The name is absent

56

appointed...when one councillor stood up and gave his
opinion that the best thing to do was to turn a machine
gun on the whole camp and wipe it right out, people
and all, Mr. Riches (the mayor) determined to do his
utmost for the local Aborigines (Cantie, 1978:1).
ъ

A reserve of 200 acres for a mission was procured in 1938.

A children’s home was established. Medical cases from Coober Pedy,
Oodnadatta, and along the transcontinental railway line connecting
Pt. Augusta to Perth were brought in to Pt. Augusta for treatment,
their relatives staying at the mission which thus came to minister
to tribal people.

After the war, Miss Cantle relates, there was talk of the
children going to schools at Pt. Augusta. Psychologists from the
Education Department decided, however, ’’that the children, mostly,
had a primitive background and needed specialised teaching for some
time” (Cantie, 1978:8).

A school was provided at the mission with Government support.

Miss Cantle (1978:15) notes that

In 1963 the Government took full responsibility for
the reserve. The Aborigines became eligible for
social services and no longer received weekly rations.

The boys from the Umeewarra home went to work at fourteen years
of age - mostly to stations. The girls remained at school until
sixteen. It was not until 1967 that there was any expectation for
the Aboriginal children to go to secondary schools in Pt. Augusta.
When this happened, in 1968, the mission school closed.

Writing in 1978, Miss Cantle comments

In these days in a changing world, the Aborigines
of the Port Augusta area appear as a confused people
(Cantie, 1978:16).

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