The late
Constance M Simon                

This is the story of our trek to Tarcoola.

We left Pinnaroo, South Australia, on July 7th, 1934 during the big depression to build 20 miles of 'Dog Proof Fencing'.

My late husband (Bert Simon) myself, my brother Keith O'Connor, and Stanley Barratt, all of Pinnaroo, S.A., set off on the long trip to Tarcoola, S.A.

We arrived in Adelaide where we stayed over night at the Grand Hotel in Hindley Street. We had a 1928 Capital model Chev truck with all our gear & 3 months supply of provisions.

We were bound for work on 20 miles of 'Dog Proof Fencing', 70 miles west of Tarcoola, on Mulgathing Station. The owner was the late H. P. McLauchlan the father of Mr. Byron & Mr. Ian McLauchlan.

After putting a day in Adelaide buying some tools & doing a bit of other business we found 2 men who wanted work badly, as so many did in those days as jobs were hard to find. We set off late in the afternoon on the second leg of our journey. The two men we got in Adelaide were the Chapman brothers & very decent men they turned out to be. We travelled up through Clare & spent our first night I think at Gladstone, we camped the night there on the outskirts of town.

Next morning we set off for Port Augusta, we had the big task of driving through part of the Flinders Rangers, which was the only way to get to Port Augusta in those days as No. 1 Highway was built in later years. The truck did a good job pulling a 3 ton load which we had, up through the Ranges, but we made it ok.
On arriving at Stirling North not far out of Port Augusta, we set up camp for the night, under the stars. Next morning we were woken at day break by the screeching of thousands of galahs. We didn't know if they were screeching at us or thought we were a lot of galahs. However we had breakfast & then set off into Port Augusta.
As we didn't know what to expect when we left the Port we decided to call in at the Police Station as if any one would know, the Police would. When we walked into the Police Station & enquired they said we have got the very man here that can help you & believe it or not, but it was a Policeman we knew quite well, his name was Constable Fred Lodge, who was stationed at Tarcoola.
We knew him when we were working at Ambleside (now Hahndorf) he was stationed at Mount Barker & he played football for Ambleside in the Adelaide Hills.

He was a very fine young man'& very well liked. Constable Lodge was able to give us a good description of the track, & I mean track, as there were no roads out there then. After picking up some fresh food supplies we set off on the rough trip to Tarcoola, we camped the first night from the Port at a siding along the East West Rail line called Hesso. Next morning we were up at dawn had our breakfast & away we went & during that day we had something go wrong with one of the back wheels of the truck, so had to pull the wheel off and found the ball race had cracked up. Luckily we had a few spare parts with us & the men were able to fix it up, so we camped the night in the bush as it was too late to set off again that day.
We got off to a good start next morning & soon came out into country not a bush for the next 100 miles, as all there was were stones for that hundred miles & when I say stones I mean stones. What they called a hundred miles of 'Gibbers' to cross, but we eventually made it to Oak Hills Bore, where we set up camp for the night.

When we woke up next morning we found we had increased by one, as an aboriginal boundary rider had ridden his horse in some time during the night but he didn't disturb us. He was quite a nice young chap & we invited him to have fried fritz & eggs with us all for breakfast, which he ate with relish. No doubt it would have been a luxury to him after the tough rations he would be on boundary riding.

We left him at the Bore & set off for Kingoonya, when we pulled into Kingoonya there were quite a few aboriginals in the little town as well as the white folk. They all wondered what had turned up I think. Maybe they thought it was 'Hagens Circus' come to town.

After an overnight stop at Kingoonya we set off for Tarcoola. We arrived at Wilpena Station at midday & the Manager allowed my husband to do some repairs to the truck in the workshop there. He also provided us with a meal for six of us which was very acceptable & very much appreciated. We were also able to get some fresh meat from him & then we set off for the last leg of our journey to Tarcoola.

We arrived there at nightfall & checked in at the Police Station to Constable Lodge, which he did ask us to do to make sure we arrived alright. After having a good old chat to him we were sad to hear that he did marry & go out to Tarcoola & when his wife was to have here baby later both she & the baby died at childbirth. We did feel so sorry for him, so he chose to stay on as a policeman out there. We saw him each time we went into Tarcoola for provisions off the tea & sugar train, which was about every six weeks.

