The heading , above , on an Adelaide newspaper article written circa l920s about a car trip across Australia by adventurer Francis Birtles (1881-1941), photographer, filmmaker, first man to drive from England to Melbourne in l928 in a Bean car , dubbed The Sundowner . Birtles also blazed long distance bicycle trips around Australia.
It was written by journalist , historian and staunch anti-communist Malcolm Henry Ellis , whose family , hit by the 1890s depression , experienced tough times in outback Queensland . Politically active , Ellis attacked the ALP for its anti conscription stance in WWl and in 1917 ran the National Party Senate campaign in Queensland .
The lengthy newspaper feature, from the Little Darwin cluttered files , contains interesting content about the Northern Territory. One surprising part related to keen Chinese interest in what could be regarded as a state of origin football match between Queensland and New South Wales long before the series became reality .
After travelling through 1200 miles of bush , the Birtles group reached Emungalan , terminus of the early NT railway, a short distance from Katherine, where bridge workers were "cheerfully on strike ".
While Birtles and his engineer went looking for benzine at the railway station, Ellis surveyed the town, which reminded him of the Queensland railway town of Dajarra, "only not so white". There were rows of square fronted iron shops with plenty of breathing space and goats in between .
Each shop bore "good old British signs " such as Wong Foo Ling, tailor and green grocer; Chop Suey Lau, butcher and ironmonger . On entering one of the " palaces", he was greeted by a Chinese woman who declared she was Australian , as was her husband,who demanded to know if Queensland had beaten New South Wales at football a month before .
Not having seen a newspaper during that month due to the overland drive, Ellis could not inform the man who surprisingly presented him with his business card , neatly printed in English and Chinese .
Each shop bore "good old British signs " such as Wong Foo Ling, tailor and green grocer; Chop Suey Lau, butcher and ironmonger . On entering one of the " palaces", he was greeted by a Chinese woman who declared she was Australian , as was her husband,who demanded to know if Queensland had beaten New South Wales at football a month before .
Not having seen a newspaper during that month due to the overland drive, Ellis could not inform the man who surprisingly presented him with his business card , neatly printed in English and Chinese .
The shopkeeper opined that when the results of the match were known he was sure Sydney would have " licked the socks " of the northerners. Ellis wrote that he had warmed to the shopkeeper as "a brother white Australian",seemingly because he was interested in football .
Further north,at Pine Creek , described as a decadent edition of Emungalan ,one of the Chinese shops had a chalked sign: "Yes,we have no bananas ."
Further north,at Pine Creek , described as a decadent edition of Emungalan ,one of the Chinese shops had a chalked sign: "Yes,we have no bananas ."
