The Borroloola Pub

Borroloola
Isolated township full of eccentric stories about its unusual residents.
There is some dispute as to just exactly what the word 'Borroloola' means. Some sources have suggested that it means 'tea-tree', others suggest that it translates as 'place of the paperbarks', still others think it means 'fresh or running water' and others simply say that it is the Aboriginal name for the area and means nothing.

Located 954 km south-east of Darwin and 380 km from the Stuart Highway, Borroloola is a small settlement in the Gulf of Carpentaria which sits on either side of McArthur River like two interdependent towns, 50 km from the estuary.

With a population of nearly 800 (about 200 whites and 600 Kooris) it is a thriving community which is largely based around tourism (particularly fishing) and the needs of the surrounding cattle stations and the local people.

The local Aborigines live in camps around the town. Borroloola is unusual in that it the home of a number of very different Aboriginal cultures. The Yanyuwa, Mara, Karawa and Kurdanji people all live around the town. The Yanyuwa and Mara are referred to as 'saltwater people' and are associated with the Sir Edward Pellew Islands and the lower reaches of the McArthur and Wearyan Rivers. The Kurdanji and Karawa people are classed as 'mainland people' and are associated with land to the south and east of the present township.

Although Borroloola belongs to the Barkly Tablelands area of the Northern Territory it's an area which, in both its vegetation and climate, is more typical of the tropical Gulf Savanna which stretches around the Gulf of Carpentaria from North Queensland.

The present site of the town was first sighted by Ludwig Leichhardt who passed through the area in 1845 on his way from the Darling Downs, in Queensland, to Port Essington on Cobourg Peninsula. Leichhardt named the McArthur River although it is unclear whom he was honouring. Some sources suggest that the river was named after the Macarthurs of Camden in New South Wales, although there was a man named McArthur in Leichhardt's party and it is possible that the river was named after him.

In 1856, Augustus Gregory explored the Victoria River district and the area south-west of present-day Borroloola. Pastoralists followed in his wake and the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line (completed in 1872) saw the establishment of supply depots along Leichhardt's old route, focusing attention on the possibility of establishing townships along the Roper and McArthur Rivers.

The principal stock route for supplying the pastoral domains of the Northern Territory and Kimberley was opened up in 1872 when Dillon Cox contracted Wentworth Darcy Uhr to drove 400 head of cattle from Queensland to a telegraph supply depot on the Roper River. Upon his arrival, the depot was closing so he blazed his crucial trail by continuing on to what is now Darwin Harbour. By 1885, over 60,000 cattle had trodden this path.

The establishment of the stock route and the explorations for a prospective Queensland-Darwin-WA railway stimulated interest in developing townships on the McArthur and Roper Rivers. Thus, in early 1885, it was decided that town sites on both rivers should be surveyed with a view to establishing ports and supply bases. It was the survey team led by J. P. Hingston, which named the town Borroloola.

The town grew rapidly. By 1887, the year of its first race meeting, there was a police station, a court house, two hotels, a butcher's shop and a general store.

By the turn of the century Borroloola had gained a fierce reputation as a frontier town of total disrepute. The drovers moving cattle between the Kimberleys and Western Queensland stopped in the town and a trade in rum, smuggled from Thursday Island, was established. This illicit trade inevitably attracted the detritus of the South seas to the town. It became known as a centre for criminals, murderers and alcoholics - a reputation it only lost when the town became a virtual ghost town in the 1930s.

Anyone interested in reading about these wild early residents should consult J. A. Whitaker's book Borroloola - Isolated and Interesting 1885-1985 which is available from the Borroloola Museum.

The book contains an article which originally appeared in the Northern Standard in 1931 in which an old timer recalls arriving in the town, presumably around the turn of the century, to find 'What a motley crowd they were! Brumby runners from the Calvert and Robinson Rivers, the Orphan (Jack Martin) Jack Sherringham (who the police were after for lifting horses in Queensland) Pigweed Harry (Harry Herbert) Billy Hynes (Billy the Informer), big eyed Billy, Johnnie Mooney and others. Old Billy Macleod (an old Palmer prospector and a great bushman and one of the whitest men in the north) with his two partners, O'Brien and Hunt (also old time Palmer prospectors) were starting a store at the landing...A few days after we arrived, a schooner came up the river and made fast at the landing. The schooner was the 'Good Intent' and Black Jack Reid or Maori Reid owner in command of her. Her first mate was a big buck American nigger. We never heard his name, but christened him 'Smoked Beef'.'

