3 October 1935

GREATEST CATTLE THEFT IN HISTORY

Captain Starlight's Overland Droving Feat

Many of those who have read 'Robbery Under Arms' probably imagine that the characters in it are entirely fictitious. Actually, however, although Captain Starlight existed in name only, he was a living personage and the leading light in what was probably the greatest theft of cattle in Australian history.

Having come into close contact, with the person known as Starlight—as have also many others who lived in the Northern Territory be tween 1885 and 1900—I would say that the greatest enemy he had was his out standing characteristic, a generous nature. Starlight, or the 'White Bull,' as he was widely known, was always ready to assist the down-and-out; his hand was ever in his pocket.

Contrary to the general belief, Starlight was not Australian-born; he first saw the light of day in England, coming to Australia when about three years of age. Brought up in the back country of New South Wales, it was only a matter of time before he became initiated into the ways of the bush. Early in life he became something out of the ordinary as far as bushmanship was concerned. I doubt if Starlight had an equal in the latter respect.

In the early seventies Starlight went to Queensland, ultimately finding a temporary abode at Mount Cornish station, near where Muttaburra now is. In those days the Mount Cornish country extended for hundreds of miles, so great being the area of the station that it was commonly reported that its western boundary was Western Australia, and its eastern boundary some where near Fiji. It was at that time the biggest cattle station in Australia.

It was shortly after his arrival at Mount Cornish that Starlight, assisted by three other daring spirits, mustered about 1,000 mixed cattle, all carrying the Mount Cornish brand, with a view to turning them into money. Adelaide, nearly 2,000 miles away, was chosen as the market, and with that centre as their ultimate destination, Starlight and his companions started off with the cattle. They had no maps. For hundreds of miles the country to be passed through was unoccupied except by hostile blacks, but confident in his own ability to conquer the unknown, Starlight relied on his uncanny sense of direction to pilot the mob through safely.

His route taken was down the Thompson River, thence along the Barcoo and the Cooper, until the out skirts of civilisation in South Australia were reached. The fact that a bounteous season prevailed at the time, providing an abundance of water, alone made the overlanding feat possible. All the rivers mentioned had been in heavy flood, thus providing water at reasonable distances apart.

During the trip the only fear Starlight had was that the cattle's tracks might be discovered before he got well away from the country from which they had been stolen. Even when he had reached the sandhill country of South Australia Starlight was apprehensive, and each morning he watched for several hours the country he had passed over the previous day. One morning, after having started the cattle on their way, Starlight climbed to the crest of a high sandhill for his usual survey. His spirits dropped to zero when, in the distance, he saw what appeared to be a body of mounted men following the tracks left by the cattle. Undecided what to do, Starlight lay and watched, bemoaning his bad luck after so many months of weary travelling. Time crawled; minutes seemed like hours to him; but suddenly the desert resounded with yells of relief. What he had thought to be a party of horsemen turned out to be a mob of emus making into water. When relating the incident afterwards, Starlight said, 'That was the worst hour I've ever put in; the old heart stopped beating.'

It is common history, how a white bull helped to bring about Starlight's arrest. It has been stated scores of times that the bull in question accompanied the mob all the way from Mount Cornish, but, as a matter of fact, it did not. It was a well bred animal, imported from England by a pastoralist in South Australia, and it joined the mob on its own account one night, at a time when Starlight was passing through occupied country. Twice the white bull was turned out of the mob; but when he found out that it had come back again during the night, Starlight decided to allow it to remain. He would not agree to the suggestion of one of the others that it should be shot. 'Let the tail go with the hide,' he said little thinking of the part the bull was afterwards to play.

The owner of the bull, on missing it from his paddock, went in search of it, and when he came across the tracks of Starlight's mob, he followed them, ultimately arriving in Adelaide at the time of the sale. There he recognised his property and Starlight was arrested; but he alone. He took all the blame, stating that those with him were ignorant of the fact that the cattle had been stolen.

In due course Starlight was taken back to Queensland for trial eventually facing Judge Blakeney at Roma. A son of a nephew of the judge defended Starlight and, after a lengthy trial, the Crown law department was astounded when the jury brought in a verdict of 'Not guilty!' "That's your verdict, gentlemen, but not mine, thank God!" remarked the judge when the foreman announced it. The result of the trial caused such a stir that it was many years before the Sessions were held in Roma again.

Acquitted and a free man, Starlight set out for the Northern Territory, and to him must be given the credit of discovering that fine stretch of pastoral country on the Barkly Tableland, now called Brunette Downs station. A few years after he discovered Brunette, Starlight guided a Mr. Macansh to it, and the latter eventually obtained a lease of it.

Of a roving spirit, starlight roamed the Territory. A master cattleman, a superb bushman, and one without any fear of Myall blacks, Starlight never lacked responsible positions. But he could not hold money. He was at all times a ready bank for scores of no mads in and about the Territory. Too many took advantage of his generosity, few ever troubling to return the money they borrowed.

