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In Katherine, he met the O’Shea family and when passing in the evenings, stopped to chat to Catherine as
she sat on the latticed front verandah of their hotel. Occasionally he glimpsed her daughters but never met them.
Hearing of a five pounds bounty on dingoes in Western Australia, Fred set off to earn money to begin his travels
again.
These were still wild times with sparse settlement throughout the Territory. While most of the major cattle
properties had been formed, they were still isolated by lack of transport, other than animals, and poorly formed
roads and tracks. The only other direct road access from the Top End to Western Australia, other than by sea, was
through Jasper Gorge, a spectacular slash through a rugged range barrier. He had little sleep for a couple of days.
At night, he could glimpse the fire glow from Aboriginal camps. During the day, they followed along the clifftops,
yelling and rattling bundles of spears often presenting bare backsides and slapping them with boomerangs. Fred was
glad to make it to the Depot on the Victoria River.
A born adventurer, Fred’s travels and occupations over the next few years took him to British Columbia in
Canada where he worked as a cowboy and also as a bar tender and relief manager in McKenzie’s Williams Lake
Hotel. Back in Australia, he worked on Willeroo and Delamere Stations and travelled overland to Alice Springs in
1933 with cattle for trucking at the railhead.
He built and established a store at Newcastle Waters and won a contract to refuel aircraft at the then official
airport. In 1935 Fred’s father died, so he sold the store and travelled back to England to see his mother. They had
a wonderful few months touring Scotland and renewing acquaintances with friends and family.
While in England Fred heard first hand of the adventures of two of his younger brothers when they travelled up
the Amazon River in search of the missing Colonel Fawcett. He decided his next move would be to return to the
Northern Territory and finance himself for a trip to South America.
He went to Birdum to establish a store there for Max Schober. Fred became aware of an attractive lady who
operated the bungalow-style hotel across the road and in attempts to get a glimpse of her; he would hit his head on
the low lintel above the doorway. As they became better acquainted, he would often get an invitation to dinner and
afterwards they would dance to gramophone music. For the first time in his wandering life he thought of settling
down, so in early 1939 he went by train to Darwin and visited the Department of Lands office to register a claim
on a beautiful piece of the Barkly Tableland through which he had travelled when he first came to the Territory.
He was shattered to find that Sidney Chambers had claimed Eva Downs the day before. Pondering the list, he
noticed Muckadee Bore and remembered camping there on his way through with the Willeroo cattle. On impulse,
he put his name down for the little property and walked out of the Lands office a landowner.
Mary Ellen O’Shea was the third of six daughters born to Timothy O’Shea and his wife Catherine nee O’Keeffe
in Pine Creek 10 May 1910. At this time, her father was a miner and her mother ran a boarding house, but as the
family grew, Tim lived in town full-time operating a blacksmithing business. Mary went to school with her two
older sisters, then the family moved south to Emungalan in 1918 to await the transit of the railway line south,
across the Katherine River. Emungalan was on the northern bank and became a very busy temporary township as
teamsters, farmers, tradesmen and government workers settled.
Mary loved Emungalan and spent happy days with schoolmates and other friends. Their parents made quality
time to spend with the children, rearing them in loving, God-fearing ways. In 1925, Mary went to the Catholic
boarding school in Darwin near the site of the present Cathedral and this was her final year of schooling. She always
regretted not becoming a nurse but this would have entailed going somewhere south to study and her parents were
not prepared to send a young 17–18 year old away alone.
Catherine suffered badly from rheumatism, so the older girls helped her wherever possible. There was still time
for riding horses out to picnics, swimming in the river and attending parties and dances. In 1928, the whole family
went to Ireland for the holiday of a lifetime. This was to be Catherine’s last visit to family and homeland.
The bridge across the Katherine River was completed in 1926 and after their return from Ireland the family
moved to set up the first of their hotels, on the site now known as ‘Kirby’s’. Catherine died in 1930 aged 50 years
and Mary suffered a nervous breakdown as a result. Timothy’s strength came to the fore in the death of his wife as
he steadfastly protected his girls with shelter and love until, one by one, they left to marry and start homes of their
own. He never remarried and remained in Katherine until his death in 1958.
Mary O’Shea went to one of her father’s three hotels. This one was in Birdum at the southern end of the
railway line, about 200 kilometres from Katherine. Here she managed the office and did many of the other duties
though there was other basic staff. When she needed a break, someone was sent to relieve her. Train travel made
commuting very easy and there was also good quick freight access.
In 1939, she became engaged to Fred Ulyatt and on 7 September, four days after war was officially declared in
Europe, they were married at Birdum. Two daughters were born, Miriam in July 1940 and Patricia in September
1941.
The Second World War drastically altered the lives of many Territorians. Fred was seconded for the war’s
duration to the Allied Works Council and was put in charge of a gang of Department of Civil Aviation workers
clearing and establishing emergency airstrips across the Top End of Australia. Women were ordered to leave the
Top End and ‘go south’ after the bombing of Darwin so in 1942 Mary and her babies quietly travelled to Helen
Springs Station, which adjoined Muckaty, the Ulyatts’ new property. At Helen Springs she stayed with Mr and
Mrs Bohning and paid her way monetarily and physically, helping wherever she could.
In August that year, Timothy O’Shea travelled to Helen Springs and took his daughter to Muckaty, establishing
her in a tent near a well. An elderly pensioner stockman, Harry Condon, came to spend his final years at Muckaty,
assisting wherever he could, drawing water from the well, planting vegetables and tending a small goat herd for
meat and milk.