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You could say Easter arrived on the banks of the Baarka/Darling River on Feb 28th 1828 when Hamilton Hume sat in front of the perplexed Aboriginal tribe and threw down a branch as a sign of peace. The young home-grown explorer was a man of faith, as was expedition leader Captain Charles Sturt. Together, they relayed compassion for a people who they saw were afflicted with smallpox. Their impeccable record in relating to the native people wherever they journeyed mirrored the teachings of Jesus. Easter has arrived on the Western plains in many different forms since then. Those who brought it weren’t all saints, but they were real. 
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In 1856, two dispirited young Germans headed to their home base in London from Lake Boga near Swan Hill, their mission declared a failure. Andreas Täger and Friedrich Spieseke had left Germany five years earlier, fired with a passion to teach the Christian faith to the Aboriginal people of Australia. Encouraged by Governor La Trobe, a fellow member of the Moravian Brethren Church who shared the vision and set land aside at Lake Boga, they set about building a mission station to both protect and educate the Wemba Wemba people. Their ambitions were high and their spirit genuine, but many things conspired to erode their manful efforts. But were they failures? Click on Read More to hear more of the story of Lake Boga. Recently, when I attended a Cornerstone Community gathering in Swan Hill, I was privileged to witness a baptism at Lake Boga. Young men are still stepping out to take commitment to Jesus seriously .  When some leading American retailers were sent a pair of Australian made pants from a factory in Warrnambool Victoria for testing in 1962, they were appalled. Their considered opinion was that the maker of these Merino wool trousers had got it wrong – they were just too good! They would never wear out and customers would not return. The experts recommended that the maker, Fletcher Jones, study the science of ‘Planned Obsolescence.’ They didn’t know who they were talking to! Fletcher, the son of a Bendigo blacksmith had battled his whole life to do the exact opposite. He spoke proudly of being reared in a struggling Christian household where his father taught him concern for the rights of the workers. He was to treat his fellows as creatures made in God’s image, destined to live and work in creative communities. This bred a life-long conviction never to treat his employees as mere cogs in a machine to make him wealthy.  |
AuthorJoin The Outback Historian, Paul Roe, on an unforgettable journey into Australia's Past as he follows the footprints of the Master Storyteller and uncovers unknown treasures of the nation. Archives
May 2025
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