THE 2017

JOHN McDOUALL STUART

MEMORIAL ADDRESS

Freeling Springs located by Stuart, June 1859

A Line of Unfailing Waters:

South Australia’s Mound Springs

and John McDouall Stuart.

Presented by

Colin Harris PSM

Since its inception 53 years ago the John McDouall Stuart Society has made available to its members more

than 60 papers relating to John McDouall Stuart, his companions, sponsors and other notable South

Australians.

The Society is pleased to present the 22nd John McDouall Stuart Memorial Address:– ‘A line of unfailing

waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart’, delivered by Colin Harris at the

Annual General Meeting of the John McDouall Stuart Society Inc. held on Sunday, April 2, 2017.

COLIN HARRIS PSM

Society President, Rick Moore in his introduction said ‘Colin has been a Society member and supporter of

some years standing, and has had a long association with science, environment, geography and history in

South Australia. He has a Public Service medal, is a past President of the Royal Geographical Society of SA,

and is the current & foundation president of Friends of Mound Springs.’

The Friends of Mound Springs (FOMS), a community group was established in 2006 to help raise awareness

of the cultural and scientific importance of the mound springs of the Great Artesian Basin. Colin has been

actively involved in mound springs conservation for over 45 years and at the time of retirement was Director

of Biodiversity Conservation in the South Australian Government.

Mound springs played a pivotal role in the European exploration of much of northern South Australia and

were crucial to John McDouall Stuart’s return crossing of the Australian continent. Stuart himself

acknowledged this, commenting on their importance to his explorations and presciently, forecasting a key

role for them in the location of any trans-continental telegraphic line. In his address to the Society Colin

outlined the nature of the springs and examined their strategic importance to Stuart.

Front cover photo of Freeling Springs 2007, courtesy Colin Harris

JOHN McDOUALL STUART SOCIETY INC.

Founded 25th July 1964, to perpetuate his name and achievements.

A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart 3.

By Colin Harris 1

One of Australia’s most richly patterned trade and communication corridors is to be found in the mound springs country

of northern South Australia. Extending in a great arc for five hundred kilometres south and west of Lake Eyre, the

springs provide a line of unfailing waters in an otherwise harsh desert environment. The potable water they provide

has made the region a focus for human activity over many thousands of years. For John McDouall Stuart, they proved

to be the key to his successful return crossing of the continent in 1861-62. In his wake came pastoralism, the Overland

Telegraph and the narrow gauge railway to Central Australia.2

Mound springs

Mound springs are natural outlets for the pressurised ground waters of Australia’s Great Artesian Basin

(GAB). Technically, they are artesian springs and similar springs occur elsewhere in the world. The common

Australian name of mound springs was given to them in the mid-nineteenth century because the first of the

springs described by Europeans were flowing from elevated mounds. Subsequently, it was found that many

of the springs do not flow from mounds, simply emerging at ground level or even from slight depressions, but

the name has persisted.

Figure 1 Great Artesian Basin showing principal areas of mound spring activity

Modified from Habermehl (1980) & Ponder (1986)

Many of the thousands of springs occurring in the GAB are located along its margins (Figure 1) where the water-bearing

aquifers abut impervious basement rocks, although others occur as inliers where crustal weaknesses along fault lines

and in fracture zones allow the water to escape.3 Mound springs have been a feature of the environment for up to two

million years, but since European settlement the sinking of numerous artesian bores has led to localised declines in

groundwater pressure and subsequent declines in spring flow, in many cases to extinction. Areas of western and central

western Queensland still have many active springs,4 but most in north western New South Wales are either extinct or

reduced to slight flows and seepages.5 Northern South Australia now has the most numerous and active springs.

