1886 Chas. Goodliffe

Party consisting of:
Chas. Goodliffe
Goodliffe’s brother
a man named Hill
Jack Forsyth
Dave McKay
James Craigie
black boy Peter (“that was what we had christened”)
“six of us, and a black boy, nearly lost our lives; two horses and a dog perished”

left Newcastle Waters, went due west across desert to Hall’s Creeek

a small waterhole Murrunji
then to a soakage 28mi “in the opposite direction from which we wanted to go”, then back to camp

misadventure, estimated 69mi to Newcastle Waters, for 3 fat cows

James Craigie and a black boy, out for 8 days “he returned without finding any suitable water. The boy took him from one soakage to another, and he just managed to get enough water to keep them alive. They had the good luck, also, to get several showers of rain, which helped to keep the horses going, but I don’t think that, in the eight days they were out, they ever got more than thirty miles from the camp the whole time.”

25 mi west water dump
about 40 mi second day
"The boy kept saying 'Nanto—tumble down—All about—tumble down,' meaning that we would die unless we turned back."
next day, 4/11/1886: “About 2 p.m. that day we reached the Rocky Water hole at the head of Armstrong's Creek, called by the blacks 'Malvela,' and I think we can fairly claim to have been the first two white men, that ever saw that waterhole, thereby blazing the track from Newcastle Waters across the desert to Victoria River.”

“Then we followed the others and reached 'Malvola' safely, from thence, it was easy going down Armstrong Creek: with plenty of grass and water. In fact, it was like Paradise on earth.”

Thanks to Darrell Lewis (March 1992)

References

Chas. Goodliffe. THE DONG OF THE CONDAMINE BELL. Part 2. Northern Territory Times 6 Nov 1931, p.1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4535179; Part 1: 30 October 1931, p.1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4535095; and 'OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER', Northern Territory Times 13 Nov 1931, p.1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4535271
waterhole named 'Malvola'

'THE DONG OF THE CONDAMINE BELL.', Northern Standard (Darwin) 9 February 1934, p.11; also 6/2/1934, 13/2/1934 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49491896 'Republished from the NT Times'
“… the Rocky Water hole at the head of Armstrong's Creek, called by the blacks 'Moloola'…”

Hill, Ernestine. 1951. The Territory. Angus and Robertson. http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6722935 * p.185 mentions Charlie Goodliffe

Lewis, Darrell. 2011. The Murranji Track: Ghost Road of the Drovers. Boolarong Press. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=OhPKA3T2YjUC * pp.22-23 summarises the 1886 trip

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