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full to capacity, in particular during the Wet build-up ‘suicide’ month of November, when failed would-be suicides
ended up in Ward One.
One of Salt’s many interests in Darwin was the Caledonian pipe band. He joined shortly after his arrival in
Darwin, and was the drum major for many years.
When the Northern Territory achieved self-government in 1978, the Territory’s first Chief Minister,
Paul Everingham, approached Salt to offer him the position of Chief Security Officer of the government offices
in the Chan Building. Everingham felt that Salt was ideally suited to the position, as he knew ‘all the bad hats in
town’. Salt held the post until his retirement in 1987.
Frederick Salt, MBE, RMPA, SRN, RMW, remained in Darwin, where three of his children and their families
also lived. In his 80s he retained his ramrod military bearing, and his famous curled and waxed handlebar moustache.
He had a keen and accurate memory of the many events of his long life. Unfortunately, for history, although some
superb photographic records of his time in India survived, his diaries, which he had kept throughout his career,
were all lost in Cyclone Tracy which devastated Darwin on 24 December 1974.
Interviews with F Salt, 1995; Northern Territory News, 25 July 1978, 31 December 1987; The Spectator, 5 February 1994.
EVE GIBSON, Vol 3.SANDHILL BOB: see PANANGA, ALURRPASAUKURU, KOLINIO NAULAGO (KOL or THE BIG KOL) (1907–1970), missionary, was born to a chiefly
line in 1907 at Nailaga in Fiji. Saukuru grew up in a family that had long been associated with the Wesleyans. He
attended Methodist primary and central schools and followed the usual course of promising students throughout
the region, undertaking technical training—in Saukuru’s case at the Boys’ School at Davuilevu. By his own
account he fell into bad company upon leaving school, but was ‘saved... from the life of sin into which I had
entered’ by Reverend RA Gibbons. He went on to work for several years as a technical and carpentry instructor
at the Methodist Boys’ School, Richmond, Kaduvu. During these years he met Finau Vala, who was teaching
domestic arts at a sister school, and they married in 1932. While what follows concerns Kolinio, it is important to
acknowledge the equal commitment and unpaid contribution of Finau.
Saukuru’s decision to become a missionary was not easy, taken at the behest of his mother. His parents had
themselves volunteered to work as lay missionaries, but illness prevented them from taking up an appointment.
They subsequently shared the wish of one of the English missionaries that their son should one day become a
minister and missionary. After a good deal of soul-searching and pressure from the church, Kolinio and Finau
offered themselves for missionary service and were posted to Goulburn Island off the North East Arnhem Land
coast in 1933—a difficult first posting.
Ratu Kolinio Naulago Saukuru, known in the North as ‘Kol’ or ‘the big Kol’ brought with him considerable
skills as a pastor, agriculturalist and mariner. Extraordinarily strong, he was invariably described as ‘a cheerful
giant of a man’, ‘tall, erect, of gentlemanly appearance’.
The Methodist Overseas Mission (MOM) had a long history of posting ‘South Sea Island’ converts to newly
created mission posts in the region—Fijians, Tongans and Samoans, especially. Between 1916 and 1988, the MOM
and (from 1972) United Church of North Australia sent 18 Fijian missionaries to Arnhem Land. Early to mid
twentieth century mission literature depicts a hierarchy of South and South West Pacific ‘races’ with Polynesians
at the top and Australian Aborigines at the bottom. Pacific Island missionaries were expected to bridge the gap
between the ‘coloured’ heathen and European mission superintendents. Typically, too, they brought with them
horticultural skills vital to the survival of mission stations. A major part of their task was to aid government and
mission assimilation policies by teaching the agricultural skills required for self-sufficient settlements supporting
a sedentary population.
All Methodist missionaries suffered privation in the field, but the conditions of service and living standards of
Pacific Islanders were inferior to those of their European colleagues. In addition, their relatively low status within
the mission accompanied by subtle and often-unconscious forms of discrimination, isolation and loneliness far
from home made life difficult. So did their unfamiliarity with the protocols of dealing with government officials
who were commonly antipathetic to mission work. Under these circumstances the devotion to duty of Saukuru,
and many like him, was remarkable.
For more than a decade and a half following the establishment of the North Australia District in 1916, the
Mission to Aborigines had been a cause for disconsolation. Compared with other mission fields the number of
converts was small, the expense of maintaining stations great. Dry and largely barren Goulburn Island, perhaps more
than any other station, struggled. Saukuru served there until 1937. He was primarily responsible for transforming
the agricultural output of the station, but was never really given full credit for his work as European missionaries,
typically, apportioned the honour amongst themselves.
He was repatriated in 1938 to Fiji with a serious undiagnosed illness, but returned some months later to work
at Milingimbi until 1943 as captain of the mission vessel. There he displayed considerable maritime skills and
qualities of leadership. Saukuru remained there during the Second World War following the evacuation of most
other mission personnel and the commandeering of the station by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Seconded
to the RAAF, he experienced three bombing raids by the Japanese, rescued an injured officer who crashed on the
mainland and piloted the Admiral Halstead and its convoy from Townsville to Milingimbi. He made a lasting
impact on defence personnel during the war years. As he once recalled, typically down-playing his own role while
giving Aboriginal people their due, ‘The men of the RAAF were continually expressing surprise at the strength and