In one of those strange stories which seem to be part of the mythology of the Territory the town once boasted one of the most impressive libraries in rural Australia. The story goes that in the 1890s, when the town was booming, the resident officer in charge of the Borroloola Police Station, an Irishman named Cornelius Power, decided to establish a town library. He was granted a small sum of money and duly ordered some books from Mudie's Select Library in London. From that point the story becomes blurred. Somehow, by the 1920s, the library had grown to 3000 volumes and, Northern Territory mythologising being what it is, the rumour mongers had a field day.

Some people suggested that a grant of books had been made by Lord Hopetoun the Governor of Victoria and later the first Australian Governor-General.

Another theory was that the Carnegie Trust of USA or the Andrew Carnegie Foundation (sources differ) had been asked for some good reading material (there are suggestions that the person making the request was a visitor to the town in 1919 or, maybe, Lord Hopetoun) and had sent books to the isolated settlement.

The library of books which arrived were initially housed in the Court House but when it was demolished they were transferred to the local lockup. The predictable joke of well educated criminals is supposed to have become a reality when W. E. (Bill) Harney was gaoled for six months for supposed cattle duffing. Certainly Harney went on to write a number of books and by 1958 he had been appointed official curator at Uluru.

The library, officially known as the McArthur River Institute, is a source of endless stories of outback education. Charles Joseph Scrutton, widely thought to be the last of the great Overlanders (he had worked for Wentworth D'Arcy Uhr on the 1873 droving expedition through the area) claimed to have read the whole of the library three times. Today the remnants of the library have been spread far and wide. Those books which weren't destroyed by silverfish, cockroaches, mildew, and the humidity of the tropics, found their way into private collections or simply disappeared.

Over the years Borroloola has been a haven for eccentrics with exotic names like 'The Freshwater Admiral', 'The Redbank Hermit' and 'Death Adder'.

None of these people was more interesting or unusual than Roger Jose, the Hermit of Borroloola. It was said that he was the brother of the Dean of Adelaide. In 1916 he walked to Borroloola from Cunnamulla in Queensland. He lived in a shed at the rear of Tattersalls Hotel until a cyclone severely damaged it in 1938. He then rolled a damaged 1000 gallon tank from the hotel to the site on top of the hill opposite the present clinic and, with his Aboriginal companion, lived in it until his death in 1963. He was an eccentric who took full advantage of the Borroloola library and reputedly knew vast sections of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin. He also had a good working knowledge of Shakespeare.

Things to see:  

Borroloola History and Museum
Anyone interested in reading about these wild early residents should consult J. A. Whitaker's book Borroloola Isolated and Interesting 1885-1985 which is available from the Borroloola Museum which is open from 8.00 a.m.-5.00 p.m during the dry season and on weekends. There are also a number of holders of keys to the museum in town including Red Dirt Trading, the McArthur River Caravan Park, Gulf Mini Mart, Terry Fisher Motors and Morgan at the H& R Holiday Unit.

Major National Parks in the Region
Barranyi ( North Island) National Park
This 541ha national park lies within the Sir Edward Pellew group of Islands approximately 30km from the mouth of the McArthur River and the Carrington Channel entrances ( refer to marine chart AUST 305). The Island is the traditional home of the Yanyuwa Aboriginal people. The park plays an important role in the preservation and protection of their culture and tradition. Travellers wishing to visit the park should contact the NT Parks and Wildlife staff at the Borroloola Office on tel: (08) 89758792, fax: (08) 89758701.  

Caranbirini Nature Reserve
Located 37km from Borroloola on the Carpentaria Highway Carranbirini offers the visitor easy walks through sandstone towers on a path which overlooks a billabong and looks across the escarpment country of the Gulf Region. There is no camping. It is restricted to day use only. For more information contact the NT Parks and Wildlife staff at the Borroloola Office on tel: (08) 89758792, fax: (08) 89758701.

Limmen Bight National Park ( Proposed )
Located on the Roper River road180 km from Borroloola on the Lost City Access Track. Contact the NT Parks and Wildlife staff at the Borroloola Office on tel: (08) 89758792, fax: (08) 89758701  

	Hotels
	Borroloola Inn Robinson Rd Borroloola NT 0854 Telephone: (08) 8975 8766 Facsimile: (08) 8975 8773
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	H&R Guest House Robinson Rd Borroloola NT 0852 Telephone: (08) 8975 8883 Facsimile: (08) 8975 8877
	Caravan Parks
	McArthur River Caravan Park Robinson Rd Borroloola NT 0854 Telephone: (08) 8975 8734 Facsimile: (08) 8975 8706
	Camping & Other
	King Ash Bay Fishing Club Borroloola NT 0852 Telephone: (08) 8975 9800
	Restaurants
	Borroloola Inn Robinson Rd Borroloola NT 0854 Telephone: (08) 8975 8766 Facsimile: (08) 8975 8773