A track 1850 kilometres long that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of WA to Wiluna in the mid-west
Carrying a double action revolver on the Canning Stock Route to intimidate is not highly recommended. Actually it’d be somewhat frowned upon today if you did, but for Len Hill, an innocent adventurous eighteen year old, it was taken as part of the job.
His boss drover Ben Taylor passed it over to his young apprentice as an understandable precaution. Negotiating Australia’s toughest stock route in 1946 was not to be taken lightly; desert dwellers concealing deadly weapons of their own had a precarious past and had a tendency to follow silently behind.
The object of the saddle journey was to deliver a team of horses, then return with 500 head of cattle. The horses were used to replenish stock numbers lost during the war. As a result forty five horses (27 being unbroken brumbies) were pushed through four deserts – the Little Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert, Great Sandy Desert, and the Tanami Desert.
No individuals were offended on this particular northern jaunt and only five horses were lost along the way, so you could say our spirited young fellow made his debut successfully, armed but unharmed. However the same couldn’t be said for drovers ‘Shoesmith’, ‘Thomson’ and fellow aborigine stockman ‘Chinaman’, who all came to grief along the 900 mile stock route by the hands of disgruntled natives back in 1911.
Some eleven years later, in the same area, Jock McLernon, (who was a part of an oil exploration party) suffered the same fate. His details were punched into a metal plaque by a well respected drover, George Lanagan. Graves since restored mark the place where blood once fell; they’re found east and west of Well 37, also known as ‘Libral’ (its aboriginal name).
The water at this well, like their affair, is putrid and the well has become no more than a smelly pool open to a desolate wasteland. Surprisingly it still supports hundreds of lives. Not the bovine or equine variety but just as important. Hundreds of tiny Zebra finches! These cute little flighters are sighted all along the track – and are something else not to turn your nose up at.
A plaque found near Well 15 commemorates yet another death. A dogger by the name of Joseph Wilkins was killed by natives at Boonjinji Soak in 1936. No wonder the drovers were wary! Jack Smith also died on the track in whole different set of circumstances, which didn’t involve natives. He previously had been hospitalised in Derby with a ruptured spleen after a horse fell on him during station work. Against doctors orders he joined George Lanagan’s team in 1939 and consequently became sick and died in his swag at Well 49.
Today, the going is a whole lot easier when you consider a dune flag attached to a 4WD is all you need to warn others of your presence. We, ourselves were armed with a fluorescent number, cut to shape from a hanging shoe rack found at Kalgoorlie Op shop. These were secured to a couple of springy gimlet sticks by extra thick cable ties and duct tape for good luck. (One traveller used a fishing rod for the same purpose). Additionally each vehicle had a rather decent sized bra blowing in the wind for added support.
Most, if not all, encounters were pretty friendly along the track, but it still does pay to do your homework. Dodging spears is a thing of the past but if you travel ill-prepared – well there’s no guarantee you’ll dodge a bullet. In 2005, two men in their prime perished out in the Gibson Desert. Unfortunately their vehicle broke down and they had little water or a map to find it. Your life really does depend on researching the terrain before heading out.
Knowing your fuel consumption is a must here. There is no 24hour fuel stops along the way! Although there is prepaid fuel available near Well 23. It’s an honesty system where 44 gallon drums attained can be operated by a hand pump. We carried our own diesel, but if you’d like to use this service you’ll need to get in early and organise a drop off with Newman’s Capricorn Roadhouse 6-8 weeks in advance.
Another option is Kunawarritji, 1000 kilometres from Wiluna (near Well 33). Be prepared to be shaken by the price and corries! When we ventured through the price for diesel was $3.40! We used it solely as a back up; allowing for any wrong turns (Jules!) and unknown dune scenarios (which needed a little extra grunt here and there). The fuel bowser is housed under a high roof shelter and is unlocked by the store managers found further up the road.
For interest’s sake, fuel at Wiluna at the time was $1.98 and at Halls Creek $1.86, but to get to either place via the Canning Stock Route, you’ll need to obtain permits. There is a large native title held right over the Canning – one of the highest forms. There is nevertheless a mixed right for both Indigenous and non-indigenous too. The public ‘right of access’ is on the original route, but as the track has deviated over the years some passes through tribal Aboriginal land.
