Includes index.
CONTENTS: Part 1: The explorers p1. Missionaries to Coopers Creek p4. Return to the Cooper p14. Supporting Bethesda Mission p19. Life at the mission p27. The twilight years p35. The passing of the mission p40. Part 2: The coming of the Powells p49. Killalpaninna loneliness p55. Adjustment p70. House assistants p75. Sergeant Trim p82. Bah Mong p90. Uncertain times p95. Betty Broadbent p101. The thunderstorm p115. The great drought p121. Part 3: Guy and the jackeroo p135. A summer of heat p141. Shearing time p151. The ghost p153. Farina races p154. Leaving Avondale p157. Part 4: Return to Killalpaninna ruins p161. To the lower Cooper with Ern Murray p167. Tackling the western sand hills p178. Unkimilkinna p185. We try again to reach Lake Eyre p190. Part 5: The floods p197. To Lake Eyre by boat p202. Lake Eyre p211. The return p214. Elliot Price p218. The east side of Lake Eyre p221. Shipwrecked p223. To the Cooper mouth p226. The dry lake p229. Beryl p231.
ILLUSTRATIONS: Bethesda Mission, Killalpaninna; Pastor J.G. Reuther collecting his flock for church service p18. A wedding at Killalpaninna Mission Station p18. The Cooper in flood at Killalpaninna Mission, 1896 p19. Eighteen-horse team used to cart wool from Bethesda Mission, at Killalpaninna, to Port Augusta p19. Pastor Reuther’s house, later the Powells’, at Killalpaninna p34. Water in Killalpaninna Lake; sand to the top of the inside walls in the main house p34. Beryl Powell, after the Killalpaninna era p35. Lance and Beryl Powell with the staghounds Smooger and Lady p50. Lance Powell and a friend on the sand drift which eventually buried the house p50. ‘Going to Etadunna for the mail’: the Powells’ conveyance p51. Camel wagon bringing in filtered soakage water p51. Betty Broadbent and Blue Tip, 1921 p66. Lance Powell on Hippy, 1921 p66. Katrina p67. Ezekiel p67. Cannuwaukaninna, where Betty Broadbent lived p82. Ten feet of wind erosion on the lower Cooper p82. Avondale Station in 1929 p83.
ILLUSTRATIONS: When the good years came to Avondale p83. Two inches of buckling salt covering a waterhole on the lower Cooper p98. Wood carter passing through Avondale p98. Freshwater soakage above a waterhole on the lower Cooper, 1938 p98. ‘We dug the buckboard out of the sand for several hours each day’ p99. Returning from Lake Eyre via crossings on high sand hills – one way only p99. Ern Murray on a high sand hill above the Cooper p114. The long passage of the Powells’ house, 1938 p114. Buckboard following a high sand hill gradually burying trees, looking for a crossing p114. Hector Brooks preparing to set off in the boat p115. Hector surveying Cooper backwater p115. The abnormal lake, 1950 p130. Back to normal, 1952 p130. A profusion of everlastings, 1950 p131. Going up the eastern side of Lake Eyre p131. The author, halfway down clay cliffs of Lake Eyre, 1950 p146. Waves eroding clay cliffs p146. Sand dunes p147.
ILLUSTRATIONS: The mail car entering ‘The Cobbler’, about 160 miles east of Farina on the Innamincka Track, 1930 p147. A big sand hill cut at right angles in the Lower Cooper, 1950 p162. Cliffs like this one were collapsing all the time p162. One of the numerous backwaters in Lake Eyre North p163. Going up the eastern shore of Lake Eyre, 1950 p163. The author among flowers a few miles below Unkimilkinna, Lower Cooper, 1950 p178. Author on the edge of Lake Eyre, near the Cooper mouth, July 1950 p178. Harry Wheeler in camp near the Cooper mouth, 1952 p179. The thickness of salt in 1956 – it was double this thickness in some places in 1948, before the flood p179. The bottle heap, covering over 2 acres, at Innamincka p194. Fairy martin nests by the ruins of Boocaltaninna p194. ‘The only straight road in the North’, over 7 miles long on Avondale Station and made by the author p194. Where the seasons come p195. Where the seasons go – both photographs were taken in the same place p195.
INDEX SELECTIONS: Aborigines. Afghans. ‘Poddy’ Aiston (police officer). Avondale Station. Bertha. Bethesda Mission. Bird life. Birdsville. Birdsville Track. Blazes Well. Bogner, missionary. Bonython family. Cannuwaukaninna bore. Kopperamanna bore. Harry Bosworth. John Bosworth. Betty Broadbent. Brooks family. Harry Butler. Camels. Cannatulkaninna. Caterpillar plagues. Cooper’s Creek. Dead Man’s Hole. Dieri tribe. Diet. Tom Dillon. Dingoes. Drought. Dulkaninna. Emu Camp (Malkuni). Etadunna. Ezekiel. Farina. Flierl, missionary. Flinders Ranges. Goyder’s Lagoon. Hawker. Herman. Homann family. Innamincka. Irrgang family. Ernst Jacob. Johann Jaensch. Billy James. Pastor Kaibel. Katrina. Kent. Killalpaninna Lake. Killalpaninna Station. Kopperamanna Lake. Kopperamanna Station. Kuttipirri waterhole. McConville family. Mad Bob. Mail service. Marree (Hergott Springs). C.A. Meyer. Mice plagues. Missionaries. Mulka. Muloorina. Mundy Creek. Mungerannie. Murnpeowie. Murrapatirrinna.
INDEX SELECTIONS: Ern Murray. New Well. Pastoral Board. Pompurrina soakage. Port Augusta. Powell family. Price brothers. Rabbits. Pastor G.J. Rechner. Aboriginal Reserve. Pastor J.G. Reuther. Pastors Riedel. Clayton River. Diamantina River. Finke River. Warburton (Salt Creek). Jack Ruediger. Russell brothers. Alec Scobie. Sergeant Trim. Snakes. Jack Snow. Staghounds. Stolz, pastor. Strehlow, missionary. Stzelecki’s Creek. Tanunda (Langmeil). Unkimilkinna. Vogelsang family. Harry Wheeler. Whirlpools in Cooper. Harry Williams. Wire Yard (Cannatulkaninna).