Nat Finn on his camel. He preferred to use a halter rather than the nose ring used by the Afghans (family photograph).
Nathaniel (Nat) was first born son of William G. Finn and Jane Balhannah. His sister Lucinda Eden Finn was born the previous year. A further seven brothers and five sisters followed. Some had very short lives and were buried in the wilderness. Nathaniel Finn lived nearly his whole life in the desert regions of South Australia. Nat was a roustabout, a prospector, camel trainer and patroller of the dog fence. Lucy Evans, his wife, was a local midwife and nurse. Nat Finn was my great grandfather.
William and Jane Finn slowly wound their way north, from the railways at Pitchi Ritchi, to Beltana. Their son Nat found work as a camel driver, carting the wool bales from the remote stations to the rail head at Farina. Farina was established as a town in 1878.
Farina is a deserted town located 650km north of Adelaide [1]. Now a ghost town, undergoing restoration, it was once a town glowing with hope. The Ochre Pits north of Lyndhurst and Parachilna were trade goods for the Adnyamathanha people. They were the Rock People, their totems the Western Quoll (Idnya) and the Brushtail Possum (Virlda). As totems these animals cloud not be killed or eaten.
John Edward Eyre met with men from this group in 1840. He made some disparaging comments saying they were as impoverished and as wretched as the land they inhabited.
Exploration of central Australia was closely followed by settlers. Farina was first called Government Gums after the waterhole found there. The Adnyamathanha people used particular waterhole for millennia. The trail blazed by Stuart in 1859 went through Farina to the Afghan camel driver's camp at Hergott Springs. When Hergott Springs was gazetted in 1883 it was renamed Marree, a word supposedly corrupted from "mara", an Arabunna Aboriginal word and the name given by the Afghan camel drivers who settled and built a mosque from tree stumps in 1861, the first Mosque in Australia. The Afghans managed the explorers' camels and like the camels were abandoned once the research was completed. A small band of Afghans lived in Hergott Springs and Farina. Like Nat Finn they were in the haulage business, carting supplies and produce to remote stations and returning with wool bales to the nearest railway station.
My grandmother, (Adelaide Edith Finn) was born in Adelaide and returned to her home in Farina [2]. It was a place she spoke of often with great fondness. Edith (never Adelaide) was the third youngest of seven sisters, Everleen, Ivy, May, Jane, Edith, Dorothy (Dolly) and Constance (Connie). The names of the seven are written on the side of the water tank which is all that remains of the house their father and his brother purchased in 1889. The house was occupied until 1944 when Dolly, the last of the family, left Farina.
Tank with names Camels at rail station Children playing
Northwest of Farina is "Witchelina Station". Built in 1879 by John Ragless Junior and his sons. In the photo on the left Richard Ragless is on the balcony and Henry Ragless is on the steps. The Station is important for it is here that Lucy Evans came to work as servant. Born in Mt Gambier, the youngest daughter of Thomas and Jane Evans, she suffered some health problems, and her doctor recommended a dryer climate. The far north was certainly a drier climate.
In 1865 James Goyder the Surveyor General of South Australia published a report establishing the Goyder Line. This followed a devastating drought in 1865. The line marked the extent to which land could be farmed. North of the line land was only fit for grazing sheep and cattle the line represented the limits of reliable (30cm) annual rainfall. Farina was well above the line, and only hoped for rain more than the rain appeared. Unfortunately, a few years of good rainfall lead to further settlement. Saltbush proved to be a nutritious feed for sheep and cattle. Settlements followed to ancient paths from water hole to water hole.
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