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10. Bob Buck
Title : 10. Bob Buck 10. Bob Buck
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Creator : Mountford, Charles P. (Charles Pearcy), 1890-1976, photographer
Source : PRG 1218/34/115B
Date of creation : 1935
Format : Photograph
Dimensions : 60 x 60 mm
Catalogue record
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Description :

Portrait of Bob Buck, owner of Middleton Ponds Station.


Bob Buck was amongst the pursuit party, led by Constable McKinnon, following the escape of the Aboriginal prisoners from Middleton Ponds on the night of 7th October 1934. In June 1935, the Board of Enquiry into the treatment of these Aboriginal men used Middleton Ponds as a base from which to gather evidence.

Mountford described Bob Buck as a 'kindly old scamp...known far and wide and made famous by Ion Idriess inLasseter's last ride.' (PRG 1218/5/3, page 1). Bob Buck had guided the 1931 expedition to recover the body of LHB Lasseter, who perished in the Petermann Ranges while searching for a fabulously rich reef of gold he claimed to have discovered on a previous trip.

The members of the Enquiry Board kept company and dined with Bob Buck during their stay at Middleton Ponds. Mountford recounts that the 'real' bread, milk and eggs were a welcome change from the canned beef and damper they had eaten on the road.

Bob Buck lived with his Aranda wife, Molly Tjalameinta. He was widely known for his bushmanship, story-telling and for his dependable, generous nature. He was fondly regarded amongst Aboriginal people as he treated them well and ensured they had rations of beef and other items when they were in need. Bob Buck is mentioned with regard in the evidence collected from the Aboriginal men by the Board of Enquiry, being described as "all good fellow, plenty tucker" (PRG 1218/5/2, page 35).

Subjects
Related names :

Buck, Robert Henry (Bob), 1881-1960

Mountford, Charles P, (Charles Pearcy), 1890-1976

Lasseter, Harold Bell, 1880-1931

Commonwealth Board of Enquiry into the alleged ill-treatment of Aborigines near Ayers Rock, 1935

Coverage year : 1935
Period : 1927-1939
Place : Central Australia
Region : Northern Territory
Further reading :

Idriess, Ion L., Lasseter's last ride : an epic of Central Australian gold discovery, Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1931

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

Mountford, Charles P., Manuscript diary, Journey to Ayers Rock, 1935, PRG 1218/5/3

Warden, James. 'T.G.H. Strehlow and the 1935 Board of Inquiry into the alleged ill-treatment of Aborigines' in Traditions in the midst of change : communities, cultures and the Strehlow legacy in Central Australia : proceedings of the Strehlow Conference, Alice Springs 18-20 September 2002, Alice Springs, N.T. : Strehlow Research Centre, 2004, pp. 89-100

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