1885: Race Day in Tennant Creek

Peter Forrest is an historian with an interest in people and
places of northern and inland Australia.

One of the great pleasures of researching Territory history is that, every now and again, one finds gems of information in unexpected places. This happened to me over the Christmas break, when I was reading a book called "Tales of the Overland: Queensland to Kimberley in 1885".
The book contains the recollections of Barney Lamond, who in 1885 set out from south western Queensland to travel to the new goldfields around Hall's Creek. Its a great story throughout, but the real bonus is a wonderful description of the annual race meeting at Tennant Creek, held in 1885.
With a mate, Lamond rode through the Queensland outback until they struck the Georgina River, which they followed to its junction with the Ranken. Then, "we followed the Ranken River up for about 100 miles, till we came out on the famous Tablelands, the talk of the cattle men."
The Tablelands were then the venue for one of Australia's last great grass rushes. Pastoralists were realising that the Tablelands offered one of the last chances to claim large areas of useful grassland.
Lamond tells of how he passed scattered stations, including "Brunette Creek, where we found old Harry Readford in charge ... they used to call him the White Bull." Lamond doesn't explain, but Readford was in fact one and the same as "Captain Starlight" who had been responsible for Australia's biggest cattle theft in 1870. A white bull in the stolen mob had been identified, and Readford was arrested. However, an admiring Roma jury acquitted him. After still more trouble with the law Readford drove the first stock to what became Brunette Downs, and managed that station in its infancy.
"A few days after we got to Readford's, about thirty station owners, stockmen and hands, were all going to the Overland Telegraph Line at Tennant's Creek. There all the people for hundreds of miles gathered for a race meeting every year. We joined with them. Each stockman had a racehorse - some of the men had been out there for years and had never been to Port Darwin or Alice Springs.
"There were a lot of men who came up from Alice Springs and Barrow Creek, and also a crowd down from Port Darwin way. They have had their amateur race meetings going for years.
They get a load of food, wine, beer, and spirits from Burketown - each member stands his share of the expense and takes it in turns to look after the bar and food. This generally lasts for a month, then they generally have a 300 pound race meeting of two days, after which they all go home till next year."
"The race course is twelve miles from the Tennant's Creek Telegraph Station, on a creek and water called Fatherland. There is a flat close to the creek, with a nice little race course measured out, one mile round, a good and carefully made galloping ground."
"A big mob of horses came, and even bookmakers. Different camps were all round the race course. Anyone getting drunk or making a nuisance was put under the "dog act" (refused liquor). "There was a great lot of gambling with cards at night. Euchre is the game in the Territory. Two up schools would operate in the daytime.
"We were a happy family and at night you could see the camp fires burning around the race course in different places. One night a card party here, a song and dance somewhere else, and at daylight the horses at work.
"There were continually a lot of us up at the Telegraph Station for news of the world which the operators hear. At the station there were Allan Giles (Telegraph Master), Billy Abbot, a mechanic, two line repairers, and also a cook. They had good buildings, a well, and food which was sent up from Adelaide."
"The race meeting was a success. A horse called Blue Spec, that came up from the south of Alice Springs, won the two big handicaps on both days. Madcap, from Burketown, and others from stations round about, had wins."
After the races the gathering dispersed and Lamond rode on to the Kimberley, where he lived most of his life until his death in 1940. We should all be grateful that he left behind such a wonderful vignette of that Tennant Creek race meeting of 1885.