Elsey Cemetery

Our evening in Tennant Creek passed. That is about all I can say for it. It was just a bit more then uncomfortably hot until pretty early in the morning. We had little shade. I have had to spray several times to knock the ants back to a nearly acceptable level. It was an adventure.

Tennant Creek is a small place and the campground locks the gate at dark. We could hear lots of people noise...yelling, arguing, laughing...until the wee hours. At least the shower was reasonable.

Leaving Tennent Creek we intended to head north to Daly Waters for the next night. However, we found that my estimate of the driving time was inflated and we got to Daly Waters well before lunch. Moreover, this place was a good bit smaller than Tennant Creek. We decided to push on for Katherine. On the way to Katherine, we stopped to visit the Elsey Cemetery.



In 1902, Jeannie Gunn accompanied her husband Aeneas Gunn to the Elsey Station near Mataranka, NT. She and Aeneas were married and traveled from Melbourne to Darwin by ship and then south the 480+ km to the station. She was the first white woman to settle in the area and her husband was a partner in the station.

On January 1902, the couple left Melbourne. On 16 Mark 1903, Aeneas died of malarial dysentery and Jeannie returned to Melbourne shortly afterwards. Although Jeannie died in 1961 and is buried in Melbourne, she has a marker here, sharing the location of her husband's resting place.

Of the people on the station when Jeannie was here, only Bett Bett lived longer than Jeannie and this is her marker.

In her book (penned under her husband's name), Jeannie changed the names of the people and told a historical account as if it were a novel. This marker even acknowledges the real and book names for this person.

This fellow also has both names listed.

In the midsts of the cemetery we find a pretty large termite mound. These fluted columns are called "cathedrals" and certainly give the impressing of a gothic cathedral with the flying buttresses.

Some graves are marked but unidentified.

Just beyond the borders of the cemetery we find some truly huge termite mounds. We've been told that these grow about a centimeter a year so you get the idea of how old these structures are.

It was interesting to visit this cemetery and see the kind of place these folks lived. When we were there it was hot, fairly humid, and rife with flies. We wore our fly nets or we could not have walked the grounds to see it.

You notice that there are clouds in the sky. Except for a few wispy pink clouds on the way into Alice Springs, we did not see could start to accumulate until north of Tennant Creek. We are approaching the Top End, where the monsoons rule and the outback disappears. Katherine is know and the place where the Top End meets the Outback. This is the first sign of this joining. The termite cathedrals are another indicator. We'll see more of these.