1 Colin Harris is President of the community group Friends of Mound Springs (FOMS) 2 This paper is based on material previously published in Harris 1981, Harris 1992 and Harris 2002. 3 Habermehl 1980, 1982 4 Wilson 1995 5 Pickard 1992

4. A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart

In a landscape context all of the springs are small, with flows ranging from seepages to a maximum of around 14 million

litres per day for the largest spring at Dalhousie; an active complex of springs on the western margins of the Simpson

Desert north east of Oodnadatta. The estimated flow from all mound springs in Australia is around 140 million litres

per day, of which just over 60% is from South Australian springs. The waters vary in temperature from 20-40 deg. C

and are relatively high in dissolved solids. Precipitation of these solids (especially carbonates), combined with wind-

blown and water-borne sediments, have produced the characteristic mounds.6 In a geological time frame the springs are

dynamic, with abundant evidence of cyclic waxing, waning and extinction, but there are also short term fluctuations in

flow, the reasons for which are not always clear.7

Indigenous culture

South Australia’s mound springs occur in some of Australia’s most inhospitable desert country. Surrounded by sand

ridge and stony deserts, the springs country is characterised by extreme annual temperature ranges and low and erratic

rainfall. Day temperatures in summer consistently exceed 40 deg. C and annual average rainfall figures are in the 120-

140 mm range. Other than after major rainfall events, the principal drainage lines such as the Peake and Stuart creeks

and the Margaret, Neales and Macumba rivers are dry or restricted to a series of disconnected brackish ponds.

The only permanent, potable water in the region comes from the mound springs and they represented an unfailing reserve

which could be relied upon when the surface water of the ephemeral drainage lines, claypans or rock holes had failed.

The quantity of occupational debris around the large springs attests to their utilitarian importance to Indigenous people,

with sand dune campsites displaying an almost continuous patina of worked stone material, animal bones and

hearthstones. At the same time, it is known that the relatively poor quality of the springs water and sparse plant and

animal food resources around the springs encouraged Indigenous people to move regularly and travel away from the

springs whenever rainfall events allowed.8

The need to move within the region was linked with and complemented by the need to communicate and trade in goods

and ideas with more distant people. With a lineal alignment extending over hundreds of kilometres, the springs were

an important link in a continent-wide network of Indigenous trading and communication routes. In particular, Palthirri-

pirdi, a grinding stone quarry west of Lake Eyre, was one of a number of major exchange centres throughout the Lake

Eyre Basin and its stone blanks were an important contribution to a trading system which extended over thousands of

kilometres and involved commodities as diverse as ochre, pituri, bailer shells and a range of stone and wooden

implements.9

Given their utilitarian importance, it is not surprising that the springs featured prominently in many of the myths and

song lines, although with much ritual falling into disuse only decades after European occupation of the region much has

been lost. What has been recorded, particularly by linguist Luise Hercus, indicates clearly that in Kuyani, Arabana,

Southern Aranda and Wangkangurru tradition the people identified very closely with the springs, individual springs

taking on widely varying roles, from simple watering points to locations where important actions or incidents associated

with major dreaming cycles took place.10

Non-Indigenous occupation

Western colonialism in the nineteenth century assumed that new countries taken over and occupied were largely

unknown. A moral imperative which followed from this saw explorers regularly set out to ‘discover’ and map the

‘unknown’ regions.

In mid-nineteenth century South Australia this resulted in first Benjamin Babbage and then Peter Warburton

‘discovering’ the mound springs, overlooking (or perhaps simply ignoring) the fact that Indigenous people had lived on

the springs for thousands of years and knew them intimately. Babbage and Warburton dispatched to Adelaide accounts

of the geography of the springs and speculated on their evolution in the landscape. Springs described and named by

them included Emerald, Walcarina, Coward, Strangways, Beresford, Warburton and Anna.11

6 Habermehl 2000 7 Harris 1992 8 Hercus & Sutton 1985, Badman 2000 9 McBryde 1987, Smith 2013 10 Hercus & Sutton 1985 11 Babbage, 1858

A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart 5.

McDouall Stuart

Deputy Surveyor General George Goyder also named springs in the course of his 1859-60 triangulation surveys in the

region, but it was the diminutive Scotsman John McDouall Stuart who was to describe most fully for European benefit

the extent and strategic importance of the springs.12 Though small in stature and ill at ease in the upper echelons of the

colonial society of his time, we now (rightly) celebrate Stuart as a giant of Australian inland exploration, almost certainly

the most accomplished and successful of all of the fame and fortune seekers who ventured beyond the settled regions.

