MacDonald's lament at Orroroo: Ron visits the Outback region of South Australia
There's an epic quality to the Southern Flinders and plenty of epic stories associated with the people who carved out the small farming communities.
Towns like Orroroo, about 250 kilometres north of Adelaide in the great expanse of the Walloway Plain. It's now a picturesque service centre for a host of wheat and sheep farms but it's beginnings go back to the 1840s. That's when the pastoralists moved in.
The first pastoral lease was known as the Pekina Run and was taken up by the Chambers brothers. They ran cattle here for about 17 rain-starved months before selling up their entire holding to another wealthy pastoralist, Price Maurice. He paid just 30 Pounds for the lot.
Today, moss and lichen cover the stonework on the ruins that was once the cottage home to one of the first station managers Fred Hayward. It's a reminder that it does rain here - if you are prepared to wait - as Hayward was.
"When Hayward first came here from England I don't know if he knew a sheep from a goat…" said local Orroroo historian, Gerald Kuerschner. "He was only 22 when Maurice gave him the job managing the place. Just imagine being 22 and from England - it would have been a steep learning curve. But by the time he was finished here he knew it all"
In fact he knew enough to oversee the construction of Pekina Homestead which became a major landmark in the Southern Flinders. Its shearing shed was once described as the biggest in South Australia.
The lack of water meant the grand pastoral dreams of Price Maurice and others would blow away in the mid-north dust. And in time, Gerald's forbears and others would take up portions of the once great sheep runs under the Closer Settlement Acts of the 1870s.
But the new smaller farmers would also pay a heavy price especially those who failed to take heed of the controversial Surveyor-General, George Woodroffe Goyder. In his assessment of the State he drew a line between what was suitable cropping country and what wasn't.
"Goyder said north of his line was drought country," said Gerald. "He strongly recommended that the government not open any more of that country for closer settlement. In later years they started moving up here - they didn't take any notice."
Today, Pekina Creek runs close by the ruins of Pekina Homestead. It passes another tale of loss, which is written in stone in the creek bed. The signs point the way to what's known as MacDonald's Lament - a poem written by a Pekina local before heading off to the USA to hopefully make his fortune.
"Donald MacDonald was a local lad and the story is that he had a new patent on a pushbike. But what it was and what happened to him afterwards we've never heard."
Before he left chiselled a poem into the rock. In it, young Donald MacDonald laments the loss of mid-north mates he'll never see again.
Farewell my friends and old companions dear, If any foes I have, they are forgiven And if I never return or never meet thee here I hope to meet thee all again in heaven.
Signed D. Mac Feb 6, 1901
MacDonald's lament is in Pekina Creek just two kilometres from the town ship of Orroroo. The ruins of Pekina Homestead are close by. If you have any further questions please email info@postcards-sa.com.au
MacDonald's Lament
Pekina Creek
2 kilometres from OrrorooPublished 12th March 2006
