The late afternoon was pleasantly warm, though the nights were still rather cool.
Now it was Molly’s turn to point out special places to Daisy. It was a quick trip down memory’s landscape. They passed close to the claypan where Molly was born. A feeling of nostalgia brought tears to her eyes as memories of her childhood flashed before her.
“You can get up now,” said Molly. She was tired of sitting on the camel’s back.
“Alright,” said Daisy eagerly, she didn’t mind riding the rest of the way.
As they drew closer, nervous excitement was building up inside them. Both girls took in the familiar landscape of the red earth, the dry spinifex grass and grey-green mulga trees. There was nothing to compare with the beauty of these plains that stretched out in all directions.
They could see the black hills in the distance where their families hunted for girdi-girdis and murrandus. They were approaching the camp site now, the dogs were barking and people were shouting to each other and pointing in their direction. Some were sitting in the creekbed, wailing quietly. But all eyes were focussed on the four weary travellers. Unbeknown to them, their Uncle Freddie had ridden on ahead to tell the old people that Molly and Daisy were returning home to them.
The four travellers parted company on the banks of the Jigalong Creek, close to the mud-brick huts of the depot, and made their way to their homes. The girls walked slowly towards their mothers’ camps where their family sat awaiting their arrival.
The wailing began softly at first then grew louder as more people joined the group.
The maintenance boss called out just before he disappeared behind the huts. “Come down to the store and get some rations, alright.”
“Yeah, alright,” they replied shyly. But neither of the girls accepted that offer because at daybreak the next morning, their families moved away from the depot and had no intention of returning until they were absolutely certain that the girls were safe from government officers and policemen.
Molly and Daisy did not relish the idea of being sent back to the Moore River Native Settlement. The trek had been no easy feat. It had taken the girls months to complete and nothing or nobody could take this moment of happiness and satisfaction from them. They had finally reached their destination and were reunited with their families. They had taken a great risk. Inmates absconding from the settlement were considered to be a serious problem. If they had been caught, the girls would have had their heads shaved or made to wear sacks and other more serious punishments.
The task of apprehending Molly and Daisy was handed back to Constable M.J. Riggs of the Nullagine police station. This was the policeman, who in his role as a Protection Officer, had removed the three girls from Jigalong and escorted them to Marble Bar. Now he was informing the Commission of Police that, “From inquiries made I am of the opinion that the girls will not return to Jigalong for a while, but that they will stay around Lake Naboroo with the natives in the vicinity...” (4/12/1931. Police File No.5979/31.)
The correspondence concerning the girls continued.
I heard from the Constable in charge at Nullagine that the three half-caste girls have not yet been recovered.
I am afraid you will never get them now as by this time they will be back in their own country and well and truly camouflaged; even if you did fluke them now, I do not think you would ever keep them unless you separated them all or locked them up, but of course that latter course would be worse than their being in the bush I guess.
Yours faithfully
Arthur T. Hungerford
Protector of Aborigines
Jigalong Depot 11/10/31
Mr A.O. Neville
The Chief Protector of Aborigines
Dear Sir,
Re:173/30
The half-castes Molly and Daisy are back in this locality now and seem none the worse for their most wonderful “trek”. “I expect they did walk in record time considering they had to most of the time provide their own food...”
Arthur T. Hungerford
Jigalong 29/12/31
Quite recently the two girls were in the native camp at 494 Gate on the rabbit-proof fence, and about 123 miles from here. Molly—I was informed by Mrs R. George (half-caste)—has gone back to Jigalong. Daisy has gone with an uncle named Peter. This native, I understand, is a bush native and it is very unlikely they will go to Lake Nabery as this is about sixty miles south of Georges’ camp at 494.
(Signed) E. Morrow
Constable 1302
To the Chief Protector of Aborigines, Nullagine.
Molly, one of the half-caste girls who decamped from Moore River Native Settlement has been seen in this locality. Do you want her sent back down south?
Constable Riggs
The Chief Protector of Aborigines has informed the Commissioner of Police that he did not desire any further action in re: half-caste Molly because she has been a costly woman to the Department. Very heavy expenditure was incurred in securing her, and when she decamped a lot of undesirable publicity took place.
The Commissioner of Aboriginal Affairs
(File No.345/36)
Mr A.O. Neville
Chief Protector of Aborigines
Dear Sir,
Constable Riggs told me you were not bothering about the half-caste Molly, does the same apply to Daisy? I hear they are back somewhere in their own country though goodness knows where.
Yours faithfully
Arthur T. Hungerford
Jigalong 5/11/31
I would like the child to be recovered if no great expense is to be incurred; otherwise the prestige of the Department is likely to suffer.
Mr A.O. Neville
(21/10/31. File 175/30)
Gracie, or Chrissy as she was called by the authorities, remained at the railway siding intending to catch the weekly train to Wiluna. When she was told that she had to wait for a couple of days however, she took off early the next morning following the railway until she came to a place called White Well where a Mardu couple named Rosie and Ned were camped.
