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From: Trevor Wurfel Friends of Southern Mallee Parks, Pinnaroo
Extract from: Mallee Tracks

My fascination with ‘The Tiger Country’ or ‘The Desert,’ as it was referred to by the locals some 50 years ago, began as a young boy. I climbed onto the roof of our house six miles north of Pinnaroo to watch the summer wildfires raging up the hills to illuminate the night sky. Great fun – nature’s free fireworks! Some years later, I bought a scrub block to the south of Pinnaroo, cleared and developed it and built our house. With such a vast wilderness literally at our doorstep, and with the help of a strong riding horse, I spent many hours exploring and appreciating the special magic that this area can display.

Being an avid reader I sourced early historical records of the area. For example, Somerset Maugham wrote ‘it seems to me that the places where men have loved or suffered keep about them always a faint aroma of something that has not wholly died. It is as though they had acquired a spiritual significance, which mysteriously affects those who pass.’ And so it is to anyone who takes the time to explore Ngarkat.

My first enquiry found me at the Mortlock Library searching for the earliest known reference to Scorpion Springs. In doing so, I came across this quote dated 1849 that describes the springs as a ‘delightful permanent watering spot in the northeast of the south-east of South Australia!’ This would have most likely been the surveyor Edward White on his way north while marking the state border. No doubt an idyllic spot to contemplate the trials and tribulations of surveying during the heat of summer.

Edward John Eyre was probably the first white man to visit the area. He was in the locality on 22 April 1838 to the south-east of Scorpion Springs searching for water. If he had kept going for one more day he would have been able to drink there. The pastoralist and explorer J.W. Beilby certainly did in 1849 and a splendid account of his travels and meeting with the border surveyors can be read in Kenyon’s ‘History of the Mallee’. One notable visitor in the summer of 1888 was John Shaw Neilson who, with his father, was building the border fence when their water supplies ran out. For two days they travelled along the border and reached Scorpion Springs just in time. The poet claimed that he drank fourteen pannikins of water to slake his dreadful thirst.

My great uncle, John Wurfel moved from Reeves Plains (near Mallala, SA) to establish a farm at Beulah in the Victorian mallee in 1891. Not long after he arrived, three of his draughthorses absconded and headed back north-west towards their old home. After he finished seeding, with the remaining horses he set off in search of his other horses. He found one at the shore of Lake Hindmarsh with fresh collar marks, but the other two were still heading north-west. He passed through the Pinnaroo area and eventually found two forlorn horses on the east bank of the Murray River at Bow Hill – on a direct line from Beulah to Reeves Plains – too afraid to swim the river. This would be an adventurous journey for us nowadays, but in those times his trip would not have been out of the ordinary. Really just another day at the office.

The greatest environmental impact of the area was the early pastoral occupation by the Hensleys. However, all that remains are the wells, which they constructed. Nanam Well is a good example. Many of the native wells were shored up to allow the shallow seepage water to collect, but would only have had sufficient water for infrequent travellers with their horses and dog. I had cause to remember the Hensleys when ploughing the paddock some 80 years later and finding the discs jammed with old eight gauge fencing wire, which they had used on their Pinnaroo Station lease.

An excellent source of information on the Scorpion Springs area is the notes written by our local historian, Allan Schiller. His notes are a good starting point for any person wishing to further their knowledge of this unique part of the Pinnaroo district.

The late Bertrand Russell always said that the only lesson man has learnt from history is that he never learns from history. I think it’s our duty to at least make some attempt to learn as much as we can from our forebears and hope to have the wisdom not to repeat their mistakes.

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