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J Maddock, A History of Road Trains in the Northern Territory 1934–1988, 1988; taped interviews; correspondence.
JOHN MADDOCK, Vol 2.JOHANSEN, ANN (ANNIE): see LOCK, ANN (ANNIE)JOHN, ALBERT PAUL (alias PAUL ALBERT JOHN(S) and ALBERT PAUL ALDON) (1906–?), casual
labourer, dogger, gold-fossicker and antique dealer, was born at Diesdorf, Wanzleben (near Magdeburg), Germany,
on 17 January 1906. His father, a military officer, had been born in Berlin and was so strict a disciplinarian that the
lad absconded from home, though he had a kind and sympathetic mother.
Paul left Hamburg in March 1926 aboard Viola but was refused permission to land in London. He therefore took
ship on Halle and, sailing via South Africa, landed at Port Adelaide on 13 July 1926 as a prohibited immigrant.
He was then 20 years of age. He is said to have been arrested in the Stoneyfell vineyards near Magill and was
employed for a short time in the local winery under a German manager.
From here he was transferred to a farm near Anlaby, and from there to another farm at Mintaro. Here he met
with an accident on a horse that cracked his kneecap. He was nursed in the Clare hospital for about 27 weeks with
a 3-inch coach-bolt through a hole bored into his knee. After recovery, he took whatever seasonal jobs he could
get in the Clare district, mainly in gardens and vineyards. He chummed up with several other young Germans
who were employed around the town, and during weekends stayed at a boarding house where he could enjoy the
company of women, music and song.
Paul was well educated and had a very good singing voice. He also had a fine ear for poetry and could grow
quite passionate, skilfully modulating his voice, when quoting poems he had committed to memory. He loved the
verse of Omar Khayyam. His favourite book was The Beloved Vagabond by William John Lock (1906) and he had
attractive handwriting.
After recuperating from a second accident, with resulting injury to his left foot, Paul decided to return to the
city and find a more constant and permanent job. So, with his German friend Carl von Czarnecki, headed for
Adelaide and for more than a year worked on the Port Adelaide wharves as stevedores, whilst sharing rooms with
another wharf-labourer in Hardys Road, Torrensville.
Paul’s next objective was to see the great outback, the real Australia (as he called it). So he had himself suitably
fitted out with jodhpurs, a pair of long leather boots, a revolver, ammunition belt and a broad-brimmed hat. He left
on his own by train for Alice Springs on 10 May 1929. Four weeks later, he got a job as works manager at the
Hermannsburg Mission. His first job was to build a tourist road from the station to Palm Valley with the help of
Aboriginal labourers. The job was well done.
Within 12 months, his German friend Carl came to join him. When the Mackay Aerial Expedition’s camel
supply-team, under Afghan command, came through Hermannsburg about the middle of 1930 Paul and Carl
requested to accompany this caravan, as independents, for the mere sake of the novel experience and in order
to have a good look at the country. They were away for about a month. Not long after their return, Paul was
discharged by the superintendent of the Mission for a serious breach of conduct.
But that left Paul at no loose end. He soon assembled a team of camels, and with two Aboriginal companions,
went out into the western desert to hunt for dingo (wild dogs), for whose scalp the government paid a bounty
of 12 Shillings and sixpence each. Besides, Paul had remarked to Pastor Albrecht, when he saw the heavy
lumbering Thornycroft of the Central Australian Gold Exploration (CAGE) party in Alice Springs in August 1930:
‘Those people will never succeed in getting through that desert country and negotiate the high sandhills with that
vehicle. The only mode of transport for that type of country is camels. And I am going out there with my team
of camels, because I will be available when they need me. I am quite sure I will get a job’. That sort of practical
foresight was typical of Paul.
As predicted, so it happened. When the CAGE party discovered that they were 150 miles too far north of
Lasseter’s alleged ‘gold reef’, they were forced to turn south. The truck, however, had no hope of negotiating
the so-called ‘breakaway country’ of shattered sandstone that gradually fell away some hundreds of feet from
the desert plain to the basement below. Thus prevented from making further progress, the party returned to their
base-camp at Ilbilla and decided to withdraw from their unaccomplished mission of finding the ‘reef’.
A few days later Paul John and his Aboriginal companions turned up at Ilbilla with his team of five camels.
In the face of the main party’s withdrawal, Lasseter asserted he was still prepared to carry on if John would help
him. Leader Blakeley drew up a contract accordingly to engage Paul John as Lasseter’s assistant and transport
provider. The agreement extended from mid-September to mid-November. During that time the two men headed
south into ‘reef’ country without delay and while John stayed in camp at Malagura waterhole in the Petermann
Ranges, Lasseter went on alone to re-locate his ‘reef’ and bring back (so he claimed) samples of gold. When
questioned by John to view the specimens, Lasseter refused and completely clammed up. At this, John called him
a pretender and ‘a liar’ whereupon a fight ensued. Next day both decided to bury their differences and returned to
Ilbilla base-camp to replenish their food and water supplies. Surprisingly, Lasseter now dispatched John with letters
to deliver to the Government Resident in Alice Springs and to the senior policeman. Travelling via Hermannsburg,
John reached town on 13 November. He never saw Lasseter again.
In Alice Springs Paul John now consulted with Errol Coote (newly appointed leader of the Expedition) and
with Philip Taylor (CAGE’s mechanic) as to future plans. Taylor and John were instructed to transport fresh petrol
supplies to Ilbilla, in readiness for a Royal Australian Air Force plane that was to arrive on 20 December to search
for Lasseter. The two men left Alice Springs on 27 November, heavy rains impeded their progress and they did
not reach Ilbilla until 15 December. The rescue plane duly arrived on the 20th, but no pre-arranged smoke signals