Curtin Springs

As a part of AIUYF'08 were conducted a series of lectures and workshops, presentations and demonstrations of some measures taken by various groups to achieve a sustainable systems approach or to see that all/most of the output of their activities is used as an input to some other activity, thus giving a circular view to the entire chapter.

The end of the first week signified the end of the series of official lectures and workshops and most of us were excited as this embarked us on a sort of a holiday week. But things often don't go as planned and that is what precisely happened this time. The second week had much more to offer in terms of learning and experiencing than the first week.

Out of the many places that we visited in that short span, one place which remain neatly etched in memory is the visit to the Curtin Springs. On the face of it, it was a stopover for dinner, with the owners of the place (The Severins) to tell us some informal stories about their family history and the place. Not in my wildest of imaginations had I imagined that a person can actually achieve what the owners of this place have in the last few decades.

The land was first taken up by Paddy DeConnley in the thirties and was known as Mt. Conner Station. Around 1940, Mt. Conner Station, together with the vacant Crown land became known as Curtin Springs and was leased to Abraham Andrews. Curtin Springs derives it's name from the late John Curtin who was then Prime Minister of Australia. The Severin family took over the lease in 1956 and still operate the station today.

It is truly astonishing and astounding to realize that how they have managed to convert a barren land into their home and more so as a home for thousands of tourists who flock to this place situated as a jewel in this otherwise barren piece of land.

Peter Severin, his wife Dawn and their son Ashley arrived in August 1956. The infrastructure at that time consisted of two bough sheds, a galvanized shed, a galvanized kitchen, a galvanized iron building called the bathroom and a galvanized toilet, all approximately 1 km from the current homestead.

As history has it, they arrived in a Vanguard and a Bedford truck half full of supplies and all their worldly goods . Peter stopped the car and got out. Family history says that after explaining to his young wife that this was where they were going to live, she replied, “Boy...I have got news for you...and it's all bad...”

Dawn couldn't drive but Peter made sure he took the keys out of the car, just in case she decided to learn!!!

In the first year, they saw 6 people- two stock and station agents, two friends who needed to find out if they were still alive and two tourists. The current bough shed was built and became their home for three years. They then built the tin house and then the stone house was built in 1967-68. The stone house is built from 150 ton of stone, all quarried from the property.

Their initial herd of 1500 head of cattle arrived in late October 1956, after walking for 6 weeks from Tieyon Station, just 300 km away!! The heavens opened up and they received an inch of rainfall. The blessing didn't last long with there being no rainfall for the next 9 years. Peter purchased a “Southern Cross No 2” percussion boring plant ans commenced to look for more water points. This resulted in many bores producing salt water or no water at all. By the time the drought ended, they had only 400 head of stock left. It took several years and the commencement of good seasons ahead o restock to 4500 head.

By this time, Ashley had returned home from school in Alice Springs and blended in with all the operations then in progress. During these good years many things occurred

● There was a 10 year programme for the eradication of the diseases TB and brucellosis.
● Mustering changed from horseback to helicopters
● Road trains to drive the cattle to market rather than weeks of walking
● Telephones and fax machines couple with computers – improvement from pedal radios!

The family, too underwent a huge change in lifestyle which began with a necessary diversification during the drought. Len Tuit had commenced his regular tour operation from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock and back in 1958. This service was run twice a week.

Peter and Dawn installed a fuel dispensing pump and a 500 gallon underground tank to store the petrol because in the summer the petrol used to boil in the 44 gallon drums. They started a small grocery store to cater for the requirements of the ever growing number of travelers. Dawn started to provide morning and afternoon cups of tea and scones. They also obtained a liquor license to provide alcohol for the thirsty traveler.

During the extended drought, Peter took on contract work at Ayers Rock, which was administered by the NT Reserves Board. This included the cartage of material for the building of several motels, the first Ranger's house and garage, maintenance of water bore, water reticulation to each of the established buildings, building of the first aerodrome at Ayers Rock and general handy man.

Things stand a bit different now. All the water needed on the homestead is pumped from a bore into storage tanks for use. This storage provides a limited amount of available water at any point in time, thus leaving no scope for mistake/carelessness as a tap left on inadvertently means there is no water for anyone in the morning. The bore runs during the day and must be watched constantly, services regularly and prayed over intermittently.

The electricity is all generated on site with a generator running 24 hours a day. The generator is the heart and soul of the homestead settlement area, though a solar heating system is coming up soon. The generators are also watched constantly, serviced regularly. The cattle work is done primarily by the family with the aid of modern technology. 30-40 buses pull in off the road every day and they provide meals and accommodation to several thousand people a year. Supplies come primarily from Alice Springs or Adelaide with the truck coming in once a week contrasted with the 3 monthly camel trains. The mail comes Monday to Friday on the bus.

The story, though is not exactly a golden one even now, as the last few lines make it look so. Drought means destruction of the little crop that is grown and death of cattle. Even in good seasons, the crop is not out of dangers with the rabbits always looking for a chance to have their share of the feed.

“How do you tackle the rabbits”, someone asks. “Shotguns”, pat comes the reply.

Not many staff stick around for long owing to the distances involved which often lands them in a tight spot.

Even on the day we visited, not everyone knows, the people who were actually cooking, serving and cleaning were not the workers but their family members who had come their for a short visit. We met them and there was not a sense of irritability or anguish on their faces or reflected in their voice. They were all very sweet and seemed to enjoy serving the guests. Peter, even at 80 odd, is their most hard working person, they say. He is their labor, their engineer, their manager.

What makes their story so different to be told, and told again and again to as many people as possible. This is a story of dedication and resilience. Dedication to their land and resilience to fight against all odds to enable the land survive. This is a story of how the land is used as a resource and not abused for greed. This is a story of how the local resources are utilized at their best use and very little help is actually required from outside hands. This is a story of proper utilization with no scope for wastage or abuse lest they run out of resources. This is a story of adaptability, adaptability to different seasons, adaptability to different environments, adaptability to different moods of nature, adaptability to their ecosystem and managing it rather than destroying it. It must be reminded that every rabbit killed is the one which attacks the roots of the plant and not any arbitrary animal strolling on the ground. A perfect example of living in harmony with their environment. This is a story of reverence, of reverence to land, reverence to the life around and of reverence to the womenfolk, without whose support and toughness none of this would have been possible. These are the factors which are often neglected by humankind in it's greed to grow bigger not realizing that the in doing so, it is in fact killing the hen which lays the golden egg. What else could be a better example of a sustainable system than this one, where every part of nature, be it man, animal or land is a participant, every part is a resource, but none is the owner.

“What inspires you to live here with all the hardships around?”, I asked Mrs. Ashley Severin.
“This is my land. Is this not inspiration enough. I have this whole land as my family. When you go to your camp, do one thing, just move away from all the areas where there is light and have a look at the sky above. Then ask the same question and you will get the answer!!”

I still remember the words of that lady. In that one little evening, I saw sustainability at it's best, studded with the concept of land ethic and reverence and love for their land and nature. I wish I could describe what I wanted to in a better way to do justice to the achievement of the Severins, but I hope this will at least get some minds probing.

If one family can bring it's head together and decided to convert a barren deserted land into a habitat, what is it that 6.5 billion head put together for one good cause cannot achieve.

Courtesy : Akshay

-Nimit