“Come and have something to eat and rest,” invited Rosie. “What’s your name and where do you come from?”
“I am Lucy from Jigalong,” said Gracie. When the train arrived Ned, Rosie and Gracie travelled to Wiluna.
In no time at all, Gracie was enjoying the relaxed, casual lifestyle she led before her transportation south. Although she had trouble settling down in one place and sleeping in the same bed every night on a mattress.
Her mother was not at Wiluna when she arrived but Gracie was prepared to wait until she came to fetch her. In the meantime she was growing accustomed to having all the comforts of home, three full meals a day and a comfortable bed to sleep on.
One day when she was sitting outside at the camp she was spotted by an informer, a Mardu police tracker. He rushed back to the police station and reported to Sergeant James Mills.
“Sergeant, you know those three muda-muda girls that ran away from the settlement?”
“Yes. I remember the telegrams and information about them.”
“Well, I saw one of them at Rosie and Ned’s camp.”
“What?” he exclaimed. “You mean to tell me that they actually walked to here.”
“No, only one,” said the tracker.
Sergeant Mills drove over to the camp to interview Gracie who “stated that her name was Lucy, and that she and two other girls ran away from the Jigalong Station, and they all walked to White Well 40 miles from Wiluna and the other girls then went bush and left her behind and when the train came along on the 26/9/31 she came to Wiluna”. (File 173/30.)
“This girl Lucy,” he informed the Chief Protector of Aborigines, “is approximately about 12 or 13 years of age and about half grown ... and is very shy and timid. She doesn’t belong to this district, and was inclined to run away into the bush from Rosie’s camp, so I brought her to the Police Station on the 4/10/31 and I am keeping her here until I receive instructions from you.” (James Mills
, Sgt.3/C807, Wiluna 5/10/31)
“Can you identify girl called Lucy. Either Daisy thirteen formerly with Mrs Chellow, Murra Munda or Molly fourteen, Chrissy eleven from Jigalong,” telegrammed the Chief Protector of Aborigines on 13 October.
“Chrissy is the name of girl I have here please advise,” Sergeant Mills replied.
All the officials concerned agreed that Gracie should be returned to the settlement as soon as possible. Neville, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, tried to avoid expenditure, however, so he welcomed the suggestions made by Sergeant Mills and Inspector Simpson. Sergeant Mills proposed that his wife escort Gracie on the condition that the Chief Protector’s Department pay the fare and expenses. “We’ll pay the fare but not the expenses,” replied the Chief Protector.
Finally, Neville notified the Commissioner of Police, “that approval is hereby given to bring the half-caste girl ‘Chrissy’ down. She is to be accompanied by Mrs Mills as suggested in his report on the 21/10/31. Please advise when the child can be expected to reach Mogumber.” (File No.173/30.)
When the Chief Protector received the invoice from Sergeant Mills he pleaded with him that, “in such a case as this you might make a reduction in the amount charged for meals on account of the half-caste girl ‘Chrissy’? The Department is in an unfortunate position in this respect as it cannot make other arrangements which might result in board being provided at a cheaper rate. Admittedly the case is exceptional but it is quite feasible that the child might have been provided for at a lesser rate elsewhere.” (File 173/30, 23/1/32)
Sergeant Mills replied curtly that
I cannot possibly see my way clear to make any reduction in the attached account. The cost of living is very high here, and I make no profit at all of meals supplied at one shilling each, and besides my wife has to cook and prepare them and she is entitled to something for this labour.
When I took charge of this girl she was nearly starving and therefore a big eater for the first few weeks. She had very few clothes and my wife found the material and made clothes for her, which went with her when she left here.
It was no fault of mine that she was there for over ten weeks and I advised you on several occasions that it was inconvenient for me to have her here. So under the circumstances I think this account is very reasonable seeing that she got board, lodgings and clothes for twenty shillings per week.
I would be much obliged if you can see your way clear to expedite the payment of this account. (Jas. Mills, Sgt 3/C807, 27/1/32, Wiluna File 173/30)
The total sum paid to the policemen involved in the search and recapturing of the three runaways from Jigalong was quite handsome. The three of them put the Department “in an unfortunate position” financially. In a letter to the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Protector of Aborigines stated that:
It’s a pity that those youngsters have gone “native” [he’s referring to Molly and Daisy], but it cannot be helped. They were attractive children, and ought to have been brought in years ago.
This emphasises the necessity for Police Officers to report the presence of half-caste children in the bush. I know this is done now, but it seems to have been neglected in some districts in the past.
Chief Protector of Aborigines
26/4/32
(File No.175/30)
“We followed that fence, the rabbit-proof fence, all the way home from the settlement to Jigalong. Long way, alright. We stay in the bush hiding there for a long time,” remembers Molly, who is in her late seventies. When she was only fourteen years old she decided that she wanted to have a part in planning her own destiny.
“Long way” sums up rather understatedly what was, without a doubt, one of the longest walks in the history of the Australian outback. While other parts of this vast country of ours have been crossed on horses or camels, these three girls did their exploring on their bare feet. An incredible achievement in anyone’s language. The vastness and the diversity of the Western Australian landscape would always be respected and appreciated by them—they trekked across it and conquered. This historic trek had taken almost nine weeks.
