Hermannsburg Mission
We stopped at the old Hermannsburg Mission for lunch. It was freezing and we had to get out the big coats and warm hats.
Just five years after the opening of the Overland Telegraph Line Christian Missionaries headed out in search of new souls to save. There was already a Lutheran community at Bethany in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Two missionaries Hermann Kempe and Wilhelm Schwarz set out from there arriving here on the Finke River with: 37 horses; 20 cattle; about 2000 sheep; five dogs; and some chickens. By the end of 1877 they had constructed dwellings, stockyard and a kitchen and they had been joined by their wives and another missionary and three lay workers.
Five more buildings and the Church followed.
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Hermannsburg Mission
They named their Mission after Hermannsburg in Germany where they had trained. They then set about converting 'the heathen'. To facilitate this the missionaries learnt and documented the local Arrernte language, developing a 54-page dictionary of 1750 words which was published in 1890. In this they emulated other Christian ministries around Australia so that today several Aboriginal languages have been restored using these valuable documents.
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Teaching in Arrarnta and English or perhaps, at one stage, German
It was not easy going. Local people became dependent on the food that was traded in return for their children attending classes and a series of droughts led to cattle being taken and to the illness and death of several of the Mission staff.
The impact on the local people is discussed in more detail above in the section on Aboriginal Culture below.
This land was handed into to traditional ownership in 1982 under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, and the area is now a museum and is heritage-listed.
Soon after leaving we hit the unmade road.
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Paddy melon (Cucumis myriocarpus) - It was growing all along the side of the road
Apparently some brightspark introduced it to feed their camels, it's now a weed in Central Australia
We didn't know what it was at the time - but it didn't taste nice
Wendy had taken over the driving and proved her competence at handling the road you can see above: sand, dust and corrugations - and overtaking several campervans - for around 160 kilometres.