Preacher, author, activist and prodigious inventor, David Unaipon was a remarkable Australian. He braved the ignorance and prejudice of White Australia and, for decades in his quiet, scholarly, courtly way, he preached his truth and pursued an astonishing sweep of interests.
                                                                                                                                     Mark McGuinness

How did the gentle face of David, son of James and Nymbulda Unaipon of the Narrinyeri people, come to smile at thousands of Australians from the $50 note they swap daily at shop counters? How did an Aboriginal boy, educated in a humble mission school at the mouth of the Murray River around 150 years ago, come to be compared to one of the Western world’s greatest geniuses - Leonardo da Vinci?

PART 2 of the  Saga of Henrietta Foott
Henrietta and James Foott must have begun 1864 full of optimism. Assisted by Aboriginal people, they had hewn out a station just south of Bourke that was a far cry from their early life half a world away. In Ireland, James had dined on Queen Anne plates imported from China, using silverware etched with his family crest. Henrietta’s distinguished family in Scotland had guaranteed her a good education.
 
James had squandered his inheritance and sailed to Australia with Henrietta in 1853 looking for a fresh start. Their great grand-daughter Bethia pictured James’ pioneering toil. “ … he dug with his spade, and cut with his axe. His land cleared, his saplings split, his bark stripped, his homestead built, it was not enough that he bought and bred and fed and watered his sheep. He worked hard, and thought that his hands had brought a life of security for his wife and for his children.”
​
The  Darling in flood, sketch by Henrietta Foott

​Women alone in the Bush,
Mothers and wives,
Keeping your guard in the weird night-hush
Over sleeping lives;
In woe or weal,
Staunch and fond,
True as steel
To the marriage bond…
Hearts of Gold, O Hearts of Gold!
                                                          (Will Oglivie 1896)          
 
Scots stockman/poet, Will Ogilvie, witnessed first-hand the heroic fortitude of the women who braved the punishing conditions of the lonely West. He admired the exceptional resourcefulness it took survive without schools, shops, churches, hospitals and post offices.
 
Scotswoman Henrietta Foott arrived near the site of Fort Bourke on the banks of the Darling in October 1860. The record of her ten-year stint in the Outback is a remarkable story of a girl raised in a comfortable home in Aberdeen, transforming into a frontier woman capable of keeping her family in a rough camp 800 km from civilisation. Without question, her sturdy faith was the backbone of the family.

LIST OF STORIES ON THE OUTBACK HISTORIAN WEBSITE
This list of stories will continue to be updated.  Included are the names of the particular characters, the story title, the date of publication and categories related to the story. The quickest way to find a particular story on the website is to go to the Archives to find the month it was published or to the Categories.
​
ARNOLD, Thomas THE HEADMASTER WHO LIT THE OYMPIC FLAME, August 2024, Sport
ARNOTT, William AUSTRALIA’S BISCUIT KING, July 2024, Business, Pastoral Care, Philanthropy
BOOTH, Brian IT’S HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME, June 2023, Sport
BOREHAM, Frank A TALE OF TWO STORYTELLERS, February 2024, Storytelling, The Arts
COOPER, William  A BRIGHT LIGHT IN DARK DAYS, February 2025, Indigenous, Leadership
DALBY, Mary Anne ‘THE PEOPLE’S FRIEND’, July 2024, Pastoral Care, Social Services
DELACOUR DE LABILLIERE, Madelaine Rose MORE THAN MILLS & BOON, March 2025,  Bush Services
GRIBBLE, John WARANGESDA, CAMP OF MERCY, March 2025, Indigenous   
HASSALL, Thomas PIONEER EDUCATOR, February 2023, New Colony, Education, Pastoral Care
JOHNSON, Richard A GRATEFUL START, February 2023    New Colony, Education, Pastoral Care
JONES, Fletcher THE HOUSE THAT QUALITY BUILT, March 2024,  Business, Philanthropy, For Schools
LAWRY, Mary  A BRAVE AUSTRALIAN GIRL, January 2025, New Colony, Social Services
LIDDELL, Eric THE FLYING SCOTSMAN, July 2024, Sport
MCKAY, Hugh, Victor YOUNG AUSTRALIANS WITH BIG IDEAS, April 2024,  Invention, Philanthropy
McILVEEN, Arthur THE SALVO AT TOBRUK,  Anzac Day
MATTHEWS, Daniel ‘MR MALOGA’ March 2023, Indigenous
MORT, Thomas SIR THOMAS AND SIR BOB FEED THE WORLD, May 2023,  Invention, Philanthropy
NICHOLLS, Doug  AN AFL CHAMPION,  May 2023,  Indigenous, Pastoral Care, Politics
NICHOLLS, Doug and Gladys  A COMPELLING DOUBLE ACT, May 2022, Indigenous, Pastoral Care
PARKES, Henry ONE PEOPLE, ONE DESTINY, March 23, Politics
REIBEY, Mary  THE WILD COLONIAL GIRL, September 22,  New Colony, Entrepreneur                          
REID, Bill  BILL REID’S HALF FORGOTTEN MUSIC,  January 24, Indigenous, Pastoral Care
RIDLEY, John YOUNG AUSTRALIANS WITH BIG IDEAS, April 24 , Invention, Philanthropy
WALKER, Alan  SIXTY YEARS OF COUNSEL,  March 23,Pastoral Care, Social Services
WALKER,  Alan  THE WIND IN THE GUM TREE, August 22   Pastoral Care, Social Services
​
 

It caused quite a stir in Bourke when Yarran, a young Aboriginal man appeared in the ANZAC march last week, leading a horse and kitted out in the famous uniform of the Light Horsemen of World War One. It was his father Uncle Raymond Finn’s way of reminding new generations of the part his great grandfather and other young indigenous men had played in strategic battles like the charge at Beersheba.
 
