In
late 1889, The Bulletin published the
reconstructed diary of an engineer working on the overland Telegraph from
Adelaide to Port Darwin (now just Darwin). The diary contained information of
an unprecedented nature, not only the approximate location of a gemstone
quarry-site, but the existence of a sub-human subterranean species of hominids
with references in the local tribal lore. The diary was reconstructed after
being found on the mummified corpse of the engineer: it was badly damaged by
exposure to the elements and much of it was lost. The provider of the
information to The Bulletin (also the
transliterator) claimed in his covering letter that he was himself about to
embark upon an expedition to the seam of gemstones in the Northern Territory; however, it is not known whether his efforts amounted to anything.
The
engineer in question has been identified as one Steven F. Crane. His employment
by the Overland Telegraph Company is a matter of public record and his record contains
no blemish or scandal. It is said by those who knew him that he was engaging,
intelligent, and a loyal company man. The contents of the diary demonstrate
that perhaps those who knew him were not completely able to read his character,
as a strong ambition and desire for material wealth is evidenced within those
pages. The events of the diary take place during a six-month period of leave
from the company which he sought permission to take and, such was the regard in
which he was held by his superiors, was not refused.
Crane
organised horses and camping equipment and headed north from Adelaide in the
company of another man to whom he refers only as “Jackson”. A “W. Jackson” is
listed on the company books at the time with a notation that he was “Absent –
Whereabouts Unknown” from a date almost a year previous to Crane’s departure
from Adelaide in March 1888. It is assumed that Crane’s companion and this man
are one and the same.
According
to the diary, Crane discovered Jackson while out with a line repair crew: he
had made his way to the line after being nursed back to health by a group of
Aboriginals, the only survivor of a three-man team sent by the Company to
survey new territory in the north of the state of South Australia. In aiding
Jackson’s rehabilitation, Crane discovered that Jackson was privy to the
whereabouts of a large seam of rubies somewhere in the McDonnell Ranges. Taking
the linesman in hand, he decided to return to the seam and stake a claim upon
it, making their fortunes in the process. He duly submitted his request to take
six-month’s leave of absence.
Arriving
at the location – somewhere eight day’s march northwest of Charlotte Waters on
the Finke River – the pair found a narrow defile in the Ranges which they named
‘Ruby Gorge’. A day’s work there rewarded them with twenty rubies of fine
quality, one described by Crane as “living fire”. As well, they located a
series of low caves, several of which seemed, from the marks of old fires, to
have been used as campsites. The duo explored one of these and discovered a strange
monkey-like being, which startled them and disappeared with a splash into an
underground stream. Jackson told Crane that he thought it to be a “jinkarra”, a
species of spirit creature which the local tribespeople had informed him about.
Further
probing into the cavernous depths revealed that a whole society of these
creatures dwelt there, their territory kept secret by the presence of a
subterranean river system. Crane and Jackson captured several of the
inhabitants and inspected them closely:
“Never
did I see such a repulsive wretch as our prisoner. Apparently he was a young
man about two or three and twenty, only five feet high at the outside, lean,
with thin legs and long arms. He was trembling all over, and the perspiration
dripped from him. He had scarcely any forehead, and a shaggy mass of hair
crowned his head, and grew a long way down his spine. His eyes were small, red
and bloodshot...never did I smell anything so offensive as the rank smell
emanating from this creature. Suddenly Jackson exclaimed: ‘Look! Look! He’s got
a tail!’ I looked and nearly relaxed my grip of the brute in surprise. There
was no doubt about it, this strange being had about three inches of a
monkey-like tail.”
Further
examination proved that the tail was no anomaly, but consistent throughout the
gathering of creatures. Unfortunately, their investigations proved to be
Jackson’s undoing: he apparently slid down a natural chimney in the rock – part
of the subterranean water system – and was lost. According to Crane’s
narrative, he became trapped in the caverns by a sudden flooding of the
underground stream and spent sixty hours stuck in the pitch darkness, not
knowing if he was going to be attacked by the strange jinkarras or not.
Emerging
days later from his ordeal, Crane discovered that their horses had returned
towards the line, leaving the camp abandoned. Packing himself a light pack, he
set out towards the telegraph line himself, hoping to make it in a day or so.
Sadly it was not to be: his body was discovered – mummified by the desert
conditions – almost a year later by a line repair crew which stumbled across
him.
*****
Several
questions arise out of this tale. The transcriber of the diary contents
mentions that no rubies were found on Crane’s corpse: it seems odd that Crane
would not have tried to take at least one stone with him on his desperate
strike back towards civilisation; his descriptions of these stones certainly
indicate that he would have tried to recoup something from his disastrous
expedition. Another mystery is the fate of Jackson: Crane seems to quickly
assume that the linesman died in the dark cave without doing too much to
ascertain otherwise. Certainly, from some of the diary’s comments regarding
Jackson, Crane might well have jumped to a conclusion which suited him
financially. It might be possible that Jackson will stagger once more out of
the desert fastnesses...
Publication
of the diary’s contents in The Bulletin
doesn’t seem to have caused the sort of stampede that talk of Lasseter’s Reef
has periodically sparked; reports of fantastic ruby strikes in the McDonnell
Ranges have not made the press to date. There are several possibilities as to
why this is the case. Firstly, the whole incident might be a hoax and gossip
surrounding the report might well have made this fact abundantly clear;
certainly The Bulletin was never
known for its unbiased or un-larrikin-like reportage. Secondly, it may well be
that the information in the article was deliberately falsified to throw other
prospectors off the scent. Finally, apropos of nothing, the directors of the
Overland Telegraph Company posted a notice in 1890, in several major Australian
newspapers, underscoring the fact that geological discoveries made by persons
in its employ all became property of the Company. Could the ruby strike have
been hushed up by the Company’s board of directors?
Finally,
of the jinkarras, no further report has been heard. Crane’s document credits
this race with knowledge of fire-making and the manner of Jackson’s so-called death
implies that tool and trap-making are also within their purview. Local
Aboriginal legends among the Wangkangurru and Arabana peoples indicate that the
jinkarras have sinister motivations in regard to the tribes’ children and
people wandering solo after dark. Until further attempts to return and locate
the “Haunt of the Jinkarras”, no more information will be forthcoming.
In
the meantime, there is this interesting image taken from the archives of the
Adelaide Public Library...
(Source: Ernest Favenc, “A
Haunt of the Jinkarras”, 1890)
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