Aeneas Gunn - We of the Never-Never

In 1902, newly married Jeannie Gunn (Mrs Aeneas Gunn) left the security and comfort of her Melbourne home to travel to the depths of the Northern Territory, where her husband had been appointed manager of The Elsey, a large cattle station.

She had an unerring ear and eye for the sounds and sights of the country; and this is the moving and simple account of her life amidst the beauty and cruelty of the land, and the isolation and loneliness together with the comradeship and kindness of those around her.

To the Public

It is with the full consent of the bush-folk that this one year of their livesthe year 1902is given to the world.

Tell them anything you like, they said, one and all, unconsciously testifying to their single-heartedness. And in the telling I have striven to give that year as I found it.

At every turn the bush-folk have helped me; verifying statements and furnishing details required with minute exactness.

J EANNIE G UNN

Hawthorn
October 1907

Weare just some of the bush-folk of the Never-Never. Distinct in the foreground stand:

The Maluka, The Little Missus, The Sanguine Scot, The Head Stockman, The Dandy, The Quiet Stockman, The Fizzer, Mine Host, The Wag, Some of our Guests, A few black boys and lubras, A dog or two, Tam-o-shanter, Happy Dick, Sam Lee, and last, but by no means least, Cheonthe ever-mirthful, ever-helpful, irrepressible Cheon, who was crudely recorded on the station books as cook and gardener.

The background is filled in with an ever-moving companya strange medley of Whites, Blacks, and Chinese; of travellers, overlanders, and billabongers, who passed in and out of our lives, leaving behind them sometimes bright memories, sometimes sad, and sometimes little memory at all.

And All of Us, and many of this company, shared each others lives for one bright, sunny year, away Behind the Back of Beyond, in the Land of the Never-Never; in that elusive land with an elusive namea land of dangers and hardships and privations yet loved as few lands are loveda land that bewitches her people with strange spells and mysteries, until they call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet. Called the Never-Never, the Maluka loved to say, because they who have lived in it and loved it, Never-Never voluntarily leave it. Sadly enough, there are too many who Never-Never do leave it. Othersthe unfittedwill tell you that it is so called because they who succeed in getting out of it swear they will Never-Never return to it. But we who have lived in it, and loved it, and left it, know that our hearts can Never-Never rest away from it.

To begin somewhere near the beginning, the Malukabetter known at that time as the new Boss for the Elseyand I, his missus, were at Darwin, in the Northern Territory, waiting for the train that was to take us just as far as it couldone hundred and fifty mileson our way to the Never-Never. It was out of town just then, up-country somewhere, billabonging in true bush-whacker style, but was expected to return in a day or two, when it would be at our service.

Jack, the Quiet Stockman, was out at the homestead, seeing to things there. The Sanguine Scot, the Head Stockman, and the Dandy were in at the Katherine, marking time, as it were, awaiting instructions by wire from the Maluka, while some of the Company put finishing touches to their New Year celebrations. And everyone, with, of course, the exception of those in Darwin, was blissfully unconscious of even the existence of the Malukas missus.

Knowing the Maluka by repute, however, everyone was agreed that the Elsey had struck it lucky, until the telegraph wire, whispering the gossip of Darwin to the Katherine, whispered that the new Boss for the Elsey had been and gone and married a missus just before leaving the South, and was bringing her along with him. Then the Sanguine Scot was filled with wrath, the Company with compassion, while the Dandys consternation found relief in a dismayed Heavens above! (The Dandy, by the way, was only a dandy in his love of sweet, clean clothes and orderly surroundings. The heart of the man had not a touch of dandyism in it.) The Head Stockman was absent in his camp. Had he been present, much might have been said on the advantages of having a woman about the place. The Wag, however, retained his usual flow of speech and spirits.

Buck up, chaps! he chuckled encouragingly. Theyre not all snorters, you know. You might have the luck to strike one of the ministering angel variety.

But the Sanguine Scot had been thinking rapidly, and, with characteristic hopefulness, felt he had the bull by the horns. Well just have to block her, chaps; thats all, he said. A wire or two should do it; and inviting the Dandy to come and lend a hand, led the way to the telegraph office; and presently there quivered into Darwin the first hint that a missus was not wanted at the Elsey.

Would advise leaving wife behind till homestead can be repaired, it said; and, still confident of success, Mac felt that ought to do the trick. If it doesnt, he added, well give her something stronger.

We in Darwin, having exhausted the sight-seeing resources of the little town, were wishing something interesting would happen, when the message was handed to the Maluka.

This may do as a stopgap, he said, opening it, adding as he read it, It looks brim full of possibilities for interested onlookers, seeing it advises leaving the wife behind. The Maluka spoke from experience, having been himself an interested onlooker down South, when it had been suggested there that the wife should be left behind while he spied out the land; for although the Maluka knew most of the Territory, he had not yet been to the Elsey Cattle Station.

Preferring to be the interested onlooker myself this time, when we went to the telegraph office it was the Maluka who wired: Wife coming, secure buggy; and in an incredibly short space of time the answer was back: No buggy obtainable.

Darwin looked interested. Mac hasnt wasted much time in making inquiries, it said.

Or in apologies or explanations, the Maluka added shortly, and sent in reply:

Wife can ride, secure suitable mount.

But the Sanguine Scots fighting blood was up, and almost immediately the wire rapped out:

No side-saddle obtainable. Stock horses all flash; and the onlookers stared in astonishment.

Macs in deadly earnest this time, they said, and the Maluka, with a quiet So am I, went back to the telegraph.

Now, in the Territory everybody knows everybody else, but particularly the telegraph people; and it often happens that when telegrams of general interest are passing through, they are accompanied by confidential asideslittle scraps of harmless gossip not intended for the departmental books; therefore it was whispered in the tail of the last message that the Katherine was watching the fight with interest, was inclined to reckon the missus a goer, and that public sympathy was with the stockmanthe Katherine had its women-folk, and was thankful; but the Katherine knew that although a woman in a settlement only rules her husbands home, the wife of a station-manager holds the peace and comfort of the stockmen in the hollow of her hand.