It’s sad that this chapter has been forgotten in Australia’s military history. About 1,000 Indigenous men fought in the Australian ranks in World War 1, but on their return, the government did not honour their contribution in the same way it did that of other servicemen. The Knight brothers of Bourke were among those who went unrecognised until recently.
 
Uncle Raymond told me how on 25 September 2018, Australia’s ambassador Paul Griffith, along with Israeli dignitaries, gathered to honour the Light Horsemen who fought the Battle of Tzemach. The following year, the statue “The Aborigine and His Horse”, was dedicated there on the shores of Lake Galilee.

“Thrive on thrills, and have GO!”   Brigadier Arthur McIlveen.
 
The worker hefting a crowbar making a hole for a telegraph pole snarled at the Salvation Army officer peddling past on a country road with an arm load of Warcry newspapers, “Go and work you loafer!” He’d picked the wrong man, because Arthur McIlveen was a bushman used to digging fifty postholes a day. The feisty Salvo dropped his bike, fronted the heckler demanding the crowbar and, in a flurry of dirt, proceeded to out dig him - much to the amusement of his workmates!
 
‘Pugnacious’ was the word used to describe the chaplain whom the Diggers at Tobruk declared the best known Australian during the bitter six month siege of April to December 1941.  Coming from the legendary 9th Division ‘Rats of Tobruk’, that was highest praise.
 
Arthur was known for covering dangerous miles between trenches just to be there handing out tea and coffee to men returning from bloody fighting patrols. As did other chaplains, he simply materialised out of the dust of battle carrying the wounded, offering comfort and counsel, burying their dead comrades, listening and helping them write letters home.

It’s a bit unnerving when you wake up one morning thinking “Y’know, I might have wasted nearly sixty years of my life!”  I mean, when I think about the amount of time and energy I’ve put into telling the Easter Story, I‘d have to be seriously deluded or certifiably crazy to have made the investment of my one precious go at life on this planet on a purely fictional event. So, I re-ran the movie in my mind just to check.
 
I first took the Jesus story on board as a kid because trustworthy adults around me lived as if the whole thing was true and they had found it worked in making sense of life.  Some hard-bitten cynics at university gave my basic faith a much needed workout, but an equally tough minded bloke showed me the evidence for the resurrection could stand rigorous inquiry. He took me with him to stand up in public spaces to debate the case with all sorts. It put muscle and sinew into my beliefs and gave me a road tested world view.

Since then, I’ve preached it on city streets and beaches, up and down the coast and into the Outback. I’ve acted it in plays to big audiences of young people.  I’ve told the story to kids in classrooms, I’ve sung it in churches, schools, universities and camps. I’ve spoken it on radio and written it into books and blogs, magazine and newspaper articles. I’ve held it out as bright hope at the bedside of dying friends and spoken it as comfort to family and friends standing over their open graves. I‘ve taught it as bona fide fact to men and women from countries all over the earth in classrooms and churches and seen it change their lives.

I have a vivid ‘Crocodile Dundee’ moment locked in my memory that always makes me chuckle. Picture a young bush lad who’d grown up chasing cows on the frosty hills of Yackandandah, passing through the ornate entrance of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. Kind friends have taken their colonial visitor Bill to hear George Frideric Handel’s famous Messiah – the whole works, full orchestra and choir.
 
Everyone is suitably dressed for a posh occasion - after all, this was where the most famous choral work in history had first been performed in England in 1743. When it crescendoed with the rousing Hallelujah Chorus, it was reported that Billy couldn’t contain himself. Sheer exhilaration swept him up into that mighty hymn and the young Aussie jumped up on his plush theatre seat and started punching the air in response to the thundering Hallelujah’s!
 
Mind you, Yackandandah Bill was not the first to rise to the occasion. It’s said that when King George I heard it, he too could not remain seated for the powerful Chorus and rose to his feet to honour the greater King. For over 250 years concert goers have followed suit. Composer Joseph Haydn is said to have heard it and "wept like a child" exclaiming, "He is the master of us all." Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart agreed. "Handel understands effect better than any of us – when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt … ”

It’s amazing how a fragment of story can glitter when it’s brought into the light of day. The other day a friend sent me a coffee table book celebrating some amazing characters who’d been quietly serving the remote areas of Australia for a hundred years. Its title gives the game away, ‘Never Too Far, Never Too Few’ – it’s the story of a group humbly calling themselves ‘Bush Church Aid.’
 
It was launched at a time of crisis in Sydney in 1918 - the Spanish influenza pandemic was gripping the post-war world. Everywhere Australians were withdrawing into self-protection mode while some in the Anglican Church took this initiative to reach out to the forgotten people of the Bush.
 
The photo of a strong-featured face grabbed my attention. It was the image of a confident woman, upright and looking straight into the lens, full of conviction.  And the bones of her story say she was. With her good looks and a noble name like Madaline Rose Delacour de Labilliere, she could easily be the heroine of a Mills and Boon romance.
 
She was in fact a romantic, but a lady of a much more robust stamp than a paperback hero.