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So she stayed and lived out the rest of her 81 years in the land of her choice—almost half a century of life and
action in the land where the overland buggy and the clopping hooves of two horses had brought her.’
She died in Alice Springs in 1951.
C Barnard, The Last Explorer, 1987; D Carment, History and the Landscape in Central Australia, 1991; A Grant, Camel Train and Aeroplane:
The Story of Skipper Partridge, 1981; R B Plowman, The Man from Oodnadatta, 1934; E Pownall, Mary of Maranoa, 1959; Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia, Report Together with Minutes of Evidence Relating to the Following Proposed Railways:- Northern Territory
Railway..., 1922; R G Kimber, interviews for over a decade with various people, especially M Hall (nee Nicker), J Robinson (granddaughter
of Nickers) and senior members of the Webb family.
R G KIMBER, Vol 2.
NIXON, ALBERT (BERT) (1906–1990), farmer, was born on 10 July 1906 in Forsbrook, England. He originally
named his farm on the northern bank of the Katherine River in the Northern Territory Oasis but later called it
Forsbrook after his birthplace. He came to the Katherine River from Western Australia in 1931 and later that year
took up a farm block up river from the Katherine township.
Nixon later took up further land and had some cattle but made his money growing and selling all his vegetable
crop to the Army during the Second World War. The Army took his complete crop, which included tomatoes,
pumpkins and cabbages.
Nixon employed local Aborigines to help him and at one time employed up to 11. These included Barramundi
Charlie, Topsy, Nellie and Minnie. He supplied his Aboriginal workers with beef, milk, fruit, eggs and vegetables
as well as accommodation, which was checked on a regular basis by the Native Affairs Branch.
As happened in other areas, the Army began to interfere and gave orders in relation to the housing and treatment
of the Aborigines employed. He often had a large group (including their families) living on his block.
Some Army officers were visiting the farm one day and Nixon complained that there were no bees. He had to
get up very early every morning and pollinate the pumpkin flowers by hand and it was very difficult. It was Nellie
and Minnie’s job to help in this area. The Army arranged bees for him. ‘They flew a hive up by bomber to Adelaide
River’, he later said, ‘and brought them down to me by truck.’
The Army took everything he grew and he supplied the Royal Australian Air Force. It flew its perishables to
bases by Catalina aircraft. On one occasion, he supplied 10 tons of tomatoes in 10 days. He was getting three Pence
per pound for cabbages and four and a half Pence per pound for tomatoes.
After the war, he continued to grow vegetables, fruit and peanuts and commenced pasture improvements.
In February 1947, Nixon married Ruth Gertrude Haslam in Adelaide, South Australia, and by the end of March,
the couple was in residence on the farm. Ruth’s stove in her new home came from the Army.
They had a daughter, Janet, and the family remained on the River farming and raising cattle. Nixon passed
away in 1990 and his wife in 1988. They were buried at Forsbrook on a spot that overlooks the River.
Information on A Nixon in files of National Trust of Australia (Northern Territory), Darwin.
PEARL OGDEN and PENNY COOK, Vol 2.
NOBLE, JAMES (1876–1941), Aboriginal missionary, the first Aborigine to be ordained in the Anglican Church,
was born in Normanton, western Queensland, in 1876. As a youth, he drove cattle to Scone, New South Wales,
where the Doyle family of Invermien Station befriended him. He stayed with them for some years, became well
educated, and was baptised and confirmed at St Luke’s, Scone, in July 1896.
A sincere young Christian man, Noble travelled to Queensland, first to assist Canon Edwards of Hughenden,
and then to a position at the Yarrabah Mission in 1896. There he began a life-long association with the Reverend
Ernest Gribble, an Anglican clergyman and outspoken critic of the mistreatment of Aborigines. At Yarrabah, Noble
first married Maggie, who died shortly afterward. He then married Angeline and they had four children.
Around the turn of the century in the Roper River region of the Northern Territory, there was large-scale
killing of Aboriginal people, particularly by the hunting gangs of the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company.
The oppression and neglect of Aboriginal people led the Anglican Church to decide to establish a mission on the
Roper River.
From Victoria, the Reverend F Huthnance and Messrs R Joynt and C Sharp were appointed to found the Roper
River Mission. Journeying there via Yarrabah they called for volunteers to accompany them. Three Aboriginal
people, James and Angeline Noble and Horace Reid, responded. The party of six arrived at the Roper River on
27 August 1908.
The remaining 200 Aboriginal people of the district, remnants of eight large language groups, perceived that
the mission was a safe place, and gathered there immediately. Noble made a particularly outstanding contribution
to the founding of the mission and its continued acceptance. Described as a good scholar and an impressive
speaker, he was also a tall and gentle man who rapidly gained the confidence and affection of the local people.
Of all the six missionaries, it is Noble to whom they gave the credit for bringing them the gospel.
After several dedicated years at the Roper River Mission, the Yarrabah Aboriginal missionaries returned home
in 1910. In 1914, James and Angeline Noble went to join Ernest Gribble at the Forrest River Mission (Umbulgurri)
near Wyndham, Western Australia. They worked there for many years, often finding themselves in confrontation
with local pastoralists over the killing of Aborigines, particularly the brutal massacre by police in 1925 at Nulla
Nulla Station.