Several months later a small group of people were relaxing around a fire in the lounge room of a boarding house in the south-west town of Margaret River. They were listening with great interest while some young women were relating a tragic incident where three Aboriginal girls were either drowned in the raging floods or perished in the wilderness, but their bodies were never found.
“Where did this happen?” asked a lady named Mrs Mary Dunnet, who was holidaying with her sister—the proprietor of the boarding house.
“At the Moore River Native Settlement near Mogumber north of Perth,” was the reply. The women recounting the story were employed as nurses there at the time the incident occurred.
“Well, I am pleased to tell you that those girls didn’t drown, they returned home safe and sound to Jigalong and Wiluna,” said Mrs Dunnet. Incidently, she later took Molly in as a trainee house maid on her cattle station, the Balfour Downs Station, about 40 kilometres north-east of the present site of the Jigalong community.
9
What Happened to Them? Where are They Now?
Molly Kelly (nee Craig)
Molly was trained and employed as a domestic help on Balfour Downs Station where she married Toby Kelly, a stockman. She had two daughters Doris (the author) and Annabelle. On 18 November 1940, after Molly’s discharge from the Royal Perth Hospital where she had undergone surgery for appendicitis, she was transported once again under ministerial warrant to Moore River Native Settlement. Nine months later, Molly received a letter from home advising her of the deaths of members of her family at Jigalong. A niece had died from self-inflicted wounds to the head, a customary action of the distressed and the anguished and a common expression of grief and despair. In this case the lacerations were inflicted when Molly and her children had departed months earlier. Others died from whooping cough.
Permission to return to Balfour Downs was refused. Unable to settle down, Molly absconded on 1 January 1941, taking eighteen-month-old Annabelle (Anna) with her and leaving Doris behind at the settlement. She and her baby daughter arrived safely at Jigalong months later, following the same route she had taken nine years earlier. She moved back to Balfour Downs Station with her husband Toby and baby Annabelle. Three years later Annabelle was removed and sent south to the Sister Kate’s Children’s Home in Queens Park. Molly has not seen her since. Molly and Toby worked on various stations in the Meekatharra and Newman districts until their retirement in 1972. Toby passed away in October 1973. Molly now lives quietly at Jigalong, although she is still actively involved in community affairs. Under traditional Aboriginal kinship Molly has eighteen grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
Gracie Cross (nee Fields)
Gracie was captured at Wiluna and was transported back to Moore River Settlement where she was given the surname of Jigalong, later shortened to Long. She completed her education and was sent out to work as domestic help on various farms in the wheatbelt, in institutions in the metropolitan area and on stations in the Murchinson region. While working on a station in the Shark Bay district she married a young station hand named Harry Cross. They had six children: Lucina, Therese, Margaret, Marcia, Celine and Clarence. After their separation, Gracie moved to Geraldton. She passed away in July 1983. Gracie never returned to Jigalong.
Daisy Kadibil
After being reunited with her family, Daisy moved with them to the Jimalbar goldfields then to a camp near Lake Naberu, along the rabbit-proof fence south of Jigalong. She trained as a house maid and was later employed on various stations in the district. She married Kadibil, a station hand, and had four children: Noreena, Elizabeth, Jenny and Margaret. After her husband’s death, Daisy moved to Kalundi Seventh Day Adventist Mission, 25 kilometres north of Meekatharra, where she worked as a cook–housekeeper. She remained there until the mission closed in the 1970s. Daisy is a wonderful storyteller. This bo
ok may not have been written had it not been for her skill and love for storytelling, her vivid memory and her zest for life. Daisy now lives with her son and daughters and their families at Jigalong.
Glossary of Mardujara* words
barlu, him, her, that person
biguda, red kangaroo
buchiman, bushman
bukala, hurry
bilgurs, betrothed or promised man
bunna, ground or earth, sand
dgingi, fat or dripping
dgudu, older sister
dgundu, dingo or dog
durn-durns, young girl or adolescent
galyu time, rainy season
gengas, spirit of the ancestors
gilla, rainbow snake
girdi girdi, hill kangaroo
gulja, a mixture of tobacco and ashes
gulu, wait
gurnmanu, what’s his name
indi, isn’t it
jaarta, shirt
jawuja, trousers
jina, foot
jina jina, dress, frock or shirt
kudda, hair
kukarda, east
kyalie, north
make kumbu, urinate
marbarn, object of magical powers for healing or finding lost items
marbu, flesh-eating spirit (also marlbu)
mayi, damper
midgerji, white woman
midgi-midgi, red
midka, food, a meal or feast
muda-muda, half-caste
mundu, meat
murrandu, goanna (also murrundu)
neked, naked
ngubby, thing, something
pink-eye time, summer, holiday time
wandi, a female
wangka, to talk, language
worru, fire
wudgebulla, white man
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence Page 13