- page 0 -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
press forward, we run the chance of losing our’ camels and dying of thirst; if we stand still, we can only hope to
prolong our lives, as God may enable us, on sun-dried camel flesh.’ Facing such odds, Warburton decided to strike
southwest to the Oakover River (discovered by Frank Gregory), which they reached on 11 December. Lewis and
Charley pressed on and organised a relief party from Messrs Grant, Harper and Anderson’s station near the mouth
of the De Grey River, which they all reached on 21 January 1874. From Roebourne Warburton’s party returned to
Adelaide via Perth and Albany. Warburton acknowledged that he owed his life to the courageous efforts of Lewis
and Charley.
The South Australian government gave him 1000 Pounds and a further 500 Pounds to be divided between
his party. Later in 1874, he briefly visited England where he addressed the Royal Geographical Society and was
awarded its gold medal. In 1875 he was made a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG)
and published with assistance, as his health and especially his eyesight was greatly impaired by his privations,
Journey Across the Western Interior of Australia, a most gripping account of his party’s heroic exertions.
Warburton was the last of the military and naval explorers, beginning with Arthur Phillip, who contributed
to the opening of Australia. Though his last journey was a magnificent feat of human endurance, his discoveries
were of little practical value. Constant preoccupation with survival, minimal knowledge of geology or botany and
travelling a great deal by night (to spare the camels) obviated any detailed worthwhile observations. It also seems
likely that water was not all that scarce, only that Warburton lacked the skill to find it.
Warburton died on 5 November 1889 at his property Norley Bank, Beaumont, near Adelaide and was buried
in St Matthew’s churchyard, Kensington. He had married Alicia Mant (d. 1892), daughter of Henry Mant of Bath,
England, on 8 October 1838, and by whom he had three sons and three daughters; his wife, two sons and a daughter
survived him. He is commemorated by Warburton Creek in the Northern Territory (named by W C Gosse in 1873),
creeks in Queensland and South Australia and a mountain range in Western Australia.
J E Tenison Woods, History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, vol 2, 1805; PRGS, 44, 1874–75; J H Heaton, Australian Dictionary
of Dates, the Men of the Time, 1879; Sir B Burro, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry, vol 2, 1895; B Threadgill, South
Australian Land Exploration 1856 to 1880, 1922; G Rawson, Desert Journeys, 1948; E H & G E Feeken & O H K Spate, The Discovery
and Exploration of Australia, 1970; Australasian, 7 September 1872; Adelaide Register and Adelaide Advertiser, 6 November 1889; PP,
1858–74.
GERALD WALSH, Vol 1.
WARD, MARY nee McENTYRE, (1895–1973), ‘Missus of Banka Banka’, was born in 1895 at Coolgardie, first
child of William Harris McEntyre and his wife Margaret, nee Walsh. Her father was a bricklayer by trade, but
preferred to work as a mine-gouger. He was possibly on the Leigh Creek field when coal was discovered.
After schooling at Adelaide and some country areas, spending much time camping with her father on gouging
trips, Mary became used to harsh bush conditions. In 1920, having completed her training as a schoolteacher at
Perth Teachers College, she moved to Wyndham, Western Australia, where she was the government schoolteacher.
There she married James Thomas (Ted) Ward, a stockman, in 1928. On the discovery of gold at Tennant Creek,
the Wards decided to try their luck. A rugged trip in a Morris one-ton flattop truck brought them to a temporary
camp at the Overland Telegraph Station. Mary accepted a contract to do the laundry for the men of No. 1 Battery.
During this time, Ted met a Warrumungu family, grandmother, mother ‘Topsy’ and daughter ‘Linda’. The latter
became Mary’s lifelong employee, friend and companion.
Mary’s brother, Stuart McEntyre, gouged around to the north east of the telegraph station and eventually decided
on a site which the trio named the Blue Moon. According to Mary, the moon was blue on the night the decision
was made. A fabulously rich producer, by 1942 much gold had been discovered there. Linda married Frank, an
Aboriginal employee at the telegraph station, and had a son, DayDay. She became the house-girl although she
was always treated as a friend and learned quickly to cook, sew and plant a garden, which supplied all needs at
the Blue Moon Camp. With Mary’s ability to create a home from meagre material, the camp became a model of
neatness and cleanliness.
In 1940, Paddy Ambrose put his station, Banka Banka, 90 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, on the market.
The gold was failing at the Blue Moon; the Wards bought the station. They moved their possessions there by truck,
taking with them Linda and her small son.
In the very primitive homestead building, Mary’s home-making skills soon produced fresh paint, curtains, new
furniture and flowers. She transformed the dismal bachelor quarters to a welcoming halfway house on the highway
that over the years became a ‘must’ for travellers—with a hostess of warmth and humanity. Mary was a ‘green
fingered gardener’ and her garden became renowned. She taught the older Aboriginal women to garden. She
also taught Lauder, an elder of the Warrumungu on Banka Banka, who grew the watermelons, rock melons and
potatoes, which, before a regular supply was available to Tennant Creek shops, supplied the town. Later, when an
army staging camp was established adjacent to the homestead, she supplied the troops in fresh vegetables and
eggs. The Wards supplied meat to the army staging camp at Banka Banka by government contract; the homestead
was ‘open house’ to senior officers. After the war, Mary’s hospitality remained unbounded. During Christmas
1968, whilst confined to a hospital bed in Perth, she rang instructions to her housekeeper in charge to send a man
up and down the ‘track’ for 15 kilometres each way to bring any stranded travellers into the station for Christmas
dinner. The long, wide enclosed verandah was bursting at the seams with guests. No distinction was ever allowed;
a truck driver in a blue singlet sat with an Administrator if the occasion arose. There was no air-conditioning and
sometimes the heat rose to 42° Celsius. On one occasion, two tired elderly ladies requested permission to park their
caravan inside the station gates. For Mary that was not good enough; the caravan was parked on the homestead
lawn and the visitors bedded down in the women’s quarters. This became an annual event.