>> Go Back - page - >> List of Entriess
he successfully opposed a Commonwealth government proposal that it resume possession of a quarter of Victoria
River Downs’s area due to Bovril’s supposed failure to invest sufficient capital in the station. In deference to a
reduction in the basic wage of stockmen, Martin cut his own salary from 750 Pounds to 650 Pounds per annum,
the level at which it stayed until 1941. Unable to persuade Bovrils to spend money on improvements that he
believed would more than double the size of the Victoria River Downs cattle herd, he also had no luck with his
suggestion that the station be divided into two based on the suitability of pastures and watering facilities. Even so,
at the start of 1934 Victoria River Downs had the largest herd ever pastured on a single property in Australia, with
stock returns indicating no less than 170 036 cattle.
Further difficulties followed the Depression. In 1936, there was a serious drought that forced Martin to move
some 80 000 cattle to river frontages. There was not, he wrote, ‘a blade of grass for the stock to eat.’ At the end of
the year, the drought broke with record rains that caused severe flooding. The Second World War left him with just
five white stockmen to run his camps. As a contribution to the war effort, he and his family embarked on a fund
raising drive for the Red Cross. In 1941, almost 300 Pounds was raised, with similar amounts coming annually
for the duration of the war. The conflict meant that there was a growing demand for Northern Territory beef, from
which Bovrils reaped financial benefits. The company, however, remained dubious about Victoria River Downs’s
long-term prospects and towards the end of the war made arrangements with Australian Mercantile Land and
Finance to take over the station’s general management. Many years of physically and emotionally demanding as
well as often frustrating work had taken their toll on Martin’s health and in 1945 he decided to retire.
He and his wife moved to Perth. But Martin found it hard to settle in a big city where, he said, he felt ‘fenced
in’. They moved to Katherine, which made them much happier. He died in Perth, while seeking medical attention,
in 1950, survived by his wife and six of their children.
One of the best known station managers in north Australia, Martin displayed remarkable endurance in his battles
to look after remote properties there over a long period. Perhaps even more noteworthy was that for some 35 years
he was the loyal employee of the same company. He was, his daughter Florence recalled, ‘a very handsome man,
six feet tall, with black wavy hair and very blue eyes and a swarthy complexion, tanned darker by the tropic sun.’
J Makin, The Big Run, Revised Edition, 1983; F Martin, Three Families Outback in Australia’s Tropic North, 1980; L A Riddett, Kine, Kin and
Country, 1990; correspondence with F Martin.
DAVID CARMENT, Vol 2.MARTIN, CHARLOTTE: see MALONEY, CHARLOTTEMASON, KENNETH BRUCE (KEN) (1928– ), teacher, clergyman, Anglican Bishop and administrator, was
born on 14 September 1928 in Sydney, New South Wales. He was baptised in St Thomas’ Anglican Church,
Sackville, New South Wales and received his primary and secondary education in Bathurst, New South Wales.
Having achieved his Leaving Certificate in 1945, Ken continued with his education by studying for a Primary
School Teachers Certificate at Sydney Teachers College; subsequent employment as a relief teacher in one and
two-teacher schools in Goulburn, and teaching older, low IQ children in Forbes, convinced Ken that he ‘was a
lousy teacher’.
Throughout his youth and his teaching days he had been involved in church activities; as a choirboy and server
in Bathurst and with the youth group in Goulburn, his enthusiasm making him a target for ministry. In 1951,
he attended the Young Anglicans Conference in Dubbo and it was here that he met and was challenged by Dr Barry
Marshall, otherwise known as Brother Timothy of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd (BGS). Having spoken
to the Bishop of Bathurst, and knowing something of the Brotherhood, Ken decided to undertake training for the
church as the 50th ordinand of the BGS. He attended St John’s Theological College, Morpeth in 1952–1953 where
he obtained his Licentiate in Theology with First Class Honours, sharing the Hey Sharp prize for the best pass.
In 1953, he became a member of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd and became known as Brother Aidan.
He was ordained Deacon at All Saints Church, Condobolin, on 21 December 1953 and Priest at St Barnabas’
Church, West Wyalong on 11 June 1954 by Bishop Arnold Lomas Wylde, Bishop of Bathurst and in these roles he
officiated at St Ambrose Parish, Gilgandra until 1958.
In 1959, he took up the position of Priest-in-Charge of Christ Church Parish, Darwin. A warden of Christ
Church at that time was Peter Spillett, who recalled that the Brothers were sent by the Bishop of the Diocese of
Carpentaria (which at that time included the Northern Territory) at the request of the local churches. Brother Aidan
came to Darwin and Brother Hamish to Katherine where they ‘lived a very frugal life on a very small stipend—
they were single, mobile, young and active so they really helped set the church on its feet throughout the Territory’.
Ken found that Darwin people enjoyed life although, from his professional point of view, ‘they were very secular:
accepting people for who they were without antagonism, rather with indifference; the many cultures of Darwin
were accepted in the same way’. After a year in the position of Rector of Alice Springs, Ken spent two years at
the University of Queensland studying for a Diploma of Divinity, completing at the same time a Bachelor of Arts
that he had begun externally in 1954. Whilst studying he was Resident of St Francis’ Theological College, Milton,
Queensland where he undertook Sunday duty at St Andrews Parish, Lutwyche. From 1965 to 1967 he held a series
of positions at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, Victoria, finally as Acting Warden.
On 20 October 1967, Ken was elected first Bishop of the Northern Territory, the new Diocese having been
excised from the Diocese of Carpentaria that was administered from Thursday Island. Peter Spillett recalled that there
was strong opposition to the creation of the new Diocese, and the progression of the motion for secession through
the Diocesan, Regional and General Synods was something of a political campaign which involved many people