Link to our HOME page

ALFRED WERNHAM CANNING

1860 - 1936

 

 

 

Alf Canning was born in Melbourne on February 21st 1860 (one source says 1862) to William Canning and his wife Lucy, (nee Mason.)

He was educated at Carlton College, Melbourne and after graduating joined the Lands Department of New South Wales. He worked at Cooma, Bathurst and Bega and in 1884 married Edith Maude Butcher.
 
He moved to Western Australia in 1893 where he joined the Western Australian survey department.

One of his first assignments was to survey the route for a rabbit proof fence (from Starvation Bay on the south coast to Cape Keraudren on the north coast.) In 1906 he was given the job of surveying a stock route from the east Kimberley to the eastern gold fields.

Aboriginal guides were recruited to show the men where to find water and were then chained up at night to stop them from running off. This was a wide spread practice but later, complaints made by a cook who had been sacked by Canning led to an inquiry into the treatment of the natives but Canning was exonerated.

The party was looking for water supplies every 25 kilometres or so and if no natural source was available they sank wells.

Early on Canning decided to give local aboriginal names to the water sources as he reasoned that this would make it easier for the drovers coming through to inquire about the location of water.
 

After reaching Halls Creek they returned along the same route sinking more wells as they went.

He worked as a district surveyor in Perth in 1912 and in 1915 worked for the Land Re-pricing Board. He continued working for the public service until 1922 when he went into private practice with H. S. King.


In 1929 at the age of 65, Canning returned to the track with another group of men to clean and repair the wells. He died in Perth on May 22nd 1936.


Canning was highly respected by the men working for him and he endured a great deal of hardship while working in the bush. On one occasion he travelled 210 miles on foot in 5 days covering one waterless stretch of 80 miles during this trip.

The wells he sank can still be seen along the 1490 kilometre track which today is a popular four wheel drive destination.

The longest distance between water sources is 26 kilometres and the track was first used to move stock in 1909. Some sources say that during the inaugural drove, two of the drovers were killed by local Aborigines but other sources say that this happened during a later drove in 1911. The droves killed were George Shoesmith and James Thomson plus and Aboriginal stockman. In 1922 John McLernon - a member of an oil exploration team was killed and in 1936 a dingo trapper by the name of Joe Wilkins was killed.

 

The track was to continue in use to move stock until 1959.

 

The expedition sets out from Wiluna