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‘They were all armed with spears and the cook, McIntyre, had no option but to hand over a quantity of beef’. Cockatoo and Bamboo were arrested a year or so later, charged, found guilty and sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour at Fanny Bay jail (Northern Standard, 163-1926). Charlie Schultz suggested to me that Mount Sanford was established by VRD to keep an eye on their southern boundary with Wave Hill. It was probably also placed there to keep an eye on Humbert River, then being run by Charlie’s uncle, Billy Schultz, and on Limbunya, the next station to the west. In a 1934 report the Mt Sanford homestead was described as, ‘HUT. G.i. on bush timber frame’ (NTPLIC 1934, Victoria River Downs). In 1939 an angle iron Sydney Williams 315 MOUNT SANFORD cottage was erected at Mt Sanford (VRD Day Books, 1957-1958) and an airstrip was put in there by Wally Dowling in April 1940 (VRD Ledger, 87/4/5). W. Miller. Cook at Poison Creek Camp from September 24th 1919 to October 31st 1919 (VRD Day Books, 1909–1925; VRD Ledger 2, Jan 1913 – Dec 1921). It’s possible that this is Billy Linklater, who was more generally was known as Billy Miller. Harold McGuire. Head stockman at Poison Creek Camp from March 11 th 1920 to August 31st 1920 (VRD Ledger 2, Jan 1913 – Dec 1921). J. Hallam. Cook at Poison Creek Camp on April 1st 1920 (VRD Ledger 2, Jan 1913 – Dec 1921). Ah Jack. Cook at Poison Creek Camp from May 10th 1920 to January 31st 1922 (VRD Ledger 2, Jan 1913 – Dec 1921). Bruce Marlay. Head stockman at Sanford from March 26th 1923 to August 1st 1925 (VRD diary 1923). Edward Johnson. Head stockman from June 26th 1927 to July 18th 1927 (VRD diary 1927). Charlie T. (or F?) Carew. Head stockman from to July 19th 1927 to July 24th 1927 (VRD diary 1927). This needs checking because of a clash with Johnson’s dates. J.K. Althous. Head stockman from 1925 (Northern Standard, 19-2-1926), to June 25th 1927 and again from April 30th 1941 to October 31st 1941 (VRD Ledger, Victoria River Downs Ledgers, 1909-1944; WHPJ, 13-6-1941; Northern Standard, 16-3-1926). In late 1925 he had Maurice Brutton as cook (Northern Standard, 19-2-1926). Johnnyt Stacey says (pers. comm.) that he dropped dead outside Max Schober’s store at Elliott in 1952 Jack Cusack. Head stockman from July 25 th 1927 to 1929 (Cole, 1988: 152; WHPJ, 305-1929; VRD Ledger 3, Jan 1922 – Feb 1930). For additional biographical details see entry under Bullita. George ‘Snowy’ Shaw. Head stockman after Cusack left, from February 1st 1930 to February 1st 1944 (VRD Ledger 5). For additional biographical details see entry under Montejinni. Sam Marshall. Head stockman in February and May 1933 (TCPJ, 23-2-1933, 21-51933). Charlie Schultz (pers. comm.) said that he ‘was a good man, Sam, too, but a bit of a ratbag’. Charlie said that while crossing the Barkly Tableland he was caught in a flood and had to climb a tree. They found him dead there, possibly bitten by a deaf adder. Walter Wye. Head stockman (or just stockman?) in the 1930s (pers. comm., Charlie Schultz). He was at Mt Sanford in June 1937 (Fuller, diary 1937-38); January and May 1938 (WHPJ, 8-1-1938, 30-5-1938), May 1939 (WHPJ, 15-5-1939), May 1940 (TCPJ, 30-5-1940) and July 1941 (WHPJ, 13-6-1941). For additional biographical details see entry under Bradshaw. 316 MOUNT SANFORD James Norman ‘Jim’ Martin. Head stockman in 1930s or 1940s. The Wave Hill police journals (12-12-37) have an E. Martin at Mt Sanford in 1937, but this is probably Jim Martin, one of Alf and Beatrice Martin’s sons. According to an obituary in the Northern Territory Newsletter (December 1975: 22), Jim Martin was born in Wyndham. When World War Two broke out Jim and his brother Stan went to enlist. Stan was too young to join, but concocted a story to increase his age. However, they got their story mixed up and the enlisting officer pointed out that Stan must have been born six months before Jim. Jim had worn glasses from the age of 13, but he got through the eyesight test by learning the eye chart from Stan, who took the test before him. They both ended up as commandos, with Jim probably the only Australian commando to wear glasses. After the war he started the Martin Brothers transport business out of Alice Springs and later he owned a garage in Katherine. Subsequently he was manager of Mataranka for thirteen years, was president of the NT Cattleman’s Association, and helped form the Katherine Show Society. He died in Katherine hospital late in 1975. Bob ‘Broadaxe’ Nelson. Head stockman from August 8th 1933 (VRD Ledger, 19091944), and again from April to June 1945 (VRD Ledger, 1909-1944). For additional biographical details see entry under VRD. Ted Martin. Head Stockman in 1937 (Fuller diary 1937-38, entry for 3-6-1937). F. Marshall. Head stockman from June 28th 1945 to August 11th 1945 (VRD Ledger, 1909-1944; WHPJ, 9-7-1945). Wason Byers. Head stockman from June 2nd 1945 to July 7th 1945 and again from August 10th 1945 to October 6th 1945 (VRD Journals, April 45 to Jan 48). For additional biographical records see entry under Coolibah station. R.W. ‘Bob’ Barnes. Head stockman from October 3rd 1945 to October 10th 1946 (VRD Journals, April 45 to Jan 48). For additional biographical details see entry under VRD. George Bates. Head stockman from November 28th 1946 to April 5th 1952 (VRD journal, Nov 51 – Sept 52; Sweeney, 1947: 13; WHPJ, 7-10-51; Gordon, 1992: 130; Allen, 1995). In 1953 he was overseer at VRD (Hoofs & Horns, October 1953: 67). He resigned as overseer in 1956 to once again become a head stockman, either at Mount Sanford (WHPJ, 13-11-1956; Hoofs & Horns, January 1956: 6) or at Centre Camp (VRD Day Book, 194950). For additional biographical details see entry under VRD. Splinter Prendergast. Head stockman from December 30th 1948 to April 28th 1949. He died ‘after the Brunette races last year’ (Hoofs & Horns August 1953: 56). Jim A. Roberts. Head stockman from September 30th 1949 to October 10th 1949 (NBA). Ron Woodlands. Head stockman from May 3rd 1952 to December 2nd 1952 (VRD Journals: Nov 51 – Sept 52; WHPJ, 29-5-1952). Fred Schull. Boundary rider in 1956 (WHPJ, 13-3-56). He was known to Aboriginal people as Wangamali, and renowned for his immense strength. In the early 1920s he used a donkey team and fire-plough to help form the Dry River stock route between Katherine 317 MOUNT SANFORD and Top Springs (Douglas, TS195). In 1927 he was rumoured to have killed an Aboriginal man, ‘Lumpy-eye’ or ‘Old Toby’, who was working for him in the bush near Montejinni (WHPJ, 23-7-1927). The Wave Hill police investigated but found no evidence of a murder and an inquest was considered unnecessary (WHPJ, 26-7-1927). Albert Lalga, a Mudbura man who showed me Lumpy-eye’s grave in 1977, said that Fred Schull and Lumpy-eye were working with a fire plough and fought over possession of Lumpy-eye's wife. Schull knocked Lumpy-eye out with a shovel and then left poisoned water there, knowing that

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