Channel 40 on the UHF comes in handy for listening out for oncoming traffic on the narrow track. Travelling with another vehicle also does, but we did see a lot of lone vehicles nearing the end of the peak season.
Amazingly we saw tracks of a push bike, with tyres as thick as a motor bike. When we reached Pierre Springs (Well 6) we saw the scrawls of its foreign owner; who somewhat showed signs of having second thoughts!
Murray Rankin must have pondered the same thoughts when he walked the track in 1976. Evidence of his hike is found between Well 15 and 16; in the shape of a trolley contraption he gave up on and left behind. Gaynor Schoeman also walked the track in 2013; trekking solo for 66 days for a good cause and raised funds for quadriplegics.
An abandoned motor bike sighted near Well 36 looks like something out of a Mad Max movie, which wasn’t the case for the (more recent) unhappy camper trailer we came across earlier. Quite a few burnt out vehicles scatter the desert too, mostly petrol vehicles. Petrol motors are said to be particularly bad when it comes to Spinifex build up underneath the vehicle. Diesel is harder to ignite but we still carried a homemade Spinifex hook to free any freeloading bundles and a fire extinguisher just in case.
Preparation and knowledge is the key to success here – something the first Canning punters could have really done with – the standing record for 1910 wasn’t particularly a good one. Out of forty-two horses originally taken up the route only a handful had survived. Our modern day count for 2014 was probably no better. Between two workhorses; a 60 and 75 series Landcruiser, we damaged six tyres, three springs and a brake – a situation which would have been a whole lot worse if we hadn’t carried tools or had the means to rectify it.
It does go to show you even with the best intention some things do happen. Then again some things don’t – like the track between 1911 and 1930. During this time only eight mobs of cattle crossed its unforgiving course – a figure which surely would have seen Alfred Canning cringe. Alfred Wernam Canning was ‘of course’ the tracks creator. It was his job back in 1906 to etch out a tick free cattle route from Halls Creek down to the (then) bustling Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie goldfields.
He had his work cut out for him. Somewhere amongst 700 odd sand hills, several unsympathetic salt lakes, and its tough skinned inhabitants, Canning had to find water. It had to be found on each bullock-day and the supply had to quench the thirst of up to 800 head. Oh and the route had to be free of poison bush!
If anyone was going to lead the expedition it was Alfred Canning. He had already surveyed the West Australian No 1 Rabbit Proof Fence which stretches 1,139 miles. It’s the longest line of unbroken fence in the world – adding to yet another world record set by him. As it stands the Canning Stock Route is the longest historical stock route in the world.
In the presence of cameleers and well experts, Alfred Canning headed south to north, leaving Wiluna (950 kilometres from Perth) in May 1906. He followed explorer John Forrest’s 1874 track up to Weld Springs (named after Frederick Weld, the colony’s governor at the time).
Forrest and his men were on the hunt for new pastoral land and Weld Springs was a place they liked; so much so they camped there for two weeks. Unfortunately the Martu people were pretty fond of it too – it was a place of plenty: water, tucker and dreaming.
It is thought a “Secret Man’s” ceremony was taking place at the time of Forrest’s arrival and the discourteous white strangers were no way invited! So on the seventh day of their stay 40 to 60 Martu men, all adorned with spears and shields, let Forrest and his men know ‘what for’. Their threatening actions were soon answered with rifle fire and the blood left at the scene suggested at least two of the Martu men were injured.
The whole affair was enough to give Forrest and his men the heebie jeebies and they built a stone fort on higher ground at seven feet high. Today the remnants of the fort still remain, and much to their credit, so does a working stock yard.
Some thirty years later Canning and his men crossed the same spot. They reached Halls Creek in October 1906, five months out of Wiluna. In a present day comparison, we started our trip in September 2014 from Wiluna and reached Halls Creek two and half weeks later!
Heed my words – you wouldn’t want to travel in any less. We stopped at every well – all 51 of them – including 2A, 3A, 4A, 4B and most water sources related. We had an exceptionally good look around, (fixed a few tyres etc in between), but we had to travel daily – bar one extra stay at Durba Springs.
