Australian Labor Party Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, shakes the hand of Gurindji leader Vincent Lingiari at the historic August 16,1975 first act of land restitution to Aboriginal people - handing over the pastoral lease to 1250 square miles at Wattie Creek, NT, part of Vestey's Wave Hill Station, successful end to a mammoth struggle which involved Wesley–Smith, his wife, Jan,and many others from near and far, including crusading editor Jim Bowditch, author Frank Hardy and veteran Communist campaigner , Brian Manning .
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At Adelaide University, Robert Wesley-Smith studied first year agricultural science–physics, chemistry, botany and zoology,the first two subjects proving difficult. A decision was made for Wes, with finance from his grandmothers, to resume studies at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW. Within 14 hours of this decision, Wes was on his way. In Armidale, he became a member of the Australian Christian Movement and joined the church choir, conducted by Professor Neville Fletcher,a professor of physics, reputed to have written a one page thesis disproving Einstein’s theory of relativity.
The choir gathered three quarters of an hour before the service to practice what they would sing, which did not leave much time for rehearsal. The college was run by Dick Udy ,one of three brothers who had worked as Methodist missionaries in Fiji, and who later headed the NT Uniting Church. One day Wes was asked to participate in a debate WHY I AM A CHRISTIAN,in the affirmative.The choir master, who had supposedly debunked Einstein’s famous theory, surprisingly, took an opposing view,justifying his stance by saying that while he was not a Christian, he liked participating in music.
Faced with the choice of becoming an agronomist in New Guinea or the Northern Territory, Wes chose the NT. During the college holiday at the end of 1962, he came to Darwin and had a quick look about the place during two months here. Accommodated at the Mitchell Street Mess, he shared a room with a meteorologist who wrote the weather forecasts. Intrigued by such a job, Wes asked his roommate if he could write the forecast , did so, and his prediction, which went out over the radio, was for afternoon monsoonal showers- about 4.21, when public servants knocked off -spot on. The weather was more predictable in those days, he said, blaming global warming for the current apparent uncertain variations.
A keen Australian Rules player, he went along to some matches and was not impressed.The Territory Rice Humpty Doo project, into which American and Australian money had been invested, supposed to turn the Territory into a food bowl for Asia, was on its last legs. Wes went out and inspected the venture.
Three years later, he lobbed back in Darwin with his rural science degree, the first NT Commonwealth cadet agronomist to graduate ; after only one day in town, hardly any time for his feet to touch the ground, he was sent to be the sole scientist at the agricultural research farm/station at Tortilla Flats, named after the Steinbeck novel,on the Adelaide River. It had the reputation of being a place where no scientist lasted long. Nobody informed him that at the nearby Beatrice Hill rice project,some years previously,a 21 year old man had shot himself dead with a.303 rifle inserted in his mouth ,seconds after his friends, thinking he was joking, dared him to do so during a late night drinking session.
Tortilla Flats became the support base for three adjacent pilot farms , rice being one of the crops . Rice paddies were fed by water pumped from the river. Wes, the Christian chorister, came armed with a “weapon”-a trumpet-on which he tootled at night from the edge of the rice paddies, disturbing the Magpie Geese, frogs,mossies and crocodiles. With his background,his trumpeting could be seen as emulating that biblical event outside the walls of Jericho. Field days were organised at which Wes spread the agricultural gospel to the Steinbeckian sod busters.
A carpenter who worked next to Tortilla Flats, Brian Manning ,from Mt Isa,also musically inclined, played the saxophone. Manning came into Darwin at weekends to play in a band at the RSL Club and enjoyed the good meals there, the tucker situation at Tortilla Flats being rough and ready. Manning, who became an airport fireman, a leading Darwin Communist and waterside worker, would have many dealings with Wes in struggles for social justice and freedom , ranging from Aboriginal rights to the East Timor struggle. Manning particularly recalls that he had been most impressed by the way Wes explained technical matters to farmers at Tortilla Flats.
Wes bought himself a Yamaha and liked hitting the outback trails. Involved with the motocrosse club, he drove the water truck around its track, and won the first NT championship in a competition against more experienced riders from Alice Springs,going on to win another two championships. Astride his bike, he rode out to the Nourlangie safari camp when it was run by the so-called Great White Hunter , Allan Stewart. Stewart regularly played the bugle at the Anzac Day dawn ceremony in Darwin. In conversation between the two, Stewart, who liked a drop of rum, said his bugle had become inoperable. Wes examined the instrument and soon had it playing,impressing the White Hunter. A colourful character,Stewart, who had stood for political seats in NSW, had been a PR for the Territory Rice project ; he and Wes discussed the project and why it had failed.
Once a fortnight Wes attended church at Batchelor and stayed with the manager of the Rum Jungle uranium mine. Redtape “ drove everybody mad”at Tortilla Flats. Wes was furious with the restrictions, time wasting and dithering he encountered dealing with head office in Darwin , thus establishing a long and wordy confrontation with “ the system.” Wes complained to the experiment farm manager, Stan Brett, the person who dealt with requisitions from Tortilla Flats; he responded by picking up the outstanding paperwork and consigned it to the bin,never to be heard of again. There was a radio link between Tortilla Flats and Darwin through which Wes voiced his frustrations from time to time.
Getting a dollar biro cost at least $17 due to the excessive redtape involved , Wes reckoned. On another occasion, Wes asked for a can of CRC,handy for spraying on wet spark plugs, and it was knocked back because a clerk said he had a diesel vehicle on the farm. In any case, Wes bought a can, and when a visitor to the farm crossed a stream and conked out because of a wet ignition, he quickly got the vehicle going. It irked him that “ a flea-bitten clerk” could tell a scientist how to do his job. There was a clerk at head office who always had a pile of files on his desk, which were slowly processed. When that fellow went on holiday, his stand-in cleared the files in a few days.