Building on his experiences when out with Sturt in 1844-45, and his subsequent years as a knock-about bush surveyor,

he emerged by the late 1850s a hardened and resourceful man with qualities keenly appreciated by the pastoral and

mining entrepreneurs William Finke and the Chambers brothers (James and John). Scouting for pastoral runs and gold

prospects on their behalf, Stuart located and described in the few climactic months of April-June 1859 numerous springs

in the country south west and west of Lake Eyre, some of his better known including Herrgott, Elizabeth, Jersey,

Priscilla, Hawker, Loudon, Milne and Freeling. By nature reserved (his critics said dour), Stuart was excited by his

finds, quickly perceiving that they amounted to strategic stepping stones to the interior and, ultimately, the northern

shores of Australia. They represented a line of unfailing waters through the lowest rainfall country of Australia and his

ultimate return crossing of the continent in 1861-62 was made possible by them, a point that he stressed in the accounts

of his travels.

Herrgott Springs

There will now be no difficulty in taking stock to Chambers Creek … the water is very good indeed and there is an

unlimited supply. Journal, 13 & 19 April 1859.

Herrgott Springs, sketch by David Herrgott. Spring of Hope, sketch by David Herrgott

Mitchell Library 930905 Mitchell Library 930905

Elizabeth Springs

There is enough water running to drive a flour mill in two or three places … From whence do they derive their supply

of water? Journal, 10 May 1859

Spring of Hope

…to me it is of the utmost importance, and keeps my retreat open. I can go from here to Adelaide at any time of the

year, and in any sort of season. Journal, 30 May 1859

William Springs

By the discovery of springs on this trip [November 1859-January 1860], the road can now be travelled to the furthest

water [near present day Oodnadatta] that I saw on my last trip from Adelaide, and not be a night without water for the

horses. Journal, 10 November 1859.13

12 Stuart 1865 13 Stuart 1865

6. A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart

Pastoralism

The presence of permanent water and the fact that they had travelled through the country in good seasons, coloured the

economic appraisals of the early European explorers. Stuart himself gave the springs country a ringing endorsement:

The country travelled over today has been very well grassed … take it altogether I have not seen better runs in the

colony … they will feed double and treble the number of stock that runs down the country do. Beresford Springs,

Journal, 10 May 1859

Within a very few years much of the mound springs country had been taken up by prominent colonial pastoralists,

including Samuel Davenport, Philip Levi and Stuart’s sponsors the Chambers brothers. Deceived by the initial

appearance of the country and too anxious for quick returns on their investment, they stocked at excessively high rates.

Predictably, when the first drought hit in 1864-65 numbers crashed and fortunes were lost. A hard lesson had been

learnt early, that permanent water is of no use without stock feed to go with it and subsequent pastoral utilization of the

country – which continues to the present – has been much more circumspect.14

Overland Telegraph

Although pastoralists had been the first Europeans to exploit the region, South Australia was part of a global trading

nation that was increasingly seeking rapid and reliable communication with the rest of the world. Shipping of the time,

which typically needed three to four months to cover the distance between Australia and Britain, did not provide such a

link and by the mid-nineteenth century advances in telegraphy had aroused considerable interest in the possibility of an

overland link to the north coast of Australia and from there via submarine and overland cable to Britain. The South

Australian Government’s interest in this had been one of the reasons for its support of Stuart in his final expeditions and

Stuart himself was in no doubt that he had found a suitable route for an overland connection:

On my arrival in Adelaide from my last journey I found a great deal of anxiety felt as to whether a [telegraph] line could

be carried [across the continent]. There would be a few difficulties in the way, but none which could not be overcome

and made to repay the cost of such an undertaking. (Preface to Hardman edition of Journals, 1864, p. xiv)

In 1872, only a decade after Stuart had crossed the continent, and after only two years of construction, the Overland

Telegraph from Adelaide to the north coast of Australia was complete, placing the major cities of Australia in telegraphic

communication with Britain and Western Europe generally, a technological project of enormous importance.15 Without

the mound springs it is highly unlikely that a telegraphic route would have been established through the centre of the

continent. With relatively minor deviations the route of the Overland Telegraph followed the line of Stuart’s travels

through the mound springs country and the water supply from the springs dictated the location of the Strangways and

Peake repeater stations, part of the continent-wide network of stations needed (at that time) to facilitate transmission of

the telegraphic signal.

