
He continued in the Permanent Army after the war and returned to Darwin as Regimental Sergeant Major.
He was Master Gunner and Warrant Officer in Charge of the East Point and Emery Point Batteries. He retired in
Darwin and lived in Howard Springs until his death of throat cancer in Darwin Hospital on 17 April 1980. He was
buried at the McMillan’s Road Cemetery, Darwin, with Church of England rites. His wife and children survived
him.
Of medium height, he was slim in build and had brown eyes and straight black hair. He was a member of
the Masonic Lodge of Darwin, the Returned Services League, the Nightcliff Cricket Club and other services
clubs. He received the Queen’s Coronation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. Shewring Road in Howard
Springs has been named in his honour.
Family information.
JEAN HARRIS, Vol 2.
SHIELDS, JULIET ELIZABETH nee BAXTER (1932–1992), solicitor, public servant and amateur actress,
was born at West Wyalong, New South Wales, on 8 November 1932, the daughter of solicitor Bryan Leo Baxter,
and his wife Mary Monica, nee Stapleton. She was educated at St Brigidine Convent at Randwick in Sydney,
where she became Dux of the school. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with honours from the University
of Sydney in 1956, the only one of nine women graduates that year (from all faculties) to graduate with honours.