He was still there when we finished the job & left for home. We called at the station to say good-bye to him but he had been called to Kingoonya to settle some tribal trouble among the aboriginals, who were camped in their whirleys on the outskirts of town. So we did catch up with him & he asked us to report to Port Augusta Police Station when we arrived there, so they could notify him that we made the trip to the Port.

We stayed in Tarcoola for the night when we arrived & set off next morning for Mulgathing Station after picking up fresh supplies of food from the Commonwealth Store in the Railway yards.
We travelled that 70 miles west over the roughest track we have ever been on, it was a track of blue bush with drift sand around each bush & you have to be a good driver to dodge the trees. We all had sore bottoms by the time we arrived at the Station late that day believe me, but; at last we were there.
 
When we arrived the young manager came out of one of the sheds to welcome us, he was only 21 years of age & had 3 other men on the Station with him. The Homestead was in the course of erection & who should be the builder but a man we knew from our home town by the name of Percy Brighton. Poor man was far from feeling well & was in a bad way with one of the biggest carbuncles I'd ever seen, so I set to work to help him. Seeing as we had almost a Chemist shop with us as well as a lot of Rawleigh's Products.
We had to have the necessary things with us as we were 300 miles from any medical aid which was Port Augusta. There was no 'Flying Doctor' in those days out there or even a 'Bush Nursing Hospital', which Tarcoola did get in later years.
I bathed Perc Brighton's wrist with Solyptol disinfectant & then cleaned the carbuncle with Hydrogen Peroxide, then put some Rawleigh's Carbolic Veterinary Solve on it & bandaged it up for him & told him to get to a Doctor as soon as possible. The Manager rushed him into Tarcoola & put him on the East West Express that night for Port Augusta. Mr. Brighton came back a week later a new man.

He finally got the Homestead built which was of weatherboard & very high up off the ground. There was a small Creek ran past the front of the building so they were prepared should a 'flash flood' occur at any time.
We camped in the sheds at the station that night & next day we filled, some petrol drums with water at the Station Bore, which was equipped with a windmill & tank. Then headed out to the start of the job 6 miles out into the Mulga. After arriving at the spot the men unloaded our gear & then put up a humpy which was to be our headquarters, it wasn't the Hilton but it did answer the purpose of Sleeping quarters for my husband and I also had half of it as a Kitchen eating house, complete with a wood stove we took out with us. We had an iron, roof & bags sewn together for walls & doors, very comfy really, the floor was mother earth, so I didn't have to scrub that which-was a help. Our lighting was the Hurricane Lamps which served the purpose.
 
We were lucky to find the water so good, it was almost equal to rainwater, but the only fly in the ointment was that Bore was not equipped with a windmill & tank so on our first, trip into Tarcoola a few weeks later we got an old gold miner to make us a slush pump 4ft x 4 inches in diameter to haul the water up. The men put a wire on to the slush pump & one man would walk about 2 chain with the wire while one man stayed at the bore & as the pump cams up he would empty the water in to the petrol drums & down would go the pump for another lot & so on until all drums were filled, which would take the best part of a day. (The water didn't taste too good at first, a bit like petrol but we got used to the taste (Had to) anyway.

The other men camped in Tents a short distance away from our Headquarters, Finally the job got started & found the going not to hard digging the post holes but soon ran into a crop of Granite which the crow bars would bounce off. It was impossible to dig by hand so an S0S was sent to Mr. Byron McLauchlan for blasting material. The explosives arrived & for the next 18 miles every hole was blasted. Fortunately my husband had had experience with Gelignite & detonators in the Quarries in Pinnaroo, when working on road works up there. Byron McLauchlan was on Paratoo Station up North which his father owned & he was the man we had to deal with.

At least the explosives made the job much easier. All the fencing material was laid out along the fence line except the posts. The men cut 8,000 Mulga posts 6ft 3 inches long with axes as there were no chain saws in those days. It would have been much easier if there had been. Then there were hundreds of foot posts to cut as well. The fence was 5ft 3inches high with 4 plain wires & wire netting & a foot of the netting had to lay flat on the ground & the foot posts had one plane wire through them & the foot netting tied to that. Just imagine how many holes were 'bored with brace & bit. I shudder to think

There was 60 miles of that fence to be built, we had the Centre section of 20 miles & two other contractors had 20 miles each, whether they ever completed their sections or not I will never knew. It took us 7 months to complete our section & believe me it was very hard work & conditions could not have been tougher,
I put my pennithworth in with tying the netting on to the plain wires or staying at the camp cutting tie wires in my spare time. I had our Fox Terrier dog for company to say nothing of the Goannas. I had never seen so many of those reptiles in my life. We never saw one snake out there, thank heavens.
 
