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Camp, Yirrkala
Title : Camp, Yirrkala Camp, Yirrkala View More Images

(Selection of Yirrkala campsite)


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Creator : Mountford, Charles P., photographer
Source : PRG 1218/35/1376
Date of creation : 1948
Format : Photograph
Dimensions : 25 x 35 mm
Contributor : State Library of South Australia
Catalogue record
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Description :

Campsite of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land in Yirrkala, 1948.


Attached, is an entry from the journal of C.P. Mountford. 20 June, 1948.

According to Mountford, some of the Expedition party had suggested the abandoned station at Gove Airstrip as a potential location to set up camp. Mountford however, was convinced the beach at Yirrkala would be a better location, but decided to fly out from Groote Eylandt to inspect them both and make a final decision. There must have been some recent disquiet in the party, as Mountford indicated that it was prudent for him to consider both camps "especially after the politics of [Smithsonian anthropologist] Setzler."

The trip, made uncomfortable by illness, confirmed Mountford's initial belief - he dismissed the Gove location as unsuitable.
"The old Gove station is in a ramshackle state. The kitchen and dining room were in good order, but all the other buildings were devoid of walls, some even of roofs... Also, all the water required by the party would have to be carried from Yirkalla [sic], a hundred gallons a day. The final aspect however that decided me against Gove was that, should the motor vehicles fail, we would be isolated from water, and our work."

"Yirrkala camp is on the beach, a sandy camp, with water near at hand and the [Aboriginal's] camp within a half a mile. The supplies can be unloaded direct on the beach and there is no danger of being isolated on account of the failure of the motor vehicles. So, I decided on Yirrkala."

Journal entry is from PRG 1218/17/13
Subjects
Coverage year : 1948
Place : Yirrkala
Region : Northern Territory
Further reading :

American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, (1948). Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land, Melbourne : Melbourne University Press, 1956-1964

Lamshed, Max. 'Monty' : the biography of C.P. Mountford, Adelaide : Rigby, 1972

May, Sally K. Collecting cultures : myth, politics, and collaboration in the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Lanham, Md. : AltaMira Press, 2010

National Geographic Magazine, vol. 96, no. 6, 1949, pp. 745-782, 'Exploring Stone-age Arnhem Land' by Charles P. Mountford.
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