CHAPTER XII

Summary

ALICE SPRINGS TO BARROW CREEK

Whilst travelling from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs we had realised the fact that the “express wagon” which had been used for the carriage of our heavier stores was by no means capable, either of carrying them all, or of standing the wear and tear of the heavy track that we had to traverse across the continent. At Alice Springs we were fortunate enough to find a stray wagon which had been used for the cartage of stores from the head of the railway line, and as this was just what we needed we secured it and transferred all our heavy luggage to it. It was fairly heavily loaded when it left Alice Springs, and its departure was viewed with sorrow by the natives, who had profited largely by our stores of tobacco, knives and hatchets. Some of them would cheerfully have accompanied us if we had given them the slightest encouragement. On our part we were equally sorry to leave them. For many years we had known them well, and we realised that, great as was the change that had taken place in the tribe between the year 1895, in which the Engwura was held, and the time of our present visit, changes would in the future be more rapid, until the time came when the once large and powerful Arunta tribe would be represented by a mere degraded remnant, exactly as has happened in the case of tribe after tribe elsewhere in Australia.