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west, which were named Cleland Hills. With the whole country saturated, Tietkens found it safe to travel without
reconnaissance ahead. On 18 May he stood on a high sand-hill and saw a high range on the horizon to the north
north east, the highest point of which he named Mount Lyell Brown, after the government geologist in Adelaide.
By 26 May, the base of the range was reached and sufficient water for their needs was easily obtained.
They climbed the highest peak the following day but were disappointed by the expanse of country that met their
eyes. It appeared to be a flat desolation of spinifex and sand. The ranges he named after Lord Kintore, the new
governor of South Australia, and a high peak after Mr Louis Leisler of Glasgow. He was bitterly disappointed at
not finding better country, and lamented in his journal, ‘My wanderings through dreary and desolate regions to
find the goal of my long cherished hopes in a still more desolate waste was a sad frustration... ’ The party packed
up to move on to the south, but were halted in camp for two days by heavy rain. The type of country he traversed
may have disappointed Tietkins, but no other Centralian explorer travelled with such ease through the usually arid
land. Having seen a large salt lake from the top of the Kintore Range, the explorers set off to ascertain its size.
They decided to round the lake, which was named Lake MacDonald for the energetic secretary of the Victorian
Branch of the Royal Geographic Society. By 8 June the size of the lake was determined, so the party headed for
home. Their immediate plan was to explore the western end of Lake Amadeus which until then had not been
defined. By 14 June, they were within sight of Blood’s Range, named by Giles. In the distance, Tietkins could
discern the outlines of Mount Olga. On 27 June, the group reached the western end of Lake Amadeus where it
is only about three kilometres wide. The expedition examined the northern and southern shores for about thirty
kilometres and determined that the lake as described by Giles was not as large as he had thought; Giles had not
noticed the land bridge between Lake Neale and Lake Amadeus when he had tried to reach Mount Unapproachable
from the east in 1872. So thorough was Tietkens’s examination that his outline of the lakes remained more accurate
than other maps until aerial surveys could determine the true outline.
From the southern shore of Lake Amadeus, Tietkens struck south across the spinifex and sandhills for
Mount Olga, and the men camped at Gosse’s Felix Spring for a week. The party was kept busy prospecting around
the domes of the Olgas but found nothing of significance, so on 8 July departed for Ayers Rock. On the following
day, they reached the base, where the party gazed in awe at the immensity of the rock, as Tietkins had fifteen years
before.
He was able to identify the sites where he and Giles, and before them Gosse, had camped, but regretfully
recorded in his journal that the tree marked by Gosse had been destroyed by fire. Within a few days, they travelled
on toward Mount Connor, which they reached on 14 July. Seeing some salt lakes to the north, Tietkins deviated
from his easterly route to check them out, and to inspect the low range of hills some thirty kilometres from the
eastern limit of Lake Amadeus. Having climbed them, and had a good look at the country round about, he named
them the Kernot Ranges, for Professor Kernot of the University of Melbourne.
Having gathered the usual specimens of rocks and plants, the party headed for the Erldunda Homestead and
were entertained there by Peter Warburton and a Mr Tomlin. They were the guests of Warburton for ten days and
no doubt, the two explorers were able to compare notes on their various expeditions. As Billy knew the country,
in that area very well he was able to guide them to the Overland Telegraph Line and they reached Charlotte Waters
Telegraph Station without incident on 15 August 1889.
During his journey, Tietkens had collected many plants. Among them were seven new species and his
geological specimens enabled the South Australian geologist to compile a more detailed geological sketch of the
country between Alice Springs and the Western Australian border. The government awarded him 250 Pounds for
his services and the Royal Geographical Society elected him a fellow.
Upon his return, home he resumed surveying for the New South Wales Department of Lands until he retired
in 1909. He lived in Eastwood, Sydney, until he died of cancer on 19 April 1933 and was buried in the Field
of Mars Cemetery, Ryde. In his report to the Royal Geographical Society, South Australian Branch, Dr R H
Pulleine, the president in 1933–34 said, ‘From the time he began his exploration work in 1872 until the time of
his death Tietkens was a staunch advocate of the possibilities of immense tracts of Central Australia. During the
greater part of the period from 1865 to 1872, he was engaged in pioneering work beyond the Darling River. With
Ernest Giles, he penetrated the interior of the Continent and endured many hardships. He also took part in other
expeditions, but the last one, which proved of the greatest value in adding to the knowledge of Central Australia,
was undertaken by him in 1889. He was held in high esteem, not only in this State, but also in the Commonwealth
and beyond its shores.’ His most useful work lay in defining the features, establishing the worth, and initiating
white exploitation of the country between the tracks of the great explorers. He published numerous papers in
scientific and geographical journals, and his Experience in the Life of an Australian Explorer (1919) is his chief
autobiographical source. He was one of the last of the old school of explorers.
E Giles, Australia Twice Traversed, 1889; E Giles, The Discovery and Exploration of Australia. Land and Sea Expeditions, 1813–1901, 1970;
L Green, Australian Explorers: Ernest Giles, 1963; PRGSSA, vol 34, 1933–34.
J R and T J FLEMING, Vol 1.
TJINTJA-WARA: see TJINTJI-WARA
TJINTJI-WARA, also TJINTJA-WARA, CHINCHI-WARA, CHINCY-WORRA and CHINCHEWARAA,
(also known as ANNIE) (c1860–c1950), Aboriginal leader and a Mantuntara woman, was born in about 1860
in the Walker Creek and Palmer River Country some 250 kilometres south west of Alice Springs. Her father was
Patila. Her totem was Nyarua, Horsefield’s bronze cuckoo, a bird with a distinctive and often repeated whistle.