Peake OT Station, 1883 National Library of Australia 49352243

14 Harris 1981, Gee 2000 15 Taylor 1980

A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart 7.

Central Australian railway

Less than two decades on from completion of the Overland Telegraph the South Australian Government constructed

through the mound springs country another remarkable piece of infrastructure, the narrow gauge Central Australian

railway.16 Completed to what is now Oodnadatta by 1891, the line was later extended to Alice Springs in 1927,

upgraded to standard gauge and re-routed to Alice Springs in 1980, and (finally) extended to Darwin in 2003.

Presciently, this was another development which Stuart had forecast:

I hope I shall be enabled, by the assistance of Divine Providence, to … confer the benefit on my fellow-men of opening

up a line for rail [across the continent]. Journals, Adelaide, July 185917

Although never as directly dependent on the mound springs as the Overland Telegraph, the construction of the railway

demonstrated very nicely the nexus between the springs and early European activity in the region: it was the springs

which had allowed Stuart direct access to Central Australia, it was the springs which encouraged pastoralists to follow

in his wake and it was the pastoral industry the railway was primarily built to service (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Mound springs and associated cultural features

16 Fuller 1975 17 Stuart, 1865, xiv

8. A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart

Conservation and management

When the old narrow gauge railway to Alice Springs was replaced in 1980 by a new standard gauge line from Tarcoola

it appeared as though the mound springs had outlived their strategic importance to the Australian community.

Improvements in technology had long overtaken the Overland Telegraph, the vehicular route to Central Australia, which

had once paralleled the Overland Telegraph and narrow gauge railway, had been replaced during World War 2 by a new

route well to the west of Stuart’s line of exploration (yet still given the name Stuart Highway), and the pastoral industry

– with numerous bores and dams now available – had much less use for the mound springs than in earlier years of

settlement.

Pastoralism had also impacted heavily on the springs over the years. Fencing constructed around key springs in the

early years of pastoral settlement had been allowed to fall into disrepair as alternative watering points were established

and trampling, grazing and pollution resulted. The sinking of numerous artesian bores, initially to service the railway

and pastoral industry, also had a severe impact on springs, with localised pressure reduction and aquifer drawdown

resulting in significantly reduced flows, in some cases to extinction. Among many examples, Stuart’s Elizabeth Springs

had been reduced to mere trickles and Loudon Spa, one of his favourite campsites, was extinct by the mid-1970s.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s a further threat to the springs arose in the form of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and

uranium mine near Lake Torrens. Although located over one hundred kilometres to the south west of the margins of

the GAB, it was planned to extract water from the Basin and pipe up to 33 million litres per day to the mine and

associated township of Roxby Downs.18 Resultant environmental impact studies focused much attention on the springs

and, paradoxically, generated funding for a range of heritage and biological studies, all of which confirmed the

outstanding natural and cultural values of the springs.19

Funding for conservation and management measures flowed from the surveys, including the establishment of Witjira

National Park to protect Dalhousie Springs (1985) and Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs Conservation Park to protect

springs near Lake Eyre South (1996). Additionally, ten springs on pastoral lease country were fenced to keep out

livestock and feral grazing animals

(Figure 3). For non-Indigenous cultural heritage, interpretative signage was provided and stabilization of buildings was

carried out at Strangways and the Peake Overland Telegraph stations. Ten sites associated with the Overland Telegraph

were entered onto the South Australian Heritage Register and all Indigenous sites received protection under the

provisions of the South Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act, 1988.

Some years later (2006) a volunteer community support group Friends of Mound Springs (FOMS) was established, one

of many national parks Friends groups operating under a parent body Friends of Parks Inc. The group is active, drawing

a membership from around the country and including many scholars and academics involved in mound springs research.

FOMS has been undertaking field trips to the region for the past decade, concentrating initially on improving visitor

management at Strangways and the Peake Overland Telegraph stations and, more recently, on biodiversity management

of the springs. In its short life FOMS has received awards for both its cultural heritage and its biodiversity conservation

work at the springs.20

Some concluding thoughts

The importance of the natural and cultural heritage of the springs is well documented in South Australia and some

important conservation measures have been put in place over the past three decades. Much remains to be done, however,

and from a national perspective the situation is quite unsatisfactory. The Indigenous song cycles and trading routes

were on a continental scale, as were Stuart’s journeys, the construction of the Overland Telegraph, the Central Australian

railway and the Stuart Highway.

