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accomplished drover and horse breaker earning one Pound a head for his horses. In 1909 he joined many others in
the gold rush to Tanami, but failed in his search for easy fortune.
In 1914 he contracted to Vesteys to drive 500 herd-bulls from Delamere, Queensland, to Wave Hill and Victoria
River Downs. This was one of the largest droving trips of its type and took 12 months, travelling a route that took
him around the Gulf of Carpentaria. He delivered the bulls in 1915 and then rode back to Queensland to enlist in
the Australian Imperial Force.
He served with the 54th Battery (Artillery), and was gassed and wounded in France, earning the Meritorious
Service Medal. After his discharge in 1919 he undertook a course in animal husbandry at the Edinburgh University
in Scotland.
On returning to the Northern Territory he traded in livestock, and in 1921 took up a grazing licence adjoining
Wave Hill and Victoria River Downs, calling the station Paschendaele after the village in Belgium where so many
of his mates lost their lives. With the help of a government loan of 625 Pounds he gradually built up his herd to
over 3 000 head of cattle. Marketing problems and the impending extension of the railway from Oodnadatta to
Alice Springs made Braiding interested in pastoral land in the Alice Springs district.
In 1926 he explored land west of Coniston station. Travelling out from Ti Tree Station he continued through
the Tanami Desert to Wave Hill. He was long overdue at Wave Hill and was reported missing, suspected of having
been killed by the Aborigines.
A grazing licence for the new area in Central Australia was issued in 1926 and he left the Victoria River District
in 1928 with cattle to stock his new property. Dry conditions held him up near Barrow Creek, and he adjisted his
cattle on Singleton Station where he met his future wife Doreen Crook.
In order to meet his government loan commitments, and to finalise an existing partnership agreement, he
eventually sold these cattle and the Paschendaele property. He married Doreen Crook in Adelaide in 1929 and
went droving until 1932 when he took his family out to live on the new property that he named Mount Doreen
after his wife.
In 1937 he purchased 250 cattle at 27 Shillings 6 Pence per head as his foundation herd. He believed in buying
good quality stock and once established paid up to 2 000 Guineas for Poll Hereford bulls. The first cattle sale from
Mount Doreen was in 1942 when he drove 260 bullocks, a trainload, to Alice Springs railhead. Using only horses
and pack camels the journey took four weeks, with initial stages watering points of eighty kilometres.
During the Second World War Braitling became involved in mining wolfram on Mount Doreen. At one Pound
per pound it was quite a lucrative venture. He also served as the Member for Stuart in the Northern Territory
Legislative Council from 10 December 1949 to 20 April 1951.
His interest in exploration led him to desert areas near Lake Mackay on the Northern Territory–Western
Australian border, where in 1946 he first came into contact with the Pintupi Aborigines.
He lived on Mount Doreen until his death in Alice Springs in 1959.
Family records and diaries.
WALTER BRAITLING, Vol 1.
BREMER, (Sir) JAMES JOHN GORDON (1786–1850), founder of British settlement in north Australia,
Rear Admiral, Royal Navy (RN), was born on 26 September 1766 the son of Lieutenant James Bremer RN and his
wife Ann, daughter of Captain James Norman RN.
Bremer was entered as a First-Class Volunteer on board Sandwich guard ship at the Note in 1794. He was then
eight years old. This was a common practice at the time to enable candidates to gain seniority. However, in his case
his appointment lasted only a few months and he was discharged in June 1795. In October 1797 he became a pupil
at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In April 1802 he was appointed to HMS Endymion as a Midshipman.
He was made Lieutenant on 3 August 1805 and advanced to the rank of Commander on 13 October 1807.
On 11 September 1812, being then in command of HM Brig Bermuda, off Boulogne, Bremer captured the
French privateer Le Bon Genie. He was next appointed to the command of HM Brig Royalist on 1 January 1813.
In this vessel he assisted at the defence of Castro, on the north coast of Spain, between the 7 and 13 May 1813,
captured the American schooner Ned, which was sailing under a Letter of Marque, on 6 September, and shared in
the capture of the French frigate Weser on 20 October of the same year.
Bremer was appointed Post Captain on 7 June 1814. He was nominated Companion of the Order of the Bath
(CB) in 1815, and appointed to the command of HMS Comus on 30 May 1816. Comus was wrecked on a reef off
St Shorts, Newfoundland, on 24 October 1816.
On 18 September 1823 Bremer was given command of HMS Tamar and in February 1824, following pressure
from the East India Trade Committee and lobbying by William Barnes (or Barns), who had traded between Sydney
and the islands of the East Indies for some four years, he was sent from England to take possession of the northern
coast of New Holland and established a settlement on Melville Island. This enterprise aimed to preserve the
north of Australia from occupation by other powers—the French, Dutch and Americans were all believed to be
interested—and to develop trade with the inhabitants of the East Indies. To give effect to these aims he formally
proclaimed British possession, in the name of His Majesty King George III, of the land between 129 degrees and
135 degrees east longitude with due ceremony at Port Essington, and established Fort Dundas on Melville Island.
On 13 November 1824 Bremer sailed for India leaving a garrison of 57 officers and men of the Buffs’ and marines,
some civilian artisans, and forty-four convict volunteers.
Whilst on the India Station, Bremer took part in the first Burma War. He also saw service on the Arabian coast,
where he surveyed the Bay of Aden, and at Burburra on the coast of Africa, where he led an expedition that put