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specially designed four wheel mail and freight van of 16 tonnes capacity. In 1956, he bought A G Bond’s Northern
Territory interests.
His activity in the tourism field began in the early 1950s when he had bus bodies built on ex-Army 4 by 4
vehicles to carry tourists over the rough bush tracks of those days to such attractions as Ayers Rock and Palm
Valley. To accommodate his customers on those tours he established tent camps at Ayers Rock and Palm Valley,
equipping them with electric power, hot water and other amenities. He later upgraded to more permanent kitchen,
dining, recreation and amenities blocks whilst still retaining the tent accommodation. In this venture, he was
greatly assisted by his wife Pearl.
In 1959 the nation wide Ansett Pioneer tour and express group acquired a financial interest in the Tuit operations
and for a time the business was run in the name of Pioneer-Tuit. Sensing a big influx of visitors for the Territory’s
centenary in 1960 the Ansett operation set about improving and expanding the facilities which Tuit had established,
including the Mount Gillen Chalet at Alice Springs which had originally been part of an Army staging camp during
the Second World War and was later converted to accommodate tourists by Bond’s Tours. Tuit had acquired this
when he bought Bond’s Northern Territory interests four years previously. Pioneer-Tuit also set up a lodge at
Serpentine Gorge.
Gradually the Pioneer-Tuit name disappeared. Ansett Pioneer increased service frequencies on the Alice Springs
to Darwin route and introduced an express coach service between Adelaide and Alice Springs, connecting with the
Darwin service. The company also introduced a variety of tours in the area and in Darwin.
Tuit had established town and school bus services in Alice Springs but Ansett did not acquire these.
In 1975, after appointing a manager for the local Alice Springs bus operation, Len and Pearl Tuit moved to
the Queensland Sunshine Coast. On 15 May 1976, Tuit went fishing in a small boat. Later that day the boat was
washed up on the beach near Mudjimba, just north of Maroochydore. No trace was ever found of his body. He was
64 at the time.
In April 1982, a block of town houses in Alice Springs was opened by the Housing Commission of the Northern
Territory on what was formerly part of the Alice Springs racecourse. The block was named Len Tuit Court and a
plaque on the wall of one of the buildings reads: ‘This complex is named after Len Tuit, a major contributor to the
transport industry in Central Australia. Opened 8th April 1982 by Mr Roger Vale, MLA’.
Tuit was a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Lions Club and the Gun Club at Alice Springs, as well as being
a member of the Show Society and at one stage of the Alice Springs Racing Club. He also raced horses in Victoria
and South Australia.
J Maddock, A History of Road Trains in the Northern Territory 1934–1988, 1988; correspondence with Mrs P Tuit.
JOHN MADDOCK, Vol 2.
TULLOCH, DONALD GORDON (DON) (1924–1991), scientist, was born in 1924 near Brisbane in Queensland.
During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) in corvettes
escorting convoys. After the war ended, he attended the University of Queensland and graduated Bachelor of
Science (Agriculture) in May 1952. He then worked as an agronomist and a biologist in two Queensland government
departments, Primary Industries and Lands. In November 1957, he moved to the Northern Territory, taking up a
newly created position of research biologist in the Northern Territory Administration’s Animal Industry Branch.
In order to promote primary production in the Northern Territory the Beatrice Hills and Berrimah experimental
farms were established in the 1950s, as was a Primary Producers Board in 1956. In 1959, an enquiry was set
up, under Professor HC Forster, to investigate the agricultural potential of the Territory. The same year the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Coastal Plains Research Station was
established at Middle Point near Humpty Doo.
In 1954, a huge rice project, Territory Rice Limited, began, in association with American investors, on the wet
tropical coastal plains, about 50 kilometres southeast of Darwin. American and Australian expertise combined in
the project. Territory Rice soon ran into problems and the magpie geese that visited the plains seasonally, received
heavy blame. In an attempt to make the project succeed, concentrated efforts were made to solve the problems,
including that posed by the magpie geese.
Don Tulloch was challenged by new developments in tropical agriculture. First, he worked in researching
the behaviour of the magpie goose (Aseranas semipalmata), a field already opened by Harry Frith and Stephen
Davies of the Wildlife Survey Section of the CSIRO. He learned their techniques. Ultimately the rice project was
abandoned, with climate fluctuations and the hydrology of the area blamed for its failure.
At first Don Tulloch’s working area in a war surplus Sydney Williams hut at the Berrimah Farm was very
primitive, and his facilities had to be built up gradually. Darwin at this time had a quickly growing population and
a shortage of suitable buildings.
The coastal plains between Darwin and Arnhem Land had become home to thousands of buffalo descended
from Asian buffalo brought to the early British settlements in the 1830s. They were well adapted to the hot swampy
environment. During the late nineteenth century, and until the 1950s, they were shot for their hides that were
exported. When the demand for hides stopped suddenly, animal numbers began to increase significantly.
In 1958 Don Tulloch commenced the work for which he became most famous, and followed, one way or
another, for the rest of his life. Using scientific animal behaviour techniques learned from the magpie geese
project he studied the buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) with the support of both the Animal Industry Branch and the
CSIRO. He systematically studied social behaviour, distribution, population density, grazing habits, and
reproduction patterns of the buffalo on the coastal plains. His earliest studies formed the basis of a thesis entitled