Gillen to Spencer, 1 November 1900, Letter 83:S.A. Museum has artefacts collected by Davidson on these expeditions: two small collections, one from his daughter, M.E.A. Davidson acquired in 1958 (Elkedra to Tanami) and one from Miss A.E. Field, daughter of Frederick Robert Field. (p.c. P. Jones, 30 Oct 1994)
… On Fields recommendation I have purchased, for £34, 4 horses, two good riding saddles and two packsaddles. The turn out belongs to a man who is now en route for Oodnadatta and from there the horses and tackling will be sent back to Byrne. Field describesthetwo of the horses—mares—as good buggy, one good hack and one pack so that I flatter myself we have begun well by making an Excellent bargain. Field would not recommend any thing unsuitable—I hope you will approve—… (Mulvaney et al 1997:299)
Gillen to Spencer, 20 November 1900, Letter 84:
… The horses I bought from Davidson will be sent back to Charlotte Waters where they will be cared for by Byrne. Davidson has explored 30000 miles of hitherto unknown Country West of the Telegraph Line from Tennants Creek and only saw 5 blacks! He describes the Country as a burning desert without a single permanent water[,] the largest water met with was a rock hole containing 20000 Gals … (Mulvaney et al 1997:302; also mentioned on pp.202,405)
An Adelaide telegram in the Melbourne Argus of the 5th inst. says :
A telegram from Alice Springs states that Allan A. Davidson leader of the Central Australian Exploration Syndicate, arrived on Thursday, en route to Adelaide. He states that during the "past three years he and his party have tried all the country for about 350 miles west of Tennant's Creek and 140 miles west of Kelly's Well, and then prospected north-west to Hooker's Creek, the whole of the country being a drought-stricken desert. From the head of Hooker's Creek he proceeded along the Western Australian border, and met with a tableland formation of sandstone and quartzite, with patches of auriferous country. Mr Davidson has now explored an area of 30,000 square miles, which previously was the largest block of unknown country in Australia. He states that he found only one patch of pastoral country, about 200 miles along the Western Australian border. He saw only one live kangaroo, for owing to years of continual drought, all animals were practically extinct in that part. On one occasion his camels were without a drink for twelve days, and twice subsequently for nine and eleven days. The syndicate spent £10,000 in searching for precious metals, 'and discovered gold covering large areas, but not of sufficient value to pay working expenses under the present wretched conditions. So it was decided to go into liquidation. — Taranaki Herald Volume XLVIII, Issue 11614, Saturday 24 November 1900, page 2
© 2012
David
Nash
Created 2 August 2012
Modified 3 August 2012
URL http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/kt/1900-davidson.html