The Trans-Australia Wonderland

The first book written on the natural history of life on the Nullabor Plain, was written by station-master A. G. Bolam and first published in 1923. The author recollects his times with Aboriginal trackers and workers in and around Ooldeah, as the great railway progressed from South Australia across to Western Australia, and in doing so looks at animal and bird life and the unique geographical feature of the Plain. Bolam studied the Ooldeah tribe and records their nomadic social life, their attitude to clothes and footwear, smoking, bartering, marriage, weapons, tools, whip making and water carrying. He records their approach to fire-making and smoke signals, medicine and surgery, amusements, decorations, corroborees and ceremonies, as well as deaths and burials. Of especial interest are his notes on message sticks, writing, tracking and procuring water in desert conditions.

Author Biography

Born in 1893, Anthony Bolam was the Station Master at Ooldea Siding on the Trans-Australian Railway from 1920 to 1925. Bolam was very interested in Aboriginal culture and was a careful and sympathetic recorder of their lifestyle, customs and ceremonies of both the West Australian and South Australian Aboriginals. A keen photographer, he took many photographs of the Aboriginal people who congregated at Ooldea Siding in the early 1920s, also Daisy Bates, trapped kangaroo, mountain devil, rabbit-eared bandicoot, kangaroo mouse and other animals found on the author’s journey across the Nullabor.