Although Mountford did not specifically record Drummer's language group, he does mention that the old men of the station were of the Southern Arrernte people.

According to Mountford, Drummer was a 'rain' man, and was the traditional owner of the Weelina water hole. Associated with the carpet snake, it was fitting that the party found Cecil, the woma python at Weelina.

Cattle stations in North and Central Australia relied upon the labour of Aboriginal people, who often made up the majority of employees. At the time of this expedition to Mount Dare, around 3,000 Aboriginal people were working on properties in the Northern Territory, as labourers, cattle hands, musterers and domestics.

Aboriginal staff rarely received equal pay to their white counterparts, more often being paid with rations and/or a nominal sum of cash. This disparity continued until activism led to legislative changes in the late 1960s.

Berndt, Ronald and Catherine. End of an era: Aboriginal labour in the Northern Territory. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1987.

Lamshed, Max. 'Monty' : the biography of C.P. Mountford, Adelaide : Rigby, 1972, pp. 56-60

McGrath, Ann. Born in the cattle: Aborigines in cattle country. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987.

Mountford, Charles P. 'Papers relating to the South Australian Government Expedition to search for the remains of explorer Ludwig Leichhardt', PRG 1218/9

Price, A. Grenfell. The Mystery of Leichhardt : the South Australian government expedition of 1938, South Australia : Royal Geographical Society, 1937-38

Shephard, Mark. The Simpson Desert : natural history and human endeavour, Adelaide : Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australian Branch) and Giles Publications, 1992

Aboriginal art online - Aboriginal People and the Cattle Industry

Australian Dictionary of Biography - Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt

National Museum of Australia. Leichhardt: the man, the mystery, the science, the history [symposium held in 2007]