>> Go Back - page - >> List of Entriess
By now the gold was increasingly hard to win so, instead of battling directly for gold, Sam and Elizabeth Nicker
established a garden and a ‘chook pen’ (a yard for their poultry), purchased a milk cow and were soon supplying
the miners at both the Arltunga and Winnecke fields with fresh milk, eggs and vegetables. The miners paid in gold
for the produce, and the Nickers’ patch of land gave The Garden Station its name.
As the gold became more difficult to find, prospectors and miners left the field. Sam and Elizabeth now had two
more sons, Eugene Foreman (1906–1967) and Benjamin Esmond (1908–1941), and as their produce was barely
paying enough to make ends meet, they moved into Alice Springs. Jobs were not easy to find so Nicker decided
to purchase various goods and become a seasonal hawker and ‘bum boat’ (grog cart) runner. The family moved to
Newcastle Waters, where Nicker kept a number of pigs. He butchered them for sale to the passing drovers, who of
course were not averse to the other products on offer. The family returned to ‘The Alice’ when ‘the Wet’ set in.
In 1910, Margaret Elizabeth Nicker was born in Alice Springs, in a tent near the gum tree by what was later
the Memorial Club. Nicker obtained work on contract, clearing the route along the Overland Telegraph Line of
anthills, scrub and tree growth and any other obstacles. It was this travel that suggested to Nicker that the Ryan’s
Well area could be developed as a station. (He also inspected country as far west as the Lander River, but preferred
the advantages of a locality on the direct north south line of communications.)
Although they did their best to assist, the parents were aware that the children were missing formal education,
so Nicker became a key figure in agitating for a school. In 1913, when in Adelaide for treatment for a severely
infected eye (which he lost), he had a meeting with a federal Minister about the matter. Ida Standley was appointed
first teacher, and the first school in Alice Springs opened in 1914. However, later in the year, using a large wagon
and the old buggy, the family started north—news of the commencement of the First World War came on the way.
When, in late August, the waggon broke down near Ryan’s Well, the point of break down became the site for the
family home. At first, it was makeshift.
‘Their home is a very dilapidated shanty—bags, stray iron, and promises making up most of the building
material’, noted the travelling padre. However, the promises were real and with hard work, the cooperation of the
Hayes family of Undoolya Station in walking Nicker cattle to the railhead at Oodnadatta, and good wool prices,
the family prospered. Eventually a stone building, which also acted as a store, was constructed. Because it was
built beside the Overland Telegraph Line, the homestead also had a telephone.
In 1928, Nicker suffered a stroke and Ryan’s Well homestead was sold. The family moved to Alice Springs,
but his progressive deterioration meant that he had to go to Adelaide for care. He died there in 1930.
Elizabeth Nicker was, as previously mentioned, a very capable cook, and a practical bush nurse and midwife.
Despite the setbacks in her early life, she had a strong Christian belief, which was to influence the family in
attitudes towards others and to life in general—although Sam rejected the formality of it. Initially, after the move
to ‘The Garden’ near Arltunga, it was her work as much as Sam’s that provided the produce for the miners at the
goldfields. Their life together was always a good team endeavour, and when Sam was away on the rounds of the
district, she cared for the children and tended the garden.
After their move to Alice Springs, she became well known for her midwifery role. The camel travelling padre
R B Plowman has left an account of her endeavour: ‘In the lonely places of the vast Australian continent there are
women whose names and deeds are worthy of record in these annals. One such is Mrs Sam Nicker.
It was nearly dark when she got the message begging her to go to the assistance of the mother and babe in their
terrible plight. Her husband was away from home. There were no horses at hand. The night promised to be very
dark, and there were fifty miles of rough travelling over a mountain road, with many dangerous places. Calling an
Aboriginal boy, she sent him to look for horses. Night had fallen and the dark had come when she set off alone in
her buggy on her responsible mission.
All through the night of constantly recurring perils, the heroic middle-aged woman drove and arrived at her
destination in the early dawn. Meanwhile the mother and babe lay at death’s door. For two days and two nights, the
mother had been unable to feed her babe, or to obtain suitable care and nourishment for herself.
It seemed an impossible task that faced the unselfish bush-woman...
In spite of her careful and self-sacrificing efforts, the baby gradually faded away and died. With the mother’s
life still in danger, the great-souled woman laboured on, denying herself rest and proper food as she struggled to
win the desperate battle. There was no doctor within four hundred miles, and no means of communication within
fifty; but gradually the mother’s strength returned, the strain relaxed, and the battle was won.’
As a brief complement to this, the next travelling padre was to report, when the family was newly established
at Ryan’s Well: ‘She is a fine woman—she tries her hardest to teach the children Christian truth.’
After the years at Ryan’s Well, and following Sam’s death, Elizabeth was to spend most of her life in
Alice Springs. As her daughter Jane had married into the well known Hayes family, and through her own deeds
and personality, she had a strong supportive group of friends.
Eventually she decided to invest the money from the sale of Ryan’s Well into purchase of Redbank Station,
a property nearly 150 kilometres west of Alice Springs, on the northern side of the ranges. Skulduggery and legal
difficulties meant that she was soon to lose the property; fortunately, she had her Christian faith, friendships and
spirit to pull her out of this disaster.
The Second World War commenced and her son Ben enlisted. As with almost all Australians, the war was to
bring changes for Elizabeth, but the rest of her life has been well summarised by Eve Pownall: ‘When the Japanese
bombs fell on the north in the Second World War, elderly civilians were offered free passage south, but Mrs Nicker
refused to go. Droughts, floods, bad seasons and hard times had not driven her from the Territory; she was not
going to let the Japs do it, she said.