Durba Springs (Well 16) is an oasis in the desert and is the pick of the lot when it comes to camps. For one thing it has grass!! The aboriginal rock art there and at nearby Killagurra Gorge (Well 17) is mind boggling. Actually one particular piece stood at 3-4 feet high and looked unnaturally eerie; even for the young feller who wasn’t too keen standing near it – (the Debbil Debbil perhaps!)
In the presence of ghost gums, early white fellers have also left their mark, in the form of initials, names, and poems carved trimly into the red cliff. These overlook the water pool with a fascinating story to tell. Their discoveries are only enhanced when familiar with some of the titles. The initials of HST might have a few baffled. They are those of Hubert Stanlake Trotman; Canning’s right hand man, who had accompanied Canning on both the Rabbit Proof Fence and CSR surveys.
Canning himself left a mark 20 kilometres back in the Durba Hills. A cairn made of sandstone – a beacon for his return trip in February 1907. But before he reached there, not two months in from Halls Creek, a startled encounter took place, resulting in a death on both sides. Canning’s bore expert, Michael Tobin was one of them.
A few hundred metres from ‘Waddawalla’ (Well 40) the words ‘Sacred to the memory of Michael Tobin, Speared – 6/04/07’ stand out clear on his white marble cross; a vast contrast to the peaceful scene surrounding it today.
Despite the crew’s loss, water still had to be tapped and the construction of wells had to go ahead. Thirty men, including Canning set out to complete the task in March 1908, with a train of 70 camels carrying over 100 tonnes of gear.
One can only imagine the preparation for this trip – 900 miles and 48 wells, all done without machine! Just picture the kit walked for the job, the shaped troughs secured to the sides of resilient camels that outnumbered men, the sweaty hardened bodies of brave souls, who cut timber and dug out wells out in the desert. The best we did to experience their life was to swag it and drive with our windows down!
Their efforts deserve enormous respect, as do the past desert dwellers who no doubt endured hardships in aiding Canning find water. There must have been a whole range of adversity faced by all at some point, but going by Canning’s telegram sent two years later (from Wiluna), there was no room for any melodrama. The telegram simply read ‘Work competed – Canning’.
Canning was probably not as considerate with the local people as landowner William Snell was when he was commissioned to the fix wells in 1929. Snell had only made it to Well 35, but in that time he had constructed four new wells. Hence the variation in numbers of wells stated previously.
At the age of 70, Alfred Canning was called upon to help finish the job; contributing to a new era of droving between 1931 and 1959. During this time the track had another spruce up, as a promising wartime evacuation route. Around this time Ben Taylor estimated the route could only support 600 head of cattle and not 800 as once intended.
George Lanagan saw out the last drove on the Canning and his wife Eileen Lanagan became the first and only white woman ever to go down the Canning in a cattle drove. All in all the Canning Stock Route had witnessed fewer than thirty droves; a number now blasted out of the water by mobs of four wheel enthusiasts seeking a taste of tough Australian history.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS
Permits and road closures can be accessed online at www.canningstockroute.net.au
Kuju Wangka is one Indigenous voice for the Canning Stock Route. They have a great booklet to download which contains information on both cultural and natural heritage.
Several Wells have been restored, like Well 5 done by the Chamberlain 9G Tractor members and in Chamberlain colours! We found additional good water at Well 3, 6, 12, 15, 23, 26, and 33. BYO own bucket and rope for a few still carry plenty of water.
The land on both ends of the CSR is Station country. The Cunyu Track to Well 4A is a dry weather track only. No camping or night travel is allowed, nor trailers or vehicles bigger than an F truck.
Tyre pressures vary due to the constant terrain conditions. Heat plays a big part in it too. For the ‘I think I can’ moments, 15 and lower PSI was the way to go – but this depends on your load etc.
Fuel drop offs can be arranged through Capricorn Roadhouse on 08 9175 1535.
Carry extra fuel, spare parts and carry out daily ritual vehicle checks. A satellite phone is good to have on hand too.
Collect firewood on the way as some camps are barren.
To save on space on the way we burnt rubbish and crushed cans to carry out with us.
More importantly enjoy every sunset, with good company!