The posts were all carted out of the scrub & laid along the fence line with the truck, how that old truck did work & never missed a beat. They made good trucks in those days.
The men would all come home tired out at night, but after a good night's sleep they were up & ready to go again next morning, they were a good team. We did have a radio so we could keep in touch with the news etc.

I had never made bread before in my life but had to learn (the hard way). A friend of mine from Pinnaroo gave me some of her yeast to start mine which I did & it worked alright. The corks were popping out of the bottles & hitting the roof which of course was not very high, so that night I made my first batch of bread & it turned out beautiful & I got compliments from all the boys, but that was the only decent batch I had, so no more compliments. Poor fellows had to eat my bread or go without I but no complaints from any of them. I guess they realised how I was battling to get the bread to rise overnight as the nights were pretty cold. Its a wonder we didn't all die of indigestion. I could make scones & cakes so maybe that's how I didn't get the sack
 
The meat, listen to this & its true every word of it. We only had beef in all that seven months from the Station as they could not have sheep out there until the fence was complete, because of the wild dogs. They used to run the bullock down with the truck, the Station manager & his men would shoot a bullock as it was running & then they would get it on to the truck & cart it back to the Station & dress it. Next day we would go in & get our share which would be a hind quarter one time & a fore quarter the next kill.

We would have fresh meat for a couple of days & the rest we'd have to cut up into small pieces & dry salt it as it would not keep for long as fresh meat, We would hang it up in a chaff bag under a tree all day to let the moisture drain out of it & at night we would lay it all out on a sheet on the tray of the truck. Next morning up before the flies & put it all-back in the bag & hang under the tree, you had to repeat that process until the meat was so hard & dry you could not bruise it with a hammer.
It was terrible tack to eat but we ate it after boiling it in about 6 lots of water to get the salt out of it, I don't suppose we could complain really as the meat we didn't have to pay for & just as well). I'd have to try & make all sorts of dishes out of it which must have passed as there were no complaints, thankfully. The only time we had mutton was when we would go into Tarcoola which was every 6 weeks for our fresh supply of food off the tea & sugar train that came through. It used to serve all the Railway men & families as far as the border between S.A. & W.A, You could get anything in the food line off that train.
 
We would stay the night in Tarcoola & back to the bush again next morning 70 miles, We did have an arrangement with Central Provision Stores in Adelaide to send us out all kinds of tinned meats & fish by train, which used to be thrown off the East West Express as it past through a siding called Malbooma 30 miles south of the Station & we or the Manager would pick it up next morning.
Our mail used to come to that same siding once a week. One morning my brother said how about some poultry for a change, meaning galahs, which were out there in huge flocks so he got his gun & let fire, down came 13 of them. So I had the pleasure of plucking & cleaning them which took me most of the day. Next day I seasoned them all & put them on to roast for tea. They took four hours to cook but at least they were a change from the dry salted junk & didn't taste too bad even if they were a bit tough, (talk about living in luxury.) No refrigerators in those days & we didn't have a cool safe so had to have a substitute.
We dug a hole under the shade of the trees & put two 4 gallon kerosene tins in it which had wooden lids my husband made before we left Pinnaroo, & put on the tins then laid a wet bag over them & that was our fridge to keep our butter and cheese in. It worked well too. Nothing was impossible under such circumstances. We planned everything out before we went out there on that job.


I also had kerosene tins for a 'copper' to boil the clothes & for water for our baths. Our bath was the old galvanised wash tub which we all used (one at a time) no saunas out there.
We used powered milk & condensed milk for all our needs too. Plenty of cows out there, but you'd have to run them down to milk them. At least when we bathed & when I washed the clothes we all came out whiter than when we went in.


Every so often the Fence Inspector would come along with his team of Camels to inspect the fence, his name was Mr. Mathewson, quite a nice chap & he would always stop for a chat & have a cuppa with us. The Manager John Dirkin often called and had a cuppa with me. He was only a young man, the age of 21 & no doubt enjoyed my home made cookies, as he was so far away from home. Poor chap passed away some time after we came back from Tarcoola, he had T.B.

