Johannsen is a carrier and mail man and previous mission superintendant. Albrecht is head of the Hermannsburg Mission. We talked there till lunch time about Lasseter's problematical gold reef and then Murch and I went off to lunch with the Browns.
In the afternoon Murch and I went over to the half-caste home Earlier this century (until 1963) Indigenous children of mixed-descent were separated from their families (sometimes by force) and placed in government and mission institutions. Government policy reflected prevailing genetic theories. Occasionally, parents placed their children in these institutions by choice. Sometimes the mother would also enter the home and work as a domestic. In the Northern Territory many of these children were placed in two 'half-caste' homes: The Bungalow in Alice Springs and The Kahlin Half-caste Home in Darwin. After protests about living conditions at The Bungalow the children were moved to Jay Creek in 1928 and from there in 1932 to The Old Telegraph Station, 5 kilometres from Alice Springs. Today, the vitality of communities has been weakened by government handouts (sit-down money), corruption and limp paternalism. Violence, rape, substance abuse and malnutrition are common. a couple of miles north of the town, at the original springs, where a person called Freeman had charge. He whistled up the inhabitants, showed us all over the place and gave us a look at the kids. There are quite a number of quadroons and octoroons amongst them, the latter bordering pretty closely on white. The infants, (up to about two) show no appreciable colouring at all, developing it later, but they can generally be picked by the eyes, flattened nose and legs. Even many pure Arundta babies are little coloured in infancy. The whole place seems to be neat and clean, but the standard of education pretty low. When they leave, the inmates go out as stockboys and domestics around the Alice. Freeman said many interesting things about education and the difference from the first-cross on.
In the evening the Granites man came over to have a chat and told us just what was the strength of the Granites gold boom. It wasn't very flattering to the mine.
9/1/33
H.W.D. saw the police and the administrator about doing some physiological tests on the Granite murderers last night, but was, thank goodness, turned down.
