LEST WE FORGET / XAVIER HERBERT

One of our alert  runners in Cairns  who  supplies this blog with a range of  great finds  came across the above slim volume , first published by the Darwin Military Museum in 2018.  It is an important subject .The back cover  features a photograph of the famous police tracker, Bul-Bul, barefooted, in a khaki uniform. 

By Peter Simon 

The  award winning author Xavier Herbert , who wrote  the  1938  novel   Capricornia, about the Northern Territory,  told me of his relationship  with  Bul-Bul  ,  who  inspired   Jinbul  in  Herbert's follow up epic ,  Poor  Fellow  My  Country.

In  Nemarluk, King of the Wilds, author Ion Idriess described   how   Bul-Bul had  relentlessly tracked for six month and arrested the leader of an indigenous group which vowed to stop intruders on their land, resulting  in the murder of Japanese shark  fishermen , prospectors and cattlemen  in the l930s.  Bul-Bul received  a  bag of flour worth five shillings from the police as a  reward for  capturing  Nemarluk 

Committed for trial in the  Supreme Court ,  Nemarluk  had escaped from Darwin's  tin walled  Fannie Bay prison  while  in  a group  emptying  toilet cans  into  the sea.  He died  in  Darwin from TB .  

Herbert at the Alice Springs grave of Harold  Lasseter who sparked the  hunt for  the  great  lost  gold  reef  of   Central  Australia. 

The many rare experiences Herbert   had in the Territory  included  being  made superintendent of  Darwin's  Kahlin  Compound, his wife, Sadie, put in charge of the girls.

Described as a "young halfcaste ", Valentine Bynoe McGinness , an ambulance driver  at  the hospital, mechanically minded and inventive , once employed as a street sweeper, helped  Xavier  improve conditions  at  the compound , including the  construction of  a 26-hole dunny , which nobody used .   

A wild fight broke out in the compound one day , spears, some with reinforced  steel  tips were  flying.  Herbert  uttered "Jesus !",  rushed  in to try and  stop  the mayhem . He told  me  that out of  the corner of  his eye he had seen a "black " armed  with a nulla-nulla about  to clout him, so he wheeled  around  and  belted  him under the chin .

It was  Bul-Bul, who had  moved  in  to  try and protect  him .  Bul-Bul  called  Valentine McGinness "cousin", and  had  told  him  in  great  detail  how he had  captured   Nemarluk.  Bul-Bul  had served time himself  for  tribal murder and , as often happened,  police  made him  a  tracker.    

Herbert said Bul-Bul, who lived at the compound,  reported the goings on there to police.  In  Herbert's words, he stole  Bul-Bul  from the police and told him he should not  go around pimping  on  his  people . 

Next : The wartime trials  of  Bul-Bul and Herbert .