It seemed a jest of fate that Starlight should meet his death by misadventure on Brunette Downs station, country he originally discovered. Late in 1900 or early in 1901, Starlight, then well on in years, had started off to spend the remainder of his life with an old friend, who owned a cattle station beyond the McArthur River country. Game to the last, Starlight at tempted to swim Corella Creek on Brunette, then in heavy flood. He failed to get across, however, a riderless horse eventually leading to the discovery of his body. Like so many of the romantic personalities who roved the Territory in the early days, Starlight died with his boots on.

There is one thing to his credit; he carried to his grave the names of those associated with him in the theft of the Mount Cornish cattle. Few, if any, alive today, know the identity of Starlight's partners. I don't, and I knew Starlight as well as the next man. Vale, the 'White Bull.'— 'Old Timer.'

Life Saved By Green Ants

Against my better judgment— for I had the offer of other mobs anyone of which would have brought the same results as far as payment was concerned— I once signed a contract to drove 1,200 store bullocks from a Northern Territory station noted for the rushing habits of the cattle bred there.

Actually, the only advantage gained by accepting the offer of the mob in question, compared with any of the others I could have had, was the fact that no weekly mileage limit was imposed. If I thought fit to do so, I could travel 100 miles a week, whereas with the other mobs the contract bound the drover to average his trip out at nothing exceeding 56 miles weekly.

The bullocks had been mustered and were ready when I arrived with my plant at the station, and I must admit that one look at the cattle made me sorry for signing the contract. At least 75 per cent, were old pikers that would never see the eighth anniversary of their birth again. I foresaw trouble.

For the first week the country through which we passed consisted mostly of ti-tree scrub. With the help of eight station blackboys, we treble watched the cattle at nights, and although the mob gave trouble many times each night during the first week, we managed to prevent them from going far. It was, however, a week of sleepless nights. On the eighth morning after taking delivery, the station blackboys left to return home.

That left eight of us all told in the camp, not counting the cook, and I decided to split the night watches into four of 2½ hours each, two men being on watch together, with four spare night horses tied up near the camp, to be handy if needed. I had gone on with the plant to select our eighth night's camp, and after assisting to get things in order on the site decided upon, I noticed large numbers of green-head ants, here and there about the camp. At the time I thought little of the annoyance they might cause, and with no more than a casual remark about the 'green-heads' to the cook and horse tailer, I left and rode back to the cattle.

Sundown was close at hand, when with the bullocks due to be put in camp for the night, I rode in to see if everything was all right. 'We carried all the swags and tucker over here; the green-heads have taken possession of the buckboard,' said the cook on my arrival at the spot where, our gear and food was laid, nearly a quarter of a mile from the original campsite. The two men on second watch had scarcely been out ten minutes; the two just relieved were sitting round the fire drinking coffee, when it came.

A long drawn out clap of thunder overhead is low in comparison with the thunder of those hooves, as 1,200 bullocks moved as one in their mad headlong flight. There was no time to climb the trees close at hand had we wanted to, and we were too stunned even to move. The seven of us in the camp probably all felt that our last few seconds as living beings had come.

Time flew, faster than I thought possible, as with numbed feelings I felt the ground tremble, whilst all around powdered dust flung up by thundering hoofs screened from view the mob I sensed was about to smother us. Everything happened so quickly that it was not until a voice beside me spoke hoarsely that I realised that the bullocks had rushed by. In those few fleeting seconds I would have sworn I could feel the hot breaths emitted from the maddened galloping mob as it rushed by, far too close to be pleasant.

It seemed only a matter of a few seconds from the first alarm before four of us were galloping in the wake of the timber crashing cattle. We might just as well have tried to bale the Southern Ocean dry as wheel that mob.

A couple of hours later, we four who had started in pursuit, as well as the two men who had been on watch, rode back to camp, our horses being almost knocked up as a result of the hard but futile gallop. It was not until my return to camp, however, that I realised how the cook's objection to sleeping near green-heads' nests had saved most of us from certain death. The buckboard was smashed to matchwood, one wing of the bullocks having thundered over it in their mad headlong rush, ruining for ever most of our rations as well as the buckboard and harness. Had we camped at our customary place around the buckboard I would probably be telling the angels of the rush now. Did we return to the station and start afresh? No. I would not have lifted another mob from there if the owners had given me the bullocks. It is advisable to try some things only once.— 'Drover.'

An Awkward Predicament

A friend of mine was driving in the country with a man when the latter's car got bogged in a creek. He promptly took off his clothes, jumped into the muddy creek, and endeavored to get the vehicle out of the bog. The owner sat at the wheel and manipulated the controls as instructed, but without result. After about half an hour my friend was splashed with mud from head to foot. He then noticed an other car approaching, and thinking that there might be women in it, he dashed into the bush and hid behind a gum tree. When the car drew up, its occupants, two of whom were women, decided not to risk crossing the creek, and stopped talking to the driver. Meanwhile, my friend had to wait for more than an hour on the sunny side of the tree, thinking thoughts that cannot be recorded here. Next day he appeared to be suffering from what looked like measles inverted, for he was not sunburnt where the mud had splashed him, but the rest of his body was.—J.R.

Real Life Stories Of South Australia (1935, October 3). Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), p. 16. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92329037