aboriginal – Page 4 – Simply Australia

6 October 200826 November 2022

Ebenezer: The Mission on a Limestone Ridge

Ebenezer Mission Station (© Jim Low) – After his first visit to Ebenezer, Jim wrote the above song about the Mission. The unaccompanied snippets were sung in the now restored mission church with its amazing acoustics.

In January 1859 both Aboriginal people and missionaries began clearing the Mallee scrub and native cypress from the site of the new mission station at Ebenezer, which meant “the rock of hope”. Situated on the vast, flat Wimmera region of Victoria, this area was one of the last to be settled by Europeans. It also saw its share of violence against the Aboriginal people. Innocent native blood had been spilt on the very site where Ebenezer was located.

7 April 200721 November 2022

Dead Ends

© Jim Low

I have just finished reading John Bailey’s recent biography of the explorer John McDouall Stuart, Mr Stuart’s Track. It is a fascinating read about the man some, including Bailey himself, consider Australia’s greatest explorer. Throughout the book, Bailey skilfully recreates various hypothetical situations, based on recorded fact but laced with intuitive reasoning, to flesh out Stuart and some of his contemporaries. It makes very interesting reading and provides much food for thought.

Continue reading “Dead Ends”