As a result of bucking the system and pointing out absurdities , Wes was inevitably branded a “trouble maker.”A person so regarded by many in government, right wingers, public servants and others- lCommunist author,Frank Hardy,then influenced Wes. After reading Hardy’s 1968 book,The Unlucky Australians, about the Gurindji and their struggles at Wattie Creek,Wes and his partner, Jan Marie Ridgeway, an art schoolteacher, decided to visit the settlement during the Christmas holidays.[ Wes only met Frank Hardy once, probably after a May Day March in Darwin,and was not overly impressed as Frank seemed more interested in other matters.]
A striking painting , on bark, by Jan.
As a result of bucking the system and pointing out absurdities , Wes was inevitably branded a “trouble maker.”A person so regarded by many in government, right wingers, public servants and others- lCommunist author,Frank Hardy,then influenced Wes. After reading Hardy’s 1968 book,The Unlucky Australians, about the Gurindji and their struggles at Wattie Creek,Wes and his partner, Jan Marie Ridgeway, an art schoolteacher, decided to visit the settlement during the Christmas holidays.[ Wes only met Frank Hardy once, probably after a May Day March in Darwin,and was not overly impressed as Frank seemed more interested in other matters.]
A striking painting , on bark, by Jan.
As a result of that first visit to Wattie Creek,Jan and Wes became involved in the cause , bringing them into frequent contact with Brian Manning and Moira and George Gibbs,the last two also union activists. Jan taught at Nightcliff High ,was employed in the Darwin High library and then went into head office in the curriculum development section. After making each trip to Wattie Creek, Wes would call in at the Northern Territory News and discuss the situation with crusading editor, Jim Bowditch, making suggestions for improving conditions.
Girls from Kormilda College posing with Jan-in her frocks.
Bowditch,personally involved in the Gurindji struggle and a close friend of Frank Hardy, at times ran Wes’s observations and letters as news stories, describing him as a human rights activist. The relationship with Bowditch grew ,Wes saying he was inspired by the editor, describing him as a great human being, a fearless and enlightened crusader. Jim invited Wes, a non drinker at the time, to drop in for a snort late at night when the paper was being put to bed. The newspaper stories quoting Wes kept the issue alive , got improvements in services for Aborigines and helped inform the general community about numerous issues.
At times Wes returnedby car from Wattie Creek with Gurindji members who stayed at his house, calling at places like Kulaluk and Bagot. On one trip Vincent Lingiari and his wife were passengers; Vincent’s wife saw Katherine and the sea for the first time. On another occasion Vincent camped at the Bagot reserve for several days and Wes was ordered off the grounds when he was seen talking to him on the lawn inside the front gate.
Printed comments attributed to him at times contained criticism of government which raised eyebrows as he was a public servant. Nevertheless, he refused to be gagged. His involvement with the Gurindjis and the anti- Vietnam War movement resulted in him being watched by ASIO. ASIO even checked to see if Wesley-Smith had been absent from Darwin to get married in Adelaide.[ Yes, he did tie the knot, in the grounds of the property of his cousin who became the NT Supreme Court Chief Justice.]
Printed comments attributed to him at times contained criticism of government which raised eyebrows as he was a public servant. Nevertheless, he refused to be gagged. His involvement with the Gurindjis and the anti- Vietnam War movement resulted in him being watched by ASIO. ASIO even checked to see if Wesley-Smith had been absent from Darwin to get married in Adelaide.[ Yes, he did tie the knot, in the grounds of the property of his cousin who became the NT Supreme Court Chief Justice.]
Wes, Moira Gibbs and Brian Manning were in a group which formed the first directors of the Murramulla-Gurindji Cattle Company , which after three months was passed over to the control of the Gurindji. Persuasive Wesley-Smith was able to get approval from the Animal Industry and Agriculture Department director, Barry Hart, to deliver the first cattle in a government truck. Hart also later okayed giving the part-Brahman herd being replaced with higher grade Brahmans at the Katherine Research Station Farm to the Gurindji, delivered by road trains to Daguragu. To this day,Wes regards this generous act as remarkable.
Wes played a little known- very important part-in a major event in the history of Aboriginal land rights when PM, Gough Whitlam, handed over Wattie Creek to the Gurindji and symbolically poured soil into the hand of Vincent Lingiari. Involved in the planning for the function, Wes provided a bottle of champagne for the occasion,and gave it to the PM. Gough first offered the champagne to Vincent–probably the first time he had tasted champers. Then Whitlam had a swig , but some of the media rushed over and asked the PM to hold it there so that photographs could be taken.
Wes played a little known- very important part-in a major event in the history of Aboriginal land rights when PM, Gough Whitlam, handed over Wattie Creek to the Gurindji and symbolically poured soil into the hand of Vincent Lingiari. Involved in the planning for the function, Wes provided a bottle of champagne for the occasion,and gave it to the PM. Gough first offered the champagne to Vincent–probably the first time he had tasted champers. Then Whitlam had a swig , but some of the media rushed over and asked the PM to hold it there so that photographs could be taken.
As the fluid cascaded down the PM’s ample throat, Wes shouted," Fair go,Gough, you’ll drink the bloody lot!" The PM responded,"Keep your hair on, Wesley!"[ Wes attended this year's anniversary at Daguragu/Kalkarinji and was ignored by the media, yet he was warmly welcomed by the Gurindji. Frank Hardy's son, a lawyer, was there, and Wes told him how the book The Unlucky Australians had impacted on his life. ] NEXT: Championing many other causes,the arrival of Vietnamese refugees, an unusual Russian drinking session and the long fight for East Timor. *** Lingiari/Whitlam photos from Peter Simon Collection ; others Robert Wesley-Smith Archives .
