- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
In 1910, a referee noted: ‘He has never learned to tolerate a fool gladly. He could also afford to dispense
with a certain cynical sarcasm which others sometimes find ill.’ He occasionally came into conflict with fellow
policemen and his superiors, particularly when he brought matters to the attention of higher authorities. Pay,
promotion and other matters of principle where he felt he had been unjustly dealt with were among the matters he
raised. Because of this, he was not promoted beyond Sergeant First Class and was left for most of his police career
in Katherine. His role in the local community has been widely acknowledged and Wood Street in Katherine was
named after him.
C Fenton, Flying Doctor, 1949; W E Harney, Grief, Gaiety and Aborigines, 1963, North of 23, 1946; J Lea, Government and Community in
Katherine 1937–78, 1987; F McCann, Medicine Man, 1959; J Rich, Gum Leaf and Cow Hide, 1986; Northern Standard, 29 April 1930, 6
May 1930; Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 6 May 1930; Australian Archives, Northern Territory Office, F1 39/177 (Katherine Police
Station), F1 49/11 (Katherine Police Station); Northern Territory Archives Service, F297 (Katherine Police Station Journal), F596 (R Wood);
research material held by author.
JENNY RICH, Vol 2.
WOODFORD, JAMES (JIM) (1855–1921), bushman, was born on 2 April 1855. He is reputed to have travelled
up the Overland Telegraph Line in 1886 with Sandy Myrtle MacDonald, Dalley, Campbell and three others.
At Johnston’s Waterhole, between Newcastle Waters and Daly Waters, they met with a group of six men led
by Tom Nugent, travelling from north Queensland, making their way to the Halls Creek gold rush in the east
Kimberleys. Nat Buchanan had remarked about the ‘devil’s number’ and the final 13 at Katherine and Victoria
River Downs included ‘Tommy the Rag’ and thence the group of 13 became known as the ‘Ragged 13’. The group
made its way to the Kimberleys, using worthless cheques as they went, causing some trouble at Ord River, taking
a killer (bullock) on its way to Halls Creek. The gang including Woodford was involved in petty larceny and was
regarded as a group of ‘saddle strap bushrangers’.
After riding with the ‘Ragged 13’, Woodford went back to the Territory and the gold mining area of Arltunga,
where he spent many years during the ‘ruby rush’ and where MacDonald had opened a sly grog establishment.
Woodford is quoted as a person who went looking for meteorites in the Centre and selling them. He held, however,
mineral leases at Paddy’s Hole, Arltunga in 1888. He did not feature in the Northern Territory census returns,
making him something of a mystery man, probably living down quietly his ‘Ragged 13’ past. In 1905 through to
1911 as things waned at Arltunga, he spent some years in Alice Springs as Warder in the Heavitree Gap and Stuart
Gaols.
In 1911, Woodford worked part time as a Warder at Arltunga, presumably to look after the prisoners, whilst the
Mounted Constables were absent on patrol. He also held a Business Licence on the goldfields, probably under the
Mining Act and had Pastoral Permit 268 near Arltunga. In the Register of Business Sites and Licences, Woodford
had a licence as a storekeeper at Arltunga in 1919 and 1920. He and some others were quietly hanging on in the
hope of further gold finds but the number of prospectors was dwindling.
Woodford’s friend Charles Cowle, the ex Tasmanian who had served in the Territory Police from 1889 to
1903 in Central Australia, had an interest in the goldfield and the Aborigines of the Centre. He had left the Police
in 1903 and moved to Arltunga. When Woodford died there on 23 September 1921, after 35 years in the Northern
Territory, the neat grave and headstone was erected which reads, ‘A good mate, rest in peace, erected by his friend
C E Cowle’. The lonely grave at Arltunga Cross Roads Cemetery marks the last resting place of the prospector,
warder and storekeeper who had paid his debt, if any, for once riding with the ‘Ragged 13’.
Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 18 December 1931; Sydney Morning Herald, 3 December 1938; M C Hartwig, ‘The Progress of
White Settlement in the Alice Springs District and its Effects upon the Aboriginal Inhabitants, 1860–1894’, unpublished PhD Thesis, Adelaide
University, 1965; B Linklater, ‘Unpublished True Account of Ragged Thirteen’, 1941; F O’Kane, ‘A History of the Arltunga Goldfields 1887–
1910’, BA (Hons) Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1969; J Woodford, Death Certificate; Pastoral Permit no 268.
V T O’BRIEN, Vol 2.
WOOLNOUGH, WALTER GEORGE (1876–1958), geologist, was born on 15 January 1876 at Brushgroe on the
Clarence River, northern New South Wales. He was the son of the Reverend James Woolnough, and was educated
at Newington College, Sydney, and the University of Sydney where he was awarded his Bachelor of Science in
1898 and his Doctor of Science in 1904. He was Demonstrator in Geology, the University of Sydney, 1898–1901;
Lecturer in Mineralogy and Petrology, the University of Adelaide, 1902–04; Lecturer in Geology, the University of
Sydney, 1905–10, Assistant Professor, 1911–12; Geologist to Brunner, Mond and Company Ltd, England, 1919–
27; member of Professor David’s expedition to Fanafuti, 1897; leader of two expeditions to Fiji, 1901 and 1905 (as
a result of the first, he was awarded the University of Sydney’s first DSc); member of Commonwealth Preliminary
Scientific Expedition to Northern Territory, 1911; Geological Adviser to the Commonwealth government, 1927–
41, when he retired. During the Second World War, he was Chief of Information, Directorate of Technical Practice,
Ministry of Munitions, Melbourne.
According to H G Raggatt in the Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (1959),
Dr Woolnough obtained approval to undertake an aerial survey of all possible oilfields in Australia. In 1932, in
a Royal Australian Air Force Wapiti aircraft, he surveyed the Roma, Longreach, Darwin and Fitzroy areas. As a
result, he predicted that oil would be found in the Northwest Cape/Exmouth areas, which it was, many years
later.