Jim Stevens

date unknown: clearly prior to 1960, and in camel era

Lockwood, Douglas. 1963. We, The Aborigines. Cassell Australia Ltd. * Walkabout Pocketbook edition 1970 Ure Smith, Sydney.

pp.110-1
"A few years ago a white man named Jim Stevens was lost in the desert between Warrabri settlement and The Granites. [...] When Jim Stevens became lost, with his canteens empty, he caught a desert aboriginal and chained him to the riding saddle of his camel.
'Ngappa! Water!' he demanded. When the aboriginal refused he had salt rubbed on his tongue, as an aid to developing his own thirst, and then made to walk many miles each day.
At night he was kept chained to the camel's saddle. The white man was convinced that sooner or later he would be led to water. But he didn't know - he couldn't know - that the arrest of the native had been seen by his wife, who followed them all day in the lee of sandhills, and at night crept stealthily to the spot where her husband lay. Quickly she gave him the coolamon she carried and he drank thirstily. In this way he was kept alive for days until the white man perished.
Out in the desert today, beside a Namma well, lie the remains of a camel saddle, and the chain by which a black man had been attached to it. His wife had labored there, beating the links with stone until they separated and he was free."