What is needed is a national approach which involves the South Australian, Northern Territory and Commonwealth

governments working with the Indigenous people of the region to conserve and celebrate a truly remarkable heritage

legacy.

18 Currently, the extraction is around 42 million litres per day 19 Harris, 1992 20 www.friendsofmoundsprings.org.au

A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart 9.

Figure 3 Mound springs, conservation initiatives

Blanche Cup located by Warburton, October 1858, Mount Hamilton

an extinct spring in the background, and FOMS in foreground 2007

The Bubbler mound spring located by Warburton

October 1858. FOMS in background 2007

Emerald Springs overflow 2007

(Photos courtesy Colin Harris)

10. A line of unfailing waters: South Australia’s mound springs and John McDouall Stuart

References

Babbage, BH 1858: Northern explorations. Reports from Messrs. Babbage and Warburton, and Police Trooper Burtt,

on exploration into the north and north-western interior of South Australia, South Australian Parliamentary Paper, No

151/1858

Badman, FJ 2000: Aboriginal occupation of mound springs in the Lake Eyre South area. In Proceedings of the 3rd Mound

Springs Researchers Forum, Dept. for Environment, Heritage & Aboriginal Affairs, Adelaide, pp 3-13

Fuller, B 1975: The Ghan, the story of the Alice Springs Railway. Rigby, Adelaide

Gee, P 2000: A history of pastoralism in the Lake Eyre South drainage basin, Volume 7, Lake Eyre South Monograph

Series, Royal Geographical Society of South Australia, Adelaide

Habermehl, MA 1980: The Great Artesian Basin, Australia. Bureau Mineral Resources J. Aust. Geol. Geophysics, 5: 9-

38

Habermehl, MA 1982: Springs in the Great Artesian Basin, Australia – their origin and nature. Bureau Mineral

Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Report 235

Habermehl, MA 2000: Great Artesian Basin springs, inventory and assessment, in Proceedings of the 3rd Mound Springs

Researchers Forum, Department for Environment, Heritage & Aboriginal Affairs, Adelaide. pp 14-15

Harris, CR 1981: Oases in the desert: the mound springs of northern South Australia. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc. Aust. /Asia

(South Aust. Branch) 81: 26-39

Harris, CR 1992. Mound springs: South Australian conservation initiatives. Rangeland Journal, 14 (2) 157 –73

Harris, CR 2002: Culture and geography: South Australia’s mound springs as trade and communication routes. Historic

Environments 16 (2) 8-11

Hercus, L & Sutton, P 1985: The assessment of Aboriginal cultural significance of mound springs in South Australia,

prepared in association with Kinhill Stearns for the South Australian Department of Environment and Planning,

Adelaide.

McBryde, I 1987: Goods from another country: exchange networks and the people of the Lake Eyre Basin. In D.J.

Mulvaney & J.P. White (Eds) Australians: a Historical Library pp 252-73, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, Sydney

Pickard, J 1992: Artesian springs in the Western Division of New South Wales, Working paper 9202, Macquarie

University

Ponder, WF 1986: Mound Springs of the Great Artesian Basin in Limnology in Australia (Eds. P. De Deckker and W.D.

Williams) pp 403-20. CSIRO, Melbourne

Smith, M 2013: The Archaeology of Australia’s Deserts. Cambridge UP, New York

Stuart, J McDouall 1865: Explorations in Australia, the Journals of John McDouall Stuart, ed. Wm. Hardman, Saunders,

Otley & Co. London, facsimile editn, SA Libraries Board, 1975. See also Friends State Library SA, 2001 John

McDouall Stuart’s Explorations 1858-62 Govt. Printer, Adelaide (South Australian Parliamentary Papers 1858-63) and

Hankel, V & Gilbert, M (Eds) 2002 The Journal of John McDouall Stuart’s Second journey of Exploration April-July

1859 Friends State Library SA, Adelaide

Taylor, P 1980: An end to silence, the building of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin. Methuen

Aust., Sydney

Wilson, BA 1995: Artesian springs of the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland, Queensland Department of Environment

& Heritage, Brisbane