- page 0 -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
as a parliamentary paper until 1891, by which time he had apparently reversed most of the opinions he had held
when in the north.
Clearly his visit disillusioned him though his changed attitude appears to have been more the result of what
he described as the ‘drifting’ policies of the South Australian government than any defect in the Territory itself.
He believed that the Territory had been mismanaged and the constant change in ministries had not helped. He was
the 32nd South Australian minister to control the Northern Territory. His evidence to the 1895 Royal Commission
reflected the despair which had fallen on members of the South Australian government over the best way to
administer the Northern Territory. He told the Royal Commissioners that it would be a good thing for the Territory
to be rid of South Australia and that he thought that administration by the Imperial government would better serve
the north’s interest. The choice of Thursday Island as the coaling station and arsenal over Port Darwin aroused his
bitter opposition and his view that white men could not labour in the northern climate clashed with the growing
White Australia cry.
Johnson left parliament in 1896 and appears to have taken no further interest in the Territory’s affairs. In 1897,
the rents on the 8 050 square kilometres of land he held under pastoral leases were also overdue and there had been
no development on his land in Palmerston. By 1895, the Smith Street Lot had had its rates unpaid for five years.
Johnson died in Adelaide on 18 June 1904 but it was not until 1912 that the town Lots came into Darwin hands,
notwithstanding that both were in the ‘settled’ part of the town.
He was typical of his South Australian contemporaries; fired with enthusiasm when in the north, happy to
dabble in land and mines but unable or unwilling to provide the ‘risk’ capital or the policies for the necessary
infrastructure to be put into place.
H Coxon, J Playford & R Reid (eds), Biographical Register of the South Australian Parliament 1857–1957, 1988; P F Donovan, A Land Full
of Possibilities: A History of South Australia’s Northern Territory, 1981; R M Gibbs, ‘Johnson, Joseph Francis’, in Australian Dictionary of
Biography, vol 9, 1983; W F Morrison, The Aldine History of South Australia, vol 2, 1890; South Australia, Government Gazette, 27 October
1897; South Australian Parliamentary Papers, 178/1891 & 19/1895; North Australian, 24 March 1888; Northern Territory Times and Gazette,
7 April 1888; Observer, 21 April & 17 November 1888.
BARBARA MAYFIELD and HELEN J WILSON, Vol 2.
JOHNSTON, CHARLES AUGUSTIN YORKE (CAY) (1892–1983), station manager, was born in Brisbane on
6 August 1892, the only child of James Johnston, a hotel manager at Ipswich and his wife, Margaret, nee Yorke.
He attended the Christian Brothers College, Ipswich until he completed his schooling at 15.
Johnston worked on Queensland pastoral properties, Arabella and Alpha stations, before serving with the
Second Light Horse in the First World War. In 1919, he was employed as head stockman on the biggest cattle
station in the Northern Territory, Alexandria Downs, owned by The North Australian Pastoral Company. Situated
on the flat, open plains of the Barkly Tableland, Alexandria was so extensive—28 085 square kilometres or nearly
the size of Belgium—that Johnston used a compass from his army days to find his way around. With no fences,
very little surface water, Redwater disease associated with ticks, and distant markets in Queensland and South
Australia, the problems seemed insurmountable.
Brumby runners, also known as cattle duffers, were an early problem but Johnston willingly shared in the
hard work with his men and was justly rewarded by their loyalty. Although a quiet, reserved man of slight
build, he showed leadership qualities and had the confidence of the Company’s Managing Partners in Brisbane.
He was promoted to manager in 1924 but continued to be constantly on the move in his work—visiting the stock
camps and the outstations, Gallipoli and Soudan (137 and 121 kilometres from the homestead respectively).
The 20 sub-artesian bores also needed to be checked and Johnston would drive around in a buggy accompanied
by a horse tailer who minded the spare horses. The drought of 1926–1928 was particularly severe when cattle
were moved to bores and pumpers worked long days to keep wood supplied to the steam engines which were used
to pump the water. Optimum conditions, however, were not always forthcoming and Johnston was constantly
adjusting the distribution of his stock on the property in relation to the availability of grass and water.
Except for the wet season when cattle work ceased, there was a continual round of mustering, branding, dipping,
inoculating against Redwater, and a yearly turnoff of some 10 000 head. Alexandria carried up to 60 000 head of
Shorthorn cattle and the turnoff was generally sold to Sidney Kidman, whose drovers would move the cattle to his
fattening properties in Queensland before the trip to Marree and then Adelaide for slaughter. During good seasons,
some mobs would be walked to the Dajarra railhead for transport by rail to the meatworks at Townsville. In 1934,
The North Australian Pastoral Company purchased Marion Downs and cattle could be sent there for fattening.
During Johnston’s time, there was extensive involvement of Aborigines in the cattle industry. Cay found
them to be experts on horses and with ropes. Aboriginal women also played a major part in the domestic life of
the station, carrying out tasks of cleaning, washing, cooking and waiting on tables. These were the days when
Aboriginal wages were minimal, alcohol was banned and the extended Aboriginal kinship network would be fed
and clothed by the station. But the Europeans were also part of the station; the saddler, the bullock team driver, the
blacksmith. The station was their life; they never left.
Alexandria played a significant part in the history of aviation in Australia while Johnston was there. The first
landing of an aircraft in the Northern Territory was at the station on 8 December 1919. Captain Wrigley landed
on his way to meet Ross and Keith Smith who flew into Darwin from Great Britain two days later. Cay Johnston
was on the inaugural Qantas flight in February 1925, which extended the airmail service from Cloncurry to
Camooweal. Three years later on 24 February 1928, Bert Hinkler landed at Alexandria homestead for breakfast on
his record-breaking solo flight between England to Australia. The day before he had landed at a bore to quench his
thirst because of the extreme heat. He slept there the night and took off the next morning only to see the homestead