After the Homestead was built a nice little grey haired lady came out to Mulgathing as cook. She came from Adelaide she told me. The Manager being so young was ever so glad to have a woman cook housekeeper. She proved to be a good cook and a very kind person. After batching for so long I guess he thought it was like being home again. How long the cook (Mrs.Tanner) was her name stayed on there after we left, I would not know. One thing I do know it would be a pretty lonely life. I had my husband but she had no one. She used to make we so welcome anytime we went into the Station from our camp. No doubt to see another woman to talk to. I knew the feeling.
 
After a thunder storm of which there were many & a good downpour of rain it was amazing to see how quickly the wild flowers would spring up & they were just beautiful. There were all kinds & so pretty especially the Sturt Peas which were there in abundance. I used to pick some & I would press them in my letters to send home to my parents.
When our job was nearing completion we sent all the men back home on the train & only my husband & I left to tidy up the job. Then we took some photos & packed up our gear & left for hone. We called into the Police Station to say goodbye to Constable Lodge but he was at Kingoonya as there was a tribal brawl going on there with the Aboriginals who were camped on the outskirts of Kingoonya in their Whirleys. So we caught up with him there. He asked us to report to the Port Augusta Police when we got there so as they could let him know that we arrived there safely, which we did.
We camped at Coondambo Station the first night & when we awoke in the morning we saw the biggest mob of kangaroos I have ever seen not far from our camp. Finally we made it to Port Augusta where we reported to the Police there & they were pleased we made it without any problems. Sometime after we arrived back in Pinnaroo we saw by the paper John Derkin the Manager had passed away, he died of T.B.

We were unaware that he had anything wrong with him but he was. a very thin boy. We were very sad to read of his death as we found him such a nice young gentleman. No doubt he was out in that dry climate because of his health. We had no accidents on the job thankfully & the only one that took ill was my husband, the men brought him home on the back of the truck one day very ill, they did not think he would make the trip horne but he did. We had no idea what was wrong with him, he was in agony of pain & was grey in the face. I had to work out what to do as we were 300 miles from any medical aid, which was Port Augusta. However as I had a bottle of Rawleigh's Antipain oil which could be given internally or used externally, (so it said on the label). I gave him a dose of that & believe me it worked & in half an hour he was up on his feet & pain all gone. So my nursing couldn't have been too bad. He wanted to go straight back to the job, which was 6 miles down the fence line, but I made him stay another half hour & when he went I walked with him in case he took sick again, I had the bottle of Antipain oil with me just in case but thanks to the good Lord it was not needed. The men could not believe their eyes when they saw us as they didn't think he'd be back that day. They made 'em tough in the old days, and just as well.

On our way home from Port Augusta we found it a big climb of 4 miles of very steep road through Horrocks Pass. The old truck was battling to climb that 4 miles & our brakes were not too good & every so far I had to jump out & put a stone under the back wheel to stop the. old girl from running backwards finally we made it to the top & from then on it was plain sailing.
We camped at the small town of Melrose that night (at the foot of Mt. Remarkable). When we awoke next morning we were camped not far from a slaughter yard & boy talk about 'crows', there were literally hundreds of them there. We knew that we had lost a lot of weight but if the crows thought we were about to kark it they were greatly mistaken. We took that trip on & we were determined to get there & back which we did.

After leaving Melrose we set off for Clare & took a bit of a detour to Blyth not far from Clare to see my sister & her husband & family. They were delighted to see us even if we did look like a couple of scarecrows & were burnt as brown as berries.
We stayed a couple of weeks there & then headed for Adelaide where we stayed for another 3 weeks before heading for Pinnaroo. After we were back in Pinnaroo, about 2 months. My husband had another one of those bad attacks which he had at Tarcoola & the Doctor said it was a stone in the, kidney & sent him to Adelaide to the R.A.H. where they got rid of the stone, so I guess he was very lucky to get over the first attack out there.

We didn't make a lot of money out of that job but it kept us alive as there were no handouts from the Government in those days, only 'Ration Tickets' & we did prefer to work for our living. It was a tough seven months but we survived & that was the main thing.
Our parents were delighted to see us back home again & we to see them. I was 34 years of age when I went on that Treck and am now nearly 85 years of age and that experience is still so fresh in my memory. It has taken me all these years from 1934 to 1988 to get round to writing my memoirs.
All this story is true and I think a great achievement.
Signed: Mrs. Constance M Simon
4 Brown Street NARAOORTE SOUTH AUSTRALIA
P.S. The fence job was twenty pounds per mile, I guess today it would be worth thousands of dollars.)

Constance M Simon