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The grave commemorates Aboriginal stockman, Pumpkin who died in 1908.
Pumpkin was of the Boontamurra tribe of the Cooper Creek district, west Queensland, and was about 18 in 1868 when Patrick Durack established Thylungra station on a tributary of Cooper Creek. Pumpkin at once claimed Durack as his `brother`, a relationship he honoured for the rest of his life. In April 1887 he accompanied Patrick Durack by ship from Brisbane to East Kimberley, where he assumed a many-sided pioneering task from the building of homesteads and yards to stock-tailing, droving, horse-breaking and even tracking horse thieves.
Although suspicious of the local tribes and suspected by them, he managed to negotiate with them. This encouraged other Aboriginals to enter station employment and Pumpkin undertook the training of a number of local boys for station work. His pupils, all of whom bore the stamp of Pumpkin`s own conscientiousness, included such outstanding station aboriginals as Argyle Charlie, Ulysses and Boxer, a Queensland Aboriginal whom Pumpkin adopted as a child.
Location
| Address: | Lake Argyle Road, Argyle Downs Station, Lake Argyle, 6743 |
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| State: | WA |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -16.109722 Long: 128.748333 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Grave |
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| Monument Theme: | People |
| Sub-Theme: | Indigenous |
| Link: | http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/adbonli… |
Dedication
| Approx. Monument Dedication Date: | 1950 |
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Here lies Pumpkin (member of the Boontamurra Tribe of Cooper Creek), who from boyhood served Patrick Durack of Thylungra, Western Queensland, following his sons to the west in 1887 and rendering faithful friendship and devotion to the day of his death in 1908.
Erected to his memory by M.P. Durack
1950
