Frederick Walker

Caution, history lesson. Text from the sign not far from Leichardt Falls.

Born in England about 1820, Frederick Walker came to Australia as a young man, worked as a station manager, then as Clerk of Petty Sessions at Tumut in NSW

Because he was an excellent bushman, knew the country and moved quickly Fred was recommended for the position of first Commandant of the Native Mounted Police (NMP). The Corps was established in response to reduce the frequent conflicts between Aborigines and colonists beyond the settled districts.

Eventually his indiscretions as a heavy and indiscriminate drinker lead to his dismissal from the Corps. So he raised a troop of Aboriginal mercenaries who carried out the work of the NMP in a private capacity but this illegal force was soon disbanded by the Government. Walker wrote frequent letters of complaint about what he regarded as the needless killing of Aborigines.

In 1861 he was employed to lead one of the Burke and Wills search parties. After following their tracks until rain had obliterated them, Walker passed the present site of Marathon Station, where Walkers Creek is named for him.

Frederick Walker, Floraville Station

On August 9, 1864, the Legislative Assembly of Queensland thanked Walker for his services as an explorer in Northern Australia. In 1866, W. J. Cracknell, Superintendent of Electric Telegraph advised:

... Mr F. Walker with a well equipped party consisting of four Europeans and four Aboriginal Assistants left Rockhampton in the 19th ultimo (March for Bowen, enroute for the Albert and Gulf shores to thoroughly explore and survey the country... to discover the most eligible route."

Frederick Walker was in many ways a remarkable man. His exploration of the Gulf assisted in opening up the region and his maps were considered accurate. Walker did not find Burke and Wills but he did find Camp 119, their last camp before they turned south on their fatal return journey.

Walker was later employed to survey a 500 mile route from Bowen to Burketown in a bid to compete against South Australia to have Burketown the end of the Trans-Oceanic link from Europe. Although Frederick lost the race and Darwin became the terminus, he did complete the surve line.

His arrival in Burketown was at the height of the Gulf Fever - at phoid which affected the Gulf bought to Burketown by a vessel on which all the crew except the Captain died. His job completed, he began the return journey on November 1866, unwell but determined to continue. On 19 September 1866 the Expedition's log reads:

... About dinner time observing a great change for the worst, they gave him a drop of sal volatile and a gentleman was requested to come from the station to see him... he did not think that Mr Walker would live throughout the day... He died at noon and was buried on the evening of the same day."

The place of Frederick Walker's grave was forgotten and remained a mystery until Mr Walter Camp of Floraville discovered it in 1979, after inany years of searching. Czytaj więcej