An outstanding story in the latest edition of Progenitor , journal of the Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory (GSNT ) , is about "Larry Brunette " , a former head stockman at the Brunette Downs cattle station , who was a woman .
GSNT received an email from the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress in Alice Springs seeking information to help locate the grave of Larry (Warramungu) McDougal, also known as Larry Brunette . At first, it was thought that " Larry" must have been a male , but it was soon established otherwise . The extensive research , including listening to a recorded interview with the son of a previous owner of the station , once owned by the American King Ranch Pastoral Company , soon discovered she was an "amazing person" . After ceasing as the "head stockman ", she had been deeply involved in the day to day running of the station .
Progenitor tells how the search for her grave involved talking to a elderly stockman, Tony Green , who had lived on Brunette Downs for about 75 years . He had been born just after Larry died . Other people, from the Tiwi Islands , with the same photograph of her , had come looking for her grave in recent years .
The above photograph of a grave with shells and stones from the Tiwi Islands is believed to be that of Larry Brunette. The article said Larry's children had been "removed" about 1915 and sent to Cherbourg , Queensland ; in the l930s , more children had been removed and sent to Darwin and the Tiwi Islands .
The unusual Larry Brunette story brings to mind the song, The Drover's Boy , by public servant , singer, songman , Ted Egan , a former Administrator of the Northern Territory . A book of the same name he wrote was set in the l920s when it was illegal for Caucasians and Aboriginals to marry , an Aboriginal" wife" often passed off as a drover's boy .
Egan was quoted as saying he hoped the day would come when the enormous contribution to the Australian pastoral industry by Aboriginal women would be recognised and honoured. Furthermore, he tried to make a film about The Drover's Boy in 1995 but it failed to gain enough financial support after preliminary shooting and had to be abandoned .
