Back in the Stone Age The Natives of Central Australia

Sydney: Angus & Robertson. 1936. Large octavo size [16x24cm approx]. Very Good condition. No Dustjacket. Boards have minor rubbing. Previous owner's signature to title page. Map to front endpaper. Illustrated with Black and White Photographs [all present]. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels. 161 pages. Charles Chewings was a geologist and anthropologist, was born on 1859 at Woorkongoree station, near Burra, South Australia. In 1881 Chewings set out alone from Beltana with two camels to explore the possibility of establishing a cattle-run in the western MacDonnell Ranges. In 1883 he travelled from Murat Bay to the Warburton Range to assess the area's pastoral possibilities. Impressed with the efficiency of camels in the interior, in 1884 Chewings sailed to India and shipped nearly 300 of them to Port Augusta. Next year he opened a camel transport service based on Hergott Springs (Marree), explored the MacDonnell Ranges more thoroughly, and stocked his cattle-run, Tempe Downs. He mapped and named Chapple Range and Mount Chapple, Northern Territory, after his old headmaster, F. Chapple. In 1902 he returned to South Australia and spent almost two decades in Central Australia as a mining consultant and camel-carrier of supplies from the railhead, Oodnadatta, to Northern Territory stations and mines. All his life Chewings had much contact with Aboriginals and he published this popular account of them. . 1st Edition. Hardback.